6 Main Types of Solid Waste Management | Must Know SWM

➤Question: What are the kinds of solid waste management? Answer is Below:

Some of the main sorts of solid waste management are as follows: 

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

Hazardous Wastes Industrial Wastes Agricultural Wastes Bio-medical Wastes Waste Minimization

The combined effects of population explosion and changing modern living standard have had a cumulative effect within the generation of an outsized amount of varied sorts of wastes. Solid waste are often classified into differing types counting on their sources:

a. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW):

The term municipal solid waste (MSW) is usually wont to describe most of the non-hazardous solid waste from a city, town or village that needs routine collection and transport to a processing or disposal site, Sources of MSW include private homes, commercial establishments and institutions, also as industrial facilities.

However, MSW doesn't include wastes from industrial processes, construction and demolition debris, sewage sludge, mining waste or agricultural wastes. MSW is additionally called as trash or garbage. generally , domestic waste and MSW are used as synonyms.

Municipal solid waste contains a good sort of materials. It can contain garbage (like vegetable and meat material, leftover food, eggshells etc, which is assessed as wet garbage also as paper, plastic, tetra-pack, plastic cans, newspaper, glass bottles, cardboard boxes, aluminum foil , meta items, wood pieces, etc., which is assessed as dry garbage. the various sorts of domestic wastes generated and therefore the time taken for them to degenerate is illustrated within the table given below.

Table. Domestic wastes and their degeneration time:

Common domestic wastes:

Approximate time taken for degeneration

Organic kitchen waste vegetables, fruits :- 1-2 weeks

Paper, cardboard paper  :- 15 days-1 month

Cotton clothes :-  2-5 months

Woolen clothes  :- about a year

Metal cans, tin, aluminium  :-  100-500 years

Plastics  :-  1 million years

India’s urban population slated to extend from the present 330 million to about 600 million by 2030, the challenge of managing municipal solid waste (MSW) in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner is sure to assume gigantic proportions.

The country has over 5,000 cities and towns, which generate about 40 million tonnes of MSW per annum today. Going by estimates of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), this might well touch 260 million tonnes per annum by 2047.

The Functional Elements of MSW Management:

The municipal solid waste industry has four components: recycling composting, land-filling, and waste-to-energy via incineration. The primary steps are generation, collection, sorting and separation, transfer and disposal utilization.

1. Waste generation encompasses activities during which materials are identified as not being useful and are either thrown out or gathered together for disposal.
2. The functional element of Collection includes not only the gathering of solid waste and recyclable materials, but also the transport of those materials, after collection, to the situation where the gathering vehicle is emptied. This location could also be a cloth processing facility, a transfer station or a landfill disposal site.
3. Waste handling and separation involves activities related to waste management until the waste is placed in storage containers for collection. Handling also encompasses the movement of loaded containers to the purpose of collection. Separating differing types of waste components is a crucial step within the handling and storage of solid waste at the source. the kinds of means and facilities that are now used for the recovery of waste materials that are separated at the source include curbside collection, drop off and repurchase centers.
4. Transfer and transport involves two main steps. First, the waste is transferred from a smaller collection vehicle to larger transport equipment. The waste is then transported, usually over long distances, to a processing or disposal site.
5. Today the disposal of wastes by land filling or land spreading is that the ultimate fate of all solid wastes, whether or not they are residential wastes collected and transported on to a landfill site, residual materials from materials recovery facilities (MRFs), residue from the combustion of solid waste, compost or other substances from various solid waste processing facilities.

A modern landfill isn't a dump; it's an engineered facility used for removing solid wastes ashore without creating nuisances or hazards to public health or safety, like the breeding of insects and therefore the contamination of spring water . Municipal solid waste are often wont to generate energy.

Several technologies are developed that make the processing of MSW for energy generation cleaner and more economical than ever before, including landfill gas capture, combustion, pyrolysis, gasification, and plasma arc gasification. While older waste incineration plants emitted high levels of pollutants, recent regulatory changes and new technologies have significantly reduced this concern.

In USA, EPA regulations in 1995 and 2000 under the Clean Air Act have succeeded in reducing emissions of dioxins from waste-to-energy facilities by quite 99 percent below 1990 levels, while mercury emissions are by over 90 percent. The EPA noted these improvements in 2003, citing waste-to-energy as an influence source “with less environmental impact than almost the other source of electricity”.

Municipal solid waste management is more of an administrative and institutional mechanism failure problem instead of a technological one. Until now, MSW management has been considered to be almost the only responsibility of urban governments, without the participation of citizens and other stakeholders.

The Centre and therefore the Supreme Court, however, have urged that this issue be addressed with multiple stakeholder participation. Cities in India spend approximately 20% of the town budget on solid waste services.

b. Hazardous Wastes:

Hazardous wastes are people who can cause harm to human and therefore the environment.

Characteristics of Hazardous Wastes:

Wastes are classified as hazardous if they exhibit any of 4 primary characteristics supported physical or chemical properties of toxicity, reactivity, ignitability and corrosively.

1. Toxic wastes:

Toxic wastes are people who are poisonous in small or trace amounts. Some may have acute or immediate effect on human or animals. Carcinogenic or mutagenic causing biological changes within the children of exposed people and animals. Examples: pesticides, heavy metals.

2. Reactive wastes:

Reactive wastes are people who have a bent to react vigorously with air or water are unstable to shock or heat, generate toxic gases or explode during routine management. Examples: Gun powder, nitro glycerin.

3. Ignitable waste:

Are people who burn at relatively low temperatures (< 60 °C) and are capable of ignition during storage transport or disposal. Examples: Gasoline, paint thinners and alcohol.

4. Corrosive wastes:

Are people who destroy materials and living tissues by chemical reactions? Examples: acids and base.

5. Infectious wastes:

Included human tissue from surgery, used bandages and hypoderm needles hospital wastes.

Sources of Hazardous Wastes:

Chemical manufacturing companies, petroleum refineries, paper mills, smelters and other industries. Plastic industries thousand of chemicals are utilized in industries per annum . When used incorrectly or inappropriately they will become health hazards.

PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) are immune to fire and don't conduct electricity alright , which makes them excellent materials for several industrial purposes. Rainwater can wash PCBs out of disposal areas in dumps and landfills thus contaminating the water.

PCBs don't break open very rapidly within the environment and thus retain their toxic characteristics. They cause long-term exposure problems to both human and wildlife. Many household chemicals are often quite toxic to humans also as wildlife.

Most of the damaging substances in our homes are found in various sorts of clearness, solvents and products utilized in automotive care. When these products are used incorrectly they need the potential to be harmful.

Effects of Hazardous Wastes:

As most of the hazardous wastes are disposed off or in land, the foremost serious environmental effect is contaminated spring water . Once spring water is polluted with hazardous wastes, it's fairly often impossible to reverse the damage. Pesticides form residues within the soil that are washed into streams which then carry them forward.

The residues may continue PCBs (poly chlorinated biphenyls) are concentrated within the kidneys and liver and cause damage; they cause reproductive failure in birds and mammals. The soil or within the bottom of lakes and rivers.

Exposure can occur through ingestion, inhalation and skin contact, resulting acute or chronic poisoning. Lead, mercury and arsenic are hazardous substances which may often ask as heavy metals. Most of the lead absorbed by people is stored within the bones.

Lead can affect red blood cells by reducing their ability to hold oxygen and shortening their lifetime . Lead can also damage nerve tissue , leading to brain disorder . Mercury is employed in production of chlorine and as a catalyst within the production of some plastics.

Mercury build up in body over long period of your time is understood to cause brain damage. Minamata disease occurs thanks to poisoning . Vinyl chloride may be a chemical that's widely utilized in plastic manufacture. an extended continuous exposure in humans it can cause deafness, vision problem circulation disorders and bone deformities.

Control of Hazardous Wastes:

Common methods for removing hazardous wastes are land disposal and incineration Industries got to be encouraged to get less hazardous waste within the manufacturing process. Although toxic wastes can't be entirely eliminated, technologies are available for minimizing recycling and treating the wastes.

Integrated pest management practices (IPM) reduce the usage of pesticides. Substitute the utilization of PCBs and vinyl chloride chemically that are less toxic. PVC use are often lowered by reducing the utilization of plastics.

c. Industrial Wastes:

These contain more of toxic and need special treatment.

Source of commercial Wastes:

Food processing industries, metallurgical chemical and pharmaceutical unit’s breweries, sugar mills, paper and pulp industries, fertilizer and pesticide industries are major ones which discharge toxic wastes. During processing, scrap materials, tailings, acids etc.

Effects of commercial Wastes:

Most common observation is that the health of the people living within the neighborhood of dumping sites is severely affected. The exposure may cause disorders of systema nervosum , genetic defects, skin diseases and even caner.

The liquid effluents discharged by the industries contain inorganic and organic pollutants and that they enter into water bodies causing destruction of fish, formation of sediments, and pollution of spring water and release of foul odours.

Control of commercial Wastes:

Waste minimization technologies need to be developed. Source reduction recycling and reuse of materials got to be practiced on an outsized scale. Hazardous waste shouldn't misunderstanding with general waste. Source reduction involves altering the planning , manufacture or use of products and materials to scale back the quantity and toxicity of materials that get thrown away.

Local communities and voluntary organizations should educate the industrialists also because the public about dangers of pollution and therefore the got to keep the environment clean. Land filling, incineration and composting technologies to be followed. Biogas is obtained from solid waste treatment of commercial and mining waste is completed for the recovery of useful products.

d. Agricultural Wastes:

Sources of Agricultural Wastes:

The waste generated by agriculture includes waste from crops and live stock. In developing countries, this waste doesn't pose a significant problem as most of it's used e.g., dung is employed for manure, straw is employed as fodder. Some agro-based industries produce waste e.g., rice milling, production of tea, tobacco etc. Agricultural wastes are rice husk, degasses, ground nut shell, maize cobs, straw of cereals etc.

Effects of Agricultural Wastes:

If more C: N ratio wastes like paddy husk or straw may cause immobilization of nutrients if applied on the fields. It occupies to large land areas if not properly disposed.

Management of Agricultural Wastes:

1. Waste to energy:

(i) Gasification:

It is the method during which chemical decomposition of biomass takes place within the presence of controlled amounts of oxygen, producing a gas. This gas is cleaned and utilized in an indoor combustion engine to supply electrical power.

Without pack up also, the gas are often utilized in boilers to supply electrical power . This technology is very suited to get electrical power from agricultural wastes like rice husks, groundnut shells etc.

(ii) Pyralysis:

It is almost like gasification except that the chemical decomposition of biomass wastes takes place within the absence or reduced presence of O2 at high temp. Mixtures of gases result from decomposition including H2, NH4 Co, CO2 counting on the organic nature of waste . This gas used for power generation.

2. Biogas production:

Animal wastes, food processing wastes and other organic matter are decomposed anaerobically to supply a gas called biogas. It contains methane and CO2. The methane can provides gas for domestic use. The byproduct of this technology is slurry, settled out rock bottom of the digester. this will be used as manure.

3. Agricultural waste :

Wastes like corn cobs, paddy husk, bagasse of sugarcane, waste of wheat, rice and other cereals, cotton stalks, coconut wastes, jute waste etc. are often utilized in making of paper and hard board.

e. Bio-Medical Wastes:

Bio-medical waste means any waste, which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunisation of citizenry or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or within the production or testing of biological.

Segregation, Packaging, Transportation and Storage:

1. Bio-medical waste shall not be mixed with other wastes.
2. Bio-medical waste shall be segregated into containers/bags at the purpose of generation before its storage, transportation, treatment and disposal. The containers shall be properly labelled.
3. Notwithstanding anything contained within the automobiles Act, 1988, or rules there under, untreated biomedical waste shall be transported only in such vehicle as could also be authorised for the aim by the competent authority as specified by the govt .
4. No untreated bio-medical waste shall be kept stored beyond a period of 48 hours. as long as if for any reason it becomes necessary to store the waste beyond such period, the authorised person must take permission of the prescribed authority and take measures to make sure that the waste doesn't adversely affect human health and therefore the environment.

Categories of Bio-medical Wastes:

Table. Categories of Bio-medical Wastes

Cat. No. 1

Treatment and Disposal:- Incineration/deep burial

Waste Category:- Human Anatomical Waste (human tissues, organs, body parts)

Cat. No. 2

Treatment and Disposal:- Incineration/deep burial

Waste Category:- Animal Waste Animal tissues, organs. Body parts carcasses, bleeding parts, fluid, blood and experimental animals utilized in research, waste generated by veterinary hospitals/ colleges, discharge from hospitals, animal houses)

Cat. No. 3

Treatment and Disposal:- Local autoclaving/micro waving/ incineration

Waste Category:- Microbiology and Biotechnology waste (wastes from laboratory cultures, stocks or specimens of micro-organisms live or attenuated vaccines, human and animal cell culture utilized in research and infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories, wastes from production of biological, toxins, dishes and devices used for transfer of cultures)

Cat. No. 4

Treatment and Disposal:- Disinfections (chemical treatment /autoclaving/ micro waving and mutilation shredding

Waste Category:- Waste Sharps (needles, syringes, scalpels blades, glass etc. which will cause puncture and cuts. This includes both used and unused sharps)

Cat. No. 5

Treatment and Disposal:- Incineration / destruction and medicines disposal in secured landfills

Waste Category:- Discarded Medicines and Cytotoxic drugs (wastes comprising of outdated, contaminated and discarded medicines)

Cat. No. 6

Treatment and Disposal:- Incineration, autoclaving/micro waving

Waste Category:- Solid Waste (Items contaminated with blood and body fluids including cotton, dressings, soiled plaster casts, line beddings, other material contaminated with blood)

Cat. No. 7

Treatment and Disposal:- Disinfections by chemical treatment autoclaving/ micro waving and mutilation shredding.

Waste Category:- Solid Waste (waste generated from disposable items aside from the waste sharps like tubing, catheters, intravenous sets etc.)

Cat. No. 8

Treatment and Disposal:- Disinfections by chemical treatment and discharge into drain

Waste Category:- Liquid Waste (waste generated from laboratory and washing, cleaning, house­keeping and disinfecting activities)

Cat. No. 9

Treatment and Disposal:- Disposal in municipal landfill

Waste Category:- Incineration Ash (ash from incineration of any bio-medical waste)

Cat. No. 10

Treatment and Disposal:- Chemical treatment and discharge into drain for liquid and secured land­fill for solids

Waste Category:- Chemical Waste (chemicals utilized in production of biological, chemicals, utilized in disinfect ion, as insecticides, etc)

f. Waste Minimization:

• Waste production are often minimized by adopting the three R’s principle: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
• Reduce the quantity and toxicity of garbage and trash that you simply discard.
• Reuse containers and check out to repair things that are broken.
• Recycle products wherever possible, which incorporates buying recycled products i.e., recycled paper books, paper bags etc.

These are processes that involve integrated waste management practices (IWM). they will reduce the wastes generated by approximately 50%.

Reduce (Waste Prevention):

Waste prevention, or “source reduction,” means consuming and discarding less, may be a successful method of reducing waste generation. Backyard composting, double sided copying of papers, purchasing durable, long- lasting environmentally friendly goods; products and packaging that are freed from toxics, redesigning products to use less staple production and transport packaging reduction by industries are the traditional practices used and have yielded substantial environmental benefits.

Source reduction prevents emissions of the many greenhouse gases, reduces pollutants the necessity saves energy, conserves resources, and reduces wastes for brand spanking new landfills and combustors. It reduces the generation of waste and is usually preferred method of waste management that goes an extended way toward saving the environment.

Reuse:

Reuse is that the process, which involves reusing items by repairing them, donating them to charity and community groups, or selling them. Reusing products is an alternate to recycling because the item doesn't got to be reprocessed for its use again. Using durable glassware, steel using cloth napkins or towels, reusing bottles, reusing boxes, purchasing refillable pens and pencils are suggested.

Recycling:

The process of recycling, including composting, has diverted several million plenty of material faraway from disposal. Recycled materials include batteries, recycled at a rate of 93%, paper and paperboard at 48%, and yard trimmings at 56%. These materials et al. could also be recycled through drop off centers, buy-back programs, and deposit systems.

Recycling prevents the emission of the many greenhouse gases that affect global climate, water pollutants, saves energy, supplies valuable raw materials to industry, creates jobs, stimulates the event of greener technologies, conserves resources for our children’s future, and reduces the necessity for brand spanking new landfills and combustors. For instance, by recycling of solid waste in 1996, the us prevented, the discharge of 33 million tons, of carbon into the air roughly the quantity emitted annually by 25 million cars.

Recycling can create valuable resources and it generates a number of environmental, financial, and social benefits. Materials like glass, metal, plastics, and paper are collected, separated and sent to processing centers where they're processed into new products.

The advantages of recycling are it conserves resources for future generation, prevents emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants, saves energy, supplies valuable raw, materials to industries, stimulates the event of greener technologies, reduces the necessity for brand spanking new landfills and incinerators.

Questions:-

1. Why is waste management important for our environment?
2. What are the importance and observations of waste management?
3. Why is waste management important?
4. What are the main objectives of solid waste management?
5. What are the advantages of solid waste management?
6. What is waste management? How important is waste management in all of our earth resources? What is its significance to our mineral, energy, water resources?
7. What is solid waste management?
8. What is the purpose of waste management?
9. How can we improve solid waste management in India?
10. What are the applications of solid waste management?
11. Why is waste management important and beneficial for the environment?
12. Why is solid waste management in urban life important?
13. What is the importance of a global review of the solid waste management?
14. What is the importance of natural resources in points?
15. Which solid waste is the least important?