STUDY WITH SUDHIR : SWS GEOGRAPHY GURU

NOTES ON WASTE MANAGEMENT CHAPTER

What is Waste?

It is a general term used to describe any material that is discarded because it

has served its purpose and is no longer useful. It could also be material which
is generated at the end of a process and can be discarded. In this era, more
waste is being generated.

Wastes can be of different types - Industrial Waste, Domestic Waste,

Electronic Waste, Construction Waste, Mining waste etc. All of them lead to
pollution which is a natural fallout of accumulation of waste.

NEED FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT :

1. Without an effective waste management strategy, the world is saddled with

huge quantities of waste because of unsustainable patterns of production and
consumption.

2. The History : Earlier solid waste was dumped on the outskirts of cities in
abandoned pits, marshes (low-lying land which remains waterlogged) or
unproductive land. Or dumped into rivers.

But with environmental and health concerns, dumping into rivers and other
water bodies is thankfully a No-No. Abandoned sites are difficult to find because
of growth of urban centers and satellite towns and the resultant increased
pressure on land.

Oceans also started getting polluted. As did air quality because of vehicular and
industrial pollution.

Important Factoid : According to Lancet magazine, 17 lakh Indians died in

2019 due to air pollution. The world figure is that one in every four people
dying in the world die as a result of living or working in an unhealthy
environment.

3. The waste leads to spoilage of landscape (accumulation of heaps of garbage)

as it ruins the beauty of a place and also leads to spread of diseases. Waste
matter contains poisonous substances that seep into groundwater or into water
bodies. They emanate a foul smell as well. Uncontrolled burning of waste also
releases toxic substances into the environment and causes air pollution.

4. The need for waste management is paramount and requires constant

monitoring. This can be executed in two ways :

(a) Proper disposal of waste - collecting waste, segregating waste, transporting

waste material

(b) Treatment of waste - Need for processing to reduce harmful impact of

waste.

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VIDEO 2 :

METHODS OF SAFE DISPOSAL :

What is SEGREGATION? It means dividing the waste into different categories

like dry and wet or biodegradable and non-biodegradable. It is key to effective
waste management.

Reason : When waste is segregated, there is a reduction in volume of waste that

reaches the landfills. It becomes easier to apply different methods of waste
disposal.

What is solid waste? Food, Paper, Electronic goods, Wood, Metal scrap, Glass,
Plastic, Rubber, Construction Rubble

What is Liquid Waste? Sewage, chemicals, soapy water, Old medicines

Waste can also be separately collected in different bins for biodegradable and
non-biodegradable products. Biodegradable waste is organic matter which can
be broken down into CO2, Water, Methane by composting or any other process.
Biodegradable includes paper, kitchen waste.

Non-biodegradable is of the following kinds :

(a) Recyclable : plastics, glass, metal

(b) Toxic waste : Paints, old medicines, chemicals, bulbs, fertilizers, pesticides,
batteries, shoe polish, spray cans

(c) Soiled : Hospital waste - like blood stained cloth etc (B and C category waste
should be disposed of with great care)

Dry waste is waste that does not decay and can be sent to recycling plants
(Timber, Sawdust, Furniture, aluminum foil, tetra packs, crockery, steel
utensils, glass)

Wet waste is waste that is organic in nature and is biodegradable and is sent to
landfills or compost pits.

Role of Manual labour and ragpickers : They make a living by sorting out
reusable and recyclable items from discarded solids.

DUMPING

Waste material is dumped in open low lands far away from the city. Not
environment-friendly and also unhygienic and unhealthy. It becomes a breeding
ground for mosquitoes, flies, insects that cause harmful diseases. They give out
a foul odour. Waste material is often burnt leading to air pollution. During the
monsoon, this waste finds its way into water bodies or stagnant pools.

But it is cheaper than other solutions.

One way to deal with the issue has been to encourage SANITARY LANDFILLS.
These landfills can accept any kind of waste except non-biodegradable waste.
Its main objective is to prevent dispersal.

Definition of Sanitary Landfill : It is a modern engineering landfill where waste

is allowed to decompose into biologically and chemically inert materials in a
setting isolated from the environment.

The waste is dumped and the site is covered with earth to prevent insects or
rodents (rats) from entering the landfill.

What happens inside the sanitary landfill? The waste is subjected to bacterial
decomposition. That generates gases like CO2, methane, ammonia, Hydrogen
sulphide. That can be used to generate power. This takes place in 5 phases.

First Phase : Aerobic (in the presence of air) bacteria depletes the available
oxygen (converts O2 into CO2) and leads to increase in temperature

Second phase : Anaerobic conditions lead to evolution of hydrogen and carbon

dioxide

Third phase : Establishes bacteria population and beginning of methanogenic

activity - production of methane from decomposition of organic matter
(presence of C and H)

Fourth phase : Methanogenic activity becomes stabilized

Fifth phase : The organic matter is depleted and the system returns to aerobic
state.

Question : What are the advantages of sanitary landfill over open

dumping? (keywords in bold)
Answer : It is free from air pollution as a result of burning. Health problems
are minimised since rats, flies, mosquitoes cannot breed as the wastes are
covered. It is free from fire hazards. Compared to open dumping,
this minimises environmental damage.

Question : What can be done to make landfill sites more environment-

friendly and citizen-friendly?

Answer : A vegetative cover should be provided over the landfill site. Local non-
edible perennial plants that are capable of surviving in dry and hot conditions
should be planted. These plants should ideally not have roots more than 30 cm.
They should be able to survive on low nutrient soil with minimum addition of
nutrients. Plantation should be dense to prevent soil erosion.

Question : What should be taken care of with a landfill?

Answer : Site selection is very important because contamination with

groundwater must be avoided. Deep dense clayey soils are necessary. Permission
from local administration, testing and analysis of the soil is necessary as well.

Care must be taken for correct landfill design. Seepage has to be avoided using a
clay liner. Wells in the vicinity must be monitored to ensure there is no
leakage.

Soil layer must be at least 20 cm over the waste to prevent foul smell and
spread of vector-borne diseases. Green cover and development of nature parks
will utilise the area well.

COMPOSTING

Definition : It is an aerobic method of decomposing solid wastes. It is a process

of decomposition of organic waste where the end product is used as manure
to replenish soil fertility.
In this method, organic waste from households are made to undergo
decomposition in a manner that bacteria and other micro-organisms break them
down and produce a safe, clean and soil-like material called COMPOST.

By doing composting, size of waste is reduced, it is turned into a soil ingredient

and pathogens are killed.

In rural areas, layers of vegetable waste and night soils are alternated in a
shallow hole. This mixture is turned for 3 months to provide air to the mixture.
Then for the fourth month, the compost is left undisturbed. This is called the
INDORE METHOD.

The second method is the mechanical method and is called the BENGALURU
METHOD. Here the Waste material is placed in layers about one metre deep. It is
not turned but it decomposes completely in about 5 months.

Question : What are the advantages of composting?

Answer : These are the advantages of composting.

(a) It enhances soil nutrients and water retention capacity of soils

(b) It helps prevent plant diseases

(c) It adds humus to soil and rejuvenates the soil

(d) It absorbs odour and degrades volatile organic compounds

(e) It checks soil erosion and silting on embankments

(f) It prevents pollution. How? By preventing pollutants in storm water from

draining into water bodies
(g) It is cost effective as there is no need for water, fertilizers, pesticides.

(h) The anaerobic method of decomposition produces biogas which can be later
used to produce energy. Vermicomposting is an efficient method.

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VIDEO 3 :

Need and methods for reducing, reusing and recycling waste

These are the three R's of waste management. What is the need for RRR?

1. It keeps goods and materials out of landfills and reduces the need for new
landfills and incinerators (incineration is the process of controlled high
temperature oxidation of primarily organic compounds that release thermal
energy and produce H20 and CO2. It involves burning of waste at a very high
temperature. It is an expensive process and generates ash which has an adverse
impact on human health and environment).

2. It generates new business and employment opportunities.

3. It decreases demand on natural resources.

4. By reducing our waste, we can lessen impact on agriculture and freshwater

locations.

5. It can also lower frequency of natural disasters.

METHODS OF REDUCING WASTE :

(a) Change of Process : How do you achieve this? In the industrial sector, by
either changing the material that is used or using the input materials more
efficiently.
(b) Waste concentration : Amount of liquid waste can be reduced by using
scientific methods like precipitation and evaporation and even incineration.

(c) Segregation of Waste : Non-hazardous separated from hazardous instead of

dumping them together. Treat the hazardous waste.

METHODS OF RE-USING WASTE :

Waste material like bottles, steel tyres, tin cans can be reused. Nek Chand's rock
garden in Chandigarh is made from urban waste largely. For example, stylish
lamps can be made from tin cans. Ragpickers pick up stuff that can be re-used.
These waste collectors thereby help in preservation of environment by reducing
the burden of waste disposal.

Flyash from the power plants like NTPC can be used as substitute for cement.
Bricks are also made from flyash or in making of roads.

METHODS OF RECYCLING OF WASTE

Bagasse from sugarcane can be used in the manufacture of paper pulp. This
helps in reducing the pressure on cutting trees for paper. Bagasse is also used
for making packaging material for dairy products.

The paper industry recycles pieces of wood from furniture industry, used and
discarded cloth pieces and used paper.

Plastic is recycled. Let us see how much. According to a 2019-20 report by the
Central Pollution Control Board, which collected data from 60 cities in India,
India generates 26000 tonnes of plastic waste every day ... out of which 60% of
plastic is recycled. The remaining 40% ends up polluting streams or groundwater.

This is dangerous because plastic is non-biodegradable. They can only be

recycled or incinerated or buried in landfills.
However, plastic bags recycling is however harmful because the melting of
plastic breaks polymer chains into smaller units which are dangerous to the
environment.

Road developers have to use waste plastic along with bitumen during laying of
roads.

Question : Explain the process of making a road from plastic waste. Who
pioneered it in India? What are its advantages?

Answer : The technology to develop a road using plastic waste was done by Prof
Rajagopalan Vasudevan, Professor of Chemistry at the Thiagarajar College of
Engineering in Madurai in Tamil Nadu. He is called the Plastic Man of India.

Prof Vasudevan first implemented the use of plastic waste on a road constructed
inside his college premises in 2002. The college received a patent for this
technology in 2006.

The waste items that can be used for road construction include plastic
carrybags, plastic cups, potato chips plastic packaging, biscuits, chocolates
wrappers etc. The plastic waste is first shredded to a particular size using a
shredding machine. The shredded plastic is mixed and melted at around 170
degree C.

The bitumen is also heated to 160 degree C to ensure good quality binding
between the two. The two are mixed and the mixture is laid as one does with
the regular asphalt concrete.

The advantage is that the process is easy and does not need investment in new
machinery.

It reduces the amount of bitumen used because one-tenth of the material used
in plastic waste.
Plastic improves the quality of pavements and reduces wear and tear. The
aggregate impact value (the ability to resist sudden impact or shock load on it)
increases.

It is eco-friendly, no toxic gases are released into the atmosphere.

Reduces road fatigue, increases road strength. There is better resistance to the
weather elements like rain and cold weather

Plastic gets reduced in the society