Lecture-2

Solid Waste Management

Books:
1. Environmental Engineering by Saurabh Kumar Soni
2. Environmental Engineering and Management by Dr.
Suresh K. Dhameja
3. Introduction to Environmental Engineering by Richard O.
Mines and Laura W. Lackey

Prepared by:
Engr. Mudassir Abbas
Department of Civil Engineering
NFC IET Multan
Introduction
Human and animal activities generate many wastes that are discarded as
useless or unwanted.
These wastes are normally solid and result in landscape pollution.
The term ‘refuse’ is often use interchangeably with the term ‘solid-
wastes’.
The term solid-waste encompasses the highly heterogenous mass of
discarded materials or throwaways from the urban community
(residential and commercial activities) as well as the more homogenous
accumulation of wastes generated by agricultural and industrial
activities.
Sources and Classification of Solid Wastes
a) Garbage and food waste: These are meats and fruit or vegetable
residues which decompose rapidly specially in warm weather. For
example bones, meat, vegetables leftovers
b) Rubbish: They do not decompose rapidly. They are further of two
types:
i. Combustibles: Paper, cardboard, textiles, wood items, tin cans etc
ii. Non-combustibles: Crockery, metals, aluminum cans, tin cans etc
c) Agricultural waste: These include crop residue from agricultural
fields, farm manure etc. For example jute, cotton, rubber, tea,
coconut, sugarcane waste, rice straw etc
Sources and Classification of Solid Wastes
d) Industrial waste: These arise from industrial activities. For example
flyash, sewage, chemicals, sludge, paints, toxic metals etc.
e) Hazardous waste: These waste adversely affect human plant and animal
life. For example, radioactive waste, toxic chemicals, flammable waste,
explosives, hazardous biological waste from hospitals.
f) Pathological waste: For example carcass (skeleton) of animals, slaughter
house waste (blood, meat, hair, fat, bone chipping, skin excreation etc)
g) Demolition and construction waste: Demolition, construction and repair
of residential, commercial and industrial buildings generate plenty of
solid waste. For example, stones, bricks, concrete, dust, plaster, electrical,
sewage and plumbing parts
Sources and Classification of Solid Wastes
h) Aquatic waste: These are menace or threat because of their prolific
growth. They increase water borne diseases, hinder blood traffic and
fishing and cause eutrophication (entire body of water becomes
progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients. The excessive
growth of algae and plankton in a water body are indicators of this
process.)
i) Miscellaneous waste: For example street sweeping, roadside litter
or waste, dead stray animals abandoned vehicles.
Sources and Classification of Solid Wastes
Main sources of solid wastes are domestic, commercial, industrial, municipal
and agriculture wastes.
Agriculture and the food processing industry are considered to be the largest
contributors to the total annual production of solid wastes. Control techniques
for air and water pollution also result in waste production. For example
oSewage treatment plants result in sludge
oFlyash is recovered from flue gases
oFarm animal wastes may leach into water supplies causing water pollution
oDecaying of organic matter produces obnoxious odors causing air pollution
Sources and Classification of Solid Wastes

Composition of City Refuse

Paper, wood and cardboard 53%

Garbage and garden trimmings 22%
Glass, crockery, ceramics metals 10%
Metals 8%
Plastic, rubber, discarded textiles, 7%
abandoned vehicles
Causes of Solid Wastes Pollution
a) Over-population: As the number of people producing a pollutant
increases, solid waste pollution will naturally increase.
b) Affluence: it is also called production or per capita consumption. With
affluence there is tendency to declare items as being in or out of fashion
and promptly or quickly throw away the ones out of fashion. This result
in solid waste pollution
c) Technology: Rapidly growing technologies indicate a shift in technology
from returnable packaging to non-returnable packaging. Packaging is
largely responsible for causing solid waste pollution because packaging
materials like plastic bags and cans etc are not biodegradable and persist
unchanged in disposal operations such as landfills. Plastics can be
recycled but recycled plastic soon loses its strength, becomes brittle and
easily broken up by wind and rain.
Solid Waste Management
It involve some steps
i. Collection of solid wastes
ii. Disposal of solid wastes
iii. Waste utilization
Solid Waste Management
i. Collection of solid wastes
There are three basic methods for collection
(a) Community storage units: The municipal waste is taken to fixed
storage bins and stored till the waste collection agency collects it
daily for disposal in a vehicle.
(b) Kerb side storage units: In advance of collection time, the waste is
brought in containers and placed on the footway from where it is
collected by waste collection agency.
(c) Block collection: individuals bring the waste in containers and hand
it over to collection staff who empties it into the waiting vehicles
and returns the container to the individuals.
Solid Waste Management
i. Collection of solid wastes
There are three basic methods for collection
(a) Community storage units: The municipal waste is taken to fixed
storage bins and stored till the waste collection agency collects it
daily for disposal in a vehicle.
(b) Kerb side storage units: In advance of collection time, the waste is
brought in containers and placed on the footway from where it is
collected by waste collection agency.
(c) Block collection: individuals bring the waste in containers and hand
it over to collection staff who empties it into the waiting vehicles
and returns the container to the individuals.
Solid Waste Management
ii. Disposal of solid wastes
1. Manual components separation:
Before ultimate disposal, the manual separation of solid waste
components is accomplished to achieve the recovery and reuse
of materials.
Cardboard boxes, newsprint, high quality papers, glass, metals,
wood and aluminum cans etc are manually sorted out either for
recycling or resale.
Solid Waste Management
ii. Disposal of solid wastes
4. Open dumping:
It is done in low lying areas and outskirts of town and cities. It is
comparatively cheaper method. However, major disadvantages are:
i. Public health hazards are caused by breeding of flies,
mosquitoes or rats or other pests.
ii. Obnoxious gases and particulate matter (PM) are produced by
burning of combustible solid wastes resulting in air pollution.
iii. Open dumping requires large land areas which further
aggravates the problem of land shortage for human habitation.
Solid Waste Management
ii. Disposal of solid wastes
5. Sanitary landfilling or controlled tipping:
Sanitary landfilling involves the disposal of municipal wastes on or
in the upper layer of earth mantle especially in degraded areas in
need of restoration.
In landfilling, solid wastes are compacted and spread in layers,
each layer being uniformly covered by a layer of soil. The final
layer is covered by a final cover of about one meter to prevent
rodents. It does not cause environmental damage as refuse is
covered and prevent breeding of pests. But water may leach into
underlying refuse which can be prevented by providing plastic
membrane or watertight membrane on the base.