WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste management is the process of treating solid

wastes and offers variety of solutions for recycling
items that don’t belong to trash. It is about how
garbage can be used as a valuable resource. Waste
management is something that each and every
household and business owner in the world needs.
Waste management disposes of the products and
substances that you have use in a safe and efficient
manner.
Early Concepts of Waste Disposal
As industrial and urban areas expanded, the concept became
“concentrate and contain”Containment not always
achieved.Containers leak or break and allow waste to escape.People
are facing a serious solid-waste disposal problem.We are producing a
great deal of waste and the acceptable space for permanent disposal is
limited.Difficult to site new landfills (NIMBY).
Modern Trends
Environmentally correct concept is to consider wastes as resources
out of place.Waste would be a resource to be used again.Referred
to as the “zero waste” movement.Industrial ecologyStudy of
relationships among industrial systems and their links to natural
systems.Waste from one part of the system would be a resource for
another part.

5Modern Trends Countries have moved to cut waste by imposing

taxes.
Taxation of waste in all its various forms, from emissions from
smokestacks to solids delivered to landfills.As taxes increase
people produce less waste.Landfills produce methane gas which
can be burned as fuel.
8Integrated Waste Management
A set of management alternatives that includes:ReuseSource
reductionRecyclingCompostingLandfillIncineration

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Ultimate objective of the three R’s is to reduce.Study of the waste
stream in areas that utilize IWM technology suggests that the amount
of refuse disposed of in landfills or incinerated can be reduced by at
least 50%Reduction facilitated byBetter design of packaging to reduce
waste, an element of source reduction (10% reduction).Large-scale
composting programs (10% reduction).Establishment of recycling
programs (30% reduction).

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Recycling is a major player in the reduction of urban waste
stream.Estimated that as much as 80-90% of the US waste stream
might be recovered through intense recycling.Partial recycling can
provide a significant reduction ~50%.Simplified by single stream
recycling
stream recycling.
12 Public Support for Recycling
Encouraging signsAn increase in the willingness of industry and
business to support recycling on a variety of scales.People are now
more likely to purchase products that can be recycled or that come in
containers that are more easily recycled or composted.
13 Markets for Recycled Products
In communities where recycling has been successfully implemented,
it has resulted in glutted markets for the recycled products.If
recycling is to be successful,markets and processing facilities will
also have to be developed to ensure that recycling is a sound
financial venture.
14 Recycling of Human Waste
The use of human waste or “night soil” on croplands is an ancient
practice.Early uses of human waste for agriculture occasionally
spread infectious diseases.One of the major problems of recycling
human waste today is that thousands of chemicals and metals flow
through our waste stream.Because many toxic materials are likely
to be present with the waste, we must be very skeptical of utilizing
sewage sludge for land application.
15 Materials Management
Futuristic waste management has the goal of zero production of
waste.Consistent with the ideals of industrial ecology.Goal will require
more sustainable use of materials combined with resource conservation
in what is being termed materials management.

16 Materials Management The goal could be pursued in the

following ways:
Eliminate subsidies for extraction of virgin materials.Establish “green
building” incentives that encourage the use of recycled-content materials
and products in new construction.Assess financial penalties for
production that uses negative materials management practices.
1
Materials ManagementProvide financial incentives for industrial
practices and products that benefit the environment by enhancing
sustainability.Increase the number of new jobs in the technology of reuse
and recycling of resources.
Solid-Waste Management
Continues to be a problem in many parts of the world.Many practices
inadequate.Open dumps, illegal roadside dumpingSocial problem as
much as a physical one, because many people are simply disposing of
their waste as inexpensively and as quickly as possible.
19 Composition of Solid Waste
Paper is by far the most abundant content.Excavations into modern
landfills using archeological tools have cleared up some misconceptions
concerning other items.Fast-food packaging accounts for about 0.25% of
the average landfillDisposable diapers, approximately 0.8%Polystyrene
products, about 0.9%
21 On-Site DisposalA common on-site disposal method in urban areas is
the mechanical grinding of kitchen food waste.Garbage-disposal devices
are installed at the kitchen sink, and the garbage is ground and flushed
into the sewer system.
22 CompostingBiochemical process in which organic materials
decompose to a rich, soil-like material.The process involves rapid partial
decomposition of moist solid organic waste by aerobic organisms.As a
waste management option, large-scale composting is generally carried
out in the controlled environment of mechanical digesters.
IncinerationCombustible waste is burned at temperatures high enough
(900°–1,000°C, or 1,650°–1,830°F) to consume all combustible
material.Leaving only ash and non-combustibles to dispose of in a
landfill.Process of incineration can be used to supplement other fuels and
generate electrical power.In modern incineration facilities, smokestacks
are fitted with special devices to trap pollutants.

24 Open DumpsIn the past, solid waste was often disposed of in open
dumps, where the refuse was piled up without being covered or otherwise
protected.Located wherever land is available, without regard to safety,
health hazards, or aesthetic degradation.Common sitesAbandoned mines
and quarries, natural low areas, such as swamps or floodplains; and
hillside areas above or below towns.
Sanitary LandfillsDesigned to concentrate and contain refuse w/o
creating a nuisance or hazard to public health or safety.Confined
to the smallest practical areaReduced to the smallest practical
volumeCovered with a layer of compacted soil at the end of each
day of operation.

27 LeachateThe most significant hazard from a sanitary landfill is

pollution of groundwater or surface water.If waste comes into
contact with water, leachate is produced.noxious, mineralized
liquid capable of transporting bacterial pollutants