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Review of Related Literature

I. Definition of Wastes
II. Classification of Wastes
A. Solid Waste
B. Liquid Waste
C. Sludge
D. Hazardous Waste
III. Waste Management
A. Waste Management in Developed Nations
1. Solid Waste
A) Landfills
B) Recycling
C) Incineration
2. Liquid Waste
A) Management Plans
B) Waste Water Treatment Facilities
C) Injection Wells
3. Hazardous Waste
A) Landfill
B) Incineration

B. Waste Management in Developing Nations


1. Solid Waste
A) Landfills
B) Recycling
C) Incineration
2. Liquid Waste
A) Management Plans
B) Waste Water Treatment Facilities
C) Injection Wells
3. Hazardous Waste
A) Landfill
B) Incineration
C. Waste Management: The Philippine Setting
1. Solid Waste Management
2. Liquid Waste Management
3. Hazardous Waste Management
IV. Threats of Improper Waste Management
V. Initiatives for Liquid Waste Management

Review of Related Literature

I. Definition of Wastes

Waste can be described as "any substance or object the holder discards, intends to

discard or is required to discard", as defined by the Waste Framework Directive

(European Directive (WFD) 2006/12/EC), (amended by the new WFD (Directive

2008/98/EC, coming into force in December 2010).

In the Philippines’ Republic Act No. 9275 (An Act Providing For a

Comprehensive Water Quality management and for Other Purposes), waste means “any

material either solid, liquid, semisolid, contained gas or other forms resulting from

industrial, commercial, mining or agricultural operations, or from community and

household activities that is devoid of usage and discarded.”


II. Classification of Wastes

The classification of wastes varies and depends country by country. Waste can be

divided into many different types. The most common method of classification is by their

physical, chemical, and biological characteristics.

1. Solid Waste

Solid waste is broadly defined as including non-hazardous industrial, commercial

and domestic refuse including household organic trash, street sweepings, hospital and

institutional garbage, and construction wastes; generally sludge and human waste are

regarded as a liquid waste problem outside the scope of MSW (Zerbock, 2003).These are

waste materials that contain less than 70% water. Example of this type of waste are the

domestic or household garbage, some industrial wastes, some mining wastes, and oilfield

wastes such as drill cuttings.

2. Liquid Waste

These are usually wastewaters that contain less than 1%. This type of waste may

contain high concentration of dissolved salts and metals. Liquid wastes are often

classified into two broad types: sewage and toxic wastes. Generally, there are various

types of liquid waste generated in urban centers: human excreta, domestics wastes

produced in households, hospital wastes, industrial effluents, agricultural liquid wastes

and nuclear wastes. When improperly handled and disposed of, liquid wastes pose a
serious threat to human health and the environment because of their ability to enter

watersheds, pollute ground water and drinking water (US EPA, 2009).

3. Sludge

It is a class of waste between liquid and solid. They usually contain between 3%

and 25% solid, while the rest of the material is dissolved water.

4. Hazardous Waste

Hazardous wastes are wastes which, by themselves or after coming into contact

with other wastes, have characteristics, such as chemical reactivity, toxicity,

corrosiveness or a tendency to explode, that pose a risk to human health or the

environment. Hazardous wastes are generated from a wide range of industrial,

commercial, agricultural, and to a much less extent, domestic activities. They may take

the form of solids, liquids or sludges, and can pose both acute and chronic public health

and environmental risks.


III. Waste Management

A. Waste Management in Developed Countries

Brought basically by their more developed industries and more advanced

technology, developed nations have more efficient and standard liquid waste

management plans.

Developed countries, however, still employ different methods of waste disposal

(which largely depends on a country’s policies and preferences). The large amount of

solid waste (including its collection, transfer and disposal) generated in developed nations

has been generally assumed by municipal governments. The format varies, however, in

most urban areas, where garbage is collected either by a government agency or private

contractor, and this constitutes a basic and expected government function in the

developed world. (Zerbock, 2003)

1. Solid Waste Management

A) Landfill

The placement of solid waste in landfills is probably the oldest and

definitely the most prevalent form of ultimate garbage disposal (Zerbock,

2003). It is to be noted, however, that most landfills refer to nothing more than

open dumps. Nonetheless, in the case of developed countries, waste disposal

is often in the form of sanitary landfills, which differ from open dumps by

their higher degree of engineering, planning and administration.


Landfills account for the disposal of 90% of the United States’ solid

wastes. It is also the most common disposal method in the United Kingdom

where annually, approximately 111 million tones of controlled wastes are

disposed in their 4000 landfill sites (Baker, 2005).

In a modern landfill, refuse is spread thin, compacted layers covered by a

layer of clean earth. Pollution of surface water and groundwater is minimized

by lining and contouring the fill, compacting and planting the uppermost

cover layer, diverting drainage, and selecting proper soil in sites not subject to

flooding or high groundwater levels. The best soil for a landfill is clay because

clay is less permeable than other types of soil. Materials disposed of in a

landfill can be further secured from leakage by solidifying them in materials

such as cement, fly ash from power plants, asphalt, or organic polymers

(Bassis, 2005)

Landfills can also be shifted to another use after their capacities have been

reached. The city of Evanston, Illinois, built a landfill up into a hill and the

now-complete “Mt. Trashmore” is a ski area. Golf courses built over landfill

sites are also increasingly common (Montgomery, 2000).

B) Recycling or the 3R’s

Another method, which sets off before waste disposal is waste

reduction through recycling or often coined as the 3 R’s: reuse, reduce, and

recycle. On the local or regional level, reducing wastes is accomplished

through these methods by source separation and subsequent material recovery.


Currently, the United States recycles about 10% of its glass and 25%

of its paper wastes; in countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands, the

proportion in the glass recycled approaches to 50% while Japan recycles 50%

of its paper wastes (Montgomery, 2000).

C) Incineration

Some countries, on the other hand, manage most of their solid waste through

incinerators. Incineration, or the controlled burning of waste at high temperatures

to produce steam and ash, is another waste disposal option and an alternative to

landfilling (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2009). Incinerators are

designed for the destruction of wastes and are commonly employed in developed

nations who could afford the costs of the burning facilities, plus its operation and

maintenance (Mc Cracken, 2005).

This type of waste disposal is the second largest disposal method in most

developed countries and ranks next to landfills in the United States and the United

Kingdom. In the UK, approximately 5% of household waste, 75 % of commercial

waste and 2% of industrial waste is disposed of through this method (Baker,

2005)

In spite of its huge capital requirements, incineration presents to be a

promising option for developed island nations whose small land area makes

landfilling an unsuitable method for their waste disposal. Reduction by

incineration, along with sanitary disposal of the residue, has been proven useful in
nations such as Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands (Lettsome 1998 as cited

by Zerbock 2003). A further benefit of incineration can be realized if the heat

generated thereby is recovered. For years, European cities have generated

electricity using waste-disposal incinerators as sources of heat (Montgomery,

2000).

There are negative issues, however, in the use of this burning method and

much of that circulate around its safety for the environment and to the human

health. It is argued that the combustion process creates air pollution, ash, and

waste water, all of which must be properly managed using technical monitoring,

containment, and treatment systems. Harmful pollutants are released into the

environment whenever these by-products are not controlled (US EPA, 2009).

Operators of these facilities must be well-trained and certified to ensure proper

management.

2. Liquid Waste Management

A) Management Plans

Management of liquid waste in developed nations often follows rigorous

steps and phases which commonly involves treatment processes. In British

Columbia, municipalities are allowed to develop their Liquid Waste

Management Plans. The country adopts a proactive strategy that intends to

achieve their Ministry of Environment’s long-term goal of achieving zero

pollution. Part of that strategy includes: pollution prevention, Best Available

Control Technology (BACT) and the principle of polluter pay. This strategy

represents a major change in the traditional regulatory approach to


environmental protection, which attempted to deal with pollution after it

occurred. The future emphasis will be on pollution prevention and on

involving all stakeholders in an open and consultative approach to

environmental protection (Environmental Protection Division, Ministry of

Environment, Government of British Columbia, 2009).\

B) Wastewater Treatment

The strategy employed by the government of British Columbia combines a

number of processes and programs to achieve zero pollution. However, when

it comes to liquid waste management, the simplest approach is to control the

quality of wastewater at its point of treatment and discharge. This places

regulation and control at the institutional level as treatment is normally

conducted by a public agency. The quality of the discharge can then be

regulated to fit the type of use. This alternative assumes that the treatment

system is well managed and maintained and produces a reliable quality of

effluent. This approach is utilized in the United States, Canada, and Europe

and in many cases requires an advanced level of treatment technology

( Zerbock, 2003).

C) Injection wells

In the USA, industrial wastes that are primarily liquid are usually disposed

of in injection wells. Injection wells receiving aqueous wastes can be placed

in highly permeable, underground geological formations. These formations


are well below 1000 m underground, which is lower than the depth of most

aquifers used as sources of drinking water. Before injection, liquid wastes are

filtered to remove suspended solids and skimmed for phased organic

compounds. Filtration prevents the plugging of the injection formation. If the

waste is reactive, it is converted to less reactive compounds before injection.

3. Hazardous Waste Management

Much of the concern of many countries regarding their waste management

circulates around the disposal of hazardous wastes. Due to their toxicity and large

threat to human and environment health, this type of waste requires more

stringent and sophisticated methods of disposal.

Basically, the United States’s federal regulations classify their waste into

two types: hazardous and solid. In 1976, congress adopted the Resource

Conservation and Recovery Act, the primary national law for addressing

production waste (waste generated in the course of ongoing activity or business).

In such act, the term ‘solid’ does not necessarily refer to a waste’s physical

property and thus the waste can also be a liquid or a contained gas (National

Society of Professional Engineers, USA, 2009). The RCRA provides a stringent

classification of hazardous wastes and the necessary treatment that such wastes

should undergo. Under the law, a ‘comprehensive national “cradle-to-grave”

program for regulating the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and

disposal of hazardous wastes is established. Such program includes a system for

tracking the wastes’ point sources and point of disposal, and a permitting system
to control the operation of treatment, storage and disposal facilities (US

Environmental Protection Agency).

B. Waste Management in Developing Countries

Although largely limited in terms of budget and technology as compared to the

developed nations, developing countries also take their share in implementing waste

management policies.

1. Solid Waste Management

In developing countries, it is common for municipalities to spend 20-

50 percent of their available recurrent budget on solid waste management.

Yet, it is also common that 30-60 percent of all the urban solid waste in

developing countries is uncollected and less than 50 percent of the

population is served. In some cases, as much as 80 percent of the

collection and transport equipment is out of service, in need of repair or

maintenance. In most developing countries, open dumping with open

burning is the norm (The World Bank, 2009).

A) Open Dumps

Dumps are long-established method of waste disposal in many

countries. Although this method have been largely phased-out in most

developed countries and replaced by sanitary landfills, many developing

nations still rely on this form of disposal. Open dumps are not much to be

endorsed though. They are unsightly, unsanitary and generally smelly,

they attract rats, insects and other pests; they are also fire hazards.
Still, behind these negative aspects, open dumps continue to be

prevalent in countries like India, the Philippines and Indonesia.

B) Landfill is also a common method of solid waste disposal in most

developing countries, although many of them harbors open dumps.

C) Recycling

In many developing countries and countries with economies in

transition there are two types of recycling sectors, a formal sector and

informal sector. Formal recycling sector, using efficient technologies

and state-of-the-art recycling facilities are rare. As a result, recyclable

materials are managed through various informal sectors with low-end

management alternatives such as manual separation of recyclable

components, burning of some components in open pits to recover

precious metals, and dumping of residues into surface water bodies.

This informal sector of the economy employs thousands of poor

people who are not aware of the hazard of exposure or hazards that

exist in some recyclable materials (Basel Convention Report Paper,

2009).

2. Liquid Waste Management

In spite of the continuing efforts of many developing nations to

cope with the standards of the developed nations, finance and technology

plus policies still put limit to what they have generally achieved.
According to the World Resources Institute, it has been estimated that

over 90% of the sewage in developing countries is discharged into surface

waters with no treatment conducted. In India, with its 3,100plus cities and

towns, only 209 have even partial sewage treatment (Montgomery, 2000).

4. Hazardous Waste Management

In many countries, current emphasis is more on preventing and

minimizing the production of hazardous wastes by adopting the ‘pollution

prevention hierarchy’.

There are several problems that could be associated with poor

disposal techniques and management. One of these problems could be the

fact that many developing countries and countries with economies in

transition do not have the expertise to manage hazardous wastes in an

environmentally sound manner, and most may not employ proper

technologies. Furthermore, many of these countries may not have a system

and infrastructure to ensure that hazardous wastes are managed in a

manner which will protect human health and the environment against the

adverse effects which may result from such wastes. The governments

often lack information about how much and what types of pollutants are

released, and what risk they pose to people and the environment (Basel

Convention Paper, 2009).


C. Waste Management: The Philippine Setting

1. Philippine Solid Waste Management

In our country, solid waste management is embodied in RA 9003 or the

Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. This law provides “the legal

framework for the country’s systematic, comprehensive and ecological solid

waste management program that shall ensure protection of public health and the

environment” (Environmental Management Bureau-DENR, 2009).

2. Philippine Liquid Waste Management

In the Philippine setting, disposal of wastewater is turning to be an

enormous challenge. This is the concern of NEDA Board Resolution No. 5, series

of 1994 which stated the national policy for urban sewerage and sanitation

(Magtibay, 2006). The management of liquid wastes requires a coordinated

system of policies which covers requisites on drainage, sewers, and wastewater

treatment facilities. It is also a complex issue as it traverses across various sectors:

domestic, industrial, agricultural, etc.

Unfortunately, with the current situation of the country, with its political

clashes and poverty situation, liquid waste management had largely been centered

only in the private sectors (Contreras, 2005). Treatments are largely carried out by
industrial groups. Effective domestic liquid waste management occurs mostly in

private households.

In this area, policies once again govern the actions of the concerned

agencies. The treatment and discharge of commercial wastewater (liquid waste

generated by trading or business establishment and or any other related firms or

companies) is regulated and monitored through the provisions of the DENR

Administrative Order No. 2002-16 or the DENR-EMB National Environmental

User’s Fee of 2002, which authors the DENR Wastewater Discharge Permitting

System.

5. Philippine Hazardous Waste Management

Before the enactment of the Clean Air Act (which included in its

provisions the banning of incinerators in the country), hazardous wastes such as

medical and laboratory wastes are subjected to burning processes. Some of the

wastes are also recycled. In 2003, hazardous waste management shifted to land

fills and open dumping as an answer to the banning of burning. In a case study

conducted in hospitals in the Cagayan Valley Region, Northern Luzon, the most

common method of hazardous waste disposal in the area is through dumping.

Results indicated that proper waste management is not fully implemented due to

budget constraint (Bernardo, 2008).


D. Threats and Impacts of Improper Waste Management

With the increase of population comes too the increase in consumption, and

consequently, in the amount of wastes we generate. Through time, problems resulting

from improper and irresponsible management of our wastes have arisen and continue

to do so. Human and ecosystem health can be adversely affected by all forms of

waste, from its generation to its disposal. Over the years, wastes and waste

management responses such as policies, legal, financial, and institutional instruments;

cradle-to-cradle or cradle-to-grave technological options; and socio-cultural practices

have impacted on ecosystem health and human well-being.

Examples are evident in all countries.

A popular example of how improper waste management and lack of coordination

in policies can bring huge environmental and human impacts is the “Love Canal

Incident”. The Love Canal is an area situated at Niagara Falls, New York. In 1953,

the Hooker Chemical Company, then the owners and operators of the property,

covered the canal with earth and sold it to the city for one dollar. In the late '50s,

about 100 homes and a school were built at the site. Twenty five years after the

Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal as an industrial dump, 82

different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have been percolating

upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into

the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of
the canal. What followed was a catastrophe that caused several deaths, birth defects

and abnormalities, lawsuits and ultimately, the evacuation of the residents.

Locally, here in the Philippines, the 2001 Smoky Mountain tragedy in the Payatas

Dumpsite is a constant reminder of how disastrous the country’s waste management

has been regarding the case of that open dumpsite. The collapse of that “mountain of

trash” due to the severe rainfall had claimed the lives of many people, both young and

old.

Aside from such disaster caused by the irresponsible management of a former

dumping site, wastewater discharges, as shown by studies, can also bring harmful

impacts to coastal areas and other bodies of water.

In Fiji Island, for example, it has been concluded that the disposal of untreated

human and domestic waste has been the major contributor to the degradation of the

island’s marine environment. Development to the island had brought a shift in species

dominance from hard coral to macro-algae (Mosley and Aalbersberg, 2005 as cited in

the 2005 WHO Liquid Waste Monitoring Project).

There is also no need to mention the numerous incidences of mine tail deposits

and radioactive discharges in many rivers, lakes and shores that have undoubtedly

caused detrimental effects to marine and even human life.

The list goes on and on.


VII. Initiatives for Liquid Waste Management

Waste management practices and policies over the last three decade have resulted in

positive responses in terms of improvement of ecosystems. Some positive impacts of the

responses identified are: (Information lifted from Sridhar and Baker, 2004)

• Waste recycling activities have been found to result in improved resource conservation and

reduced energy consumption as well as reduction of heavy metal contamination of water sources.

• In the Baltic Sea, the mercury levels of fish caught were reduced by 60% due to stringent

pollution control measures.

• Major rivers such as the Thames have supported biodiversity, as is evident from the

reappearance of salmon after rigorous pollution control measures. The ten-year ‘‘clean river’’

program initiated by the Singapore government in 1977 at a cost of US $200 million has brought

life back to the Singapore River and the Kallang Basin, with increased dissolved oxygen levels

ranging from 2 to 4 mg per liter (UNEP 1997).

• Phasing out of lead from gasoline has reduced lead emissions from vehicular sources.

• Wetlands have been widely reported to absorb significant amounts of anthropogenic pollutants.

• Ferti-irrigation practices have significantly improved the economic base of low- income

communities in urban areas. In the tropical countries in particular, controlled and judicious use of

aquatic weeds such as water hyacinth (water hyacinth treatment plant for wastewater) and blue

green algae (waste stabilization ponds) for treating small wastewater flows helped in improving

environmental sanitation and the by-products provided protein and mineral needs of livestock.

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