Solid Waste Management

Solid Waste Management

74. Solid waste- Cause and effects

The origin of the solid waste may be from domestic places, industries, commercial sites, construction sites, and institutions like hospitals, hotels and apartments. The domestic wastes are maybe mostly of organic wastes which is easily degradable and environmental friendly.

Effects of solid waste

Solid wastes cause environmental pollution in a number of ways and its adverse effects.

i) The garbage disposal area is the breeding places for flies, mosquitoes, rats, and animals like pigs and dogs. These all transmit diseases to the human being. Mosquitoes bring malaria and dengue fever. Rats transmit plague. Mosquitos biting pigs cause to transmit diseases like brain fever from pigs to human beings.

ii) Contaminate the underground water and other water bodies like well, pond, lake and river.
iii) The untreated solid wastes emit greenhouse gases like methane, carbon dioxide which are the major contributors for global warming.
iv) Burning of garbage will also produce other pollutants like toxic fumes and particulate matters.
v)  Unfair smell or bad odour is one of the major issues which make the life of the surrounding people miserable

75. Solid waste management

The meaning of solid waste management is the supervised handling of the solid waste materials from the generated source through the recovery process and disposal. The following data will give the importance of the requirement of a proper Solid Waste Management. i.e.  The totally generated waste in India is 62 million tons. In that plastic waste is 5.6 million tons, biomedical waste is for n 1.7 million tons, hazard waste is about 7.9 million tons and the e-waste is 15 lakhs tons.

The solid waste management includes mainly four steps.

Storage, Collection, Transportation and Disposal.

Storage

First of all wastes are stored in waste bins, drums or boxes which is placed in many different places in the cities or housing areas.

Collection

Stored wastes are collected at door to door by the rag pickers who generally collect usable materials.

Transportation

These collected wastes are transported to the disposal or treatment site by using specially equipped trucks and many workers with the special masks, gloves and other dress materials for health safety.

Disposal

It is the fundamental function of solid waste management. It refers to placing the solid waste in its ultimate resting places and then further treatment processes.

The different methods adopted for solid waste disposal and treatment are - open dumping, landfilling, sanitary landfilling, ocean dumping, incineration, pyrolysis, composting and vermicomposting.

76. Solid waste treatment methods

The different methods adopted for solid waste disposal and treatment are - open dumping, landfilling, sanitary landfilling, ocean dumping, incineration, pyrolysis, composting and vermicomposting.

Open dumping

It is the method of dumping the waste in open areas, which is far away from the cities or unmanned areas. This method is not possible in populated areas and it is mostly used in the deserts in the Gulf countries.

Landfilling  

The wastes are carried and dumped in low-lying areas.

Sanitary land filling

As in open dumping and landfilling the decomposed material percolate down to the underground and contaminate the underground water, the third method called sanitary landfilling is used to solve these issues. In this method, specially made garbage pits are lined with plastic or some other material. Thus isolate the sand from the waste material. After filling a layer of garbage it will be covered with sand and again garbage and it will be continued. It is highly costlier.

Ocean dumping

In this method, the solid waste is packed in a particular way and dumped into the ocean. But it has a disadvantage that it will adversely affect the Marine ecosystem.

Incineration

Incineration means burning of the solid waste in properly constructed furnace. This method is applied when suitable dumping places are not available. In this method first of all the combustible and non-combustible materials are separated. The final products will be ashes and clinkers which can be reused for various purposes.

Pyrolysis

As in the incineration process, the burning of waste produces more carbon dioxide and particulate matters which also are a pollutant. So this issue can be solved in this method called pyrolysis. In this method the wastes are heated at 650 degrees Celsius in low oxygen or oxygen free environment. The end products are gas and tar which can be used for either as fuel or it can be used for industrial purposes.

Composting

In this method waste materials are decomposed into humus and stable, mineral compounds by biological process like using fungi and bacteria. This method is considered as best suited for Indian conditions, especially for small and medium-sized towns.

Vermicomposting

In this method, earth worms are added in the compost to make it richer in nutrients.

77. EIA

EIA is the legal framework, accepted worldwide as part of environmental protection acts which regulate the activities which access, utilize and pollute the natural resources. As per the norms of EIA, every developmental project has been required to go through the EIA process for obtaining prior environmental clearance or permit ever since. India notified its first EIA norms in 1994. Recently Indian government notified a modification in the EIA norms of 2006