8.

3 Solid Domestic Waste

What is SDW?
Solid domestic waste (SDW) or municipal solid waste (MSW) is our
trash, garbage, rubbish from residential and urban areas.
It is a mixture of paper, packaging, organic materials (waste food),
glass, dust, metals, plastic, textiles, paint, old batteries, electronic waste
(e-waste) etc.
When is something waste?
A resource has value to humans. One human’s waste is another
human’s resource. It depends on how we value it. That is why in many
LEDCs there are whole industries set up to collect SDW. People travel
round residential areas going through communal bins and taking out
‘useful’ stuff. In many LEDCs families live on and around the landfills
just so they can trawl through the waste that arrives from the city.
 The Circular economy
Most goods are produced in a linear model – ‘take, make, dump’. We find the raw
materials or natural capital (take) and use energy to produce goods (make). Often
these goods become redundant or break down and our model has been to discard
and then replace them with others (dump).
The circular economy is a model that is sustainable.It aims to:
● be restorative of the environment
● use renewable energy sources
● eliminate or reduce toxic wastes
● eradicate waste through careful design.
 The circular economy
To do these things, the model relies on
manufacturers and producers retaining
ownership of their products and so being
responsible for recycling them or disposing
of them when the consumer has finished
using them.
The producers act as service providers,
selling use of their products, not the
products themselves.
This means that they take back products
when they are no longer needed,
disassemble or refurbish them and return
them to the market.
This model has similarities to agricultural
practices in which good husbandry and soil
conservation lead to sustainable growth of
foodstuff
 Managing SDW
1. Strategies to minimize waste
2. 2. Strategies for waste disposal
 Strategies to minimize waste
Reduce
This is the best place to start with the 3R’s and it requires us to use fewer resources. We do not have to stop our lifestyles, we just need to cut back.
● Make sure you know how to maintain your possessions so that they last longer.
● Change shopping habits:
■ buy things that will last,
■ look for items with less packaging,
■ buy products that are made from recycled materials eg paper
■ choose products that are energy efcient
■ avoid things that are imported
■ be aware of how many resources you are using in the home –water, electricity etc.
Reuse
This is where the products are used for something other than their original purpose or they are returned to the manufacturer and used repeatedly.
● Returnable bottles – take the bottle back to the shop to be returned to the manufacturer.
● Compost food waste.
● Use old clothes as cleaning rags.
● Hire DVDs – don’t buy them.
● Read E-books.
Recycle
This is probably the best known R. Many towns and cities now have kerbside recycling. This is the sorting of waste into separate containers for recycling before it
leaves the home.
● In Germany, for example, each household has four bins for this.
● In the UK, there is discussion about charging households more if they produce more than the standard amount of waste.
● In India and China, very little waste is food waste as this is either not thrown away or is fed to animals.
 2. Strategies for waste disposal
If waste materials are not recycled or reused, the options are to put them in landfill
sites or incinerate them, dump them in the seas or to compost organic waste.
Landfill is the main method of disposal. Waste is taken to a suitable site and buried
there. Hazardous waste can be buried along with everything else and the initial
cost is relatively cheap. Landfill sites are not just holes in the ground. They are
carefully selected to be not too close to areas of high population density, water
courses and aquifers. They are lined with a special plastic liner to prevent leachate
(liquid waste) seeping out. The leachate is collected in pipes. Methane produced as
a result of fermenting organic material in the waste is either collected and used to
generate electricity or vented to the atmosphere. Soil is pushed over the waste
each day to reduce smells and pests. New landfill sites are getting harder to and as
we fill up the ones we have at a faster and faster rate.
 Incinerators
• Incinerators burn the waste at high temperatures of up to 2,000 °C. In some, the
waste is pre-sorted to remove incombustible or recyclable materials. Then the
heat produced is often used to generate steam to drive a turbine or heat
buildings directly. This is called waste-to-energy incineration.
• In others, all the waste is burned but this practice can cause air pollution,
particularly release of dioxins from burning plastics, heavy metals (lead and
cadmium) from burning batteries and nitrogen oxides. But the ash from
incinerators can be used in road building and the space taken up by incinerated
waste is far smaller than that in landfills. Plants are expensive to build though,
and need a constant stream of waste to burn, so do not necessarily encourage
people to reduce their waste output.
 Anaerobic digestion
It is when biodegradable matter is broken down by microorganisms in
the absence of oxygen. The methane produced can be used as fuel and
the waste later used as fertilizer or soil conditioner.
Domestic organic waste
• Domestic organic waste can be composted or put into anaerobic
biodigesters.
• Composting can be done at home on a small scale or local
government authorities can collect home organic waste and compost
it on a larger scale and sell the composted materials which are
fertilizers back to the public.
• On an even larger scale, anaerobic digesters break down the waste
and produce methane (biogas) which can be used as a fuel and a
digestate (the solids that are left) which is a fertilizer.
Selecting SDW management strategies