Green Technologies: Smart and Efficient Management-2012, SLIET Longowal

Waste Management- The Best Practicable Environmental Option

Mrs. Khan Tarannum M. R, Mr. Anirudh Pandit, Mohd. Majid
Abstract-Rapid increase in volume and types of solid and hazardous waste as a result of continuous economic growth, urbanization and industrialization, is becoming a burgeoning problem for national and local governments to ensure effective and sustainable management of waste. Waste can be loosely defined as any material that is considered to be of no further use to the owner and is, hence, discarded. However, most discarded waste can be reused or recycled, one of the principles of most waste management philosophies. What may be of no further use to one person and regarded as waste to be dumped may be of use to the next person. Although considerable efforts are being made by many Governments and other entities in tackling waste-related problems, there are still major gaps to be filled in this area. If most of the waste could be diverted for material and resource recovery, then a substantial reduction in final volumes of waste could be achieved and the recovered material and resources could be utilized to generate revenue to fund waste management. This forms the premise for Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) system based on 3R, s (reduce, reuse and recycle) principle. Key Words- Types of waste, Methods of disposal,"3 Rs" Waste management concepts, E- waste.

unscientific disposal of hazardous wastes in India, which posed serious risks to human, animal and plant life. Majority of Indian rivers are polluted because of industrial and human waste. There has been efforts by the state, but they are too little and too late. The problem is not restricted to rivers or industrial towns. Waste management is a problem that all of us face. No matter how posh an area might be, miserable waste management can be seen. Public parks and roads are often littered with garbage. The processing of the garbage is also not given much thought. It is thrown in the dumping grounds without following the rules required for its management . Literature Review Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is a distinct practice from resource recovery which focuses on delaying the rate of consumption of natural resources. The management of wastes treats all materials as a single class, whether solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive substances, and tried to reduce the harmful environmental impacts of each through different methods. Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial producers. Management for non-hazardous waste residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government authorities, while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator. Types of Waste Waste can be classified into different types depending on their source: 1) Industrial waste as hazardous waste 2) Household waste is generally classified as municipal 3) Biomedical waste or hospital waste as infectious waste and 4) E-waste Electronic wastes such as TV's, refrigerators and computer waste . 1 Hazardous Waste Detection of traces of toxic chemicals in drinking water supplies, in polar ice caps, groundwater sources and episodes such as those in Minamata Bay, Japan and Love Canal, USA have focused the attention of the public worldwide on the risks

Introduction India is the second most populous country, which has about 16% of the world population and 2.4% of the land area. Rapid industrialization in the last few decades have led to the depletion of precious natural resources in India depletes and pollutes resources continuously. Furthermore, the rapid industrial developments have, also, led to the generation of huge quantities of hazardous wastes, which have further aggravated the environmental problems in the country by depleting and polluting natural resources. Therefore, rational and sustainable utilization of natural resources and its protection from toxic releases is vital for sustainable socio-economic development. Hazardous waste management is a new concept for most of the Asian countries including India. The lack of technical and financial resources and the regulatory control for the management of hazardous wastes in the past had led to the
Mrs. Khan Tarannum M.R. is with Dept. of Management Aryabhatta College, Barnala, Punjab, Pin: 148101, India (aaminahk70@gmail.com). Mr. Anirudh Pandit is Research Scholar with PTU Jallandhar (anirudh_24jan2@yahoo.com). Mohd. Majid is Assistant Professor with Department of Mechanical Engineering, SLIET Longowal. (mohdmajid_2004@rediffmail.com)

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posed by the inappropriate disposal of hazardous waste and accidental release of toxic chemicals into the environment. In India the concern and need to manage the hazardous waste generated in the country in a scientific manner was felt only in the mid-eighties after the occurrence of the Bhopal gas tragedy on 2/3 December 1984. The Government's attention was then drawn towards environmental damage and the Casualties that hazardous chemical substances and toxic wastes can cause.Due to the liberalized policy the pace of industrialization has been accelerated, which has resulted in increasing amounts of hazardous wastes every year. This along with a growing amount of municipal solid waste due to rapid urbanization and hospital waste continues to remain a daunting issue of environmental concern to India. 2 Municipal Solid Wastes There has been a significant increase in the generation of MSW (Municipal Solid Wastes) in India over the last few decades. This is largely a result of rapid population growth in the country. The daily per capita generation of municipal solid waste in India ranges from about 100 g in small towns to 500 g in large towns. The solid waste generated in Indian cities has increased from 6 million tons in 1947 to 48 million tons in 1997 and is expected to increase to 300 million tons per annum by 2047 .The characteristics of MSW collected from any area depends on a number of factors such as food habits, cultural traditions of inhabitants, lifestyles, climate, etc1. At present most of the MSW in the country is disposed off unscientifically (i.e.) lack of 'sanitary landfill'. This has adverse impacts on not only the ecosystem but also on the human environment. Unscientific disposal practices leave waste unattended at the disposal site, which attract birds, rodents, fleas etc., to the waste and creates unhygienic conditions like odor, release of airborne pathogens, etc. The plastic content of the municipal waste is picked up by the rag pickers for recycling either at primary collection centers or at dumpsites. Plastic are recycled mostly in factories, which do not have adequate technologies to process them in a safe manner. This exposes the workers to toxic fumes and unhygienic conditions. Moreover, since the rag picking sector is not organized, not all the recyclables, particularly plastic bags, get picked up and are found littered everywhere, reaching the drains and water bodies ultimately and choking them. General composition of the municipal solid wastes Biodegradable matter Glass Plastics Paper Metals Leather and rubber Rags Household hazardous inert materials 3 Biomedical wastes Hospital waste is generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals or in Research activities in these fields or in the production or testing of biological. It may include wastes like sharps, soiled waste,

disposables, anatomical waste, cultures, discarded medicines, chemical wastes, etc. These are in the form of disposable syringes, swabs, bandages, body fluids, human excreta, etc. This waste is highly infectious and can be a serious threat to human health if not managed in a scientific and discriminate manner. 4 E-Wastes Electronic waste or E-waste as it is popularly called is a collective terminology for the entire stream of electronic wastes such as used TV's, refrigerators, telephones, air conditioners, computers, mobile phones etc. computer waste is the most significant of all waste due to the gigantic amounts as well as the rate at which it is generated. In addition, its recycling is a complex process that involves many hazardous materials and poses significant environmental and health hazard. E-waste is of particular concern to India currently. India is setting a shining example not only in the IT sector, but unfortunately, also in importing e-waste. The primary source of computer waste in India is imports from developed countries though, recently, domestic waste also has shot up due to the astounding growth in the IT sector and its application in various new sectors, including governance. There was unanimity that electronic waste containing substances like lead, cadmium, mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has immense potential to cause enormous harm to human health and environment, if not disposed properly since the extant prescriptions for its disposal and safeguard were inadequate. Conscious of the prevalent uncertainties regarding when, where, and how to dispose hazardous, harmful E-waste, the role of informal sector in the process and the necessity of introducing a comprehensive framework early Methods of disposal 1 Landfill Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying the waste, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Landfills were often established in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. Older, poorly designed or poorly managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental impacts such as wind-blown litter, attraction of vermin, and generation of liquid leach ate. Another common byproduct of landfills is gas (mostly composed of methane and carbon dioxide), which is produced as organic waste breaks down an aerobically. This gas can create odor problems, kill surface vegetation, and is a greenhouse gas. Design characteristics of a modern landfill include methods to contain leach ate such as clay or plastic lining material. Deposited waste is normally compacted to increase its density and stability, and covered to prevent attracting vermin (such as mice or rats). Many landfills also have landfill gas extraction systems installed to extract the landfill gas. Gas is pumped out of the

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landfill using perforated pipes and flared off or burnt in a gas engine to generate electricity. 2 Incinerations Incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. This method is useful for disposal of residue of both solid waste management and solid residue from waste water management. This process reduces the volumes of solid waste to 20 to 30 percent of the original volume. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam and ash. Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals and on a large scale by industry. It is used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. It is recognized as a practical method of disposing of certain hazardous waste materials (such as biological medical waste). Incineration is a controversial method of waste disposal, due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants. Energy recovery The energy content of waste products can be harnessed directly by using them as a direct combustion fuel, or indirectly by processing them into another type of fuel. Thermal treatment ranges from using waste as a fuel source for cooking or heating and the use of the gas fuel (see above), to fuel for boilers to generate steam and electricity in a turbine. Pyrolysis and gasification are two related forms of thermal treatment where waste materials are heated to high temperatures with limited oxygen availability. The process usually occurs in a sealed vessel under high pressure. Pyrolysis of solid waste converts the material into solid, liquid and gas products. The liquid and gas can be burnt to produce energy or refined into other chemical products (chemical refinery). The solid residue (char) can be further refined into products such as activated carbon. Gasification and advanced Plasma arc gasification are used to convert organic materials directly into a synthetic gas (syngas) composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The gas is then burnt to produce electricity and steam. An alternative to pyrolisis is high temperature and pressure supercritical water decomposition (hydrothermal monophasic oxidation). 3 Resource Recovery Resource recovery (as opposed to waste management) uses LCA (life cycle analysis) attempts to offer alternatives to waste management. For mixed MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) a number of broad studies have indicated that administration, source separation and collection followed by reuse and recycling of the non-organic fraction and energy and compost/fertilizer production of the organic waste fraction via anaerobic digestion to be the favored path.

An important method of waste management is the prevention of waste material being created, also known as waste reduction. Methods of avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of buying new, designing products to be refillable or reusable (such as cotton instead of plastic shopping bags), encouraging consumers to avoid using disposable products (such as disposable cutlery), removing any food/liquid remains from cans, packaging, and designing products that use less material to achieve the same purpose (for example, light weighting of beverage cans).

Waste management concepts Waste hierarchy - The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms of waste minimization. The waste hierarchy remains the cornerstone of most waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste see:

1 Reduce-Waste minimization is the process and the policy of reducing the amount of waste produced by a person or a society. Waste minimization involves efforts to minimize resource and energy use during manufacture. For the same commercial output, usually the fewer materials are used, the less waste is produced. Waste minimization usually requires knowledge of the production process, cradle-to-grave analysis (the tracking of materials from their extraction to their return to earth) and detailed knowledge of the composition of the waste. In the waste hierarchy, the most effective approaches to managing waste are at the top. In contrast to waste minimization, waste management focuses on processing waste after it is created, concentrating on re-use, recycling, and waste-to-energy conversion. 2 Reuse- To reuse is to use an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same function and new-life reuse where it is used for a different function. In contrast, recycling is the breaking down of the used item into raw materials which are used to make new items. By

4 Avoidance and reduction methods

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taking useful products and exchanging those, without reprocessing, reuse help save time, money, energy, and resources. In broader economic terms, reuse offers quality products to people and organizations with limited means, while generating jobs and business activity that contribute to the economy. Historically, finance was one of the main drivers of reuse. In the developing world this driver can lead to very high levels of reuse, however rising wages and consequent consumer demand for the convenience of disposable products has made the reuse of low value items such as packaging uneconomic in richer countries, leading to the demise of many reuse programs. Current environmental awareness is gradually changing attitudes and regulations, such as the new packaging regulations, are gradually beginning to reverse the situation. 3 Recycling- is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from land filling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production. Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" hierarchy. Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. Although similar in effect, the composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste such as food or garden waste is not typically considered recycling. Materials to be recycled are either brought to a collection center or picked up from the curbside, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials bound for manufacturing. In the strictest sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same materialfor example; used office paper would be converted into new office paper, or used foamed polystyrene into new polystyrene. However, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so "recycling" of many products or materials involve their reuse in producing different materials (e.g., paperboard) instead. Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from complex products, either due to their intrinsic value (e.g., lead from car batteries, or gold from computer components), or due to their hazardous nature (e.g., removal and reuse of mercury from various items). Critics dispute the net economic and environmental benefits of recycling over its costs, and suggest that proponents of recycling often make matters worse and suffer from confirmation bias. Specifically, critics argue that the costs and energy used in collection and transportation detract from (and outweigh) the costs and energy saved in the production process; also that the jobs produced by the recycling industry can be a poor trade for the jobs lost in logging, mining, and other industries associated with virgin production; and that materials such as paper pulp can only be recycled a few times before material degradation prevents further recycling. Proponents of recycling dispute each of these claims, and the

validity of arguments from both sides has led to enduring controversy. Waste Management Policy Broadly, the report and rules recommend, as an ideal scenario to be achieved, the keeping of source separated waste until the time for daily doorstep collection of wet food wastes. Dry recyclables are to be left to the existing informal sector. Doorstep collection of wet food wastes is to be done in 4 -6bucket carts which are emptied directly into trucks, to avoid double handling of waste. This biodegradable waste is to be composted and only compost rejects and inert (construction) waste is to be land filled. The MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) enacted an umbrella act i.e., the Environment (Protection) Act in 1986. Subsequent to this Act, in order to prevent indiscriminate disposal of hazardous waste, the MoEF promulgated the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules in 1989, and efforts to inventorise hazardous waste generation were initiated. There are some ISO standards relating to recycling such as ISO 15270:2008 for plastics waste and ISO 14001:2004 for environmental management control of recycling practice. Conclusion Unrecycled waste quantities in developing countries are increasing exponentially. Calling a material recyclable is meaningless unless recycling is actually done. Thin plastic bags and PET bottles of mineral water and soft drinks clog Indias drains and sewers. It also causes monsoon flooding, littering of the landscape, and affects water percolation and seed germination. Tetra packs are made into hardboard in dozens of countries, but not in India. Styrofoam continues to be used for shipping goods though it is banned elsewhere. No world class recycling technology has yet come to India because it still has no laws enacted to require this. It is a moral tragedy that in most developing countries, many multi-national corporations use cheap and dirty practices that their home countries stopped tolerating over a decade ago. Indias cities are still a long way from achieving this goal everywhere, but there is a great effort in many places to put in place one or more of these systems.

References
[1]http://www.environment.tn.nic.in/SoE/images/WasteManagement.pdf [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Management,_Inc [3] http://parisara.kar.nic.in/pdf/WasteMgmt.pdf [4]http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalCODE=ijewm [5] http://www.skgsangha.org/index01.html

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