Solid Waste

Is any garbage or refuse, sludge or other discarded material, resulting from

industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community
activities. The definition of solid waste is not limited to wastes that are physically
solid. Many solid wastes are liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material.
Examples of solid wastes include the following materials when discarded: waste
tires, septage, scrap metal, latex paints, furniture and toys.

Solid Waste Characteristics

The sources of solid waste include residential, commercial, institutional, and

industrial activities. Certain types of wastes that cause immediate danger to
exposed individuals or environments are classified as hazardous; these are
discussed in the article hazardous-waste management. All nonhazardous solid
waste from a community that requires collection and transport to a processing or
disposal site is called refuse or municipal solid waste (MSW). Refuse includes
garbage and rubbish. Garbage is mostly decomposable food waste; rubbish is
mostly dry material such as glass, paper, cloth, or wood. Garbage is highly
putrescible or decomposable, whereas rubbish is not. Trash is rubbish that
includes bulky items such as old refrigerators, couches, or large tree stumps. Trash
requires special collection and handling.

Solid-waste management

The collecting, treating, and disposing of solid material that is discarded because it
has served its purpose or is no longer useful. Improper disposal of municipal solid
waste can create unsanitary conditions, and these conditions in turn can lead to
pollution of the environment and to outbreaks of vector-borne disease—that is,
diseases spread by rodents and insects. The tasks of solid-waste management
present complex technical challenges. They also pose a wide variety of
administrative, economic, and social problems that must be managed and solved.
Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health
or the environment. A hazardous waste is a special type of waste because it
cannot be disposed of by common means like other by-products of our everyday
lives. Depending on the physical state of the waste, treatment and solidification
processes might be required.

Hazardous-Waste Characteristics

Hazardous wastes are classified on the basis of their biological, chemical, and
physical properties. These properties generate materials that are either toxic,
reactive, ignitable, corrosive, infectious, or radioactive.

Toxic wastes are poisons, even in very small or trace amounts. They may have
acute effects, causing death or violent illness, or they may have chronic effects,
slowly causing irreparable harm. Some are carcinogenic, causing cancer after
many years of exposure. Others are mutagenic, causing major biological changes
in the offspring of exposed humans and wildlife.

Reactive wastes are chemically unstable and react violently with air or water. They
cause explosions or form toxic vapours. Ignitable wastes burn at relatively low
temperatures and may cause an immediate fire hazard. Corrosive wastes include
strong acidic or alkaline substances. They destroy solid material and living tissue
upon contact, by chemical reaction.

Infectious wastes include used bandages, hypodermic needles, and other

materials from hospitals or biological research facilities. Radioactive wastes emit
ionizing energy that can harm living organisms. Because some radioactive
materials can persist in the environment for many thousands of years before fully
decaying, there is much concern over the control of these wastes. However, the
handling and disposal of radioactive material is not a responsibility of local
municipal government. Because of the scope and complexity of the problem, the
management of radioactive waste—particularly nuclear fission waste—is usually
considered an engineering task separate from other forms of hazardous-waste
management and is discussed in the article nuclear reactor.

Treatment of Hazardous Wastes

The purpose of treating hazardous waste is to convert it into nonhazardous

substances or to stabilize or encapsulate the waste so that it will not migrate and
present a hazard when released into the environment. Stabilization or
encapsulating techniques are particularly necessary for inorganic wastes such as
those containing toxic heavy metals. Treatment methods can be generally
classified as chemical, physical and/or biological.

Hazard Waste

Solid Waste
 Conclusions

• Solid and hazardous wastes has to have some type of management to not be
harmful to the society we live in.

• Solid waste can be reduced if we recycle or give second usage to the materials
made of plastic or glass.

• As engineers we have to have in our minds procedures for the disposal of

chemicals or any other material that can affect our surroundings.