Trash is the everyday word, used mainly in American English, for things that are thrown away because they are no longer wanted. Garbage, rubbish and refuse mean much the same. In India, the common words are kachra and kooda.
In waste management, trash usually refers to the mixed, dry part of household waste, as opposed to wet food waste. Calling something trash suggests it has no value, yet a large share of what goes into the bin is recyclable: plastic packaging, paper, cardboard, metal and glass. What turns trash into a resource is segregation at source, followed by collection and sortation. Material that is kept clean and separate can be recycled; material that is mixed and soiled usually ends up in a landfill. The technical term for all discarded material is waste.
