Waste

Management
GENERAL SCIENCE AND ABILITY BY
MIAN SHAFIQ

What are Wastes?

Waste (also known as rubbish, trash, refuse, garbage, junk,
litter, and ort) is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste
is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled
from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea and sweat.

Basel Convention Definition of Wastes

substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to
be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions
of the law
Disposal means
any operation which may lead to resource recovery, recycling,
reclamation, direct re-use or alternative uses (Annex IVB of the
Basel convention)

Kinds of Wastes
Solid wastes:

wastes in solid forms, domestic,

commercial and industrial wastes
Examples:
plastics, styrofoam containers, bottles,
cans, papers, scrap iron, and other trash

Liquid Wastes: wastes in liquid form

Examples: domestic washings, chemicals, oils, waste
water from ponds, manufacturing industries
and other
sources

According to EPA regulations,

SOLID WASTE is
Any garbage or refuse (Municipal Solid
Waste)
Sludge from a wastewater treatment
plant, water supply treatment plant, or air
pollution control facility
Other discarded material
Solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained
gaseous material from industrial,
commercial, mining, and agricultural
operations, and from community activities

Classification of
Wastes according to
their Properties
Bio-degradable
can be degraded (paper, wood, fruits and others)

Non-biodegradable
cannot be degraded (plastics, bottles, old
machines,cans, styrofoam containers and others)

Classification of Wastes according

to
their Effects on Human Health and
the Environment

Hazardous wastes

Substances
unsafe
to
use
commercially,
industrially, agriculturally, or economically and
have any of the following properties- ignitability,
corrosivity, reactivity & toxicity.

Non-hazardous
Substances safe to use commercially, industrially,
agriculturally, or economically and do not have any
of those properties mentioned above. These
substances usually create disposal problems.

Classification of wastes according to

their origin and type
Municipal Solid wastes: Solid wastes that include household
garbage, rubbish, construction & demolition debris, sanitation
residues, packaging materials, trade refuges etc. are managed by any
municipality.
Bio-medical wastes: Solid or liquid wastes including containers,
intermediate or end products generated during diagnosis, treatment &
research activities of medical sciences.
Industrial wastes: Liquid and solid wastes that are generated by
manufacturing & processing units of various industries like chemical,
petroleum, coal, metal gas, sanitary & paper etc.
Agricultural wastes: Wastes generated from farming activities.
These substances are mostly biodegradable.
Fishery wastes: Wastes generated due to fishery activities. These
are extensively found in coastal & estuarine areas.
Radioactive wastes: Waste containing radioactive materials. Usually
these are byproducts of nuclear processes. Sometimes industries that
are not directly involved in nuclear activities, may also produce some
radioactive wastes, e.g. radio-isotopes, chemical sludge etc.
E-wastes: Electronic wastes generated from any modern
establishments. They may be described as discarded electrical or
electronic devices.

Sources of Wastes
Households

Commerce and
Industry

MAGNITUDE OF PROBLEM:
Pakistani scenario
The Ministry of Environment, Government of
Pakistan undertook a study during 1996 titled
Data Collection for Preparation of National
Study
on
Privatization
of
Solid
Waste
Management in Eight Selected Cities of
Pakistan.
The study revealed that the rate of waste
generation on average from all type of
municipal controlled areas varies from 0.283
kg/capita/day to 0.613 kg/capita/day or from
1.896 kg/house/day to 4.29 kg/house/day in all
the selected cities.

IMPACTS OF WASTE IF NOT MANAGED WISELY

Affects
Affects
Affects
Affects

our
our
our
our

health
socio-economic conditions
coastal and marine environment
climate

GHGs are accumulating in Earths atmosphere as a

result of human activities, causing global mean surface
air temperature and
subsurface ocean temperature
to rise.
Rising global temperatures are expected to raise sea
levels and change precipitation and other local climate
conditions.
Changing regional climates could alter forests, crop
yields, and water supplies.
This could also affect human health, animals, and many
types of ecosystems.
Deserts might expand into existing rangelands, and

Impacts of waste on
health
Chemical poisoning through chemical inhalation
Uncollected waste can obstruct the storm water runoff
resulting in flood
Low birth weight
Cancer
Congenital malformations
Neurological disease

Nausea and vomiting

Increase in hospitalization of diabetic residents
living near hazard waste sites.
Mercury toxicity from eating fish with high levels of
mercury.

Waste hierarchy

Waste

Useful options
Resource
recovery

Energy recovery

Composting

Pyrolysis

Vermicompostin
g

Incineration
Gasification
Bio-methanation
or anaerobic
digestion

Landfills

In modern sanitary landfills, waste is buried or piled up so as to

avoid contamination of the environment.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) specifies

guidelines for how waste should be added to a landfill.

Sanitary landfill

Drawbacks of landfills
Leachate will likely escape even from well-lined
landfills.
Dry conditions to combat leachate slow bacterial
decomposition: trade-of
Finding sites is difficult: NIMBY opposition
"not in my backyard"opposition

Landfills
Garbologist William
Rathje does
archaeology in
landfills to document
our consumption and
waste patterns.

Hes found:
Trash rots VERY slowly in landfills.
Paper products take up 40% of landfill space.
Plastic packaging is overrated as a waste problem.

Incineration
A controlled process of burning mixed solid waste at
extremely high temperatures
Reduces volume by 90%
Remaining ash disposed of at landfill
Better than open-air burning, but
can create new chemical compounds and emit toxic
chemicals from the stacks
Popular opposition to incinerators because of pollution

Waste to energy
Many incinerators now generate electricity from waste
combustion.
Waste to energy (WTE) facilities use heat from furnaces to
boil water. Steam turns turbines and generators.

WTE is efficient and effective, but income from power is low

and expense is high, so it takes many years to recoup the
investment.

WTE incineration

Energy from landfills

Landfills can harness energy, too.
Bacterial decomposition inside landfills produces methane,
the main component of natural gas.
By collecting landfill gas:

Landfills can make extra money

Fuel is made available

Greenhouse gas methane is prevented from reaching

atmosphere

Reduction is better
than disposal
Source reduction, or preventing waste in the first place, is a
better option than disposal.
Personal/consumer behavior:
Use fewer items
Buy less-packaged and longer-lived goods
Reuse items

Manufacturer behavior:
Make goods with less packaging
Make longer-lived goods
Adopt more-efficient production methods

Reuse
Reusing items is a powerful way to reduce ones
waste.

There are simple ways to do this:

Buy used clothing, and donate used clothing
Bring your own cloth bags to grocery stores
Bring your own coffee mug to coffee shops

Composting
The conversion of organic waste into mulch or
humus by encouraging natural processes of
decomposition

Reduces a homes waste stream

Produces great soil for gardening

Many communities now have municipally run

composting programs.

Recycling
Consists of three steps:

Recycling
Collecting materials that can be broken down and
reprocessed in order to manufacture new items
Diverts ~55 million tons of materials away from
disposal each year
Items are taken to materials recovery facilities
(MRFs), where workers prepare them for
reprocessing.
Once readied, these materials are used in
manufacturing new goods.

Recycling
For recycling to work, consumers must buy goods made
from recycled materials:
Many paper products
Many glass and metal products
Some plastic products
Glassphalt for paving
City park benches, etc.
Pages of our textbook

Recycling rates

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Donate/Exchange
- old books
- old clothes
- old computers
- excess building materials
- old equipment to local
organizations

Hazardous waste
Waste that poses a potential danger
to human health. Four criteria:

Ignitability: substances catch fire

Corrosivity: substances corrode metals

Reactivity: substances are chemically
unstable and react with other chemicals in
dangerous ways
Toxicity: substances are known to be
harmful to human health

Hazardous waste
There are many types of hazardous waste. Two
are worst because they persist for a long time
without breaking down:

Heavy metals

(mercury, lead, chromium, arsenic,

cadmium, tin, copper from industry,
mining, consumer products)

Organic compounds

(synthetic pesticides, petroleum

products, rubber, solvents,

Household hazardous
waste
We all have many
hazardous substances
in our homes and
everyday lives.

Many communities
organize pickups or
collection centers for
this waste.

Illegal dumping
Unscrupulous individuals or businesses sometimes illegally dump
hazardous waste to avoid disposal expenses

Hazardous waste:
Disposal methods
Landfills: Special landfills with stricter regulations are used for
hazardous waste.
Surface impoundments: Ponds lined with plastic and clay. Liquid
hazardous waste evaporates, leaving residue.
Deep-well injection: Hazardous waste is pumped deep
underground into porous and stable rock formations, away from
aquifers.

Hazardous waste:
Surface impoundments
Really only for temporary
storage; not ideal

Waste may overflow, blow

out, vaporize, or leak

Hazardous waste:
Deep-well injection
Seems a good idea,
but is not without
risk:
Waste can leak out
into groundwater.

Radioactive waste
A special type of hazardous waste
Especially dangerous
Much produced by military and hospitals; some
by research institutions
Its extremely hard to find a place to dump it