Meaning & use
waste stream
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
All the waste produced by a particular place, process, or group, seen as a flow that must be managed.
Grammar: Countable: you can talk about one waste stream or several waste streams.
Patterns
- the waste stream from something
- separate waste streams
- reduce a waste stream
The factory's waste stream is mostly paper and cardboard.
Cities are trying to keep food waste out of the general waste stream.
Recycling one waste stream can cut disposal costs sharply.
nouncountabletechnical
A single kind of waste kept apart from others so it can be treated in its own way.
Grammar: Often used with words like 'separate', 'mixed' or 'hazardous' before it.
Patterns
- a separate waste stream
- a hazardous waste stream
- sort something into waste streams
Hospitals must keep their hazardous waste stream apart from ordinary rubbish.
The plant sorts plastic into three separate waste streams.
Mixing this waste stream with chemicals makes it much harder to treat.
Word forms
| plural | waste streams |
|---|
Common combinations
- the general waste stream
- Batteries should never go into the general waste stream.
- reduce the waste stream
- New packaging rules aim to reduce the waste stream from supermarkets.
- separate waste streams
- Staff are trained to separate waste streams at the point of collection.
- a hazardous waste stream
- Each hazardous waste stream needs its own storage container.
- divert something from the waste stream
- Composting diverts garden cuttings from the waste stream.
Synonyms and how they differ
- waste
- The general word for unwanted material; 'waste stream' is narrower and stresses it as a managed flow from one source.
- refuse
- A formal term for household or commercial rubbish as a mass; it does not suggest separate categories the way 'waste stream' does.
- effluent
- Used mainly for liquid waste leaving a factory or sewage works, so it covers only one type of waste stream.
Word family
- waste noun
- Unwanted material that is thrown away.
- wastewater noun
- Water that has been used and now contains waste.
- waste management noun
- The business of collecting, treating and disposing of waste.
Commonly confused: waste stream or waste stream vs stream?
waste stream vs waste stream vs stream
'Stream' alone usually means a small river; in this compound it means a flow of waste, not water in nature.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'waste stream' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Waste stream' means the flow of waste from a source, so keeping batteries out of it fits. Option An and C treat it as a natural river, and D invents a verb form that does not exist.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “waste stream”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.