Some instances of 'problems across the globe':
https://grist.org/article/epa-turned-this-river-orange-by-dumping-3-million-gallons-of-mine-sludge-into-it/
Excerpt:
The Animas — normally a clear and cold Rocky Mountain river where both trout and kayakers dart among the rapids — is now the color of baby shit...
..inadvertently opened up a passage that let at least 3 million gallons of wastewater spill into Cement Creek — a body of water already so polluted that fish can’t survive there. The waste then flowed into the Animas, a popular recreational river.
Abandoned mines fill up with groundwater and snowmelt that becomes tainted with acids and heavy metals from mining veins which can trickle into the region’s waterways. Experts estimate there are 55,000 such abandoned mines from Colorado to Idaho to California, and federal and state authorities have struggled to clean them for decades.
The federal government says 40 percent of the headwaters of Western waterways have been contaminated from mine runoff.
Or this:
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/floods-send-carpets-plastic-waste-down-river-hungary-2021-02-08/
Excerpt:
Flooding has sent carpets of waste plastic down river into Hungary over the past few days, officials say, despite earlier pleas to its upstream neighbours Ukraine and Romania for an end to the pollution.
As of Monday, floating garbage disposal units have removed 500 cubic metres of waste from the Tisza and Szamos rivers..
Plastic bottles are streaming in on the Tisza from Ukraine, where it rises, and on the Szamos river that flows from Romania...
And this:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-top-10-polluting-industries-in-the-world.html
Excerpt:10 Worst Polluting Industries
- Used Lead-Acid Batteries (ULAB): 2,000,000 - 4,800,000 DALYs
- Mining and Ore Processing: 450,000 - 2,600,000 DALYs
- Lead Smelting: 1,000,000 - 2,500,000 DALYs
- Tanneries: 1,200,000 - 2,000,000 DALYs
- Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining (ASGM): 600,000 - 1,600,000 DALYs
- Industrial Dumpsites: 370,000 - 1,200,000 DALYs
- Industrial Estates: 370,000 - 1,200,000 DALYs
- Chemical Manufacturing: 300,000 - 750,000 DALYs
- Product Manufacturing: 400,000 - 700,000 DALYs
- Dye Industry: 220,000 - 430,000 DALYs
What Is DALY?
DALYs here mean Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) or the number of years lost due to early death, disability, or disease. It is popularly used in health impact assessment and public health.
According to Pure Earth, the 10 industries mentioned above are responsible for 7 million to 17 million DALYs in low- and middle-income countries.
With the so called transition away from fossil fuels there's bound to be more waste issues for the environment to deal with. AIMO
