Residents disgusted by mounds of waste left behind by devastating floods: 'It starts to smell'

Floods in New South Wales have left residents and officials to manage critical cleanup efforts.

What's happening?

The waste will add up to 60,000 tonnes, the Guardian reported. Much of it will be sent to landfills, though the process is complex and dangerous.

Soaked carpet, ruined appliances, and more remnants of daily life are being sorted from people's homes, neighborhood curbs, and temporary transfer stations. The refuse makes its next stop at a larger site so recyclables can be filtered out.

"In the first five days of recovery, about 18,000 cubic metres of flood debris were transported to landfills and temporary waste storage sites, according to the NSW Environment Protection Authority," the Guardian stated.

The heavy rains that caused the floods killed five people, affected 10,000 properties, and left Australians with limited insurance coverage to again manage the costs of recovery.

Why is this important?

Before people can rebuild, they have to clear out what's been destroyed.

"[The waste] is wet, it starts to smell. There's all sorts of bacteria that exists in that flood waste, so it's very important to get that waste off the ground as soon as possible," Paul De Szell, liveable communities director for the MidCoast Council, told the Guardian.

Priorities include removing animal carcasses as well as getting rid of the silt and mud that was left behind when flood waters receded.

De Szell and David Rees, manager of waste services for the council, noted that the social and psychological impacts of debris removal are significant. Clearing houses, and then curbs, and then the local dump sites will boost the physical and mental well-being of people in the area.

What's being done about flood risk?

A 2022 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the country's flood risk as a result of rising global temperatures, per the Australian Broadcasting Corp. With just half a meter (19.7 inches) of sea-level rise, which may happen as soon as 2050, there could be multiple floods each year that are now considered one-in-100-year events.

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That's because warmer weather expands water, melts ice, and allows the atmosphere to hold more water vapor. Australian Geographic noted that even if the pollution that is overheating Earth were stopped today, oceans would "continue to rise for centuries."

NSW councilors and other public officials are implementing a waste management plan that was developed after floods in 2021, showing how preparedness can help in the wake of increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather.

In the long term, it is necessary to cut the use of dirty energy sources, which produce the pollution that is changing the climate, in favor of clean energy options. This is essential even if future sea-level rise is baked into human activities because of the myriad effects they cause, which include increased risk of bushfires and deadly heat waves.

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