Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University

Assignment On
Municipal Solid Waste Management
Course Title: Waste Management
Course Code: ESD317

Submitted To
Dr. Md. Rasheduzzaman Pobitrro
Assistant Professor
Department of: Environmental Science & Disaster
Management, BSMRSTU

Sumitted By,
Name: Sharmin Jannat Rida
Student ID: 18ESD077
Year: 3rd
Semester: 1st
Session: 2018-2019
Department Of: Environmental Science &
Disaster Management, BSMRSTU
 1

Table of content

1.Waste.
1.1Types of Wastes.

2.Solid waste.
2.1.Types of solid waste

3. Waste management concept.

3.1.Reduce.
3.2. Reuse.
3.3 Recycle

4.Principles of waste management

4.1 Waste Hierarchy.
4.2 Life-cycle of a product.
4.3 Resource efficiency.
4.4 Polluter-pays principle.
5. Solid-waste management
6. Components of solid waste management.
6.1 Collection.
6.2 Waste handling and separation, storage and processing at the source.
6.3 Segregation and processing and transformation of solid wastes.
6.4 Transfer and transport.
6.5 Disposal.
6.6 Reusing.
6.7 Composting.
6.8 Landfills.
6.9 Incineration.
6.10 Energy generation.

7.Benefits and Advantages of Waste Management

7.1 Better Environment.
7.2 Increases Employment Opportunities.
7.3 Preserves Energy

8.References
 2

Waste
Introduction
 Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance which is
discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use.
 A by-product by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value.
 A waste product may become a by-product, joint product or resource through
an invention that raises a waste product's value above zero.

Fig-1: Waste.

Types of Wastes: There are many types of waste which as follows -

 Solid Waste.
 Liquid Waste.
 Commercial Waste.
 Agricultural Waste and Residues.
 Biomedical Waste.
 Chemical Waste.
 Gaseous Waste.
 Biodegradable Waste.

Solid waste:
 It is defined as “ non liquid, non-soluble materials ranging from municipal garbage to
industrial industrial wastes that contain complex & sometimes hazardous substances”.
Solid waste also include:
 Garbage.
 Rubbish.
 3

 Demolition products.
 Sewage treatment residue.
 Dead animals.
 Manure and other discarded material.

Types of solid waste: Broadly there are 3 types of waste which as follows-

1. Household waste as municipal waste.

2. Industrial waste as hazardous waste.
3. Biomedical waste or hospital waste as infectious waste.

Municipal solid waste:

 Municipal solid waste (MSW) includes all items from homes and businesses that people
no longer have any use for. These wastes are commonly called trash or garbage and
include items such as food, paper, plastics, textiles, leather, wood, glass, metals, sanitary
waste in septic tanks, and other wastes.

 MSW is usually left on the curbside weekly and picked up by a dump truck and taken to
be buried in a landfill or burned in an incinerator. MSW may be taken to a transfer station
for consolidation before it is taken to a landfill or an incinerator. MSW may be sent to a
permitted processing facility.

Industrial waste:
 Industrial waste is characterised as waste generated by fabrication or industrial processes.
 Industrial waste can also be toxic or hazardous waste. If not managed properly, this type
of industrial waste can cause harm to humans, animals and the environment by
contaminating waterways, such as rivers and lakes.
 There are many sectors of industrial manufacturing that produce waste, including:
 Various types of factories.
 Mining.
 Textile mills.
 Food manufacturing
 4

Biomedical waste:
 Biomedical waste (BMW) is any waste produced during the diagnosis, treatment, or
immunization of human or animal research activities pertaining thereto or in the
production or testing of biological or in health camps.
 Biomedical waste may be solid or liquid. Examples of infectious waste include
discarded blood, sharps, unwanted microbiological cultures and stocks, identifiable body
parts (including those as a result of amputation), other human or animal tissue,
used bandages and dressings, discarded gloves, other medical supplies that may have
been in contact with blood and body fluids, and laboratory waste that exhibits the
characteristics described above.

Waste management concept:

 Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes 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 and waste-related laws, technologies, economic mechanisms.

 The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to be followed for waste management.

Fig-2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Reduce
• The best way to deal with trash is to not have any!
 5

• Reducing the amount of trash you have to throw out actually prevents waste from piling
up in the first place.
• To reduce your waste, avoid unnecessary packaging and items designed to be used only
once.
– Reduce the need for ’single use’ plastic bags by bringing your own bags when you
shop, and use a travel mug when you buy coffee.
– Choose durable, reusable products to make less trash.

Reuse
• Reusing items can save energy and money, and prolong the item’s useful life.
• Extend the life of items you buy by reusing them.
– For example, reuse containers and jars, and donate still usable household goods and
clothing to charity.

Recycle
• Every day we use products made from recycled materials.
• Take your glass, cans, newspapers, milk jugs and other acceptable recyclable items to
your local transfer station, drop off location or place out for curbside collection so that
they can be turned into new products like fleece jackets,
• Frisbees, paper products, and soda cans. Recycling saves money, energy, and the
environment.
• 36.76% of Maine's municipal solid waste was recycled in 2015.

Principles of waste management

Waste Hierarchy:

 The first and vital principle of waste management refers to the 3 R’s, Reuse, Recycle,
Reduce. The waste hierarchy is represented in the form of a pyramid because the basic
premise is the promotion of integrated methods to prevent waste generation.
 The upcoming step is to think of various ways by which the waste can be reused again;
This step is then followed by the waste recycling step, which includes composting.
 The next step includes material restoration, waste conversion, and energy production
techniques.
 6

 The final and the last step is the disposal of the remaining wastes that can’t be processed
further. It includes incineration or disposing of the landfills.

Fig-3: Waste management hierarchy.

Life-cycle of a product

 The life-cycle begins with the design, then proceeds through manufacture, distribution,
and primary use and then follows through the waste hierarchy's stages of reduce, reuse
and recycle.
 Each stage in the life-cycle offers opportunities for policy intervention, to rethink the
need for the product, to redesign to minimize waste potential, to extend its use. Product
life-cycle analysis is a way to optimize the use of the world's limited resources by
avoiding the unnecessary generation of waste.

Resource efficiency

 Resource efficiency reflects the understanding that global economic growth and
development cannot be sustained at current production and consumption patterns.
Globally, humanity extracts more resources to produce goods than the planet can
replenish.
 Resource efficiency is the reduction of the environmental impact from the production
and consumption of these goods, from final raw material extraction to the last use and
disposal.
 7

Polluter-pays principle
 The polluter-pays principle mandates that the polluting party pays for the impact on the
environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement
for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the unrecoverable material.

Solid-waste management

 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.

Components of solid waste management

The municipal solid waste industry has four components: recycling, composting, disposal,
and waste-to-energy via incineration. The waste management hierarchy is made up of four levels
ordered from most preferred to least preferred methods based on their environmental soundness:
Source reduction and reuse; recycling or composting; energy recovery; treatment and disposal.

Collection
 The functional element of collection includes not only the gathering of solid waste and
recyclable materials, but also the transport of these materials, after collection, to the
location where the collection vehicle is emptied. This location may be a materials
processing facility, a transfer station or a landfill disposal site.

Waste handling and separation, storage and processing at the source

 Waste handling and separation involves activities associated with waste management
until the waste is placed in storage containers for collection. Handling also encompasses
the movement of loaded containers to the point of collection. Separating different types
of waste components is an important step in the handling and storage of solid waste at the
source of collection.
 8

Segregation and processing and transformation of solid wastes

 The types of means and facilities that are now used for the recovery of waste materials
that have been separated at the source include curbside ('kerbyside' in the UK) collection,
drop-off and buy-back centers. The separation and processing of wastes that have been
separated at the source and the separation of commingled wastes usually occur at a
materials recovery facility, transfer stations, combustion facilities and treatment plants.

Transfer and transport

 This element involves two main steps. First, the waste is transferred from a smaller
collection vehicle to larger transport equipment. The waste is then transported, usually
over long distances, to a processing or disposal site.

Disposal
 Today, the disposal of wastes by land filling or land spreading is the ultimate fate of all
solid wastes, whether they are residential wastes collected and transported directly to a
landfill site, residual materials from materials recovery facilities (MRFs), residue from
the combustion of solid waste, compost, or other substances from various solid waste
processing facilities.
 A modern sanitary landfill is not a dump; it is an engineered facility used for disposing of
solid wastes on land without creating nuisances or hazards to public health or safety, such
as the problems of insects and the contamination of groundwater.

Reusing
 In recent years, environmental organizations, such as Freegle or The Freecycle Network,
have been gaining popularity for their online reuse networks. These networks provide a
worldwide online registry of unwanted items that would otherwise be thrown away, for
individuals and nonprofits to reuse or recycle. Therefore, this free Internet-based service
reduces landfill pollution and promotes the gift economy.

Composting
 Another method of treating municipal solid waste is composting, a biological process in
which the organic portion of refuse is allowed to decompose under carefully controlled
conditions. Microbes metabolize the organic waste material and reduce its volume by as
much as 50 percent. The stabilized product is called compost or humus.
It resembles potting soil in texture and odour and may be used as a soil conditioner or
mulch.

 Composting offers a method of processing and recycling both garbage and

sewage sludge in one operation. As more stringent environmental rules and siting
constraints limit the use of solid-waste incineration and landfill options, the application of
 9

composting is likely to increase. The steps involved in the process include sorting and
separating, size reduction, and digestion of the refuse.

Landfills
 Landfills are created by land dumping. Land dumping methods vary, most commonly it
involves the mass dumping of waste into a designated area, usually a hole or sidehill.
After the waste is dumped, it is then compacted by large machines.
 When the dumping cell is full, it is then "sealed" with a plastic sheet and covered in
several feet of dirt. This is the primary method of dumping in the United States because
of the low cost and abundance of unused land in North America.
 Landfills are regulated in the US by the Environmental Protection Agency, which
enforces standards provided in the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, such as
requiring liners and groundwater monitoring. This is because landfills pose the threat of
pollution and can contaminate groundwater.
 The signs of pollution are effectively masked by disposal companies, and it is often hard
to see any evidence. Usually, landfills are surrounded by large walls or fences hiding the
mounds of debris. Large amounts of chemical odor eliminating agent are sprayed in the
air surrounding landfills to hide the evidence of the rotting waste inside the plant.

Incineration
 Incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to
combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. This method is
useful for disposal of both municipal solid waste and solid residue from waste water
treatment. This process reduces the volumes of solid waste by 80 to 95 percent.
 Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes
described as "thermal treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials
into heat, gas, steam, and ash. Incineration is a controversial method of waste disposal,
due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants including substantial quantities
of carbon dioxide.

Energy generation
 Municipal solid waste can be used to generate energy because of the lipid content present
within it. A lot of MSW products can be converted into clean energy if the lipid content
can be accessed and utilized. Several technologies have been developed that make the
processing of MSW for energy generation cleaner and more economical than ever before,
including landfill gas capture, combustion, pyrolysis, gasification, and plasma
arc gasification.
 10

 Waste-to-Energy facilities accept our solid waste and combust it at very high
temperatures, producing heat that is used to convert water into steam. The steam is used
to run turbines that generate electricity.
 Scrubbers, filters, and other pollution control equipment reduce pollutants released during
the incineration process. Ash and other residues from this process are landfilled.
 Over 27% of Maine's municipal solid waste was combusted in 2015.

Fig-4: Energy generation

Benefits and Advantages of Waste Management

Better Environment

 One of the major advantages of a waste management system is that it leads to a better and
fresher environment. The methods discussed above ensure that harmful and toxic
chemicals such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane get separated from
wastes and don’t enter the atmosphere; This will help cut down many factors that
adversely impact our environment and make it disease-free.

Increases Employment Opportunities

 Various recycling industries and organizations create a lot of job and employment
opportunities for sacked people. As more and more organizations and companies adopt
 11

this eco-friendly practice, more and more people will join these companies for work, thus
creating and selling many recycled products.

Preserves Energy

 The process of recycling is of vital importance as it helps generate useful products from
garbage. The recycled products can serve as a new energy source that can be used
thereafter, thus, reducing our dependency on direct sources of energy.
 12

References:
1.Kumar, Sunil; Dhar, Hiya; Nair, Vijay V.; Bhattacharyya, J. K.; Vaidya, A. N.; Akolkar, A. B.
(2016). "Characterization of municipal solid waste in high-altitude sub-tropical
regions". Environmental Technology. 37 (20): 2627–2637.

2. Non-hazardous Waste U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Municipal Solid Waste

3.^ Municipal Solid Waste Archived 2010-11-20 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Energy
Information Administration

4. Mechanical Biological Treatment Archived 2007-09-27 at archive.today Welsh Assembly

(2005) Mechanical Biological Treatment, Environment Countryside and Planning Website,
Welsh Assembly

5.^ "Organics -Green Bin". Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 19 March 2016.

6.^ Zhou, Hui; Meng, AiHong; Long, YanQiu; Li, QingHai; Zhang, YanGuo (August 2014).
"An overview of characteristics of municipal solid waste fuel in China: Physical, chemical
composition and heating value". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 36: 107–
122. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2014.04.024.

7.^ Nonhazardous waste Archived 2010-11-20 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Energy
Information Administration

8. "United Nations Statistics Division – Environment Statistics". unstats.un.org. Archived from

the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.

9.^ "Editorial Board/Aims & Scope". Waste Management. 34 (3): IFC. March
2014. doi:10.1016/S0956-053X(14)00026-9.

10. "Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change". www.ipcc.ch. Retrieved 5

April 2022.