47225
Both ゴミ and 廃棄物｛はいきぶつ｝ have the meaning of waste, but how could I distinguish
these two words? For sure they have some different points in meaning.

Originally I thought, that ゴミ is informal word for 廃棄物｛はいきぶつ｝, but now I think
that it is not true...
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-10T10:50:24.720
44270
2017-05-09T20:05:56.867
9364
question
word-choice
Difference between words ゴミ and 廃棄物
ごみ means just dust, general one. Children, old persons or anyone can make it
and throw it into the trash box and clean it. But 廃棄物 don't sound normal one.
Perhaps children can't make it. There is not it in the trash box. Maybe the
specialist can deal with it (e.g. 産業廃棄物).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-10T12:21:20.477
44272
2017-03-10T12:21:20.477
20111
44270
answer
廃棄物 is made of 廃棄 + 物

apparently 廃棄する means "to abolish, to scrap, to repeal" (both physical things
and stuff like treaties). So I guess we can think of `廃棄物` as _waste_
(something to be disposed of) and `ごみ` as _trash/garbage/dust/dirt_ (something
to be cleaned up and thrown away but not necessarily destroyed).

It also helps to check examples in the dictionaries to get a better feel of
the usage. E.g. for 廃棄物 you find "factory waste", "radioactive waste",
"polluted by waste", "reducing waste", while for ゴミ it's usually something
related to household/street garbage and figurative meaning of "trash".
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-09T20:05:56.867
47225
2017-05-09T20:05:56.867
3295
44270
answer