Waste Management

Waste management (or waste disposal) is the activities and actions required to manage waste from its
inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste,
together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process. Waste can be solid, liquid,
or gaseous and each type has different methods of disposal and management. Waste management deals
with all types of waste, including industrial, biological, and household. Waste management is intended
to reduce adverse effects of waste on human health, the environment or aesthetics.
A large portion of waste management practices deal with solid waste, electronic-waste and biomedical
waste which are the bulk of the waste that are created by household, industrial, medical, agricultural
and commercial activity.
1. Solid Waste
The process of collecting, treating and disposing of solid material is known as solid waste
management. Improper disposal of municipal solid waste can create unsanitary conditions and this in
turn can lead to pollution of the environment.
Sources
Residential: Residences and homes are some of the major sources of solid waste. Wastes from these
places include food wastes, plastics, paper, electronics, etc.,
Industrial: Industries are known to be one of the biggest contributors of solid waste. They include
light and heavy manufacturing industries, construction sites, fabrication plants, canning plants, power
and chemical plants. They produce solid wastes in the form of food wastes, packing wastes, ashes and
other hazardous wastes.
Commercial: These include hotels, markets, go downs, stores and office buildings. Solid wastes
generated from these places include plastics, paper, wood, cardboard materials etc.,
Institutional: these include schools, colleges, military barracks, prisons and other government centers.
Common solid waste obtained from these places includes glass, rubber waste, plastics, electronics etc.,
Construction and Demolition Areas: construction sites for buildings and roads, road repair sites,
building renovation and demolition sites contribute to solid waste including steel materials, concrete,
copper wires, dirt, glass etc.,
Municipal Services: Street cleaning wastes from parks and beaches, waste water treatment plants,
landscaping wastes and wastes from recreational areas including sludge come under solid waste
produced by municipal services.
Agriculture: Crop farms, orchards, dairies, vineyards and feedlots are also sources of solid wastes.
The wastes they produce include agricultural wastes, spoiled food, pesticide containers and other
hazardous materials.
Biomedical: This refers to wastes from hospitals and biomedical equipment and chemical
manufacturing firms. Some of the solid wastes include syringes, bandages, used gloves, drugs, paper,
plastics and chemicals.

Characteristics
Information and data on characteristics of solid waste are important for selecting a suitable disposal
technique. They are generally characterized by analyzing their physical and chemical parameters.
Physical characteristics
 Density of waste: In essence its mass per unit volume (kg/m3)
 Moisture content in wet waste: Moisture content is defined as the ratio of the weight of water
(wet weight - dry weight) to the total weight of the wet waste.
 Size: Measurement of size distribution of particles in waste stream
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Chemical characteristics
If solid wastes are to be used as fuel, or are used for any other purpose, we must know their chemical
characteristics, including the following:
Lipids: This class of compounds includes fats, oils and grease, and the principal sources of lipids are
garbage, cooking oils and fats. Lipids have high heating values, and suitable for energy recovery.
Carbohydrates: These are found primarily in food and yard wastes and are readily biodegraded to
products such as carbon dioxide, water and methane.
Proteins: They are mainly found in food and garden wastes.
Natural fibres: These are found in paper products, food and yard wastes.
Synthetic organic material (Plastics): Plastics have a high heating value, which makes them very
suitable for incineration.
Non-combustibles: This class includes glass, ceramics, metals, dust and ashes.
Heating value: Calorific value of waste

Disposal
Scientific Land Filling: It is termed so because of its scientific design during construction. This is the
most popular solid waste disposal method in which the garbage is spread out in thin layers compressed
and covered with soil or plastic foam. This method eliminate the risk of waste seeping underground as
the base layer is constructed of 90 meter of clay, thus arresting any seepage or leakage within the
landfill. Vertical wells installed in scientific landfills help extracting methane regularly, and the gas
can then be used for electricity and heat generation.
Composting: Due to lack of adequate space for landfills biodegradable wastes are allowed to
decompose in a medium, designed for the purpose . Only biodegradable waste materials are used in
composting.
Recovery and Recycling: It is the process of taking useful but discarded items for next use. The
process aims at reducing energy loss, consumption of new material and reduction of landfills.

2. Electronic Waste
Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. E-waste or electronic
waste is created when an electronic product is discarded after the end of its useful life. The rapid
expansion of technology means that a very large amount of e-waste is created every minute.
Sources
Sources of e-waste includes
 IT equipment such as computers, laptops, networking devices, cables, power adapters;
 Household appliances like televisions, telephones, mobile phones, calculators, fridge, air
conditioners, washing machines, microwaves, gaming consoles; electrical and electronic devices
such as tube lights, bulbs, LED lights, remote controls, electronic toys, treadmill;
 Medical devices such as monitoring and control equipment, ultrasound testing machines, X-ray,
stabilizers etc.
 Electronic waste is the fastest growing segment in the waste generated across the globe.
 Increasing mass production increases the amount of E-Waste leading to higher levels of pollution
and hazardous effects on the planet.
Characteristics
Understanding the Characteristics of e-waste is essential to select a safe and efficient disposal method.
E-waste generally characterized by analyzing the components and composition of waste.
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 Hazardous components in e-waste
Electronic waste consists of a large number of components of various sizes and shapes, some of which
contain hazardous components that need to be removed for separate treatment. Flame retardants are
widely used in in plastics to prevent or decay a developing fire in electronic equipment.
 Material composition of e-waste
Electronic waste contains a mixture of various metals particularly copper, aluminium and steel
attached to, covered with, or mixed with various types of plastic and ceramics. Precious metals have a
wide application in the manufacture of electric appliances, serving as contact materials due to their
high chemical stability and their good conducting properties. Platinum group metals are used among
other things in switching contacts.

Disposal Methods
Reusing
Reuse of end-of-life electronic equipment has first priority on the management of electronic waste
because the usable lifespan of equipment is extended to a secondary market, resulting in a reduced
volume of waste stream encompassing treatment.
Scientific landfilling
A scientific landfill is termed so because of its scientific design during construction. One of the biggest
problems of ordinary landfills is the seeping of pollutants from e-waste into underlying soil and water,
contaminating both. Scientific landfills eliminate the risk of e-waste seeping underground as the base
layer is constructed of 90 meters of clay, thus arresting any seepage or leakage within the landfill. On
top of the base layer, a drainage layer made of soil, measuring 15 meters in length and a vegetative
layer of 45 centimeters to minimize soil erosion.
Recycling
When the e-waste items arrive at the recycling plants, the first step involves sorting all the items
manually. After sorting by hand, the e-waste items dismantled and categorized into core materials and
components. The dismantled items are then separated into various categories into parts that can be re-
used or still continue the recycling processes. Then components are either sold as raw materials or re-
used for fresh manufacture.

3. Biomedical Waste
Biomedical waste is any kind of waste (bio-waste) containing infectious materials. It involves waste
from medical or laboratory origin.
Sources
Major Sources of biomedical waste includes the following:
 Hospitals & nursing homes
 Primary health centers.
 Medical colleges, research centers & paramedic services.
 Veterinary colleges and animal research centers.
 Blood banks, mortuaries & autopsy centers.
 Biotechnology institutions.
Characteristics
It’s crucial to identify the characteristics of biomedical wastes to implement an efficient treatment or
disposal method

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 Infectious wastes: Waste that may transmit infection from virus, bacteria and parasites to
human.
 Radioactive wastes: Unused liquid in radiotherapy or lab research, contaminated glassware’s.
 Chemical wastes: Expired lab reagents, film developers and disinfectants.
 Pharmaceuticals waste: Expired and contaminated medicines.
 Non-risk wastes: Such as office paper, wrapper, kitchen waste etc.,

Disposal
Composting: Composting is the biological decomposition of organic constituents such as leaves, food
scraps, grass by microorganisms under controlled conditions. The result of this decomposition process
is compost. Compost is the soil amendment product that results from proper composting. Composting
can greatly reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.
Reuse and Recycling: Most of the plastic wastes used are easily reused by sterilizing it. Health care
plastics are often made of high quality plastics, so they can be melted and reused for other purposes
after sterilizing them.
Scientific landfill: A scientific landfill is constructed as sustainable space for waste disposal and
treatment of biomedical waste. The use of landfill for biomedical waste has to be regarded as last
option. It should not be dumped in open space, as this leads to acute pollution problem, fires, higher
risks of disease transmission.

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