SOLID WASTES
MANAGEMENT (REFUSE)
1
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Refuse collection and its final disposal is a
problem in many cities and small urban centers.
Man generates solid wastes in his daily
activities which needs to be disposed-off to
avoid environmental degradation, nuisance and
public health risks.
The city dweller expects regular collection of
household wastes as a city service, but he is less
concerned with the disposal of those wastes
after they are collected, unless the method used
causes nuisance to him. 2
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Introduction (Cont’d)
Large amounts of materials must be collected.
These amounts vary throughout the year and
increase as the city grows.
These large quantities of refuse that need
frequent collection and disposal create a
problem of locating appropriate disposal sites
in many cities.
As a result crude disposal has been a common
practise in many cities and towns as indicated
in the following plates. 3
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Plate 1: Crude “on the street” damping in Biharamulo, Kagera.4
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Plate 2: Crude “in the river” dumping at Kirumba, Mwanza. 5
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Plate 3: Crude dumping at Nansio town centre, Ukerewe, Mwanza.
6
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Introduction (Cont’d)
• Most developing countries like Tanzania face the
problems of
mobilizable resources such as equipment, machinery
spares and funds.
poor and unmotivated management.
• These problems leads to even meaner decisions
when dealing with refuse handling causing serious
public health risks and nuisance.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Reasons for the Necessity of Controlling
Disposal of Municipal Refuse
Domestic refuse of organic nature soon undergoes bacterial
decomposition giving rise to offensive foul odours.
Uncontrolled disposal of refuse depreciates the recreational value
of the region
Uncontrolled disposal of solid wastes may cause severe pollution
of ground and surface waters in biological and chemical respects.
8
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Reasons for the Necessity of Controlling
Disposal of Municipal Refuse (Cont’d)
Improper refuse disposal may attract rodents, rats and flies and
thus may contribute to the hygienic and aesthetic problems of
refuse disposal.
Refuse disposal near city areas may result to severe air
pollution caused by burning solid wastes such as wood, paper,
oil products, etc.
Uncontrolled town refuse such as sand, litter, leaves, tree
branches, etc may clog the manholes and storm sewers if they
are left uncollected on the streets.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Reasons for the Necessity of
Controlling Disposal of Municipal
Refuse (Cont’d)
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Amount of refuse
The amount of refuse produces can be
obtained by weighing the collection trucks
prior to discharge.
Unfortunately, such estimates are not very
practical in developing countries as most of
the refuse is left uncollected.
The quantities of solid wastes generated
depend on a number of factors. These are:-
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Amount of refuse (Cont’d)
• The standard of living of inhabitants.
– For instance, quantities of cinders and ashes in
high-income communities is expected to be less
compared to those from squatter areas. This is the
result of using charcoal, wood or timber in low-
income squatters and electricity or gas in high-
income areas.
• Climatic and geological factors.
• Time dependent variation and trends.
– Easy and cheap availability of food stuffs between
October and May increases the quantities of
garbage in market areas. This is caused by an
increasing of garbage generation rate. This is the
rainy season in the country. 12
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Amount of refuse (Cont’d)
– During this season, the accumulation of refuse
is higher than during dry season because
refuse becomes dampy and difficult to handle.
• Size of the bin volume provided to the population.
– Increasing the storage volume provided per
capital and week will generally increase the
refuse production, because worthless matter is
thrown away more generously.
– The specific refuse volume (l/[Link])
depends on container size and the frequency
of collection.
13
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Amount of refuse (Cont’d)
• Size of the region or community.
– Studies have shown that with increasing size of
the community the specific refuse volume
increases and the refuse bulk density decreases.
– According to the survey studies in urban areas
in Tanzania, the refuse generation rates varies
from 0.17 kg/cap/d to 0.49 kg/cap/d.
– The following table (Table 1.1) shows the refuse
generation rates in some towns in Tanzania.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Table 1.1: Refuse Generation Rate in Urban Areas in Tanzania
Refuse Generation Average Source of data
rate (kg/cap.d) density (kg/m3)
Moshi 0.49 330 Nganaiyo (1986)
0.33 275 Leaning (1977)
Arusha
0.36 Ngainayo (1986)
0.17 in squatters 550 Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam
0.33 in serviced Master Plan (1979)
areas
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Amount of refuse (Cont’d)
– The values given in table above (Table 1.1)
were estimated basing on the amount of refuse
collected and not as actually generated.
– the actual refuse generation rate is usually
higher than the estimates given in this Table
1.1 since some of the refuse is normally left
uncollected.
• This is usually the case in most of towns in Tanzania
as shown in the 3 Plates above the reasons being
lack of adequate collection and disposal facilities.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Amount of refuse (Cont’d)
– A comparison of the urban refuse generation
rate with some urban areas of other countries
shows that values of refuse generation rates
in Tanzania are lower than those of
towns/cities of other countries (Table 1.2).
– The general trend shows that refuse
generation is higher in developed countries
than developing countries.
17
Table 1.2: Urban Refuse Generation Rates (Cointreau, 1982)
City and Country Waste Generation Rate (kg/cap/d)
Industrialized Countries
New York, USA 1.80
Hamburg, Germany 0.85
Rome, Italy 0.69
Middle-Income Countries
Singapore 0.87
Hong Kong 0.85
Tunis, Tunisia 0.56
Medellin, Colombia 0.54
Kano, Nigeria 0.46
Manila, Philippines 0.50
Cairo, Egypt 0.50
Low-Income Countries
Jakarta, Indonesia 0.60
Surabaya, Indonesia 0.52
Bandung, Indonesia 0.55
Labore, Pakistan 0.60
Karachi, Pakistan 0.50
Calcutta, India 0.51
Kanpur, India 0.50 18
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Composition of domestic refuse
– The refuse composition more often determines
the rate of collection and disposal of refuse for
hygienic and aesthetic reasons.
– The composition of urban refuse differs from
city to city depending on the income level,
cultural, climatic and geographical conditions
of the particular city.
– Table 1.3 shows some typical urban refuse
composition form various cities in different
countries.
19
Table 1.3: Urban refuse composition data (in percentage by weight) (Cointreau 1982 and Nganaiyo, 1986).
20
Note:The above values have been rounded to the nearest whole number, unless the amount
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Composition of domestic refuse
(Cont’d)
– Refuse composition may also vary from one
place to another within the same city
depending on the source.
• For example, the composition of refuse
generated from industrial, commercial,
residential and market areas is expected to vary
significantly. Typical examples are shown in the
following tables (Tables 1.4 and 1.5). 21
Table 1.4: Variance of Refuse Composition
by Source of Generation (Cointreau, 1982)
Bandung Indonesia Colombo Sri Lanka
Type of material 10 8 12 8 8 28
Glass Ceramics 1 1 1 6 1 8
Metals 2 1 1 1 1 1
Plastics 6 2 7 1 1 1
Leather, rubber - - - - - -
Textiles 4 1 3 1 1 1
Wood, Bones, Straw 1 1 1 1 0 2
Non-food total 22 11 24 18 10 41
Vegetable, putrescible 72 84 69 80 88 58
Miscellaneous inerts 6 5 7 1 2 1
Compostable Total 78 89 76 81 90 59
TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100
22
Table 1.5: Comparison and Characteristics of
Refuse From Three Residential Areas of Ibadan,
Nigeria (Oluwade, 1984)
Component Means % by Weight
G.R.A. (Govt. Private Traditional Local Local
Reserved Layout Areas Old Parts University people
Areas Campus
Leaves 13.2 33.7 81.3 28.1 49.9
Paper 12.6 11.3 2.5 8.1 0.7
Garbage 65.3 41.6 8.2 43.2 4.4
Tin 4.6 6.2 3.5 3.7 0
Glass 2.1 2.5 0 4.3 0
Rag 1.6 3.4 4.3 2.0 0.5
Dust 0.6 1.3 0.2 10.6 44.5
Density 256 kg/m3 280 kg/m3 296 kg/m3
Moisture 64.8% 61.4% 49.7% 23
content
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Composition of domestic refuse (Cont’d)
– Due to variable composition of refuse, it is
important therefore to determine the refuse
composition in order to
• classify refuse according to criteria for deciding
upon the method of treatment and final disposal to
be used.
• determine the acceptable storage time on site due
to hygienic and aesthetic reasons.
– Refuse may be classified into four groups
according to the feasibility to treatment. The
groups are 24
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Composition of domestic refuse (Cont’d)
• Group 1
Wastes that may be composted or incinerated.
These are
– Organic kitchen offals, vegetable wastes, paper
straw, thin cardboard, etc.
– Bones and fabric after disintegration.
• Group II
Matter that can only be incinerated such as wood,
thick paper
board, leather, plastics, rubber, etc.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Composition of domestic refuse (Cont’d)
• Group III
Matter that can not be composted nor incinerated
such glass, porcelain, pottery, bricks, stones,
metals, etc.
• Group IV
Fine granular matter < 8 mm.
– Refuse may also be classified according to the
nature and source. This is shown in the
following table (Table 1.6 in the manuscript).
26
Table 1.6: Classification of Town Refuse Materials
(Popel)
Garbage Wastes from the preparation cooking and serving of From:
food or kitchen waste; market refuse waste from homes,
handling, storage and sale of products hotels,
institutions,
Rubbish Combustible Paper, card board,
boxes, barrels, wood,
markets,
tree branches, yard stores, etc.
trimming, furniture
Bulky refuse Non-combustible Metals, cans, metal
furniture, dirt, glass,
other mineral refuse
Ashes Residue from fires used for cooking and for heating
Street refuse Street sweepings, dirt, leaves, catch basin dirt, From:
contents of litter receptacles Street, sidewalks,
alleys, vacant lots etc.
Dead animals Small animals: cats, dogs, etc
Large animals: horses, cows, etc
Abandoned Bulky refuse
automobiles
Industrial refuse Solid wastes resulting from industrial processes and From: factories power
manufacturing operations such as food processing plants, etc.
27
wastes, boiler house cinders, lumber scraps and shavings
metal scraps and shavings etc; etc.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
• Refuse densities
– Refuse density also differ from place to place
depending on the nature of refuse. Some
typical urban refuse densities are shown in
the following table (Table 1.7 in the
manuscript).
– The table indicates that low densities of
refuse in industrialized countries.
• These are due to higher percentage of non-
putrescibles like papers and plastics which are
often used for packaging of consumer goods.
These materials have high void ratio and low
moisture content. 28
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Table 8.7: Urban Refuse Densities (Source: Cointreau, 1982
and Nganaiyo, 1986).
Country Waste Densities (kg/m3)
Industrialized countries
United states 100
United Kingdom 150
Middle Income Countries
Singapore 175
Tunisia 175
Nigeria 250
Egypt 330
Low-Income Countries
Thailand 250
Indonesia 250
Pakistan 500
India 500
Tanzania, Moshi town 330 29
Arusha town 275
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• Refuse densities (Cont’d)
– A typical fraction of moisture content and
vegetable and putrescible fraction is
represented in the following table (Table
1.8 in the manuscript).
• From this table, it may be concluded that the
fraction of vegetable and putrescible matter is
higher in low income countries thus increasing
the moisture content of the wastes, which in
turn increases refuse densities.
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SOLID WASTES MANAGEMENT
Table 1.8: Moisture Content and Vegetable/Putrescible
Content(Source: Cointreau, 1982 and Nganaiyo, 1986)
City of Country Moisture Content (%) Vegetable Putrescible
Industrialized Country
Brooklyn, New York, USA 22 22
Middle-Income Countries
Singapore 40 5
Onitsha, Nigeria 45 -
Manila, Philippines 60 43
Low Income Countries
Bandung, Indonesia 80 75
Calcutta, India 29 36
Lahore, Pakistan 52 49
31
Moshi, Tanzania 50 81