Solid Waste Management

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.

TYPES OF SOLID WASTES

Garbage: Putrescible wastes eg. Food Rubbish: Non-putrescible eg: paper, wood, metals Ashes: fly ash, waste after incineration Large wastes: construction waste, masonry waste Industrial solid wastes: chemicals Dead animals: household pets Agricultural wastes: crop residues, farm waste Sewage: sludge

Garbage: the four broad categories

Organic waste: kitchen waste, vegetables, flowers, leaves, fruits. Toxic waste: old medicines, paints, chemicals, bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish. Recyclable: paper, glass, metals, plastics. Soiled: hospital waste such as cloth soiled with blood and other body fluids.

Hazardous waste
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.

 India generates around 7 million tonnes of hazardous wastes every year, most of which is concentrated in four states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. Household waste 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.

 Most hospitals in India do not have proper disposal facilities for these hazardous wastes. 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.

Hospital waste
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. It has been roughly estimated that of the 4 kg of waste generated in a hospital at least 1 kg would be infected.

 After the notification of the Bio-medical Waste (Handling and Management) Rules, 1998, establishments are slowly streamlining the process of waste segregation, collection, treatment, and disposal. Many of the larger hospitals have either installed the treatment facilities or are in the process

 Domestic & Municipal sewage contains microorganisms which disposed off into soil enter food chain and causes diseases Addition of sludge in fields affects soil fertility Sewage irrigation also leads to lowered soil fertility and disturbs the chemical characteristics of soil. Sewage irrigation alters the C:N ratio, affects the soil permeability, soil pH, CEC and HUMUS CONTENT, salt content and availability of nutrients. Leads to sewage sickness: Refers to the unsuitable conditions brought about in soils by the use of excessive quantities of sewage. It is more related to gross water logging conditions in soil. This leads to low O2/air , leading to suppressed microbial growth, affecting soil fertility.

CONTROL OF LAND POLLUTION

Soil pollutants should be collected at source and disposed off. Limit the use of pesticides in fields and fertilizers Industrial effluents be treated through waste treatment technologies Recycling of waste Animal waste like cattle dung, farm waste be utilized in fuel generation like biogas Microbial degradation of waste: another alternative

SOILD WASTE MANAGEMENT

1. 2. 3. 4. Minimized Usage Judicious disposal Reuse Recycling

SOIL TREATMENT
Extraction & Separation Techniques Contaminated Soil is mixed with an extracting agent (acidic/basic solution) for removal of metals, hydrocarbons Applicable for soil, where contamination is present in the finer/coarser fractions of the soil, or the organic component eg. Humus. Thermal Treatment of the soil: Removal of the contaminants by evaporation either by heat treatment or by open furnace Destruction of the contaminants by direct or indirect exposure of soil to an appropriate temperature Steam stripping is followed for treating volatile contaminants: Steam is injected into soil to aid evoporation of volatile components. Ex. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, cyanides conti

SOIL TREATMENT
Chemical Treatment Treatment of the soil in suspension in a suitable liquid, eg. Cyanide may be oxidized to CNO or hydrolyzed to CO2 Without slurrying & long time contact between the soil and the chemical contaminant. Microbial Treatment Microbes are released in the soil which are capable of degrading the contaminant. Excavation of soil is a also practised in some cases. A community of microbes already existing on the site is collected and cultured in the laboratory Strains of microbes are developed that are capable of metabolizing particular chemicals. Very promising technique for organic contaminants. Ex. Phenols, polychlorinrted Hc, oil and oil products, dioxins.

SOIL TREATMENT
Stabilization/Solidification processess Used to physically or chemically eliminate or reduce the hazardous nature of the soil contaminant. The reduction in the mobility or leachability of contaminants can be achieved by: A chemical reaction to form practically insoluble compounds Isolating contaminants from water by adding hydrophobic compunds Adding chemicals to fixate water and reduce micro leachability Vitrification. Control of pH to minimize solubility

SOIL TREATMENT
In situ treatment Contaminated soil is treated to remove, destroy or fix the contaminants without excavation. Application of lime to raise the pH of soils containing elements such as Cd Deep ploughing to invert the top layer of the soil Leaching with water or chemical solution

SOIL TREATMENT
Leaching with water or chemical solution Proper contact between treatment agent and the soil. Neutralization, precipitation, oxidation, reduction and ion exchange can be followed.

Landfills
A landfill s designed as a modular series of 3D control cells. Garbage is sent out in thin layers, compacted and covered with clay or plastic foam. The landfill is covered with impermeable liner of clay, plastic and sand. There is a double liner beneath the wastes. The liner protects the ground water from being contaminated due to percolation of leachate. The upper liner is a flexible membrane lining (FML) of plastic or rubber. The lower liner is clay. When landfill is full it is covered with clay, sand, gravel on the top to prevent seepage. Landfill monitiring is done periodically to prevent ground water contamination. Soil monitoring is done using lysimeters.

Landfills
Methods: Area & trench In an area method, the solid wastes are spread over an area, compacted and then covered with soil or similar materials In trench method, a trench up to 10-15 feet deep and 20 feet wide is dug and the refuse is filled into it, futher compacted, and covered with soil.

Landfills
1. Advantages associated with landfills: Better as compared to open dumps Asthetic Disease spread is minimized as flies, rodents, pests are unable to breed, no health hazard

1. Hazards associated with landfills: Methane, H2S, CO2,generation Leaching into underground water, pollution of ground water Land subsidence

Surface Impoundments
SI are excavated areas used to store liquid or hazardous wastes. They are cheap and the wastes remain accessible allowing treatment during storage also. Treatment technologies in surface impoundments are neutralization, precipitation, settling and biodegradation. DIS: Source of contamination to nearby aquifer.

Incineration
Wastes are subjected to very high temperature burning. By products of incineration are ashes and clinkers. Very effective for organic wastes, not only, in soils, but for other solids, liquids, gases,sludges. Carcinogens, mutagens, & pathological wastes are all completely detoxified in an incinerator. Liquid injection incinerator: For gases, liquids, sluries. Rotatary kiln incinerator: For solids and sludges besides liquids & gases. Disadvantages: Noxious gases, unburned organic compounds, odour, unburnt ash.

Composting
Aerobic method of decomposing solid wastes. Involves the segregation of wastes into organic and inorganic components Bacterial decomposition of organic wastes Results in the formation of compost (humus)

Pyrolysis
Is the use of intense heat to cause chemical changes in the waste but not combustion Solid wastes are heated in a reactor at in absence of oxygen Trash is pyrolysed to generate combustible gases.

Underground injection
Most popular way to dispose of liquid hazardous waste. Hazardous wastes are forced underground through deep injection wells. To assure that the undergound water supplies are not conaminated, injection wells used to dispose off hazardous industrial wastes are required to extend below the lowest formation containing underground sources of drinking water. Injection depth more than 700m below the surface. Disadv: leekage problems.