Abatement is reducing or eliminating the amount of refuse arriving in landfills through practices such as recycling or source reduction. This action is also used in the removal of hazardous materials such as asbestos or lead to prevent any short or long term issues that may affect humans or animals.

The main idea of abatement is finding alternative ways to remove refuse from the landfill or causing serious harm to all organisms. Recycling and source reduction are great applications for this because recycling reduces waste by processing and reusing materials while source reduction looks to make the same product but with fewer materials or designing the product in a way that will have less of an environmental impact when it has fulfilled its purpose.

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Other Sources

“Abatement.” Business Dictionary.com. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/abatement.html. July 5, 2016.

Ramachandran, P.A. “Abatement.” Pollution Issues. http://www.pollutionissues.com/A-Bo/Abatement.html. Accessed July 5, 2016.