Waste Management

GENERAL SCIENCE AND ABILITY BY

UMER SAEED KHAN
 What are Wastes?
Waste (also known as rubbish, trash, refuse, garbage, junk,
litter, and ort) is unwanted or useless materials. In biology,
waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that
are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as
urea and sweat.
Basel Convention Definition of Wastes
“substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to
be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions
of the law”
Kinds of Wastes
Solid wastes: wastes in solid forms, domestic, commercial and
industrial wastes

Examples: plastics, styrofoam containers, bottles,

cans, papers, scrap iron, and other trash

Liquid Wastes: wastes in liquid form

Examples: domestic washings, chemicals, oils, waste

water from ponds, manufacturing industries
and other sources
Classification of Wastes
according to their Properties
Bio-degradable
can be degraded (paper, wood, fruits and others)

Non-biodegradable
cannot be degraded (plastics, bottles, old machines,cans,
Styrofoam containers and others)
Classification of Wastes according to
their Effects on Human Health and
the Environment
Hazardous wastes
Substances unsafe to use commercially, industrially, agriculturally, or
economically and have any of the following properties- ignitability,
corrosivity, reactivity & toxicity.

Non-hazardous
Substances safe to use commercially, industrially, agriculturally, or
economically and do not have any of those properties mentioned
above. These substances usually create disposal problems.
 Classification of wastes according to their origin
and type
Municipal Solid wastes: Solid wastes that include household garbage,
rubbish, construction & demolition debris, sanitation residues, packaging
materials, trade refuges etc. are managed by any municipality.
Bio-medical wastes: Solid or liquid wastes including containers,
intermediate or end products generated during diagnosis, treatment &
research activities of medical sciences.
Industrial wastes: Liquid and solid wastes that are generated by
manufacturing & processing units of various industries like chemical,
petroleum, coal, metal gas, sanitary & paper etc.
Agricultural wastes: Wastes generated from farming activities. These
substances are mostly biodegradable.
Fishery wastes: Wastes generated due to fishery activities. These are
extensively found in coastal & estuarine areas.
Radioactive wastes: Waste containing radioactive materials. Usually these
are byproducts of nuclear processes. Sometimes industries that are not
directly involved in nuclear activities, may also produce some radioactive
wastes, e.g. radio-isotopes, chemical sludge etc.
E-wastes: Electronic wastes generated from any modern establishments.
They may be described as discarded electrical or electronic devices.
Sources of Wastes

Households

Commerce and Industry

MAGNITUDE OF PROBLEM: Pakistani
scenario

The Ministry of Environment, Government of Pakistan

undertook a study during 1996 titled “Data Collection
for Preparation of National Study on Privatization of
Solid Waste Management in Eight Selected Cities of
Pakistan”.
The study revealed that the rate of waste generation
on average from all type of municipal controlled
areas varies from 0.283 kg/capita/day to 0.613
kg/capita/day or from 1.896 kg/house/day to 4.29
kg/house/day in all the selected cities.
 Impacts of waste on health

Chemical poisoning through chemical inhalation

Uncollected waste can obstruct the storm water runoff resulting in flood
Low birth weight
Cancer
Congenital malformations
Neurological disease
Nausea and vomiting
Increase in hospitalization of diabetic residents living near hazard
waste sites.
Mercury toxicity from eating fish with high levels of mercury.
Waste management through
Waste hierarchy
 Reduction is better than
disposal
Source reduction, or preventing waste in the first place, is a better option than
disposal.

Personal/consumer behavior:
• Use fewer items
• Buy less-packaged and longer-lived goods
• Reuse items

Manufacturer behavior:
• Make goods with less packaging
• Make longer-lived goods
• Adopt more-efficient production methods
 Reuse
Reusing items is a powerful way to reduce one’s waste.

There are simple ways to do this:

• Buy used clothing, and donate used clothing

• Bring your own cloth bags to grocery stores

• Bring your own coffee mug to coffee shops

 Recycling
Consists of three steps:
 Composting
The conversion of organic waste into mulch or humus by
encouraging natural processes of decomposition

• Reduces a home’s waste stream

• Produces great soil for gardening

Many communities now have municipally run composting programs.

 Waste to energy
Many incinerators now generate electricity from waste combustion.

Waste to energy (WTE) facilities use heat from furnaces to boil water. Steam
turns turbines and generators.

WTE is efficient and effective, but income from power is low and expense is high,
so it takes many years to recoup the investment.
WTE incineration
Incineration
A controlled process of burning mixed solid waste at extremely high
temperatures

Reduces volume by 90%

Remaining ash disposed of at landfill

Better than open-air burning, but…

…can create new chemical compounds and emit toxic chemicals from
the stacks

Popular opposition to incinerators because of pollution

 Hazardous waste
Waste that poses a potential danger to human
health. Four criteria:
• Ignitability: substances catch fire

• Corrosivity: substances corrode metals

• Reactivity: substances are chemically unstable and react

with other chemicals in dangerous ways

• Toxicity: substances are known to be harmful to human

health
 Hazardous waste: Disposal
methods
Landfills: Special landfills with stricter regulations are used for hazardous waste.

Surface impoundments: Ponds lined with plastic and clay. Liquid hazardous waste
evaporates, leaving residue.

Deep-well injection: Hazardous waste is pumped deep underground into porous

and stable rock formations, away from aquifers.
Hazardous waste: Surface
impoundments
Really only for temporary storage;
not ideal

Waste may overflow, blow out,

vaporize, or leak
Hazardous waste: Deep-well
injection
Seems a good idea, but is
not without risk:

Waste can leak out into

groundwater.
 Landfills
• In modern sanitary landfills, waste is buried or piled up so as to avoid contamination
of the environment.

• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) specifies guidelines for how
waste should be added to a landfill.
Sanitary landfill
 Drawbacks of landfills
Leachate will likely escape even from well-lined landfills.

Dry conditions to combat leachate slow bacterial

decomposition: trade-off

Finding sites is difficult: NIMBY opposition

"not in my backyard" opposition
 Landfills
“Garbologist” William
Rathje does archaeology in
landfills to document our
consumption and waste
patterns.

He’s found:
Trash rots VERY slowly in landfills.
Paper products take up 40% of landfill space.
Plastic packaging is overrated as a waste problem.
 Energy from landfills
Landfills can harness energy, too.

Bacterial decomposition inside landfills produces methane, the main component

of natural gas.

By collecting “landfill gas”:

• Landfills can make extra money

• Fuel is made available

• Greenhouse gas methane is prevented from reaching atmosphere