Waste Management
bodies of water, into ditches, storm drains and sewer mains. This
Matter in the Wrong Place
When does something become garbage? Only when
someone ceases to have a use for it. Last month’s magazine may be
waste to the person who bought it, but it can still be useful to
someone who hasn’t read it yet.
In this sense, waste may be defined as “matter in the wrong
place”, implying that what is waste in one’s person hands may
become a resource in another’s. This promotes the idea of
considering all waste as possible sources of new materials.
In the internationally accepted definition, solid waste refers
to all discarded waste material from household, trade, commercial,
industrial and mining activities. It includes agricultural waste,
construction debris, sludge from sewage treatment plants and all
other non-hazardous, non-toxic effluent. It also includes waste
arising from the conduct of public service such as street sweeping,
landscape maintenance, and the clearing of typhoon- or other
calamity-wrought debris.
Health vs. Waste
In Metro Manila, the population density is 14, 440 persons
per square kilometer, 63 times more than the national average. Per
capita waste production daily is estimated at 0.66 kg. More than
half a kilo of trash per person per day is a lot. The volume of daily
wastes weighs in a little over 6,000 tons.
Only 85% of these wastes are collected. Uncollected wastes
pile up and fester in street corners and marketplaces, vacant lots
and other open (often unauthorized) dumpsites. Ubiquitous
scavengers light into these waste piles to pick whatever they can
salvage from the junk. These waste materials are the breeding
ground of flies, mosquitoes, rats and other manner of pests and
disease-carrying organisms.
An irreducible amount of waste also finds its way into
does not only contaminate and pollute our waters; come the rainy
season, garbage plugs up the city’s sewerage and floodwaters rise –
causing untold damages to life and property.
Managing the Unwanted Extras
The problem of solid waste and its management has
become a pressing concern of the national government. Rapid
urbanization and industrialization, coupled with unchecked
population growth, has contributed to the present garbage crisis in
the metropolis.
To lessen the load, the enforcement of environmental laws
on cleanliness, sanitation, and other environmental matters has
been placed in the hands of the local government units.
Nevertheless, the LGUs are hard put in coping with the problem,
partly also due to the low level of environmental literacy and
awareness of the public.
In response to this problem, the government has
promulgated the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 –
a law providing for a national solid waste management program.
Solid waste management refers to all activities involving the
control, transfer and transport, processing and disposal of solid
wastes in accordance with the best principles of public health,
economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics and other
environmental considerations. It includes all attendant
administrative, financial, legal, planning and engineering functions.
There is no single waste management solution that is
universally prescribed and accepted. Every community must evolve
its own solid waste management program applicable to the local
situation. Considerations include the local economy, location,
topography, social culture and resources.
Guiding Principles of Solid Waste Management
There are seven principles that serve as guidelines in the
planning and creation of a community’s solid waste management
program:
Waste is a resource.
When something is thrown away, it will not disappear or
disintegrate. It will only end up somewhere else in some other form.
When waste ends up where it’s not supposed to be, it becomes
useless, causes pollution and poses health risks. On the other hand,
when waste is put in the right place, it becomes a valuable resource.
Waste prevention is better than waste regulation and control.
As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure”. The same is true with waste. Traditionally, waste
management only starts after the waste is generated. As such,
activities have focused largely on regulation and control.
Such an approach has failed to significantly solve the
problems resulting from uncontrolled waste generation. These
include ever-increasing amounts of waste, inadequate collection,
lack of landfill/disposal space, depletion of natural resources that go
into manufacturing, and pollution of land, water and air.
Waste prevention, on the other hand, addresses the
problem of waste even before it is there. Prevention means waste
avoidance, reuse, recycling and waste recovery. Through these
activities, there will be less waste to collect and dispose of, less
landfill space required, better conservation of natural resources,
and reduced pollution of the land, water and air.
There is no single management and technological approach to
solid waste. An integrated solid waste management system will be
best achieve solid waste management goals.
Waste management includes various activities such as the
identification of sources and types of solid wastes, examination of
the physical and chemical composition of solid waste,
determination of waste generation rates and other influencing
factors.
The wastes stream is made up of several distinct
components that can be managed and disposed of separately. Since
components vary from community to community, knowledge of
these components will help determine the selection and operation
of handling equipment and facilities, feasibility of resource and
energy recovery, design of disposal facilities, and evaluation of
alternative processing options.
All elements of society are fundamentally responsible for solid
waste management.
Proper solid waste management is a mission for all. Each
Sector has a particular responsibility.
Local government units are given the overall responsibility
to decide how a community’s solid waste will be managed. Their
responsibility lies in determining how services should be provided,
who provides them. And under what conditions this takes place.
NGOs, Pos and other private sector groups can serve the common
good through project initiatives that support waste management
goals.
On the other hand, it is the mission of business and industry
to set into place production processes and technologies that
prevent and minimize waste generation, as well as efficiently treat
and dispose of all unavoidable waste products. Individual citizens
are expected to internalize their lifestyles, consumption habits and
environmentally correct behavior towards promoting waste
avoidance, reduction and resource recovery.
Those who generate waste must bear the cost of its management
and disposal.
Solid waste management does incur costs and liabilities.
Commonly people are not aware of full costs associated with the
management of wastes they generate.
However, because waste generation is a matter of personal
habit and lifestyle, it is only logical and fair that those who generate
waste should answer for the costs of its management and disposal.
At the consumer level, one option is to charge households with
garbage collection fee proportionate to the amount of refuse they
produce.
While existing national laws already stipulate that no
factory or plant may be put up without the necessary waste-
disposal system, it is up to the LGU to be alert for violations of the
different environmental laws. Higher fines and stricter enforcement
have the effect of forcing offending industries to curb waste and
reexamine their production processes.
Solid waste management should be approached within the context
of resource conservation, environmental protection and health,
and sustainable development.
The problem of today’s solid waste, if improperly handled,
carries implications not only on the environment but also on the
health and well-being of future generations.
Solid waste management has come a long way from the
traditional basurero-kaminero operation. It has come multi-
disciplinary process, with considerations involving engineering, bio-
sciences, environmental protection, scientific management,
sociology and economy.
Recycling not only cuts down the volume and attendant
costs of waste to be collected and disposed, it also conserves scarce
raw material resources. Resource conservation is an important
factor to consider for sustainable development. The municipality of
Machida in Japan, for instance, recycles 100,000 tons of waste
generated each year to produce enough wood pulp to make a roll of
toilet paper that would wrap around the earth ten times.
Japan recycles more than 50% of its waste. Western Europe
recycles around 30%, but the United States does poorly with only
10%. Even so, this means that their solid waste is reduced by about
16 millions tons a year.
Given the most efficient recycling, there will always be that
irreducible volume of waste that must finally be disposed of in
landfills. This means that land and incinerators will be needed as
part of a well-managed waste disposal system.
Solid waste management programs should take into consideration
the physical and socio-economic conditions of the concerned
communities, and be designed according to their specific needs.
Different localities have different solid waste problems. A
rural municipality’s waste greatly differs from that of a highly
urbanized city. The character and type of solid waste from coastal
villages will be different from those of mining communities.
While new technologies for the disposal of solid wastes may
be readily available, decision-makers must make sure that such
technology they adopt will be appropriate to their locality. A case in
point: In Laos, Nigeria, five new incinerator plants stand idle
because they can treat garbage containing less than 20% water;
most of the city’s garbage is 30% to 40% liquid.
Aside from these marked differences in solid waste problems,
different priorities in their needs and wants. They also have
different available resources and capabilities to meet the solid
waste problem. Thus, the solution to solid waste management will
vary from locality to locality depending on these differences.
The Mechanics of Solid Waste Management
Ecological solid waste management is the systematic
administration of activities that provide for segregation at source,
segregated transport, storage, transfer, treatment, and disposal of
solid waste and all other waste management activities that do not
harm the environment.
Waste Generation
Of the different components of solid waste that need to be
managed, the generation of waste is the most difficult to control.
The amount of waste generated in a particular area depends on the
level of the economic activity - the greater the economic activity,
the higher the rate of generation. In this part of the process, solid
waste must be identified, sources categorized, amounts of waste,
their nature, type and characteristics must be analyzed.
At the basic level, there must be segregation of wastes at
the source. That means, members of every household must be
informed about how to segregate their trash into compostable,
non-recyclable, recyclable and special and hazardous wastes.
On-site Storage
It is not practical to design a solid waste management
system that collects and disposes of waste at the instant it is
generated. For this reason, waste must be stored prior to collection.
There must be a separate container for each type of waste.
Segregated recyclables must be properly cleaned before being
stored in their respective containers.
A good on-site storage system must meet the following
requirements:
1. It must isolate waste from the environment effectively to
avoid creating health hazards.
2. It must be aesthetically acceptable.
3. It must be facilitating collection.
Collection
Collections involve gathering of solid wastes and hauling
them to transfer stations, processing and recovery stations, or final
disposal sites. In most solid waste management systems, the cost of
collection accounts for a significant portion of the total cost (from
40% to 80%). The use of special collection schedule and/or separate
trucks or haulers must be required for specific types of waste.
Transfer and Transport
When the final disposal site is at a considerable distance
from waste collection points, it is often more economical to transfer
collected wastes to larger transport vehicles – e.g., large container
trucks, rail cars, or barges – before transporting them to the final
disposal site.
In this system, relatively smaller collection vehicles carry the
wastes are loaded into much larger transport vehicles. A properly
designed transfer and transport system normally reduces the
overall cost of collection and transport of wastes from on-site
storage to final disposal sites.
Processing and Recovery 2. Commercial-industrial waste – wastes generated by restaurants,
This stage includes size reduction, magnetic separation, and eateries, offices, markets, talipapa, plants, mills, factories (include
density separation using air classifier and other processes and materials such as chemicals, paints and sand)
operations designed to recover or produce usable materials like 3. Farm and agricultural wastes – farm animal manure and crop
compost or energy such as electricity. residues
Recyclable waste material should be taken to a Materials 4. Institutional wastes – wastes generated by hospitals, schools,
Recovery Facility (MRF) in every barangay or cluster of barangays churches, and prisons
where they would be received, sorted, processed and stored 5. Mining wastes – slag heaps and coal refuse piles
efficiently and in an environmentally sound manner. 6. Miscellaneous and specialized wastes – residues of sewage
Compostable wastes, on the other hand, should be treatment plants, ash from incinerators and residues from the
composted either in the backyard or at the community composting combustion of solid fuels, debris caused by disasters (fires,
site. typhoons, floods, etc.), large waste from demolitions and
Hazardous wastes must be screened and sent to construction rubble, dead animals
appropriate waste treatment and disposal centers. 7. Hazardous wastes – wastes that pose a potential hazard to living
creatures because they are toxic or lethal, non-degradable or
Disposal persistent in nature, and may cause detrimental cumulative effects
The final step in any solid waste management system is
disposal. Processing of solid wastes by incinerations leaves behind Average Composition of Solid Waste in the Philippines:
ash and other unburned materials that require disposal. In selecting
the final disposal method, the nature, amount and characteristics of Component % by weight
waste materials must be taken into consideration to prevent
secondary environmental problems. The most common and most Yard and field wastes 33.5
widely accepted final disposal method is the use of a sanitary Fines and inert 12.9
landfill. Wood 11.5
Food waste 11.0
Sources of Solid Waste in a Community Paper and cardboard 10.2
Plastic and petroleum prod. 9.8
1. Household waste – waste generated at the household level Textiles 4.1
Metals 3.3
Glass 1.9
Component % by weight 7. The extent to which the 3Rs carried out – where the population is
more concerned with the general, there is a concerted effort to cut
Leather and rubber 1.8 down waste at the point of origin
TOTAL 100 8. Presence of pets and domestic animals
9. Seasonal variations
To be able to design a good solid waste management system, it is 10. Presence of laws and ordinances governing waste management
necessary to conduct a study to assess the actual composition of the 11. Company buy-back guarantees for used containers and
waste generated in a particular community. Percentages of the packaging
different components vary with location, season, economic
condition of the community and many other factors.
Waste Segregation
Factors that Affect Waste Generation:
Basura ko, Sagot ko
1. The state of the national economy – as standards rise, there is a
corresponding increase in the quantity and quality of wastes
2. The lifestyle of the people – reflected in product marketing
techniques, such as the clearly perceptible shift in consumer
preferences for pre-packaged foodstuff, the increase in use of paper
lined with plastics for packaging, and the use of disposable diapers
3. The demographic profile of the population – the greater the
number of persons per household, the lesser volume of waste
generated
4. The size and type of dwelling – those who dwell in larger and
more expensive type homes produce more waste per capita
5. Age – young consumers patronize a set of products different from
those consumed by elders
6. Religion – consumer preferences in Islamic countries differ greatly
with predominantly Christian nations