ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste is all the garbage that people throw away in cities and towns. This includes everything from food scraps, to old clothes, to broken toys, to pizza boxes. When people throw these things away, they go to a special place called a landfill. A landfill is basically a big hole in the ground where the garbage is dumped.

The garbage in a landfill can take a long time to break down, sometimes hundreds of years! As it sits in the landfill, it can create gases that are not good for the environment. There are some things that people can do to help limit the amount of garbage that goes into landfills. Recycling is one way to help reduce the amount of garbage. This means taking things like plastic bottles, glass jars, and newspapers, and separating them so they can be turned into new things instead of being thrown away.

Another way to reduce the amount of garbage is by composting. Composting is when people take certain types of food waste like fruit peels and vegetable scraps and mix them together so they can turn into a nutrient-rich soil for plants. The soil can then be used in gardens and other places to help things grow.

So overall, municipal solid waste is just all the garbage that people throw away in towns and cities. We can help reduce the amount of garbage by recycling and composting.