What is solid waste?

From ancient time, waste has remained an inseparable part of the human society. The rapid population growth,
growing urbanisation and proliferation of slums are all contributing to the generation of an ever increasing
volume of garbage. The increasing pile of garbage has created health hazard and environmental problem.
Types of solid waste
Solid waste can be classified into different types depending on their source:
a) Household waste is generally classified as municipal waste,
b) Industrial waste as hazardous waste, and
c) Biomedical waste or hospital waste as infectious waste.

Municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste consists of household waste, construction and demolition debris, sanitation residue, and
waste from streets. This garbage is generated mainly from residential and commercial complexes. With rising
urbanization and change in lifestyle and food habits, the amount of municipal solid waste has been increasing
rapidly and its composition changing.

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 biologicals. 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.
During 1993 - 94, a survey was carried out in Guwahati, being the gateway of North- East India where
attraction of lot of people to different parts of the country creates generation of wastes of different categories
from household to commercial to study the aspects of Municipal solid waste management (MSW) and the
associated problems along with the generation pattern, quality and quantity. This study on MSW was made for
a period of one year covering three seasons - winter, pre-monsoon and monsoon.
Storage of waste in community bins is found to be unsatisfactory in the whole city as people are often reluctant
to walk to the community bins and therefore dump the waste on side walks, streets or open drains. This
creates unhygienic condition in the locality and also creates problems for the Municipality Office to collect the
waste for transportation. Lack of proper drainage facility and the large scale built up areas within the city
leading to substantial increase in waste generation and flow of water and reduction in low lying areas within
and around the city affecting the holding capacity or dumping of the drainage flow. In Guwahati, there is no
mechanised recovery and recycling of solid waste, the manual recovery by individual scavengers at the city
bins are carried out as well as at the dumping sites also.
Hospital waste is not segregated and in the study it is found that three hospitals viz., Wintrobe, Down Town and
Neurological Research Centre in the city, has adopted incinerator for disposal of hospital waste. In Down Town
Hospital, the incinerator is used for providing hot water to the bathrooms during the morning and evening
hours. Water collected in storage tanks is passed through the incinerator through pipes, which are connected,
to the bathroom. The incinerator ash produced is disposed in a small dumping ground near Super Market. The
kind of wastes fed into the incinerators are used cotton, bandages, disposable syringes, papers and other items
including saline pipes. The incinerator in Wintrobe Hospital is not used for any other purpose other than
burning the hospital waste. But there was no specific arrangement for disposing off the ash, as found in the
survey.

Industrial and hospital waste is considered hazardous as they may contain toxic substances. Certain types of
household waste are also hazardous. Hazardous wastes could be highly toxic to humans, animals, and plants;
are corrosive, highly inflammable, or explosive; and react when exposed to certain things e.g. gases.
Household wastes that can be categorized as hazardous waste include old batteries, shoe polish, paint tins, old
medicines, and medicine bottles. Hospital waste contaminated by chemicals used in hospitals is considered
hazardous. These chemicals include formaldehyde and phenols, which are used as disinfectants, and mercury,
which is used in thermometers or equipment that measure blood pressure.
In the industrial sector, the major generators of hazardous waste are the metal, chemical, paper, pesticide,
dye, refining, and rubber goods industries. Direct exposure to chemicals in hazardous waste such as mercury
and cyanide can be fatal.