Solid and Hazardous waste

management

By: Getahun. (MSc Environmental Engineering )

Solidwaste management problems in AA
 What is solid waste?
• Solid wastes are all the wastes arising from human and animal
activities that are normally solid and that are discarded as
useless or unwanted.
• It encompasses the heterogeneous mass of throwaways from
the urban community as well as the more homogenous
accumulations of agricultural, industrial, and mineral wastes.
• The term refuse is often used interchangeably with the term
solid waste.
 Types of Solid Wastes

The three general categories of solid wastes are:

• 1 MUNICIPAL WASTES
The term municipal solid waste refers to solid wastes from houses, streets and public
places, shops, offices, and hospitals, which are very often the responsibility of municipal
or other governmental authorities.
• 2 INDUSTRIAL WASTES
Industrial wastes are those wastes arising from industrial activities and typically include
rubbish, ashes, demolition and construction wastes and special wastes.
• 3 HAZARDOUS WASTES
Wastes that pose a substantial danger immediately or over a period of time to human,
plant, or animal life are classified as hazardous wastes.
Sources of Solid Wastes
Source Typical facilities, activities, or locations Types of solid wastes
where wastes are generated

Residential Single family and multifamily dwellings, low-, Food wastes, rubbish, ashes, special
medium-, and high rise apartments, etc wastes, occasionally hazardous wastes

Commercial Stores, restaurants, markets, hotels, print Food wastes, rubbish, ashes,
shops, auto repair shops, medical facilities and demolition and construction wastes,
institutions, etc Occasionally hazardous wastes

Open areas Streets, alleys, parks, vacant lots, playgrounds, Special wastes, rubbish
beaches, highways, recreational areas, etc

Treatment site plants Water, wastewater, and industrial treatment Treatment-plant wastes principally
processes, etc composed of residual sludges.
 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.
 Classification of wastes according to their origin and type

• 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. Some electronic scrap components, may contain
contaminants such as Pb, Cd, Be or brominated flame retardants.
 Solid waste management

• Solid waste management may be defined as that discipline associated

with the control of generation, storage, collection, transfer and
transport, processing, and disposal of solid wastes in a manner that is in
accord with the best principles of public health, economics,
engineering, conservation, aesthetics, and other environmental
considerations, and that also is responsive to public attitudes.
 Solid waste management

• Solid waste management includes all administrative, financial, legal,

planning, and engineering functions involved in the whole spectrum of
solutions to problems of solid wastes.

• The solutions may involve complex interdisciplinary relationships among

such fields as political science, city and regional planning, geography,
economics, public health, sociology, demography, communications,
conservation, engineering and materials science.
Hierarchy of solid waste management
Illustration of boundaries for integrated waste management system

Landfill

Collection Transfer

Materials recovery Waste-

for recycling and to-energy
composting

Ash Landfill
 Functional elements in the solid-waste system
Materials Incineration
recovery facility

Storage Collection Composting Landfill

Compost
Commercial Transfer station

Recycled Compost
Residential materials

Construction and
demolition

Institutional

Municipal services
1. Solid Waste Generation
• Solid waste generation encompasses those activities in which
materials are identified as no longer being of value and are
either thrown away or gathered together for disposal.

• For example, the wrapping of a candy bar usually is

considered to be of little further value to the owner once the
candy is consumed, it is just thrown , especially outdoors.
Amount of MSW generated by typical families (in one week) around the world

Japan, $317.25
Italy, $260.11
Chad, $1.23
Kuwait, $221.45
USA, $341.98
Mexico, $189.09
Ecuador, $31.55
USA, $159.18
1. Solid Waste Generation

• From the standpoint of economics, the best place to sort

waste materials for recovery purposes is at the source of
generation.

• Homeowners are becoming more aware of the importance

of separating newspaper and cardboard, tinned steel cans,
and aluminum cans and bottles.
Typical unit waste-generation rates (USA)

Source Unit rate , kg/capita.d

Range Typical
Municipal* 0.75-2.50 1.6
Industrial 0.40-1.60 0.9
Demolition 0.05-0.40 0.3
Other municipal 0.05-0.30 0.2
Total 3.0
Typical commercial and industrial unit waste generation rates
Sources Unit Range

Office buildings kg/employee. d 0.5-1.1

Restaurants Kg/customer. d 0.2-0.8
Canned and frozen foods Tones/tones of raw products 0.04-0.06
Printing and publishing Tones/tones of raw paper 0.08-0.10
Automotive Tones/vehicle produced 0.6-0.8
Petroleum refining Tones/employee.d 0.04-0.05
Rubber Tones/tones of raw rubber 0.01-0.3
2. Onsite Storage

• The cost of providing storage for solid wastes at the source normally is
borne by the householder or apartment owner in the case of individuals,
or by the management of commercial and industrial properties.
• Factors that must be considered in the on-site storage of solid wastes
include:
1. The type of container to be used
2. The container location
3. Public health and aesthetics , and
4. The collection method to be used
2.1 Containers

To large extent, the types and capacities of the containers used depend on
the characteristics of the solid wastes to be collected, the collection
frequency, and the space available for the placement of container.
The types of containers commonly used for on-site storage of solids
include the following:
• Plastic or metal containers
• Barrel : plastic, aluminum,or fiber
• Disposable paper bags
• Disposable plastic bags
Storage

Municipal solid waste storage containers

Rubbish skip is used to

transfer the waste to special
vehicles or for door-to-door
collection.
Dumpsters are large steel
Solid waste is stored without
containers used to transfer the
safety precautions in many
waste to large transportation
countries.
trucks.
2.1 Containers

On-site processing methods can be used to recover usable

materials from solid wastes, to reduce the volume, or to alter the
physical form. The most common on-site processing operations
include:
• Manual sorting
• Compaction, and
• Incineration
3. Collection
• The functional element of collection includes not only the gathering
of solid wastes, but also the hauling of wastes after collection to the
location where the collection vehicle is emptied.

• In small cities where final disposal sites are nearby, the hauling of
wastes is not a serious problem. In large cities, however, where the
haul to the point of disposal is often high, the haul may have serious
economic implications.
3. Collection

• The solution to the problem of long-distance hauling is

complicated by the fact that the motor vehicles that are well
adapted to long-distance hauling are not well suited or
particularly economical for house-to-house collection.

• Consequently, in most cases, supplemental transfer and transport

facilities and equipment are needed.
Types of Collection
Hauled container system Stationary container system
 Collection

Front-end loading vehicles are commonly

used for commercial collection

Side- and rear-end loading vehicles are

commonly used for residential collection
Collection
Collection of solid waste in developing countries is more inefficient. Most of the budget is spent in collection and yet,
they are not able to collect all the generated waste. Collection varies from household level (called primary), where
waste is collected from individuals using bicycles, handcarts, private trucks, horses, etc. as medium of
transportation and then put into community collection containers. The secondary collection system is then
performed by the city council using small mechanical vehicles, trucks, and tractors.

Solid waste management in Africa.

Collection
Collection of solid waste in developing countries
 Collection
Collection of solid waste in developing countries

http://www.swlf.ait.ac.th/Slide%20Show/Collection.pdf
Collection
Street sweeping in developing countries
4. Transfer and Transport

Transfer and transport involves two steps:

• (1) the transfer of wastes from the smaller collection vehicle to the
larger transport equipment and
• (2) the subsequent transport of the wastes, usually over long distances,
to the disposal site. The transfer usually takes place at a transfer station.
• Although motor vehicle transport is most common, rail cars or barges
can also used to transport solid wastes.
4.1 Transfer station types
• Direct-Load Transfer Stations: At direct-load transfer stations, the
wastes in the collection vehicles are emptied directly into the vehicle to
be used to transport them to a place of final disposition or into facilities
used to compact the wastes into transport vehicles or into waste bales
that are transported to the disposal site.

• In some cases, the wastes may be emptied onto an unloading platform

and then pushed into the transfer vehicles, after recyclable materials have
been removed.
4.2 Transfer station types
• Storage-Load Transfer Station: In the storage-load transfer station,
wastes are emptied directly into a storage pit from which they are
loaded into transport vehicles by various types of auxiliary equipment.

• The difference between a dirtect-load and a storage-load transfer

station is that the latter is designed with a capacity to store waste
(typically one to three days).
4.2 Transfer station types
Combined direct-Load and Storage-Load Transfer Station
Processing and Recovery
• Includes all the techniques, equipment, and facilities used both to
improve the efficiency of the other functional elements and to recover
usable materials, conversion products, or energy from solid Wastes.

• In the recovery of materials, as an example, separation operations have

been devised to recover valuable resources from the mixed solid
wastes delivered to transfer stations or solid waste processing plants.

• These operations include size reduction, density separation and

separation may include magnetic devices to pull out iron.
Processing and Recovery
• Eddy-current separators for aluminum, and screens for glass.
Flotation, inertial separation, and other metallurgical
industry unit operations may also be used.

• The selection of any recovery process is a function of

economics i.e. cost of separation versus value of the
recovered-materials products.
Disposal
• Disposal is the ultimate fate of all solids
• Residential wastes collected and transported directly to a landfill site,
semisolid wastes (sludge) from municipal and industrial treatment
plants, incinerator residue, compost, or other substances from the
various solid waste processing plants that are of no further use to
society.

• Thus, land-use planning becomes a primary determinant in the

selection, design, and operation of landfill operation.
 Disposal

• Environmental impact statements are required for all new landfill sites to
ensure compliance with public health, aesthetics, and future use of land.

• A modern sanitary landfill is not a dump.

• Engineering principles must be followed to confine the wastes to the

smallest possible area, to reduce them to the lowest practical volume by
compaction at the site, and to cover them after each day's operation to
reduce exposure.
Disposal
• One of the most important concepts is to plan for the final use of the
reclaimed land. For example
1. Many golf courses have been established on old landfills.
2. Parks, open storage areas and athletic fields occupy the sites of many
former landfills.
• These must be planned properly so that no buildings are located over
the decomposing solid wastes.
• Planning must take place ahead of filling so that any building areas
will be filled with earth only.
Disposal
• Land filling is, therefore, the method of disposal used most
commonly for municipal wastes.

• Land farming and deep-well injection have been used for

industrial wastes.

• Although incineration is often considered a disposal method,

it is, in reality, a processing method.
 WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
• Reduce Waste

- Reduce office paper waste by implementing a formal policy to duplex all draft reports and
by making training manuals and personnel information available electronically.
- Improve product design to use less materials.

- Redesign packaging to eliminate excess material while maintaining strength.

- Work with customers to design and implement a packaging return program.

- Switch to reusable transport containers.

- Purchase products in bulk.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Reuse

- Reuse corrugated moving boxes internally.

- Reuse office furniture and supplies, such as interoffice envelopes, file folders, and paper.

- Use durable towels, tablecloths, napkins, dishes, cups, and glasses.

- Use incoming packaging materials for outgoing shipments.

- Encourage employees to reuse office materials rather than purchase new ones.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Donate/Exchange

- old books

- old clothes

- old computers

- excess building materials

- old equipment to local organizations

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Employee Education

- Develop an “office recycling procedures” packet.

- Send out recycling reminders to all employees including environmental articles.

- Train employees on recycling practices prior to implementing recycling

programs.

- Conduct an ongoing training process as new technologies are introduced and

new employees join the institution.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Employee Education

- Education campaign on waste management that includes an extensive internal

web site, quarterly newsletters, daily bulletins, promotional signs and helpful
reference labels within the campus of an institution.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Conduct outreach program adopting an ecologically sound waste management

system which includes:

• waste reduction
• segregation at source
• composting
• recycling and re-use
• more efficient collection
• more environmentally sound disposal
Residents may be organized into small groups to carry out
the following:
• construction of backyard compost pit

• construction of storage bins where recyclable and reusable materials are stored by each household

• construction of storage centers where recyclable and reusable materials collected by the street
sweepers are stored prior to selling to junk dealers

• maintenance of cleanliness in yards and streets

• greening of their respective areas

• encouraging others to join

Questions
• What is solid waste?
• What is solid waste management?
• Discuss the important functional elements of SWM?
• How much solidwaste is generated from your house or office?
Thank you for attending!