Causes of Land Pollution

What are the Causes of Land Pollution?

1. The waste that we produce, if not disposed of properly, can greatly damage our earth and land. For example, many people do not dispose hazardous waste properly like batteries and just throw them into their trash. Once the garbage is dumped in a landfill site, overtime, the chemicals from the batteries and other hazardous waste seep though the ground which damages our soil and can also get into our water that we drink.

Hazardous waste

2. The human population is increasing which means we need to produce more food. In order to produce more food, forests are cut down in order to create land for agriculture.

Agricultural land

3. Many of our forests are continuing to be cut down for urbanization. Also, in order to construct buildings, raw materials are needed which again, leads to cutting down trees and destruction of forests.

Urbanization

4. Pesticides and herbicides are used in agriculture to kill harmful pests but once they seep through the soil, they can kill small organisms in the soil, causing the soil quality to become not as good.

Farmer using pesticides/herbicides

5. Industrial activities like mining contributes to land pollution because once the miners have finished mining, there are a lot of poisonous mining waste left behind that can seep into the soil and damage the soil.

Mining pollution