SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Solid Waste:
 Any material that is not needed by the owner, producer
or processor
 Are substances or objects which are disposed of, or are
required to be disposed of by national law” – Basel
Convention
Solid Waste Management:
 Includes all activities that seek to minimize the health,
environmental and aesthetic impacts of solid wastes
Classification:
Domestic waste Factory waste
Waste from oil factory E-waste
Construction waste Agricultural waste
Food processing waste Bio-medical waste
Nuclear waste
Municipal Solid Waste Management
(MSWM) is much more than a technological
issue - it always also involves institutional,
social, legal, and financial aspects and
involves coordinating and managing a large
workforce and collaborating with many
involved stakeholders as well as the general
public.
Challenges in Solid Waste
Management
• Inadequate service
coverage and
operational
inefficiencies of
services,
• Limited utilization of
recycling activities,
• Inadequate landfill
disposal, and
• Inadequate
management of
hazardous and
healthcare waste.
Waste Management
Early view: dilute and disperse
Later  concentrate and contain
Later yet  resource recovery
Modern integrated waste management
goal is to recycle, extract resources, and
bury waste so as to create useable land
3 R’s: reduce, recycle, reuse
5 R’s: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover
Methods of Disposal
On-site disposal
 By far the most common is kitchen disposal
 Incineration at apartments
 Some industries have stored and dumped on site
Composting
 Biochemical process to produce humus-like material for soil
fertilization
Incineration
 900-1000oC will consume 75-90% of typical waste  ash and
non-combustables
 Realistically at present  50%
 Problems with air pollution (N-O, S-O, CO, heavy metals) and
toxic ash escaping
 3R’s are cheaper and more effective
Open Dumps
Just dump on a plot of land without regard to leaching, aesthetics,
health, etc.

“Sanitary Landfills”
 Area landfill on flat land
 Depression landfill in hole (typically excavated)
What is a Landfill?
Waste is placed on or in the ground and is covered with
earth to eliminate/reduce air pollution and vermin
infestation
 Landfills are a quick-fix solution as they can only
handle a limited volume of garbage
 They create a secondary set of environmental
challenges
Problems with landfills:
a. Leaching: Waste such as old batteries, household
products, paint, solvents, etc leak out of their
containers and contaminate ground water
b. Methane production: Anaerobic decomposition of
organic waste generates methane gas, which is highly
flammable
c. Incomplete decomposition: some waste just never
breakdown, such as plastics
d. Settling: Buildings constructed over old landfills have
been condemned for structural instability
Natural attenuation landfill uses soil processes to
attenuate the impact of contaminants
Containment-type landfill collects the leachate and pumps it
for storage or treatment
Sanitary Landfills
Site selection:
 Location of groundwater table and flow regime with
respect to site
 Climate (arid is best of course)
 Topographic relief
 Low relief is most stable, but groundwater also a factor
in humid areas: want it above the water table
 Proximity to population and visual pollution (or air
pollution if incinerate)
 Type of soil and rock (best if low permeability)
Considerations for Sanitary Landfills
Things to avoid
 Aquifers like limestone, fractured rock, sand,
gravel… any permeable rock
 Swampy areas and wetlands
 Floodplains
Things to look for
 Closer to gully heads where less accumulated water
 Clay pits
 Flat areas with poor porosity (at least near surface)
INCINERATION
 A more permanent option to eliminate waste is
through incineration
 Incinerators burn waste in a furnace at high
temperatures; thereby decreasing its volume
 The combustion of garbage can be used for
electricity generation through the Waste-to-
energy; WTE systems similar to coal-burning
power plants
Waste-to-Energy Incinerator
Electricity

Smokestack

Furnace

Boiler

Waste
pit

Ash for treatment,

disposal in landfill, or
use as landfill cover
Benefits of incineration:
a. Can be used to generate electricity: garbage
incinerators burn cleaner and generate less dioxins
than coal-burning power plants
b. Reduces garbage volume (90%) and weight (75%)
c. With “scrubbers”, modern incinerators purify the
emissions and the ash is treated for any hazardous
materials
d. Medical waste and biohazard materials are sterilized
and pathogens destroyed
e. They eliminate need to build landfills in densely
populated areas
f. They eliminate the unsightly appearance of landfills
while minimizing the environmental problems
associated with landfills
Disadvantages:
 Expensive to build
 Produces a
hazardous waste
 Emits some CO2
and other air
pollutants
 Encourages waste
production
Despite these being the most common choices
for solid waste management, they are less
than ideal
 They have environmental, economic and
health concerns
 Thus need for better ways to eliminate/
remove garbage:
 Reduce amount of garbage to be
disposed: reuse and recycle materials
 Generate less garbage – less packaging
 Curb spending and other consumer
habits
Waste management is becoming a strategic
issue, because:
 Manufacturers are facing stiff competition
requiring strategies to reduce costs such as
through waste minimization
 National and international regulations and
legislations to curb waste generation
 Increasing sensitivity of environmental
impacts of waste from consumer products
and services by customers
• Waste reduction is based on:
– Refuse – don’t use it
– Reduce – use less
– Reuse – use it over and over
– Recycle
• Composting
– Using bacteria to decompose biodegradable
waste
Six strategies for waste reduction:
1. Change industrial processes to eliminate
harmful chemicals
2. Redesign manufacturing process to use
less material and energy
3. Develop products that are easy to recycle
4. Eliminate unnecessary packaging
5. Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems
6. Establish cradle-to grave responsibility
Management of waste
Recycling: Processing of a waste material into usable forms
Benefits include:
 Reduced environmental degradation
 Income generation from waste
 Energy saving from waste handling and product manufacture –
less pressure on disposal systems
 Encourages individual responsibility
Examples:
• Re-smelted aluminum has considerable cost saving
• Paper from waste saves 50% energy
• A tonne of recycled glass saves energy equivalent to 100 litres of oil
But; Recycling is not the ultimate solution!
Not every waste material can be recycled
Recycling technologies are unavailable or unsafe for some materials
In some cases, recycling costs is too high
The 5 R’s of Waste Management
1) Refuse: Don’t use non bio-degradable materials; no
plastic bag packaging
2) Reduce: Don’t manufacture goods that will be discarded
in the first place; reduced packaging for consumer
products
3) Re-use: Use materials multiple times for the original
purpose or for new purpose(s); Plastic oil containers as
milk and water containers
4) Recycle: Break down materials and reform into new
products; requires less energy than manufacturing the
products from raw materials; waste paper is reprocessed
to make packing boxes
5) Recover: Recover as much energy as possible before a
material is discarded; burn garbage to generate
electricity before disposing the ash
 Workers in Taizhou City in
China’s Zhejiang Province
are recovering valuable
materials from scrap
computers shipped from
the United States

E-WASTES
 Typically, e-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
(WEEE) is waste containing broken or unwanted electrical and
electronic appliances disposed after usable life or as unwanted
byproducts of manufacturing
 Includes electrical and electronic devices such as entertainment
electronics, computers, mobile phones, refrigerators, lamps and
their components
Some e-waste management challenges in Kenya:
1. Increased e-waste volumes arise from imports disguised
as second-hand electronic donations
2. Low awareness amongst manufacturers and consumers
on the hazards of safe disposal of e-waste
3. Widespread e-waste recycling in the informal sector
using rudimentary techniques such as acid leaching and
open air burning that result in severe environmental
damage
4. Low awareness of the toxins in e-waste and exposure to
e-waste workers leading to serious health hazards
5. Inefficient recycling processes resulting in substantial
losses of material value
6. “cherry-picking” by recyclers who recover precious
metals and improperly dispose off the rest
Some solutions to e-Wastes
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR):
internalizes the end-of-life costs and provides a
competitive incentive for producers to design
equipment with less costs and liabilities for
end-of-life disposal
• Legislations for waste minimization and control
of hazardous wastes, at national and
international levels
• The Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary movement of Hazardous wastes
and Disposal
Radioactive Waste Management
Waste: by-products of electrical generation, weapons
production, biomedical and chemical research
Very problematic:
• Can be very dangerous and have latent effects:
cancers, genetic disorders…
• Can be very long-lived so disposal may require
isolation for 1000s of yrs for radioactivity to
subside
 International Basel Convention
 The Basel Convention, Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their
Disposal, is an international treaty designed to reduce the
movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically
to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less
developed countries (LDCs).
 It does not however address the movement of radioactive waste
 The convention is also intended to minimize the amount and
toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally
sound management as closely as possible to the source of
generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound
management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.
 The convention was opened for signatures on march 22, 1989 and
entered into force on may 5, 1992.
 Has been ratified by 179 countries, except the United States
The international trade in hazardous wastes