Solid Waste Management

Solid waste refers to any unwanted or discarded

material that is in a solid form and is typically
produced by human activities.

Refuse what you do not need; reduce what you

do need; reuse what you consume; recycle what
you cannot reuse, reduce, or reuse; and rot
(compost) the rest”.
 SOLID WASTE GENERATION
Solid waste can be categorized into:
• Municipal Solid Waste (MSW): Commonly known as
trash or garbage, it includes household items like food
scraps, packaging, old furniture, and electronics.
• Industrial Waste: Waste produced by manufacturing
processes, including chemicals, metals, and plastics.
• Hazardous Waste: Dangerous or harmful materials such
as chemicals, batteries, and medical waste that require
special disposal methods.
• Construction and Demolition Waste: Materials like
concrete, wood, metal, and other debris from building
and construction projects.
• Organic Waste: Biodegradable materials such as food
scraps, yard waste, and agricultural by-products.
Sources of Municipal Solid Wastes
Main sources of municipal solid wastes may be
classified into the following categories:
1. Residential sources: Wastes from household
and residential areas. These are the major
sources of municipal solid wastes.
2. Institutional sources: Wastes from government
and public institutions such as schools, colleges
universities, government offices etc.
3. Commercial establishments: Wastes from
business centers such as food and drink
establishments, shops, banks etc.
4. Health facilities: Wastes from hospitals and other
health facilities.
5. Construction and demolition activities: Wastes from
various types of construction and demolition activities
such as construction of apartments, demolition of
slums etc.
6. Industrial sources: Wastes from various types of
industrial processes.
7.Agricultural sources: Wastes from agricultural activities.
8. Open areas: Wastes from roadside dustbins, street
sweeping and other public places.
9. Electronic and electrical wastes (e-wastes): Waste from
electronic devices like computers, phones, radio etc.
and household appliances such as cookers, washing
machines etc.
Characteristics of Municipal Solid Wastes
1. Physical characteristics:
Knowing the physical characteristics of MSW allows
for more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally
friendly waste management practices, from collection
to disposal and recycling.
• Density: Density of a waste is its mass per unit volume
(Kg/m3). It is required for the design of landfills, storage,
type of collection and transport vehicles.
• Moisture content: It is the ratio of the weight of water
to the total weight of waste. Cost of collection, transport
and economic feasibility of waste treatment by
incineration depends upon the moisture content of the
waste.
• Size of waste constituents: Size of raised
constituents are required for the design of
mechanical separators, shredder and waste
treatment processes.
• Calorific value: It is the amount of heat
generated from combustion of unit weight of a
substance, expressed in kcal/kg.
• Permeability: The permeability of compacted
wastes is an important physical property because
it governs the movement of liquids and gases in a
landfill.
• Compressibility: It is the degree of physical
changes in the solid waste when subjected to
pressure.
 2. Chemical characteristics
• pH Level: The acidity or alkalinity of the waste.
Waste with a high or low pH can cause
environmental issues, such as corrosion of waste
handling equipment, and may require special
treatment methods. For example, highly acidic
waste can damage landfills or contaminate
groundwater.
• Organic Content: The presence of biodegradable
materials (e.g., food waste, paper, and yard
trimmings). These materials decompose over
time, producing gases like methane.
• Heavy Metals: The presence of metals such as
lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and chromium.
These toxic metals can leach into the
environment if not properly managed and pose
significant health risks, so knowing their levels is
essential for proper disposal and recycling.
• Toxicity and Hazardous Substances: Identifying
the presence of toxic substances such as
asbestos, pesticides, certain plastics, or industrial
chemicals. These require specialized handling,
disposal, and often, regulatory compliance to
prevent contamination and health risks.
• Nutrient Content: The levels of nutrients like
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in
organic waste. These nutrients are important
for composting and can be used to create
fertilizer if the waste is processed
appropriately.
• Presence of Gases (e.g., Methane and Carbon
Dioxide): Gases produced from the anaerobic
decomposition of organic waste in landfills.
Monitoring and controlling these gases is
important for both landfill management and
the potential for energy recovery.
 Biodegradable and Non-
biodegradable Solid Wastes
• We must know that everything we use in our daily life is
either biodegradable or non-biodegradable.
• Biodegradable wastes: These are the waste materials
which can be easily degraded by natural factors like
microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, fungi etc.), abiotic
components (e.g., sunlight, water, oxygen etc.).
• They transform them into simple organic matters which
can be used as fertilizers, manure, compost, biogas and
more.
• Biodegradable wastes, found in municipal solid wastes
include green waste, food waste, paper waste,
biodegradable plastics etc.
• Some of the wastes includes human waste,
slaughterhouse waste etc.
 Non-biodegradable wastes:
• These are the wastes which cannot be
decomposed or degraded by natural agents.
• Therefore, they remain in the ecosystem for long
duration without decompose and harm our
environment.
• They are not at all ecofriendly. Most of the
inorganic waste such as plastic cups, bottles, e-
wastes etc. are comes under non-biodegradable
category.
• Some of these wastes which can be recycled and
can be used again are known as “Recyclable waste
and those which cannot be used again are known
as “non-recyclable waste”.
 e-waste
• The term “e-waste” is an abbreviation of
“electronic and electrical waste”.
• Due to the revolution in IT sector, production
of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE)
became one of the fastest manufacturing
activities.
• Due to rapid economic growth, the production
and consumption of EEE has increased many
folds.
 Sources of e-waste:
• Home Appliances: It may include, Microwaves,
Home Entertainment Devices, Electric cookers,
Heaters, Fans etc.
• Electronic Utilities: Heating Pads, Remote
Controls, Television Remotes, Electrical Cords,
Lamps, Night Lights, Treadmills, Smart Watches,
Heart Monitors, etc. may be included in this
category.
• Communications and Information Technology
Devices: Cell phones, Smartphones, Desktop
Computers, Computer Monitors, Laptops, etc.
may fall under this category.
 Sources of e-waste:
• Office Equipment: This category may include,
Copiers/Printers, IT Server Racks, IT Servers, Cords and
Cables, Phone & PBX systems, Audio & Video
Equipment, Network Hardware, Power Strips & Power
Supplies, Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS Systems),
Power Distribution Systems (PDU’s), etc.
• Medical Equipment: This category may include,
Dialysis Machines, Imaging Equipment, Video
Equipment, Power Supplies, Uninterrupted Power
Supplies (UPS Systems), etc.
• Home Entertainment Devices: It may include, DVDs,
Stereos, Televisions, Video Game Systems, etc.
 Characteristics of e-Waste
• Hazardous substances: The hazardous
substances that are mostly found are plastic,
lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, CFCs, PVC
etc.
• These substances have a great potential to
harm or pollute the environment (the flora,
the fauna, the soil etc.) and human health
(carcinogenic diseases, liver, kidney, brain
damages etc.).
 Characteristics of e-Waste
• Non-Hazardous substances: The recycling of e-wastes
helps to identify the non-hazardous substances which
can be used again without harming the environment.
• The different metals when they are recycled back, have
a great advantage in the manufacturing processes of
different industries.
• For example, the aluminum, copper and gold that is
often found in electronic goods is considered to be
nonhazardous.
• Plastic and glass are the material found in computer
parts are also not hazardous.
 Biomedical waste
• Biomedical wastes can be defined as wastes
that are generated in hospitals, biological
activities, veterinarian clinics and health care
units.
• Biomedical waste may be hazardous or non-
hazardous.
• According to WHO (World Health
Organization), about 85% of biomedical
wastes falls under non-hazardous category,
whereas 15% falls under hazardous category.
 Sources of Bio-medical waste
• The sources may be classified into two broad
categories; Major and Minor sources.
• Major sources generate more amount of the
wastes compared to the minor sources and on
regular basis.
• These sources include; Hospitals, Emergency care
facilities, dialysis centers, transfusion centers,
blood banks, clinical laboratories, research
laboratories, mortuaries, veterinarians and
nursing homes.
• Minor sources include; medical clinics, cosmetic
clinics, home care, paramedics and institutions
Characteristics of Bio-medical waste
It can be classified into two categories; non-hazardous
wastes and hazardous wastes.
Non-hazardous wastes
• These type of waste which does not pose any direct
threat to the people and environment as they are non-
toxic by nature.
• But still, it should not be thrown be in open areas or
sewer line because of the risk it may pose threat to the
environment.
• The non-hazardous wastes may include; wash water,
paper cartoons, packaging materials, food remnants
etc. These wastes are generated mainly from various
organizations, maintenance of hospital and health care
centres.
Characteristics of Bio-medical waste
Hazardous wastes
These type of waste which pose direct threat to the
people and environment because of their toxic
and infectious characteristics.
• The various hazardous wastes may include:
• Infectious wastes: Infectious wastes include
human/animal tissue, and urine from the infected
patients, blood-soaked bandages, surgical gloves,
cultures, swabs used to inoculate cultures,
isolation wards waste, equipment that have been
in contact with the infected patient etc.
Characteristics of Bio-medical waste
• Pathological wastes: Human tissues or fluids e.g.,
body parts, blood and other body fluids, fetuses
etc.
• Pharmaceutical wastes: It contains
pharmaceuticals of expiry date, contaminated
pharmaceutical bottles, boxes etc.
• Radioactive wastes: nuclear medicine
treatments, cancer therapies and medical
equipment.
• General Wastes: Waste like paper, plastics, liquids
and all the waste which are not included in the
above three wastes, falls under this category.
 METALLIC WASTES and RECYCLE
• Heavy metals like Au, Ag, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cr etc. are
found in these metallic wastes.
• These valuable metals can be recovered from
these waste materials by recycling process
such as calcination, roasting, smelting, refining
etc. and reused.
• Microorganisms such as Penicillium,
Aspergillus acid, thiobacillus trioxane,
Leptospiral ferroxidase and Sulphurous acid
are also used for recovering the metals.
 METALLIC WASTES and RECYCLE
• Metals can be recycled repeatedly without
degrading their properties.
• Because of its recycling property, scrape/waste
metal has value, which motivates people to
collect it for the sale and recycling processes.
• The recycling of scrap metals, enables us to
preserve natural resources. It also has social
impact as it helps in creating jobs in the society.
 Non-metallic wastes
• A large portion of non-metallic wastes consists of
waste paper, wood, lubricants, plastics, glass,
rubber textiles, printed circuit boards etc.
• Lubricant: It is a substance used to reduce the
friction between various parts of the machinery
and thereby extending the life by minimizing
wear and tear which in-turn save energy and
resources.
• Used oils such as engine lubrication oil, hydraulic
fluids, and gear oils which are used in cars, bikes,
or lawnmowers can pollute the environment,