An OVERVIEW on Land Pollution

Wastes are a reality but can be recycled by

nature when the ecosystems are in balance.

POPULATION

CARRYING CAPACITY POLLUTION

WASTES
Quantity
Quality/kind

Others bear the

costs
Careless Public health
POLLUTER
disposal Property
Aesthetics
advantage
 To introduce students to the types, sources
and effects of environmental pollution and
some of the key strategies used in combating
pollution.
 Topics include water and air quality
management, solid waste management and
noise pollution control.
 Aspects of pollution control legislation and its
enforcement, environmental education and
conservation will also be covered.
 Understand the major causes of
environmental pollution and its impacts.
 Appreciate the range of pollution
abatement strategies.
 Know something of the legislation designed
to protect the environment, economic
aspects of pollution and its control and the
role of environmental education in pollution
control.
 Types and sources of pollution
 Effects of pollution
 Pollution monitoring and assessment
(environmental quality indices)
 Pollution abatement strategies and
technologies
 Other environmental issues such as urban
redevelopment, global climate change etc.
Introduction of contaminants into an
environment that causes instability, disorder,
harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e.
physical systems or living organisms.

Changes in the physical, biological and

chemical conditions in the environment
which harmfully affects the quality of life of
plants and animals.
 WASTE

OTHERS AIR

NOISE WATER
Pollution of the environment due to the
release (into any environmental
medium) from any process or
substances which are capable of
causing harm to man or any other
living organisms supported by the
environment.
UK Environmental Act 1990
 A substance or effect which

 adversely alters the environment by changing the

growth rate of species, interferes with the food
chain;

 is toxic or interferes with health, comfort,

amenities, (aesthetic) or property values of
people.
Porteous (2000) Dictionary of Environmental Science
and Technology. John Wiley & Sons
 Introduced into the environment in
significant amounts in the form of sewage,
waste, effluent, accidental discharge, or as a
by-product of a manufacturing process or
other human activity.

 Substances: solid, semi-solid, liquid, gas or

sub-molecular particle; waste energy: heat,
noise , or vibration.
 Natural or synthetic
 e.g. CO2 and H2S vs. DDT and PCB
 Effect
 Different levels of biological organizations
 Properties
 Toxicity, persistence, mobility, biological or
physical properties
 Controllability
Primary pollutant:
 A pollutant emitted directly into the
environment such as SO2 and CO

Secondary pollutant:
 Formed from a primary pollutant as a
results of chemical changes such as
photochemical and other reactions, e.g.
ozone and NOx
 Point sources: Sources of pollution such as
smokestacks, pipes, or accidental spills that
are readily identified and stationary.
 Relatively easy to monitor and control

 Non-point sources: Sources of pollutants

such as surface runoff that are diffused and
intermittent and are influenced by factors
such as land use, climate, hydrology,
topography, native vegetation, and geology.
 Runoff from streets or fields in urban areas; rural
sources associated with agriculture and mining
 Difficult to monitor and control
Manmade sources
Sources such as globally manmade pollutants
from combustion, construction, mining,
agriculture and warfare.
Vehicles, chemicals, and sewages or wastes.
 For example,
 Acid rain; Ozone depletion & Greenhouse effects
 Eutrophication & red tide (harmful algal bloom)
 Ecotoxicology, carcinogenic & teratogenic* impacts
 Interference with recreational activities; and
 Reduction of drinking water quality

* teratogenic = malformations of an embryo or fetus.

Land/ Solid Wastes Pollution
Water Pollution
Air Pollution
Noise Pollution
degradation of earth's land surfaces often
caused by human activities and their misuse
of land resources.
Haphazard disposal of urban and industrial
wastes, exploitation of minerals, and
improper use of soil by inadequate
agricultural practices are a few factors.
Urbanization and industrialization are major
causes of land pollution.
 Sources of Land Pollution
 Wastes from Agriculture - waste matter produced by crop,
animal manure, and farm residues.

 Wastes from Mining - piles of coal refuse and heaps of

slag.

 Wastes from Industries - Industrial waste matter that can

cause land pollution can include paints, chemicals, and so
on.
Solids from Sewage Treatment - Wastes that are
left over after sewage has been treated, biomass
sludge, and settled solids.

Ashes - The residual matter that remains after solid

fuels are burned.

Garbage - waste matter from food that are

decomposable and other waste matter that are not
decomposable such as glass, metal, cloth, plastic,
wood, paper, and so on.
Erosion – major cause of soil damage
 Removal of vegetation that holds the soil in place
 Careless farming methods
 Construction and land clearing projects
 Road development
 Real estate
 Mining
 Regular farming
Effects of Land Pollution

Respiratory diseases
Skin diseases
Lead to birth defects
Various kinds of cancers
Most
visible
form

Sources of photos: EPD

 SOLID WASTES
Most visible form – heavy populated urban
areas
Refuse, trash or garbage
 Junk, cans,packaging materials, scrap metals,
papers
 Road litter, river, dumps
 unaesthetic
Most serious problems facing populated cities
Waste collection (public and private)
Landfills
“Out of sight out of mind”
NIMBY – “not in my backyard”
“Tragedy of the commons”
“What’s in it for me?”
Natural resources have to be dug from the
ground
Wastes have to be buried in the ground
Unavoidable or is it?
Know how to reduce and dispose
Objective is for a clean and suitable environment
Biodegradable – wastes that can be acted upon by
decomposers
 Food wastes, left-over vegetables, peelings
 Fish or fowl entrails, seeds, soft shells, garden litter
 Animal manure, human wastes

Non-biodegradable – products of modern

technology that cannot be decomposed.
 Metals, cans, glass, plastics, bottles, styrofoam
 Feathers, leather, hard shell and bones
According to the MMDA (Metro Manila
Development Authority)
6,000 to 8,000 metric tons per day
Dumpsites
 Payatas, San Mateo, Bulacan, etc.
Bodies of water
 Pasig river, San Juan river, creeks, canals, etc.
Segregation of biodegradable and non
biodegradable wastes
To phase out or not? That is the question!
Source: EPD
Landfill – a pit or hole where wastes are safely
disposed of using soil to cover the waste
material

Incineration – process of burning wastes

Ocean dumping – oldest method of wastes

disposal. Water is moving and everything
would be washed away.
Cheapest method
Sanitary landfill – designed to contain refuse
without creating nuisance or hazard to public
health and safety
 Covering waste with soil is what makes it sanitary
 Minimize entry of surface water
 Minimize gas escape
352 sanitary landfills is the solution to the
garbage crisis
Responsibility of local government to
regulate, control and monitor proper disposal
of wastes
Sites have been identified and assessed to be
morphologically ideal to health safety,
drainage, soil and proximity to groundwater
and surface water.
Open dumps are unacceptable
Types of Solid Waste Disposed of at Landfills in 2004

The major categories are

C&D waste and Domestic waste
Source: EPD 2004
 Pressing Issues and solutions

• The current landfills have 5-10 years life.

• It will take 10 years to develop and build new ones.
• Urgently need to identify new landfill sites, reduce
waste loads and find new places to put construction
waste.
• Household and other municipal waste loads have
risen steadily, in line with the growth in population
and wealth of the community.
• More people are expected to arrive in the cities in
the coming decade.
Source: EPD
Soil covering – controls flies and moisture,
reduces odor, fires and combustions,
discourages scavenging and maintains
esthetics.

Trench landfill – artificially excavated, low

water table, adequate soil depth

Area landfill – natural depressions

Good compaction
Low permeability
Resistant to wind
Resistant to cracking when dry
Support increasing land mass
Benefit – solves the garbage problem for the
time being.
Costs – hazards
 Methane , mercury, hydrogen sulfide, nitrates and
other toxins, etc.
 Systemic diseases and disorders, birth defects
 Air and water pollution
 Loss of land
 breeding ground for pests
Explosives
Hazardous wastes
Biological and pathological wastes
Sewage sludge
Animal remains
Syringes, needles
Liquid wastes
Oil containers, drums and barrels
Telephone poles and railroad ties
Radioactive substances
One of the solutions to the garbage problem
but no better than landfills
No suitable areas for disposal sites
Absence of air pollution and control devices
Reduces volume by 50% but produces toxic
gases
Emission of more than 200 kinds of toxins
Furans and dioxins – deadliest compounds
and persistent in living tissues
200,oooX more toxic than DDT
Nationwide ban
Medical wastes incinerators
French proposal to set up the world’s largest
municipal waste incinerator – rejected

South Korea, Taiwan and Japan – shifted

from traditional “burn and bury” to active
pollution prevention and disposal reduction
Japan has the highest rate of cancer, infant
mortality, birth defects compared to
countries which are incinerator-free
Cover-up to Japan’s garbage problem
Chemically carbon-based
Difficult to break down by physical, chemical
and biological means.
Accumulates in the atmosphere
 By-products of burning and chemical manufacturing
 Dioxins and furans

 Agricultural pesticides
 DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, chordane,
 endrin, mirex, heptachlor, toxaphene

 Industrial purposes
 Hexachlorbenzene (HCB)
 Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
2,500 metric tons of packaging materials, half
a million cans, bottles and plastic containers
are dumped every year
Used as sewers – potentially hazardous
microorganism
Biomagnifications
Chemical pollution is difficult to remove
Polluted water cannot be used for
consumption and agriculture
Recreation use becomes hazardous
In a coastal cleanup conducted in 1999
 53% of debris collected were sachets and
plastic bags
 11% - Glass and foam plastic
 19% - metal
 7% - paper
 6% - wood
 3% - rubber
 1% - cloth
Polluter Pay Concept
The Irish government has been taxing residents
about 15 cents apiece for using plastic shopping
bags since March 2002.
• A drastic reduction in plastic bag use waste
associated with disposable bags
• Lower the consumption of disposable bags by
95 %, from 500 million bags to less than 25
million.
• Generate about $3.4 million in profits

BBC News Aug 21 2002

YOU CAN MAKE
THE DIFFENCE