These are the wastes arising from human activities and are normally sold as opposed to liquid or gaseous and are discarded as useless or unwanted. Focused on urban waste (MSW) as opposed to agricultural, mining and industrial waste.
Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) is the term applied to all the activities associated with the management of society's waste.
In medieval times, waste discarded in the street led to the breeding of rats and the associated fleas which carried the bubonic plague. The lack of management of solid waste thus led to the Black Plague which killed half of 14th century Europe.
