Waste is any substance or object that its holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard. The definition turns on the act of discarding, not on the material: the same plastic bottle is a product in one hand and waste in the next.
Waste is classified by source and nature. Municipal solid waste comes from households and shops and is divided into wet (biodegradable), dry (recyclable) and domestic hazardous fractions. Other streams include industrial, construction, biomedical, electronic and plastic waste, each governed by its own rules in India. Dry waste holds most of the recyclable value. Whether it is recovered depends on segregation at source, collection and the waste management system behind it. In a circular economy, waste is treated as a resource in the wrong place. Everyday speech often uses trash for the same thing.
