ST FRANCIS SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCES

C.U : ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

TOPIC : SOLID WASTE

BY

TWEBAZE YONAH
+256777761167

TWEBAZE YONAH
+256777761167
 SOLID WASTE/REFUSE MGT
Definition of terms
 A waste: something the owner no longer wants at
a given place & time & has no current perceived
market value (WHO).
 Garbage: all waste which are readily biodegradable
and may result from growing, handling &
consumption of food e.g kitchen waste, banana
peelings etc.
 Litter: various light materials discarded in public
places e.g papers, poly-ethene, bus tickets, sweet
wrappings etc.
 Definition of terms cont’d

 Rubbish: all non biodegradable wastes except

ashes. It includes carbon papers, card boards,
plastics and rubber.
 Solid waste: house refuse & has same meaning as
refuse, so the two are used interchangeably.
 Refuse management: is the control of generation,
storage, collection, transportation, separation,
recovering, treatment and safe disposal of solid
waste.
 Leachate: thick liquid that leaks from tipped &
decomposing refuse. Can be source of water
pollution& may habour pathogenic organisms.
 Types of solid waste
1. Industrial wastes: varies from industries or
activities going on in an industry e.g an industry
dealing with food processing will have remains of
various foods, peelings, old tins, poly-ethene bags
etc
2. Street waste: waste that accumulate on streets&
roads as a result of activities taking place there e.g
plastic bags, poly ethene, boxes, dust
3. Domestic waste: waste from homes & forms a
bulky waste e.g potato, cassava, matooke peelings,
paper, dust. Hobson (1969) classified domestic
waste as follows;
 Categories of domestic waste
1. Fine matter (mostly ashes and dust)
2. Cinders (remains of burnt coal and charcoal)
3. Paper and card boards
4. Textile and rags
5. Glass (broken bottles and other glasses)
6. Plastics
7. Garbage
8. Un classified debris e.g wood, leather, stones
 Categories of domestic waste cont’d
N.B: Domestic waste have some salvage potential value i.e
can be used in other forms
 Screened dust used in covering refuse during tipping.
 Paper can be separated & used for making card boards
 The main is to try to treat waste, recycle and re-use it in
other forms.
4. Commercial waste: refuse from big establishments e.g
supermarkets, shops, hotels, bookshops, schools etc
5. Medical waste: Waste generated from health facilities e.g
non infectious waste, infectious waste, highly infectious
waste, pharmaceutical waste (see details later)
 Methods of solid waste disposal
 The choice of any method depends on climatic
conditions & economy of the place or town.
 Hygiene, social benefits & availability of tipping
sites should be considered.
 Method of disposal depends on the factors
below;
 Cost of the method
 Constraints of the method/limitations
 Potential use of power or heat generated
 Health of the public & workers
 Quantity & xtics of solid waste to be dealt with & ways in
which it can be changed
 Methods of solid waste disposal
1. Crude dumping
2. Separation and incineration
3. Controlled tipping
4. Composting
5. Controlled burning
6. Disposal into water bodies (lakes/rivers/seas)
7. Animal feeding
8. Disposal of the dead/burying of the dead
 Methods of solid waste disposal
1. Controlled tipping
Before solid waste are taken to the tip, a site is
selected basing on the following;
 Proximity of the building in relation to the tip
 Protection of water sources & recreation areas
 Cost of the land
 Future use of the area
 Suitability of the soil as a covering material
 Accessibility to the site
 Direction of the prevailing wind
 Operation of controlled tipping
 Confine, compact and cover (CCC)
 Involves tipping of solid waste in layers,
compacting each layer and covering it with inert
materials purposely to prevent breeding of
mosquitoes, rodents and flies.
 This also prevents smell nuisances, contamination
of ground water sources and scavenging.
 Solid wastes are dumped in layers not more than
2m in depth and covered with layer of earth/soil tp
depth of 225mm(22.5cm).
 Decomposition process is similar to that in
composting
 Advantages of controlled tipping
 Minimizes smell
 Prevents light materials from being blown away by
wind
 Fire hazards are reduced
 Makes the tip less attractive to birds
 Eliminates insects & rodents breeding
 Cheap and simple to operate
 Low lying areas can be reclaimed for agriculture
 Provides good conditions for biological
biodegradation of organic matter at the tip
 Disadvantages of controlled tipping
 Not always easy to obtain a site at reasonable
distance at low cost or price
 Needs close supervision or else the tip maybe
turned into a crude dumping site
 May encourage rodents and flies breeding
 N.B: When the tip is finished, grass should be
planted on the surface and along all sides.
 2. Crude dumping
 Method of solid waste disposal in which solid
wastes are disposed off without ant precautions.
 Refuse is either disposed off in a chosen area or
dumped any where.
 Such dumping causes a lot of nuisances and many
health hazards arise a result of decomposition.
 Wood (1986) described nuisances which arise from
crude dumping as disadvantages (see next slide)
 Disadvantages of crude dumping
 It is unsightly
 Attracts insects and vermin such as house flies, rats
and cockroaches
 Spread of communicable diseases through
mosquitoes breeding & water contamination
 Can cause fire outbreaks
 Produces offensive smell/bad odour
 Pollution of air, water and food
 Crude dumping is an insanitary method of solid
waste disposal & must be discouraged.
 3. Separation & incineration
 Incineration is burning of rubbish.
 Maybe done in drums, trenches of bricks built or
brick built bins.
 Separation & incineration involves separation of
some fraction of waste either by mechanical or
manual means.
 Dust& cinder are 1st removed through rotating
screens, ferrous metals taken out by powerful
electromagnets.
 The remaining solid waste are passed on moving
belt from which papers, rags, grass, bones are
removed or picked out manually.
 Direct incineration
 Involves burning of solid waste.
 Burning is done in a refuse pit or an area set aside
for that purpose.
 Burning can either be in brick incinerators or by
using a drum as an improvised incinerator.
 In towns, solid wastes are burnt either crude or
after separation.
 Advantages of incineration
 Less land required
 Central location can be used
 Many solid waste are burnt to ashes
 Climatic or unusual weather conditions do not
affect the operation of the incinerator
 Incinerators are flexible in operation coz they work
for 8, 12, 16 & 24 hours depending on the amount
of waste to be burnt.
 Possible to raise some income through salvage of
the generated power and steam.
 Disadvantages of incineration
 Expensive/costly to buy and install
 Operating costs are relatively high and skilled
employees required for solid separation and
maintenance
 Maybe problem of obtaining a site suitable for
installing the incinerator
 Pollution if air, smell of gases from incinerators
 4. COMPOSTING
 Compost is a humus like material that results from
microbial action on biodegradable solid waste.
 It is stable, ordourless and un attractive to flies.
 Composting is a cheap and convenient method of
refuse disposal which is recommended.
Aim of composting
 To convert a major portion of solid waste into
manure
 USES OF COMPOSTING
 Can be used as fertilizers /agricultural purposes
 Less land/compost can be reused
 Doesn’t encourage breeding of flies, rats etc
 It is odourless
 Used as soil conditioner
 Used to increase organic content of soil so as to
improve soil structure
 Provide micro nutrients and adequate quantities of
basic plant nutrients e.g nitrates & phosphates
 TWO PHASES OF COMPOSTING
1. The use of the method & equipment which
facilitate decomposition of organic matter under
controlled conditions so as to avoid risks to health
and environment.
2. Extraction of constituents of waste which would be
undesirable in the compost. Solid waste intended
for composting fall under the following classes;
 Materials which form compost for use as organic matter
 Materials that must be salvaged 1st & then sold for
recycling
 Remains that have no use in composting can be taken to
the tip to be used as a cover material.
 HOW IS COMPOSTING MADE/PROCESS
 Micro organisms need moisture & time to turn
garbage or sludge (biodegradable waste into
compost).
 If an aerobic process is preferred, there must be
supply of oxygen to the bacteria.
 Anaerobic composting is slower than aerobic
composting and the product is inferior in terms of
nutrients.
 Anaerobic composting is also associated with
odour problems
HOW IS COMPOSTING MADE CONT’D
 Aerobic composting is faster and associated with
high temps which have adverse effects on the fly
larvae and pathogenic bacteria.
 The weed seeds are also inactivated by high temps
 The simplest method of composting is to place the
refuse into a ditch/manure pit/composting pit in
alternative layers, then covered with soil/grass and
leave it for aerobic composting to take place.
 Fermentation decomposes the refuse which should
be turned at intervals to aerate the materials after
30days, then after 60days.
HOW IS COMPOSTING MADE CONT’D
 After 90days (3 months), the refuse is ripe and
maybe put on land as fertilizers.
 Turning tends to shift the warmer materials in the
center to the top and vise versa.
 N.B: When moisture content is high, turning 3-4
times a week is encouraged.
 The process maybe mechanical or manual
depending on the quantity of refuse to be
composted.
 The moisture content must always be controlled.
 N.B: Turning waste helps to lower temp to low level
where aerobic bacteria can survive.
 COMPOSTING PROCESS CONT’D
Dimensions of compost pit
 May vary but reasonable pit is 1.5m deep, 3.0m
wide and 4.5m long
 Consists of hand dug hole
 In common practice, two holes are dug adjacent to
one another so that when one is 6 inches full to
the ground level, the adjacent one is used.
 In practice every day collection, a layer of soil is
poured.
 Benefits of composting
 Can be used for agricultural purposes
 Good for soil conservation
 Doesn’t cause any health hazards
Problems of composting
 Maybe insufficient market for the compost manure
 Transportation to the places of application maybe
a problem or not available
 Waste that contains sufficient amount of metals
are not suitable for composting
 N.B: This methods works only on biodegradable
waste.
 ANIMAL FEEDING
 Garbage is collected from hostels, hospitals,
schools and other institutions and then fed to
animals.
 Animals include; pigs, cows, goats, sheep, dogs etc
 It is mainly used in urban areas where a lot of
refuse is generated.
 Assignment: Read and make notes about;
1. Advantages of animal feeding method of waste
disposal
2. Disadvantages of animal feeding method.
 DISPOSAL INTO WATER BODIES
 This method is commonly used at the shores of
lakes/rivers and coasts of oceans/seas etc.
 The disadvantage is that the tides may blow the
rubbish back to the land.
 Assignment: Read and make notes about;
1. Advantages of disposal of wastes in the water
bodies.
2. Disadvantages of disposal of wastes in the water
bodies.
3. Generally what are the advantages proper waste disposal
& disadvantages of improper waste disposal
 •THE END
•
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