SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

 solid wastes are unwanted materials disposed off by man , which

can neither flow into streams nor escape immediately into the
atmosphere .
 solid waste is defined as any garbage , refuse , sludge from a waste
treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other
discarded material including solid, liquid , semisolid, or contained
gaseous material resulting from industrial commercial mining and
agricultural operation and from community activities.
 The term (MSW ) municipal solid waste is generally used to
describe most of the non hazardous solid waste from a city , town
or village that requires routine collection and transport to a
processing or disposal site.
 Sources of MSW include private homes, commercial
establishments and institutions as well as industrial facilities.
 MSW does not include waste from industrial waste from
industrial processes , construction and demolition debris,
sewage sludge , mining waste or agricultural waste.
 CONTROL MEASURES:
 an integrated waste management strategyincludes three
main components.
 Source reduction
 Recycling
 Disposal
1.Source reduction
 One of the fundamentalways to reduce waste .
 This can be done by using less material when making a product,
resusing products on site and designing products for packaging to
reduce their quantity .
 On an individual level we can reduce the use of unnecessary items
while shopping , buy items with minimal packaging , avoid buying
disposal items avoid plastic bags.
 RECYCLING: recycling is using some components of aste that
may have some economic value.
 Recycling has visible benefits like conserving resources , reducing
energy used during manufacture and reducing pollution levels.
 Some materilas such as aluminums and steel can be recycled many
times.
 Metal paper glass and plastics are recyclable .
 Paper recycling can also preserve forests .
 Crushed glass (cutlets) reduces energy required for manufacture
of new glass by 50%
 Cutlet lowers the temperature requirement of glassmakin process
, thus conserving energy and reducing air pollution.
 Problems associted with recycling are either technical or
economical.
 plastics are difficult to recycle.
 Since each type has a distinct chemical composition , different
plastics cannot be recycled together.
 Thus separation of different plastics before recycling is
necessary.
 Similarly in recycled paper it is difficult to control color of
the recycled paper.
 recycled paper is banned to be used in food containers to
prevent the possibility of contamination.
 Collecting, sorting, and transport account for about 90% of
the the cost of paper recycling.
2.Disposal

 Disposal of solid waste is done most commonly through a

sanitary landfill or through incineration.
 1. municipal sanitary lanfill
 2. incineration
 3. vermicomposting.
Control measure of urban and
industrial waste, 3 R POLICY
 The objective of solid waste management are to control , collect
process , utilize and dispose off solid waste in the environment.
 thus the main methods of safe management of waste include
segregation and dumping.
 1.Segregation:
 Before disposing the waste it should be categorized and
segregated because the method of disposal would be
different for different waste.
 eg: hospital waste can be categorized as infectious ,
pharmaceuticals,radioactive , pathological, and others.
 Sanitary land filling:
 Improved form of open dumping is called land filling.
 (Dumping is traditional method where the waste is dumped
openly in a certain selected areas of town or city)
 land filling method of disposing of the refuse on land
without creating nuisances or hazard to public health or
safety by utilizing the principles of engineering to confine the
refuse to the smallest practical volume and to cover it with a
layer of earth.
 Solid waste is placed in a suitably selected and prepared
landfill site in a carefully prescribed manner .
 The waste material is spread out and compacted with
appropriate heavy machinery.
 The waste is covered each day with a layer of compacted soil.
 Advantages of landfill method:
 this method is not hazardous for public health.
 This method can be used for land reclammation
Disadvantages of landfill method:
 1. uneven settlement of land.
 2. leaching of waste water and chemical into adjoining areasr
leading to soil and water pollution which can be prevented
by:
a) Proper surface water disposal
b) Collecting leachate at the bottom of landfill.( leachate –
pollutant seeping)
PROCESS:
▪ The organic material in the buried solid waste will
decompose due to the action of microorganisms.
 At first the waste decomposes aerobically until the oxygen
that was present in the oxygen that was present in the freshly
placed fill is used up by the aerobic microorganisms.
 The the anaerobes take over producing methane which is
poisonous and highly explosive.
Incineration
 It is the process of burning municipal solid waste in a properly
designed furnace under suitable temperature and operating
conditions.
 Incineration is a chemical process in which the combustible
portion of the waste is combined with oxygen forming carbon
dioxide and water which are released into the atmosphere.
 This chemical reaction is called oxidation, results in the release of
heat.
 for complete oxidation , the waste must be mixed with
appropriate volumes of air at a temperature of about 815 degree
Celsius for about an hour
 Incineration can reduce the municipal waste by about 90% in
volume and 75% in weight.
 The risks of incineration , however , involve air quality
problems and toxicity and disposal of the fly and bottom ash
produced during burning process.
 Thus toxic products and materials should be segregated
VERMICOMPOSTING
 Nature has perfect solution for managing solutions for
managing the waste it creates, if left undisturbed.
 The biogeochemical cycles are designed to clear the waste
material material produced by animals and plants.
 All dead and dry leaves and twigs decompose and are broken
down by organisms such as worms and insects and finally by
bacteria and fungi.
 To form a dark rich soil like material called compost.
 These organisms in the soil use the organic material as food.
 Which in turn provides them with nutrients for their growth
and activities.
 These nutrients are returned to the soil to be used again by
trees and other plants.
 This process recycles nutrients in nature.
 This soil can be used as manure for farms and gardens.
3 R POLICY
 REDUCE
 REUSE
 RECYCLE
 BEST OPTION IS REDUCE THEN NEXT BEST IS REUSE
AND THEN RECYCLE.