TOPIC 5 – FINALS: sanitation residue, and waste from streets.

They
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT are in either solid or semisolid form and generally
exclude industrial hazardous wastes.
What is Solid Waste? • This garbage is generated mainly from residential
and commercial complexes. With rising
• Solid waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge
urbanization and change in lifestyle and food
from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply
habits, the amount of municipal solid waste has
treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and
been increasing rapidly and its composition
other discarded materials including solid, liquid,
changing.
semi-solid, or contained gaseous material,
• The term residual waste relates to waste left from
resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and
household sources containing materials that have
agricultural operations, and from community
not been separated out or sent for reprocessing.
activities, but does not include solid or dissolved
• Organic waste: kitchen waste, vegetables,
materials in domestic sewage, or solid or
flowers, leaves, fruits.
dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or
• Toxic waste: old medicines, paints, chemicals,
industrial discharges that are point sources.
bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide
• The increase in population and urbanization was
containers, batteries, shoe polish.
also largely responsible for the increase in solid
• Recyclable: paper, glass, metals, plastics.
waste.
• Soiled: hospital waste such as cloth soiled with
• In Simple Words - Solid wastes are any discarded
blood and other body fluids.
(abandoned or considered waste-like) materials.
Solid wastes can be solid, liquid, semi-solid or Garbage: The Four Broad Categories
containerized gaseous material.
The type of litter we generate and the approximate
Dump Site time it takes to degenerate
Approximate time it
Type of litter takes to degenerate the
litter
Organic waste such as
vegetable and fruit peels, A week or two
leftover foodstuff, etc.
Paper 10 – 30 days
Cotton cloth 2 – 5 months
Wood 10 – 15 years
Woolen items 1 year
Tin, aluminum, and other
100 – 500 years
metals such as cans
Classification of Solid Waste Plastic bags One million years?
Glass bottles Undetermined
Solid waste can be classified into:
If you put it in a landfill now, the following would be
a. Household waste is generally classified as
decomposed
municipal waste,
b. Industrial waste as hazardous waste, and Approximate time it
c. Biomedical waste or hospital waste as infectious Type of litter takes to decompose the
waste. litter
Municipal Solid Waste Paper Bag Next month
Wool Sock Next year
• Municipal solid also called urban solid waste, is Aluminum Can 2060 AD
a waste type that includes predominantly Disposable Nappies 2560 AD
household waste (domestic waste) with Plastic Bags 3010 AD
sometimes the addition of commercial Plastic Jug 1,002,010 AD
wastes collected by a municipality within a given Glass Bottle 1,500,000 AD
area construction and demolition debris, Styrofoam Cup 7,500,000,000 AD
Municipal Solid Waste Treatment & Resource chemical wastes, etc. These are in the form of
Recovery System disposable syringes, swabs, bandages, body
fluids, human excreta, etc. This waste is highly
infectious and can be a serious threat to human
health if not managed in a scientific and
discriminate manner. It has been roughly
estimated that of the 4 kg of waste generated in a
hospital at least 1 kg would be infected.

Integrated Waste Management System – Materials

Recovery Facility (IWMSMRF)

• COMPONENT NO. 1: LIQUEFACTION

TECHNOLOGY - Simple processes and
operations to convert garbage into energy and
reusable materials. Use of Liquefaction, which is
a dissolver, pulpier, separator, washer, and
shredder in one reactor.
• COMPONENT NO. 2: DOST-ITDI
Hazardous Waste BIOREACTOR ACCELERATED COMPOSTING
TECHNOLOGY - A continuous in-vessel
• Industrial and hospital waste is considered
composting system designed to accelerate the
hazardous as they may contain toxic substances.
decomposition of organic waste into a biologically
Certain types of household waste are also
stable material under controlled condition,
hazardous. Hazardous wastes could be highly
thereby produce Organic Fertilizer.
toxic to humans, animals, and plants; are
• COMPONENT NO. 3:
corrosive, highly inflammable, or explosive; and
SEPTAGE/WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND
react when exposed to certain things e.g., gases.
BIOMETHANATION (METHANE CAPTURE)
• Additionally describe a "hazardous waste" as a
FACILITY – Compact high-rate WTP/STP
waste (usually a solid waste) that has the
system designed for effluent standard
potential to: cause, or significantly contribute to
compliance and water recycling/re-use purposes.
an increase in mortality (death) or an increase in
• COMPONENT NO. 4: INDUSTRIAL AND
serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible
HOSPITAL WASTE TREATMENT AND
illness; or pose a substantial (present or potential)
DISPOSAL FACILITY – High thermal
hazard to human health or the environment when
decontamination/destructive gasification of
improperly treated, stored, transported, or
industrial and biomedical waste into carbon char
disposed of, or otherwise managed. There are
residue, indistinguishable from its original waste
four factors that determine whether or not a
characteristics.
substance is hazardous:
• COMPONENT NO. 5: INERT MATERIALS
• Ignitability
CONVERSION/COMPACTION/BRIQUETTING/
• (i.e., flammable) reactivity corrosively toxicity CONCRETE BLOCKS PRODUCTION
Hospital Waste FACILITY – The non-recyclable materials will
undergo further transformation by particle
• Hospital waste Hospital waste is, also known as fixation-cementation process to produce concrete
clinical waste or Medical waste, normally refers to blocks or inert composite end product utilized in
waste products that cannot be considered road and building construction purposes.
general waste, produced from healthcare • COMPONENT NO. 6: FOOD PRODUCTION,
premises, such as hospitals, clinics, doctors CASH CROPS AND FOREST BUFFER ZONE
offices, labs and nursing homes. COMPONENT – This facility is designed to be the
• Generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or internal receptor/user of final products such as
immunization of human beings or animals or in treated water and organic fertilizer.
research activities in these fields or in the
production or testing of biological. It may include
wastes like sharps, soiled waste, disposables,
anatomical waste, cultures, discarded medicines,
Managing our Solid Waste: An Overview of the mountain of garbage slid down, burying in its
Ecological Solid Waste Management Act course not a few garbage pickers, should
strengthen our resolve to do something about our
• Much had been written about the worsening wasteful lifestyles.
problem of solid waste in Metro Manila and other • Second, talks about landfill, as an alternative
urban centers in the country. Even more were
engineering solution to the garbage problem for
fora, seminars and conferences conducted to
the so called residual waste, is fine. But where to
discuss ways of solving the problem. For how
site the landfill is another thing. For years,
long would it take us to attain a zero-waste
negotiations for landfill for Metro Manila’s
economy, no one knows. But, one thing is sure -
garbage had elicited not only long debates
time is running out and WE need to act NOW!
among our political leaders but also emotional
Why we? outbursts from prospective host communities.
• Perhaps the most important reason why we have
• The answer is simple, but at the same time, mind- to act now on the worsening solid waste problem
boggling. Let’s take a look at the statistics of is their impact on human health. Health is a basic
Metro Manila’s solid waste. Based on studies human right. We all deserve to live in a cleaner
made by the National Solid Waste Management environment. We all desire for a healthy family…
Commission Secretariat based at the a healthy neighborhood… a healthy nation. And,
Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), it is the only way to satisfy these desires is to do away
estimated that the per capita waste production with garbage that breeds flies, roaches, rodents
daily is 0.5 kg. This means that for every person and harmful bacteria that can spread diseases in
living in the metropolis, he or she generates half our homes and in our communities.
a kilo of waste a day. With an estimated
population of 10.5 million, total waste generated What is R.A. No. 9003?
in Metro Manila alone could run up to 5,250 metric
• Republic Act No. 9003 or the “Ecological Solid
tons per day. Or, 162,750 metric tons per month.
Waste Management Act” provides the legal
Or, 1.95 million metric tons per year. Definitely,
framework for the country’s systematic,
that’s a lot of waste to speak of.
comprehensive and ecological solid waste
• Next, let’s talk about how our daily waste is being
management program that shall ensure
disposed of. Again, based on the EMB study, only
protection of public health and the environment. It
about 73% of the 5,250 metric tons of waste
underscores, among other things, the need to
generated daily are collected by dump trucks
create the necessary institutional mechanisms
hired by our respective local government units.
and incentives, as well as imposes penalties for
That is assuming our LGUs are faithful to their
acts in violation of any of its provisions.
duties to us, taxpayers. The remaining 27% of our
daily waste or about 1,417.5 metric tons end up
in canals, vacant spaces, street corners, market
places, rivers and other places where, ironically,
there’s a sign that reads “HUWAG MAGTAPON
NG BASURA DITO. ANG MAHULI, BUGBOG
SARADO!” That explains why WE need to act. As
part of the problem, because we produce
garbage ourselves, we can also be part of the
solution by reducing our contribution to the waste
problem.

Why now?

• Because at the rate we are producing waste, we

will soon find ourselves buried in our own trash.
Or, shall we say, we will soon be having more of
our human-made mountains of garbage amidst
us?
• The tragedy that has befallen the residents of
Payatas dump site in Quezon City, when its
 Biodegradable waste includes organic waste, e.g.,
kitchen waste, vegetables, fruits, flowers, leaves from the
garden, and paper.

Non biodegradable waste can be further segregated

into:

a) Recyclable waste – plastics, paper, glass, metal,

etc.
b) Toxic waste – old medicines, paints, chemicals,
bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide
containers, batteries, shoe polish.
c) Soiled – hospital waste such as cloth soiled with
blood and other body fluids. Toxic and soiled
waste must be disposed of with utmost care.

The realistic facts are that any activities undertaken

to reduce the amount of - recyclable - waste brought
to Payatas.

Waste management concepts A view from the Old Payatas Dumpsite towards the New
Dumpsite. The picture is shot standing on the site of the
• There are a number of concepts about waste
landslide in year 2000.
management which vary in their usage between
countries or regions. Some of the most general,
widely used concepts include:
a. Waste hierarchy - The waste hierarchy refers
to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle, which
classify waste management strategies according
to their desirability in terms of waste.
b. Minimization - The waste hierarchy remains
the cornerstone of most waste minimization A monument is erected as a sad reminder of the tragedy.
strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to
extract the maximum practical benefits from
products and to generate the minimum amount of
waste.
c. Polluter pays principle - the Polluter Pays
Principle is a principle where the polluting party
pays for the impact caused to the environment.
With respect to waste management, this
generally refers to the requirement for a waste
generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the Some items that can be recycled or reused
waste.
1. Paper
Segregation of waste - Old copies
- Old books
Waste can be segregated as - Paper bags
1. Biodegradable and - Newspapers
2. Non biodegradable - Old greeting cards
- Cardboard box
 2. Plastic • The dump truck moves towards the dumping
- Containers area. The area is seething with activities; all
- Bottles related to recycling and the selling of the
- Bags recyclable products. Around 1,000 trucks per day
- Sheets arrive at Payatas - each carrying 2--3 tons of
3. Glass and Ceramics waste.
- Bottles • Every kind of recyclable is treated in a specific
- Plates way to allow for maximum price.
- Cups • Cardboard is baled using homemade tools.
- Bowls • Maybe hoping for a somewhat better price next
4. Miscellaneous time.
- Old cans
- Utensils What you can do to reduce solid waste?

Source of generation of waste plastics • Carry your own cloth or jute bag when you go
shopping.
1. HOUSEHOLD • Say no to all plastic bags as far as possible.
- Carry bags • Reduce the use of paper bags also.
- Bottles • Reuse the soft drinks poly bottles for storing
- Containers water. Segregate the waste in the house –keep
- Trash bags two garbage bins and see to it that the
2. HEALTH AND MEDICARE biodegradable and the no biodegradable is put
- Disposable syringes into separate bins and dispose off separately.
- Glucose bottles
- Blood and uro bags Solid Waste and its Disposal
- Intravenous tubes
• Solid waste is either dumped in the ocean or
- Catheters
disposed of what it is produced, by processes,
- Surgical gloves
such as refilling and landscaping disused mines.
3. HOTEL AND CATERING
- Packaging items There are only three places for wastes to end up in
- Mineral water bottles each place.
- Plastic plates, glasses, spoons
4. AIR/RAIL TRAVEL 1. Landfill Sanitary
- Mineral water bottles - landfill is designed to reduce the amount of
waste that leaks out of it into the environment.
- Plastic plates, glasses, spoons
The requirements for sanitary landfill vary
- Plastic bags
with local condition. It is designed to protect
the environment from pollution and uses the
methane produced in the landfill to generate
electricity. Water dissolves pollutants out of
the garbage forming a solution known as
leachate.
2. Incineration
- one way to reduce the volume of waste that
must go to the landfill is to burn it first. Even
modern incinerator causes pollution adding
• The weighing scale is the key to all business. fly ash, gases and particulate matter into air.
Recyclables are sold by weight but larger items 3. Ocean dumping
are handled individually. - about 50 million tons waste a year are
• Colonel Jaymalin explains to the junk shop discharged into the ocean, 300 kilometers off-
owners how to make improvements in their shore. Disease-causing organisms and
business and at the same time consider the heavy metals have destroyed numerous
interests of the scavengers. coastal fisheries.
• The results from the scavenging and recycling.
Modern Sanitary Landfill Cross Section
 Garbology

• Garbage management and disposal activities.

a. Individual Action:

1. Reuse item whenever possible.

2. Encourage source reduction.
3. Precycle. A new concept , it implies simply that
you should consider the end result of everything
you buy and where it will eventually rest.
4. Compost the natural degradable organic wastes.
5. Burning anything from leaves to paper, creates
toxic emissions.
6. Reuse and recycle plastics.
7. Reuse returnable and refillable glass bottles.
Sanitary Landfills
8. Buy or shop where you get fruits and vegetables
• An alternative to landfills which will solve the without plastics wrappings.
problem of leaching to some extent, is a sanitary 9. Wash and reuse plastic and silverware plate. Use
landfill which is more hygienic and built in a paper plates instead of Styrofoam.
methodical manner. These are lined with 10. Save paper whenever possible, reuse paper
materials that are impermeable such as plastics bags, scrap paper for notes.
and clay, and are also built over impermeable 11. Carry your own paper or plastic bag; reuse them
soil. Constructing sanitary landfills is very costly many times.
and they are have their own problems. Some 12. Buy durable products, like cloth napkins, silver
authorities claim that often the plastic liner wares, etc.,
develops cracks as it reacts with various chemical 13. When things break, repair them.
solvents present in the waste. 14. share newspapers and magazines with others.
• The rate of decomposition in sanitary landfills is 15. Have garage sales or charity pickups rather than
also extremely variable. This can be due to the simply throwing away household goods you’ve
fact that less oxygen is available as the garbage tired of.
is compressed very tightly. It has also been 16. Buy nickel cadmium batteries.
observed that some biodegradable materials do 17. Consider recycling; encourage recycled and
not decompose in a landfill. Another major recyclable goods at work.
problem is the development of methane gas, 18. Buy recycled printing and writing paper.
which occurs when little oxygen is present, i.e. 19. Carry your own clean forks, knives, spoons and
during anaerobic decomposition. In some plastics straw and cup.
countries, the methane being produced from 20. Join opposition to the use of incinerator.
sanitary landfills is tapped and sold as fuel. 21. Save magazines, Styrofoam etc., for children’s
• At the landfill, engineering designs prevent arts and crafts.
lecheate from seeping into water tables, thus
b. Government Action:
protect the city’s water resources. Recycling
transforms residual waste into bricks and tiles. 1. Recycling should be adopted in every nation,
Chemicals convert soft garbage through the state and community
process of decomposition using biologically- 2. Encourage recycling operation
friendly processes to produce solid, liquid, and 3. Deposit laws for bottles and cans should be
gaseous products. mandated in all states.
• The operation of the Sanitary Landfill as provided 4. Garbage collection should paid for by user’ fees.
in the city’s Ecological Solid Waste Management 5. Higher taxes should be imposed non recycled or
Program has four components: public awareness disposable products.
campaign; waste segregation into biodegradable, 6. Non-degradable plastic should be banned.
recyclable, and residual components; recycling 7. Packaging standards for both retail and
and composting of recyclable and biodegradable wholesale merchandise should be required.
components; and land filling of residual solid
waste.
Composition of Solid Waste in Manila Waste Type Points of Contact
Composition (% wet weight)
• Soil adsorption, storage and biodegrading
• Metals 5.8 • Plant uptake
• Glass 3.5 • Ventilation
• Plastics 1.6 • Runoff
• Other Inverts 20.7 • Leaching
• Paper 12.9 • Insects, birds, rats, flies and animals
• Putrescibles 53.7 • Direct dumping of untreated waste in seas, rivers
• Textiles 1.8 and lakes results in the plants and animals that
• Total 100 feed on it

Based on the above population estimates and a Categories of Waste Disposal

generation rate of 0.4 kg/p/day, the downtown residential 1. DILUTE AND DISPERSE (ATTENUATION)
areas are generating somewhere between 1,560 and • Throw it in the river / lake / sea
3,360 kg/day depending on the resident population. • Burn it
Based on an estimated waste density of 209 kilograms • Basically, this involves spreading trash thinly
per cubic meter (kg/m3) from other studies in the over a large area to minimize its impact
Philippines, the populations noted above should generate • Works for sewage, some waste chemicals,
solid waste at a rate between 7.5 and 16 cubic meters of when land-disposal is not available
solid waste per day (m3/day). • Plastic in Pacific
However, results of the survey performed in 2002 2. CONCENTRATE AND CONTAIN (ISOLATION)
reported an average daily waste collection rate of • Waste dumps, landfills
approximately 7.1 m3/day. • Historically, that’s how most of the solid
waste gets treated
Impacts of Solid Waste on Health
Useful Options
• The group at risk from the unscientific disposal of
solid waste include – the population in areas • Resource recovery
where there is no proper waste disposal method, • Composting
especially the pre-school children; waste • Vermicomposting
workers; and workers in facilities producing toxic • Energy recovery
and infectious material. • Incineration
• Pyrolysis
Impacts of Waste • Gasification
• Bio-methanation or anaerobic digestion
• Some countries are expected to become warmer,
although sulfates might limit warming in some Impacts of waste on health
areas.
• Scientists are unable to determine which parts of • Chemical poisoning through chemical inhalation
those countries will become wetter or drier, but • Uncollected waste can obstruct the storm water
there is likely to be an overall trend toward runoff resulting in flood
increased precipitation and evaporation, more • birth weight
intense rainstorms, and drier soils. • Cancer
• Whether rainfall increases or decreases cannot • Congenital malformations
be reliably projected for specific areas. • Neurological disease
• Nausea and vomiting
Sources of Human Exposures • Increase in hospitalization of diabetic residents
living near hazard waste sites.
Exposures occurs through
• Mercury toxicity from eating fish with high levels
• Ingestion of contaminated water or food of mercury.
• Contact with disease vectors • Goorah, S., Esmyot, M., Boojhawon, R. (2009).
• Inhalation The Health Impact of Nonhazardous Solid Waste
• Dermal Disposal in a Community: The case of the Mare
 Chicose Landfill in Mauritius. Journal of
Environment Health, 72(1) 48-54
• Kouznetsova, M., Hauang, X., Ma, J., Lessner, L.
& Carpenter, D. (2007). Increased Rate of
Hospitalization for Diabetes and Residential
Proximity of Hazardous waste Sites.
Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(1)75-75
• Barlaz, M., Kaplan, P., Ranjithan, S. & Rynk, R.
(2003) Evaluating Environmental Impacts of solid
Waste Management Alternatives. BioCycle, 52-
56.

Effects of waste on animals and aquatics life

• Increase in mercury level in fish due to disposal

of mercury in the rivers.
• Plastic found in oceans ingested by birds.
• Resulted in high algal population in rivers and
sea.
• Degrades water and soil quality.

Impacts of waste on environment

• Waste breaks down in landfills to form methane,

a potent greenhouse gas
• Change in climate and destruction of ozone layer
due to waste biodegradable
• Littering, due to waste pollutions, illegal dumping,
Leaching: is a process by which solid waste enter
soil and ground water and contaminating them.
• U.S. Environment Protection Agency (2009)

Solid Waste Management Model