A person generates 2.04 kg of solid waste per day. Now the question is how solid waste is managed.
Generation rate depends upon many factors like climate, geographic, lifestyle mean will
Components of Environment . If you want to find which click it.
Similarly management of solid trash or waste always depend upon many factors.
That's why there are different methods of managing garbage in different regions depending upon their factors.
We will deeply discuss how solid waste is managed by different methods. We will also discuss three basic functional elements of solid waste management.
There are also different methods of disposing the waste for understanding in this topic , keep reading this article.
Let's start
How solid waste is managed
The quality of the solid waste generated depends upon the type and size of community, seasons and living standards of the peoples.
Improper disposal of solid waste leads to adverse environmental and health effects.
With increasing human population and industrialisation, most of the cities are facing the issue of solid waste management.
The main objective of the solid waste management is to minimise this adverse effect before it becomes too difficult to rectify in this future.
Solid waste management is a manifold task involving many activities/functions like:
- Collection
- Processing
- Disposal
Source reduction can also be considered as an element of solid waste management.
How solid waste is managed , thus be defined as the application of techniques that will ensure the orderly execution of the function of collection, processing and disposal of solid waste.
These functions/activities are called the 'three basic fundamental elements of solid management'.
All these three functions should be carried out in an economical manner consistent with the protection of public health.
How solid waste is managed by collection
Collection is first fundamental function.
Collection includes all the activities associated with the gathering of the solid waste from the place of generation .
And the hauling of the waste collected to the location where the waste is that processed and at the site of final disposal.
There are three basic methods of collection
Kerbside collection
Kerbside collection is a very effective technique to collect waste. It is used in various country.
In this technique house owner or an individual is responsible for placing solid garbage container at the curb on the scheduled day.
The workmen come, collect and empty the container and put back at the curb. The house owner is required to take back the empty container from the curb to his house.
Trough this method a single team of a workmen can collect large amount of solid garbage.
Block collection
Block collection is advanced version of curbside. In this individually bring waste in container and hand it over to the collection staff who empties it into this the waiting vehicle and return the container to the individual.
Due to this Number of visits by collecting vehicle reduces.
Community storage point.
The solid waste is taken to a fixed storage bins and store till the waste collection agency collects it as per the schedule of collection.
Processing of solid waste
Processing is the second fundamental function. It refers to the activities applied to the waste to prepare it for the subsequent operation.
Processing improve the efficiency of garbage disposal and prepare the solid waste for subsequent recycling and recovery of material.
How solid waste is managed by recycle and recover.
Recycle
Recycle means the product goes through a mechanical process change its form. This is only recommended when reducing and reusing are not possible.
Effective segregation and separation is a stepping stone to ensure the proper recycling.
Recover
Recover is to convert waste into resource (such as electricity, heat ,compost and fuel) thermal and biological means.
Resources recovery occurs after reduce, reuse and recycle has been attempted. Recover substance /matter still left after first R's hours has been applied.
Processing includes any of these for all the techniques like screening, shredding, compacting, thermal volume reduction etc.
Recycling and recovery forms an important part of processing which help in achieving the basic goals of sustainable development.
It would reduce the quantities of the waste which will need final disposal and will also help in resources conservation. Thus preventing the depletion of the the precious natural resources.
Disposal of solid waste
Disposal is the last step of management. Due to the heterogeneity of this city refuse , it is important to select the most appropriate waste disposal methods keeping the view following objective:
- It should be economically viable. The RMO (running, maintenance and operation) cost should be carefully assessed.
- It should not create health hazard.
- It should not be aesthetically and unpleasant.
- It should not result in offending sights, odours, and noises.
- It should not cause adverse environmental effects.
- It should preferably provide opportunities for recycling of materials.
Various methods of commonly used for solid waste disposal are
- Open dumping
- Sanitary landfilling
- Incineration
- Composting
- Pyrolysis
Other methods like disposal in the sea and pulverization are also sometime used.
Open dumping
In this method the waste is dumped in the low lying areas and outskirts of the cities.
Being relatively cheaper , this method has been used extensively in India. However this method is a non engineering method having lot of disadvantages and so should not be used.
Disadvantages of open dumping are
Public health hazards are caused by breeding of flies ,mosquito, rats and other pests.
It would create the problems of obnoxious ordour problems in surrounding area.
If the trash dumped in the open area is burned, it would cause air pollution due to release of various gaseous and particulate air pollution. Open dumping required large land area.
Sanitary landfilling
In this method the solid waste is disposed in order that either in naturally available low lying area or by digging trenches .
Or in open areas under an engineered operation, design and operated according to the acceptable standards not causing any nuisance or hazards to the public help or safety.
There are two main methods used for sanitary landfill
Area method
Trench method
In land filling method, the solid waste is dumped and compacted and spread in this layer of 0.3 to 0.6 m .
This process continue until a total depth of 1.5-2m achieved. At the end of the day's work, 15-30 cm cower of good earth is placed over the completed fill.
This will prevent rodents from borrowing into the refuse and will also solve the problem of fly nuisance.
With passage of time,the diffuse will get stabilized due to decomposition of organic matter by bacteria and will be converted into stable compounds.
If a proper care is taken in design and operation, problem of groundwater pollution by percolation of the lachate can be solved.
This can be done by using in permeable membrane at the base. The gases like CO2 , CH4 ,H2S produced by biological decomposition are also collected through the gas as well thereby avoiding the risk of air pollution.
After few years this site can be used for developing parks or other recreational use the advantage and disadvantages of this method are
Advantages
Method is simple
No costly plants required
Separation of different component is not required.
No residue or by product need to be disposed.
Low line area /land can be reclaimed.
Disadvantages
Proper dumping site may not be available.
Large land areas are required.
Odour problem is created in the close vicinity of site.
Use of insecticides is required.
Earth has to be borrowed from other areas for earth layers.
Incineration
It is the method of thermal reduction of the volume of the waste. About 90% of the volume can be reduced.
Incineration can be defined as controlled combustion process for burning trash.
Combustible waste like paper ,cardboard rubber, plastic ,wood scraps, cartoons ,dried leaves, food waste etc can be incinerated.
Incineration result in the air pollution and so proper air pollution control equipment have to be installed to control air pollution.
In order to make method economical,the heat generation can be used for generation of steam.
waste heat boiler can also be installed with incinerators to recover/use of the heat energy.
This will help in partly recovering the cost of waste collection and disposal.
Composting
If the organic materials excluding plastic rubber and leather are separated from the municipal waste and are subjected to bacterial decomposition , the end product remaining after the bacteria activity is is called compost or humus.
Compost can be used as a fertilizer. The entire process involving both the separation and bacterial conversion of the organic solid waste into the compost is known as composting.
In this process compost pile is prepared by making alternate layers of waste and soil sewage.
water is periodically added to maintain the
necessary moisture level of around 55%.
Periodically the solid waste is turned over to allow penetration of oxygen to all the parts of pile and to facilitate aerobic decomposition.
It take nearly a month for composting to be completed.The final compost should have an earthy smell and a dark brown colour.
Methods of composting which are generally used are as follows
Composting by trenching
Open window composting
Mechanical composting
Pyrolysis
In this method of disposal, the combustible constituent of waste are heated at 650-1000 °C in an oxygen free environment.
The organic component of the waste split up into three different fractions viz
Gaseous fraction which include carbon dioxide ,carbon monoxide ,methane and some hydrocarbons.
Liquid fractions which include tar, light oil and low boiling point organic chemicals like acetic acid ,methanol ,acetone etc.
Solid fraction which included charred carbon.
Pyrolysis is highly endothermic process and hence it differs from incineration.
It is also called as destructive distillation.
Conclusion
In last the method or how solid waste is managed will depend upon your nearby situation.
I believe you will easily find how solid waste is managed by reading this article.
Keep control on your Garbage generation rate. So you don't need to find how solid waste is managed.
If you have query ask in the comment section. I will try to answer these queries personally on your particular comment.
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