SOLID WASTE

Solid waste commonly known as trash or

garbage, consisting of everyday items we

consume and discard.

It includes all the from residential,

commercial, institutional, and industrial

sources.

Examples of wastes are appliances,

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste management is the collection,

transport, processing, recycling or

disposal, and monitoring of waste

materials.
 An unwanted or discarded material from
residential, commercial, industrial, mining
and agricultural activities that cause
environmental problems may be termed as
solid waste.
 Solid waste management comprises of purposeful
and systematic control of the generation, storage,
collection, transport, separation, processing,
recycling, recovery, and disposal of solid waste.
 CLASSIFICATIO
N

Two Types:

 URBAN WASTE

INDUSTRIAL WASTE
 Classification of Urban Waste

Two types:

• Bio - degradable waste

• Non - Biodegradable waste

 BIO - DEGRADABLE WASTE

The solid waste material that can

be degraded by microorganisms are
called Biodegradable wastes.
Examples:
 Vegetable waste,,
 Tea leaves,
 Egg shells,
 Peanut shells,
 Dry leaves, etc.,
NON - BIODEGRADABLE WASTE

Waste that cannot be degraded by

micro-organisms are called as non –
biodegradable wastes.
Examples:
 Polyethylene bags,
 Scrap metal,
 Glass bottles, Etc.,
 SOURCES OF SOLID WASTE

SOURCES OF URBAN WASTE:

 Domestic waste
 Commercial
waste
 Construction
waste
 Agricultural waste
 Bio-medical waste
 E – waste.
Domestic waste:
These include waste from household
preparation cooking, waste paper, plastic,
cloth, etc.,
Commercial waste:
Commercial waste due to activates of
offices, markets, hotels, etc.,
Construction waste:
Waste from construction, remodeling
and repairing structures are classified as
Hospital waste:
Hospital waste composed of blood,
limbs, parts of human body etc.,

Agriculture waste:
These wastes resulting from the various
agricultural activities such as planting and
harvesting of crops.
E-waste:
It is discarded electronic devices like
computer, TV, music systems etc.
SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE:

 Chemical
industries
 Nuclear power
plant
 Thermal power
plant
Chemical industries:
It generates tannery waste,
weaving and dyeing wastes, food-
processing wastes, plastic wastes,
rubber wastes, fly ash , explosives
etc.,
Nuclear power plants:
It generates radio active wastes.
Thermal power plants:
It produces fly ash.
Solid Waste
Effects of solid waste management
Effects of improper solid waste management

Effects of urban waste

 Municipal solid waste
 Construction solid waste
 Hospital solid waste
Effects of industrial waste
 Effects of urban waste

Municipal solid waste:

Due to improper disposal of municipal

solid wastes on the road side and their

immediate surroundings biodegradable

materials undergo decomposition.

This produces foul smell and breeds

various types of insects, which spoil the

Construction solid waste:
House construction solid wastes
deposited in land fills degrade chemically
and biologically to produce solid, liquid and
gaseous substances like CO 2, sulphate of
iron and manganese and substantial
amount of methane.
The construction waste heaped along the
road side creates traffic problems.
Hospital solid waste:
In a hospital, about one and a half
kilograms of waste is produced per bed
per day. Of the total waste produced in
hospitals, about 47% is biomedical
waste which is hazardous as it is
contaminated with causing pathogens.
The list of hospital wastes is endless.
The majority of them are deadly such
as AIDS, Viral hepatitis, tuberculosis,
Effects of industrial solid wastes
Industrial solid waste are the sources of toxic
metals and hazardous waste which affect the
soil characteristics and productivity of soil
when they are dumped on the soil.
Toxic substances may percolate into the
ground and contaminate the ground water.
The metals like chromium and benzene are
accumulate in liver and kidney, caustic soda
causes skin rashes and carbon tetrachloride
which is a liver toxicant.
Management of solid waste
 Management of solid waste

The process of reducing, reusing,

recycling saves money, energy, raw

materials, and land space and also

reduces pollution.
Methods of discarding wastes
Auxiliary operations
Solid waste generation
Collection of waste
Transportation
Storage
Segregation of wastes
Disposal methods
Open dumping
Sanitary landfills
Thermal process
Incineration
Pyrolysis
Composting
Microbiology disposal
Solid waste generation

Collection of Collection of waste from various sources

waste
To transfer the collected wastes to the
Transportat destination points
ion

Storag To store the collected wastes meanwhile time

e of the disposal

Segregation of Recyclin
wastes g
Disposal
methods
[Link] dumping 2. land fill [Link] process [Link]

Incineration pyrolysis
 Disposal methods
Open dumping:
The solid waste collected from the town is
deposited in low lying land, usually on
outskirts of the town.
Since the open dumps are uncovered, these
attract flies, insects and rodents(rats) and
hence bad odours are produced.
Advantages:
This method being the easiest is adopted in
many Indian towns.
Sanitary land filling:
This is modified forms of open dumping.
Waste is deposited in 0.9 – 4.5m thick
layers in depressions and then compacted
and covered with selected earth fill of 20cm
thickness.
The covering prevents breeding of flies,
rats, etc.,
While selecting site for land filling, it is
necessary to examine if any underground
potable water sources will be polluted
and if the neighborhood habitation would be
affected by odour or fire.
Landfills structure is build both
Advantages:
The process is completely sanitary. Highly
skilled personnel are not required.
Land can be safely overloaded without
causing any problems.
Converts low-lying, marshy wasteland
into useful area, natural resources are
returned to soil and recycled.
Disadvantages:
A large area is required.
Since land is available away from town,
transportation cost is heavy.
Incineration:
The solid organic waste are subjected to
controlled combustion so as to convert
them into in combustible residue and
gaseous products.
The incineration plants produce heat
and electricity during incineration.
Incinerators are built with lined
furnaces, great area for burning, air
blowers for aiding combustion and oil
Advantages:
The residue is only 20-25% of original
weight:
It requires very little space.
Cost of transportation is not high as
incinerators located within city hygienic point
of view.
Disadvantages:
Its capital and operating cost is high.
Needs skilled personnel.
Pyrolysis:
Pyrolysis is an irreversible chemical
change brought about by the action of heat in
the devoidof oxygen.
Synonymous terms are thermal
decomposition, destructive distillation and
carbonization.
Pyrolysis of the solid waste yields the
following components.
Tar or oil phase containing methanol,
Advantages:
Volume reduction by about 90%.
Possibility of handling potentially
hazardous plastics.
E.g.: PVC in a safe way.
Absence of pollution problems.
Composting:
Composting is a process in which the
decomposition of organic matter has
been taken place by a mixed population of
microbes in a warm, moist and aerobic
environment.
The decomposition can be accelerated by
gathering the materials to conserve parts of
the heat of fermentation so that the
temperature of the mass rises and hence
Composition ranges:
Organic matter : 25 –
50%
Carbon : 8 – 40%
Nitrogen : 0.5 – 3.5%
Phosphorous : 0.5 –
2.0%
Potassium : 0.5 – 2.0%
Calcium : 2.7%
There are 3 types of
composition. They are
Anaerobic composting
Aerobic composting
Vermi composting
Anaerobic composting:
Anaerobic composting is done in the absence of air.
Anaerobic bacteria perform the work in the absence of
Disadvantages:
The process is slow, extending over a period of 4 – 12 m
It is a low temperature process.
It produces offensive odour.
Vermi composting:
Vermi composting is done in the
presence of air and earthworm.
Advantages:
The compost formed by this method is
colorless.
Rich in macro and micro nutrients.
Can be dried and stored easily.
Controlled conditions like moisture and
temperature are necessary.
 RECYCLING
Recycling: Processing of a waste item into
usable forms.

Benefits of recycling:
 Reduce environmental degradation
 Making money out of waste
 Save energy that would have gone into waste
handling & product manufacture
Saving through recycling:
 When Al is re smelted- considerable saving in
cost
 Making paper from waste saves 50% energy
 Every tone of recycled glass saves energy
 Recycling is not a solution to managing every
kind of waste material

 For many items recycling technologies are

unavailable or unsafe

 In some cases, cost of recycling is too high.

Statical data
 7.2 million tones of hazardous waste
 One Sq km of additional landfill area every-year
 Rs 1600 crore for treatment & disposal of these
wastes
 In addition to this industries discharge about 150
million tones of high volume low hazard waste
every year, which is mostly dumped on open low
lying land areas.
 Waste is growing by leaps & bounds
 In 1981-91, population of Mumbai increased from
8.2 million to 12.3 million
 During the same period, municipal solid waste has
grown from 3200 tones to 5355 tone, an increase of
67%
 Waste collection is very low for all Indian cities
 City like Bangalore produces 2000 tones of waste
per annum, the ever increasing waste has put
pressure on hygienic condition of the city
 Solid Waste Generated Daily
Area Reside Hospi Total e- Constru
ntial & tal wast ction
Comme e Debris
rcial
Chennai 2620 80 2700 5 500
City
Municipaliti 1073 11 1084 2 50
es
Town 207 1 208 1 NA
Panchayats
Panchayat 255 1 256 2 -
Union
Total 4155 93 4248 10 550
Sl Name of Characteristics (% by Weight)
.N metro Pap Texti Leat Plas Met Gla Ash, Com
o city er le her tic al ss fine po
eart -
h stab
and le
oth mat
ers ter
1 Coimbator 5.0 9.0 - 1.0 - - 50.0 35.0
e 0
2 Delhi 6.6 4.0 0.6 1.5 2.5 1.2 51.5 31.7
8
 Primarily by the city municipality
-No gradation of waste product eg bio-
degradable, glasses, polybags, paper shreds
etc
-Dumps these wastes to the city outskirts

 Local raddiwala / kabadiwala (Rag

pickers)
-Collecting small iron pieces by magnets
-Collecting glass bottles
-Collecting paper for recycling
 Cloudburst in Mumbai (2005) clogged the
sewage line due to large no. of plastic bags

 Blast in the Bhusan Steel factory at Noida,

caused due to imported scrap from Iran

 Reduction in the number of migratory birds

due to consumption of contaminated foods

 Stray animals dying on streets and

farmland due to consumption of plastic
bags, which blocks the food movement in
their stomach
 Industrialised countries have waste
management problems

 Developed countries have strict environment

regulation norms

 Most attractive option for them- to dump into

developing countries
 Around 2500 tanneries discharge 24 million cu m of
waste water containing high level of dissolved solids
and 4,00,000 tones of hazardous solid waste

 300 distilleries discharge 26 million kilo-litres of

spend wash per year containing several pollutants

 Thermal power plants discharge huge waste

materials
ROLE OF AN INDIVIDUAL PERSON

Waste management by 3 “R”

Reduce
Reuse and
Recycle.