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NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY Course: ENV 107.3 Assignment # 1 Course Instructor: Md.

Ja ariya(J y) Date of Submission: 24th October 25, 2011

Submitted By: Name: MAHBUB AHMED PATHAN ID: Subject: DISCUSSION OF A STRATEGY TO MANAGE THE URBAN WASTE IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY Contents: 1. Introduction to Waste Management 2. Early Methods of Waste Management 3. Modern Methods of Waste Management 4. Landfill Disposal as a Strategy for Waste Management 5. Other Induce-able Waste Management Strategies 6. Ensuring of a Sustainable Sanitary Landfill

Introduction To Waste Management: Waste management involves numerous different iated types of process li e collecting, transporting, processing, recycling, dis posing, and monitoring of waste. Without proper waste management not only are we damaging the beauty and health of our environment but we are also influencing n egative effects that the waste can cause, on our own health. Waste management significantly differs for d eveloped and developing countries, for urban and rural areas, and for residentia l and industrial producers. Many developing countries are still many years away from developing proper waste management systems. Despite the recent technological advancement, land-fill disposal i s still the most frequently used method of waste disposal in most parts of the w orld, including US. This is mainly due to lower costs relative to other manageme nt strategies such as Incineration, Rendering, Al aline Hydrolysis, Digestion Me thods, Autoclaving, Bioremediation, etc. Urban waste management is drawing increasin g attention globally, as citizens observe that too much garbage is lying uncolle cted in the streets, causing inconvenience and environmental pollution, and bein g a ris for public health. This issue is articulated by Practical Action in the ir column titled Urban Waste Management in the following words: Waste Management for developing countries is a neglected sector and on average 50% of the generated waste is not collected and remains lying in the low income areas. Collected waste is disposed of in an un-controlled manner, often creating adverse impacts on water resources, smo e and dust to the nearby population and degradation of land. Research has showed t

hat waste-related wor creates 2% to 5% of employment in Asian towns, with most of those benefitting being poor men and women. Municipalities spend 40% of their operational budget on waste-related activities, which often benefit commercial, high and middle income areas only. Estimates show that 10 million chronically p oor people rely on waste pic ing for their day to day survival. Increasingly, the private formal sector i s seen as a ey participant in the full range of urban waste management activiti es, including collection, transportation, treatment, processing, separate collec tion, recycling, composting, and disposal of waste.

Early methods of waste management: During the first century of the Industrial Revol ution, the volume of waste produced in the United States was relatively small, a nd waste could be managed through the concept of "dilute and disperse. Factories were located near rivers because the water provided a number of benefits, includ ing easy transport of materials by boat, sufficient water for processing and coo ling, and easy disposal of waste into the river. With few factories and a sparse population, dilute and disperse was sufficient to remove the waste from the imm ediate environment. As industrial and urban areas expanded, the concept of dilute and disperse becam e inadequate, and a new concept nown as "concentrate and contain," came into us e. It has become apparent, however, that containment was, and is, not always ach ieved. Containers, whether simple trenches excavated in the ground or metal drum s and tan s, may lea or brea and allow waste to escape. Health hazards resulti ng from past waste disposal practices have led to the present situation, in whic h many people have little confidence in government or industry to preserve and p rotect public health. Modern Concepts of waste management: The environmentally correct concept with respect to waste management is to consi der wastes as resources out of place. The increasing cost of raw materials, ener gy, transportation and land ma e it financially feasible to reuse and recycle wa stes. Moving toward this objective is moving toward an environmental view that t here is no such thing as waste. Under this concept, waste would not exist becaus e it would not be produced or, if produced, would be a resource to be used again . This concept is referred to as the zero waste movement. Zero waste is the essence of industrial ecology, the study of relationships amon g industrial systems and their lin s to natural systems. Under the principles of industrial ecology, the industrial society would function much as a natural eco system functions. Waste from one part of the system would be a resource for anot her part. For example, waste from urban areas may be placed in landfills and may cause problems by producing methane gas. Managed properly, however, methane pro duced from landfills is a resource that can be burned as a fuel (an example of i ndustrial ecology). I n Bangladesh, the only feasible strategy with respect to economic and other so cio-political conditions is the landfill disposal. LANDFILL DISPOSAL AS A BASIC STRATEGY FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT: Burying Waste as a practice of disposing of was te in a landfill, is what remains as a common practice for most countries. Landf ills were often established in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or bor row pits. A properly designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and re latively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. Older, poorly desig ned or poorly managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental imp

acts such as wind-blown litter, attraction of vermin, and generation of liquid l each ate. Another common byproduct of landfills is gas (mostly composed of metha ne and carbon dioxide), which is produced as organic waste brea s down an aerobi cally. This gas can create odor problems, ill surface vegetation, and is a gree nhouse gas. According to a 15 month study conducted in 200 3 by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), only 44 percent of al l waste generated is collected. That means that 1,200 tons of garbage swamp Dha as public places every day. When garbage is illegally deposited into waterways, the fishermen lose their livelihood; and the fish, their habitat. Arsenic poisoning is a consequence to that eff ect. To prevent this hazard, disposal in waterways must be prevented by ma ing t he landfill process more efficient at every step from collection till the final stage of treatment. Total amount of waste generated in rural areas are comparati vely very low and has insignificant pollution effects. Hence if adequate urban w aste management policies are underta en, we can control all the different pollut ion effects on the environment, water bodies, etc. If proper solid waste managem ent from the landfill sites, along with segregation of organic waste and their t reatment to eliminate and recycle the hazardous elements is carried out more eff ectively, it would constitute a substantial urban waste management strategy. Typically, in non hazardous waste landfills, in order to meet predefined specifications, techniques are applied by which the wastes are: Confined to as small an area as possible. Compacted to reduce their volume. Covered (usually daily) with layers of soil. If a sustainable urban waste management is a chieved by incorporating landfill disposal process in an integrated waste manage ment system, the major multiplier effects will be: Fruitful for the society and communities, who benefit economically and environme ntally from the development and implementation of an informed consensus on best practice in urban waste management. Companies in the UK waste management sector will benefit from the development of innovative approaches and best practice expertise in urban waste management tha t can be exported around the world. National, regional and local government will be able to set and to meet appropri ate targets for sustainable urban waste management to the environmental, economi c and social benefit of the communities they serve for.

Induce- able waste management: Integrated waste management is defined as a set of management alternatives that includes reuse, source reduction, recycling , composting, landfill and incineration. Reduce, Recycle, Reuse The ultimate objective of reduce, reuse and recycling is to reduce the amount of urban and other waste that must be dis posed of in landfills, incinerators and other waste management facilities. A 50% reduction by weight of urban waste could be facilitated by: Better design of pac aging to reduce waste, an element of source reduction (10% reduction) Large-scale composting programs (10% reduction)

Establishment of recycling programs (30% reduction). Recycling is a major process in th e reduction of the urban waste stream. It is estimated that as much as 80-90% of the US waste stream might be recovered through intensive recycling. More realistic for many communitie s is partial recycling, which targets a specified number of materials, such as g lass, aluminum cans, plastic, organic material and news print. Partial recycling can provide a significant reduction, and in many places it is approaching or ev en exceeding 50%. Mar ets for recycled products As with many other industrial was te management solutions, implementing the integrated waste management concept su ccessfully can be a complex underta ing. In some communities where recycling has been successfully implemented, it has resulted in glutted mar ets for the recyc led products, which has sometimes required temporary stoc piling or suspension o f recycling of some items. It is apparent that if recycling is to be successful, mar ets and processing facilities will also have to be developed to ensure that recycling is a sound financial venture as well as important part of integrated waste management. Composition of solid waste Paper is by far the most abundan t solid waste. Other solid wastes include yard trimmings, food scraps, plastics, metals, rubber, leather, textiles, glass and wood. Considerable variations in t he composition of solid waste may occur based on factors such as land use, econo mic base, industrial activity, climate and season of the year. On-site disposal A common on-site disposal metho d in urban areas is the mechanical grinding of itchen food waste. Garbage dispo sal devices are installed in the wastewater pipe system at the itchen sin , and the garbage is ground and flushed into the sewer system. This effectively reduc es the amount of handling and quic ly removes food waste. Final disposal is tran sferred to sewage-treatment plants, where solids remaining as sewage sludge stil l must be disposed of. Composting Composting is a biochemical proce ss in which organic materials such as lawn clippings and itchen scraps decompos e to a rich, soil-li e material. The composting process involves r apid partial decomposition of moist solid organic waste by aerobic organisms. La rge-scale composting is generally carried out in the controlled environment of m echanical digesters. This technique is popular in Europe and Asia, where intense farming creates a demand for the compost. A major drawbac of the composti ng is the necessity of separating organic material from other waste. Therefore, it is probably economically advantageous only where organic material is collecte d separately from other waste. Composting plant debris previously treated with h erbicides may produce a compost toxic to some plants. Nevertheless, composting i s an important component of integrated waste management. Incineration In incineration, combustible wa ste is burned at temperatures high enough (900-1,000C) to consume all combustible material, leaving only ash and non-combustibles to dispose of in a landfill. Unde r ideal conditions, incineration may reduce the volume of waste by 75-95%. In pr actice, however, the actual decrease in volume is closer to 50% because of maint enance problems as well as waste supply problems.

Besides reducing a large volum e of combustible waste to a much smaller volume of ash, incineration has another advantage in that the process of incineration can be used to supplement other f uels and generate electrical power. Incineration of urban waste is not necessarily a clean process. Incineration may produce air pollution and tox ic ash. Incineration is a significant source of environmental dioxin, a carcinog enic toxin. Smo estac s from incineration may emit oxides of nitrogen and sulfur , which lead to acid rain and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury and carbon dioxide which is related to global warming. In modern incineration facilit ies, smo estac s are fitted with special devices to trap pollutants, but the pro cess of pollutant abatement is expensive. The economic viability of inci nerators depends on revenue from the sale of the energy produced by burning the waste. As recycling and composting are increased, they will compete with inciner ation for their portion of the waste stream and sufficient waste to generate a p rofit from incineration may not be available. Open dumping Open dumps are located wherever land is available, without regards to safety, health hazards or aesthetic degra dation. Common sites are abandoned mines and quarries, where gravel and stone ha ve been removed, natural low areas such as swamps or floodplains and hillside ar eas above or below towns. The waste is often piled as high as equipment allows. In some instances, the refuse is ignited and allowed to burn. In others, the ref use is periodically leveled and compacted. As a general rule, open dumps create a nuisance by being unsightly, providing breeding grounds for pests, crea ting a health hazard, polluting the air and sometimes polluting the groundwater and surface water. Sanitary landfills A sanitary landfill is designe d to concentrate and contain refuse without creating a nuisance or hazard to pub lic health or safety. The idea is to confine the waste to the smallest practical area, reduce it to the smallest practical volume, and covers it with a layer of compacted soil at the end of each day of operation or more frequently if necess ary. Covering the waste ma es the l andfill sanitary. The compacted layer restricts (but does not eliminate) continu ed access to the waste by insects, rodents and other animals such as seagulls. I t also isolates the refuse, minimizing the amount of surface water seeping into and gas escaping from the waste. Leach ate The most significant hazard f rom a sanitary landfill is pollution of groundwater or surface water. If waste b uried in a landfill comes into contact with water percolating down from the surf ace or with groundwater moving laterally through the refuse, leach ate- noxious, mineralized liquid capable of transporting bacterial pollutants- is produced. The nature and strength of th e leach ate produced at a disposal site depends on the composition of the waste, the amount of water that infiltrates or moves through the waste, and the length of time that infiltrated water is in contact with the refuse. Site selection The sitting of a sanitary land fill is very important. A number of factors must be ta en into consideration, in cluding topography, location of the groundwater table, amount of precipitation,

type of soil and roc and location of the disposal zone in the surface water and groundwater flow system. A favorable combination of climatic, hydrologic and ge ologic conditions helps to ensure reasonable safety in containing the waste and its leach ate. The best sites are in arid re gions, where disposal conditions are relatively safe because little leach ate is produced. In a humid environment, some leach ate is always produced. The sittin g of waste disposal facilities also involves important social considerations, su ch as local resistance. Ensuring a Sustainable Sanitary Landfill: Once a site is chosen for a s anitary landfill and before filling starts, monitoring the movement of groundwat er should begin. Monitoring is accomplished by periodically ta ing samples of wa ter and gas from specially designed monitoring wells. Monitoring and proper main tenance of an abandoned landfill reduce its pollution potential. Even when some landfills are more effectively isolated from hazardous waste than others, all landfills must deal with Leach ate. Leach ate from hazardous waste landfills is generally highly po lluted. Most landfills attempt to contain leach ate at the site and prevent its discharge to surface or groundwaters. To retain leach ate within a disposal area, subsurface barriers of materials such as concrete, asphalt; butyl rubber, vinyl , and clay are used. It is difficult to assure that these materials can seal a l andfill indefinitely. When a subsurface barrier fails, the leach ate enters the groundwater in a concentrated, narrow band which may bypass monitoring wells. On ce a subsurface barrier has failed, repairs are time-consuming and costly, since the waste above the repair site may have to be removed. The central problem in landfill disposal is leach ate control. Recent emphasis has been on developing subsurface barriers to contain the wastes and any leach ate. Future emphasis should also b e on techniques for removing water from hazardous wastes before they are placed in landfills, and on methods for preventing contact of the wastes with water dur ing and after disposal operations. When leach ate is eliminated, the problems of monitoring, and subsurface barrier failure and repair can be addressed, and a w aste can be effectively isolated. A surface seal landfill design is recommended for maintaining the dry state of solid hazardous wastes and for c ontrolling leach ate. Any impervious liner is utilized over the top of the landf ill to prevent surface water from seeping into the waste. The surface barrier is also the site where monitoring and maintenance activities are focused. Barrier failure can be detected by visual inspections and any repairs can be made withou t disturbing the waste. The surface seal landfill does not employ a subsurface b arrier. The surface seal landfill successfully addresses each of the four enviro nmental problems listed above, provided that this landfill design is utilized fo r dry wastes only and is located at a site which provides protection from ground water and temporary perched water tables. Organic waste buried in a land fill can generate greenhouse gases, according to the US Environmental Protecting Agency. But when the organic waste is composted in the open air, these gases ar e not made. The fact of this negative generation amounts to carbon credits, whic h can be traded on overseas mar ets for $20 per ton. Hence, it is really importa nt to translate those wastes into resources because that will help the country a chieve sustainable development in the years ahead

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