Sludge

I stepped in the sludge.

I can't imagine anything would grow in that toxic sludge.

Thick sludge bubbled out of a factory pipe into the nearby creek.

TikTok is a sludge of mostly useless content.

Ziri mashed the medlars into a delicious brown sludge.

The report’s authors — the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and WaterAid — say they hope to raise awareness on the plight of sanitation workers and the dehumanizing conditions under which they are forced to work. For example, the report says that many sanitation workers aren’t given the safety training or equipment needed to protect them when handling effluent or fecal sludge.

Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

In the 2008 best seller Nudge, the legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein and the economist Richard H. Thaler marshaled behavioral-science research to show how small tweaks could help us make better choices. An updated version of the book includes a section on what they called “sludge”—tortuous administrative demands, endless wait times, and excessive procedural fuss that impede us in our lives.