prospective assessment for long-term impact of excessive ... - CiteSeerX

ISSN 2321 – 9149 Research Article

IJAEES (2014) Vol.2, No.2, 39-45 International Journal of Advancement in Earth and Environmental Sciences

PROSPECTIVE ASSESSMENT FOR LONG-TERM IMPACT OF EXCESSIVE SOLID WASTE GENERATION ON THE ENVIRONMENT M.N. AkhtarI I

Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department, Fahad Bin Sultan University, Tabuk Saudi Arabia P.O.Box 15700, K.S.A. email- [email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT: The aim of the present study is to emphasize the issues associated to the rigorous growth of solid waste and its impact on the environment. The world's accelerated economic development in recent decades has led to a rapid urbanization and an uncontrolled population growth in fast developing countries (e.g. India and China). Changes in the consumption patterns of the region’s urban dweller have resulted in an excessive generation of municipal solid waste (MSW). Thousands of tons of solid waste are generated daily in developed and developing countries worldwide. Most of it ends up in open dumps and wetlands, contaminating surface and ground water and posing major health hazards. Only a small amount of the region’s waste is disposed of in sanitary landfills; most is deposited in open dumps or semi-controlled unlined landfills with no groundwater protection, leachate recovery, or treatment systems. The larger dumps are located on the edges of cities, towns, and villages, sometimes in ecologically sensitive areas, or areas where groundwater supplies are threatened. They serve as breeding grounds for rats, flies, birds and other organisms that serve as disease vectors. Smoke from burning refuse may be damaging the health of nearby residents and the smell degrades their quality of life. Solid waste management is a challenge for the cities’ authorities in developing countries mainly due to the increasing generation of waste, the burden posed on the municipal budget as a result of the high costs associated to its management. The lack of understanding over a diversity of factors that affect the different stages of waste management and linkages necessary to enable the entire handling system functioning. The major issues related to the management of solid waste and their appropriate alternative effortless solution were disused in the paper. KEYWORDS: Solid waste; landfills; leachate; hazards; Smoke

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. INTRODUCTION: Solid waste management has been a continually pertinent issue in our urban society especially for developing countries. Solid waste management has been one of the critical issues worldwide. With enormous amounts of generated waste per day and limited supporting infrastructure, the city has faced serious threat of environmental deterioration and health hazard. It relies that most of the cities whose capacity is currently being exceeded, leading to excessive amounts of solid wastes left untreated in the city. So far, landfill is the most widely employed for MSW disposal worldwide. Landfill can be in the form of an uncontrolled open dump or of a full containment site engineered to protect aquatic environment. Unlike engineered landfills, open dumps do not have bottom liners to prevent the seepage of leachate. Nor do these traditional landfills have a top cover or other preventive measures to reduce methane emission into the atmosphere Methane and carbondioxide are two major gases produced from the decomposition of the organic fraction of solid waste in the landfill. Methane gas (CH 4) has a 21-fold global warming potential (Figure 2) as compared to carbon dioxide (CO 2). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, such emissions contribute to 18% of the total methane emissions to the atmosphere, ranging from 9 to 70 Tg (megatonnes) annually. Therefore, landfills have been implicated as the largest source of atmospheric methane in the world, leading to a natural phenomenon called "global warming"(1). Due to global warming, changing temperature and rainfall patterns will bring a variety of pressure upon plant and animal life. If temperature rises as projected, one-third of species will be lost from their habitat, either by moving elsewhere or by becoming extinct (2). Landfilling is the simplest and normally cheapest method for disposing of waste (3). In most low-to medium-income developing nations, almost all generated solid waste goes to landfill. Even in many developed countries, landfilling is the most popular disposal method. In the European Union, although policies of reduction, reuse, and diversion from landfill are strongly encouraged, more than half of the member states still send an excess of 75% of their waste to landfill (4). Additionally, although the proportion of waste to landfill may in future decrease and the total volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW) being produced are still increasing significantly for many developed countries. Landfill is therefore expected to remain a relevant source of groundwater pollutant for the

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Akhtar, M.N. / International Journal of Advancement in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol.2, No. 2

foreseeable future [(5), (8)]. Report of United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) states that all over the world nearly 3,000 million people live in urban areas and everyday approximately 160,000 people join them Global Environment outlook, 2000) (6).\ 2. SOLID WASTES A GROWING URBAN PROBLEM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: In addition to wellknown constraints, there are many other factors acting against effective solid waste management in urban areas of developing countries, some of which are traditional values, religious beliefs and the existing caste system. For example, it is widely believed in India that work requiring direct contact with solid waste is strictly for the lower classes. Furthermore, the absence of environmental standards in most developing countries has taken the onus away from the Governments on solid waste management. Guidance on how to collect data on waste generation and management practices is given separately for municipal solid waste (MSW), sludge, industrial and other waste. 2.1. MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW): Current global MSW generation levels are approximately 1.3 billion tonnes per year, and are expected to increase to approximately 2.2 billion tonnes per year by 2025. This represents a significant increase in per capita waste generation rates, from 1.2 to 1.42 kg per person per day in the next fifteen years. However, global averages are broad estimates only as rates vary considerably by region, country, city, and even within cities (9). 2.1.1. WASTE GENERATION BY REGION: Waste generation varies as a function of affluence, however, regional and country variations can be significant, as can generation rates within the same city. Waste generation in sub-Saharan Africa is approximately 62 million tonnes per year. Per capita waste generation is generally low in this region, but spans a wide range, from 0.09 to 3.0 kg per person per day, with an average of 0.65 kg/capita/day. The countries with the highest per capita rates are islands, likely due to waste generated by the tourism industry, and a more complete accounting of all wastes generated. The annual waste generation in East Asia and the Pacific Region is approximately 270 million tones per year. This quantity is mainly influenced by waste generation in China, which makes up 70% of the regional total. Per capita waste generation ranges from 0.44 to 4.3 kg per person per day for the region, with an average of 0.95 kg/capita/day (9). Table I shows estimates of waste generation for the year 2025 as expected according to current trends in population growth in each region. Current Available Data Region

Total Urban Population (millions)

Projections for 2025

Urban Waste Generation Per Capita Total (kg/capita/day) (tons/day)

Projected Population Total Population Urban (millions) Population (millions) 1,152 518

Projected Urban Waste Per Capita Total (kg/capita/day) (tons/day)

AFR

260

0.65

169,119

0.85

441,840

EAP

777

0.95

738,958

2,124

1,229

1.5

1,865,379

ECA

227

1.1

254,389

339

239

1.5

354,810

LCR

399

1.1

437,545

681

466

1.6

728,392

MENA

162

1.1

173,545

379

257

1.43

369,320

OECD

729

2.2

1,566,286

1,031

842

2.1

1,742,417

SAR

426

0.45

192,410

1,938

734

0.77

567,545

Total

2,980

1.2

3,532,252

7,644

4,285

1.4

6,069,703

*AFR-African region *EAP-East Asian and Pacific region *ECA-Europe and Central Asian region *LCR-Latin American and the Caribbean region *MENA-Middle East and North African region

*OECD-Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development *SAR-South Asian region

(Source: Urban Development Series Knowledge Papers, A global Review of solid waste Management Daniel Hoornweg Perinaz Bhada-Tata March 2012, No.15) Table I: Waste generation Projections for 2025 by region

2.2. INDUSTRIAL SOLID WASTE (ISW): Assessment of industrial solid waste management problem greatly varies depending on the nature of the industry, their location and mode of disposal of waste. Further, for arriving at an appropriate solution for better management of industrial solid waste, assessment of nature of waste generated is also essential. The major generators of industrial solid wastes are the thermal power plants producing coal ash, the integrated Iron and Steel mills producing blast furnace slag and steel melting slag, non-ferrous industries like aluminum, zinc and


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copper producing red mud and tailings, sugar industries generating press mud, pulp and paper industries producing lime, fertilizer, and allied industries producing gypsum (Table II). S.No

Name

Quantity (million tonnes Source/Origin per annum) 1. Steel and Blast furnace 35.0 Conversion of pig iron to steel and manufacture of Iron 2. Brine mud 0.02 Caustic soda industry 3. Copper slag 0.0164 By product from smelting of copper 4. Fly ash 70.0 Coal based thermal power plants 5. Kiln dust 1.6 Cement plants 6. Lime Sludge 3.0 Sugar, paper, fertilizer tanneries, soda ash, calcium carbide industries 7. Mica scraper waste 0.005 Mica mining areas 8. Phosphogypsum 4.5 Phosphoric acid plant, Ammonium phosphate 9. Red mud/Bauxite 3 Mining and extraction of alumina from Bauxite 10. Coal washery dust 3 Coal mines 11. Iron tailing 11.25 Iron Ore 12. Lime stone wastes 50 Lime stone quarry (Source: Manual on Municipal Solid Waste Management, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, 2000) Table II: Source and Quantum of generation of some major industries waste

2.3. UTILIZATION OF SOLID WASTE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION (CEC) INDUSTRY: The different industrial waste directly or indirectly used by civil engineering construction industry. Now-a-days utilization of fly ash is a very common waste material in CEC industry. Due to industrialization and rapid economic growth, demand for electricity has been rise tremendously. To meet this demand, a number of coal based thermal power plants have been set up. The aftermath of thermal power plants is the production of Fly ash as waste material, whose disposal is a big problem. Due to ever increasing population and industrialization, need of electricity has increased many fold which has led to installation the number of thermal power projects, raising concerns over environmental pollution. The bulk of Fly ash generated is the one which is collected in the ponds by using water as a carrier in the form of slurry, called as pond ash, the utilization of pond ash is possible in the field of civil-engineering especially in construction of road embankments in place of borrowed earth which are scarce and expensive. Moreover, many power plants are situated in urban areas and therefore Fly ash can provide an environmentally viable alternative to borrowed earth. CEC Industry utilizing the Fly ash and other waste materials but the utilization is not only fulfilled our requirement we needed safe and effective disposal of waste materials. In this way, we looked-for Innovative Techniques for safe disposal of Waste Materials in (CEC) Industry. During different industrial, mining, agricultural and domestic activities, huge quantity of solid wastes are being generated as by-products, which pose major environmental problems as well as occupy a large area of lands for their storage/disposal. There is a tremendous scope for setting up secondary industries for recycling and using such huge quantity of solid wastes as minerals or resources in the production of construction materials. Fly Ash has become an important raw material for various industrial and construction applications. It is widely used in manufacturing of bricks, cement, asbestos-cement products and roads/embankments. In order to maximize the use of alternative construction materials produced from different types of solid waste and to make the lab-based production processes feasible in real world, the Good mechanical and durability performance of the newer products dissemination of technologies emphasizing cost-benefit analysis, and feasibility assessment report will significantly contribute to the successful commercialization of the innovative processes. The alternative construction materials obtained from industrial, agroindustrial and mining solid wastes have ample scope for introducing new building components that will reduce the cost of construction to some extent. Therefore, the entrepreneurs and construction agencies must be encouraged to develop new products and processes using the solid wastes as raw materials, thus paving the innovative way for setting up secondary industries. 3. COMMON PROBLEMS: The common practice for household refuse disposal in rural areas is to dump solid wastes openly in backyard gardens or in an open space. Such indiscriminate disposal is an environmental hazard and can threaten human health and safety. Solid waste that is improperly disposed of can result in a number of problems. It can create a breeding ground for pathogenic microorganisms and vectors of disease, and cause a public nuisance due to unsightliness and bad smell. It can cause contamination of surrounding soil, groundwater and surface water, and it can also create fire hazards, physical hazards and have poisoning effects (from pesticides and insecticides).The traditional approach where municipal authorities monopolise waste management, ignoring other stakeholders, using command-and-rule strategies, and ill-adapted imported technology is common in urban cities. The immediate health effects from hazardous wastes range from bad smells and simple irritation of eyes, skin, throat and breathing (lungs), to serious health conditions that


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affect the nervous system and could cause paralysis of the functional body parts. Some hazardous solid wastes have teratogenic (birth defects) and carcinogenic (cancer causing) effects. 3.1. PROBLEM ANALYSIS: 3.1.1. THE INDIAN WASTE SITUATION: According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the average Indian generates about 490 grams of waste per day. Although the per capita waste is low compared to western countries, the volume is huge. The generation of solid waste in Indian cities has been estimated to grow with 1.3 percent annually. The expected generation of waste in 2025 will therefore be around 700 grams per capita per day. Considering that the urban population of India is expected to grow to 45 percent from the prevailing 28 percent, the magnitude of the problem is likely to grow even larger unless immediate steps are taken (10). 3.1.2. ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, HUMAN HEALTH, AND WASTE: The most obvious environmental damage caused by solid waste is aesthetic, i.e. waste that litter public areas is ugly and smelly. A more serious risk is the transfer of pollution to ground water and land as well as the pollution of air from improper burning of waste. Many waste activities generate greenhouse gases; e.g., landfills generate methane and refuse fleets are significant sources of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Open burning dumpsites produce volatilized heavy metals (e.g. mercury and lead), dioxins, and furan. Leachate from unlined and uncovered dumpsites contaminates surface and ground waters (11). 3.1.3. NON-CYCLICAL PERSPECTIVE: A fundamental problem is the linear, non-cyclical, way of treating and relating to waste in India, both on paper and in practice. Waste is not seen as a resource that can be refined (e.g. as nutritious compost manure or energy) or recycled (e.g. into new paper and plastic), and thereby generate wealth. Instead, it is often treated as the evil leftover that needs to be eliminated. Moreover, waste is rarely discussed as part of a cycle of production, consumption, and recovery, nor is it assessed in relation to environmental sustainability. On the contrary, SWM is seen as a linear process of collection and disposal and the preceding actions of production and consumption are seldom reflected upon (12). 3.1.4. TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS: In most developing countries, there typically is a lack of human resources at both the national and local levels with technical expertise necessary for solid waste management planning and operation. Many officers in charge of solid waste management, particularly at the local level, have little or no technical background or training in engineering or management. Without adequately trained personnel, a project initiated by external consultants could not be continued. Therefore, the development of human resources in the recipient country of external support is essential for the sustainability of the collaborative project. Research and development activities in solid waste management are often a low priority in developing countries. The lack of research and development activities in developing countries leads to the selection of inappropriate technology in terms of the local climatic and physical conditions, financial and human resource capabilities, and social or cultural acceptability. As a result, the technology selected can never be used, wasting the resources spent and making the project unsustainable. Several guides/manuals on appropriate solid waste management technologies in developing countries are available in the literature, and the selection of technology could be made sometimes based on these guides/manuals. However, in most cases, these guides/manuals must be modified to the local conditions prevailing in the country, and therefore local studies are normally still needed. Such studies can be relatively easily incorporated into a collaborative project and, to the extent possible, should involve local research institutions. 3.1.5. INSTITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTS: Several agencies at the national level are usually involved at least partially in solid waste management. However, there are often no clear roles/functions of the various national agencies defined in relation to solid waste management and also no single agency or committee designated to coordinate their projects and activities. The lack of coordination among the relevant agencies often results in different agencies becoming the national counterpart to different external support agencies for different solid waste management collaborative projects without being aware of what other national agencies are doing. The lack of effective legislation for solid waste management, which is a norm in most developing countries, is partially responsible for the roles/functions of the relevant national agencies not being clearly defined and the lack of coordination among them. Legislation related to solid waste management in developing countries is usually fragmented, and several laws (e.g., Public Health Act, Local Government Act, Environmental Protection Act, etc.) include some clauses on rules/regulations regarding solid waste management. The rules and regulations are enforced by the different agencies. However, there are often duplication of responsibilities of the agencies involved and gaps/missing elements in the regulatory provisions for the development of effective solid waste management systems. It should be also noted that legislation is only effective if it is enforced. Therefore,


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comprehensive legislation, which avoids the duplication of responsibilities, fills in the gaps of important regulatory functions, and is enforceable, is required for sustainable development of solid waste management systems. Because of a low priority given to the sector, the institutional capacity of local government agencies involved in solid waste management is generally weak, particularly in small cities and towns. Local ordinance/by-laws on solid waste management is not also well developed. These weak local government institutions are not provided with clear mandates and sufficient resources to fulfill the mandates. In large metropolitan areas where there is more than one local government, coordination among the local governments is critical to achieve the most cost-effective alternatives for solid waste management in the area. 3.1.6. SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS: The social status of solid waste management workers is generally low in both developed and developing countries, but more so in developing countries then developed countries. This owes much to a negative perception of people regarding the work which involves the handling of waste or unwanted material. Such people's perception leads to the disrespect for the work and in turn produces low working ethics of laborers and poor quality of their work. Because of insufficient resources available in the government sector, collaborative projects often have attempted to mobilize community resources and develop community self-help activities. Results are a mixture of success and failures. Failed projects with inactive communities usually did not provide people in the community with economic as well as social incentives to participate in activities. The social incentive is based on the responsibility of individuals as part of the community for the improvement of the community, and is created by public awareness and school education programmes. The lack of public awareness and school education about the importance of proper solid waste management for health and well-being of people severely restricts the use of community-based approaches in developing countries. At dump sites, transfer stations, and street refuse bins, waste picking or scavenging activities are common scenes in developing countries. People involved have not received school education and vocational training to obtain knowledge and skills required for other jobs. They are also affected by limited employment opportunity available in the formal sector. The existence of waste pickers/scavengers creates often an obstacle to the operation of solid waste collection and disposal services. However, if organized properly, their activities can be effectively incorporated into a waste recycling system. Such an opportunistic approach is required for sustainable development of solid waste management programmes in developing countries.

Figure I: Open Dumps of MSW in Developing Countries

Figure II: Landfill Leachate Generation

4. CONTROL POINT DEFINING THE BASIC PROBLEMS IN WASTE DISPOSAL: 1. Local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community based organizations (CBOs), and associations such as Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and Women’s Associations will be offered training in SWM. 2. General awareness started from grassroots level in school, colleges, universities, residential areas by government and local peoples to shows the excessive solid waste generation problems on the environment and its impact on future generation. 3. Another project objective is to remove the social stigmas and taboos surrounding waste; instead of perceiving waste as something dirty, it should be seen as a lucrative resource from which one could make a living. By offering competitive


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salaries, good working conditions, professional uniforms, and etcetera, to the employees, we hope to change negative perceptions surrounding waste. 4. Government imposed charge on waste producing companies, factories, shopping centers, hotels also on some residential areas where the daily waste generation rate is high. The charge also depends on the types of waste generation biodegradable or non-biodegradable. 5. Strengthening of existing awareness structures amongst local public waste generation problems directly concerned with local public. The Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods applied by Hand in Hand practitioners ensure local ownership and problem framing at the grassroots level. 6. Use of print and electronic media to generalize the SW issue worldwide at large scale by government and nongovernment organization. 7. Encourage the private sector to set up the secondary industries to reuse and recycle the solid waste in civil engineering construction (CEC) industry. 5. CONCLUSION: Solid waste management is certainly not a stand-alone system. One way of looking at its complexity and linkages to the surrounding system is using systems analysis. In this study, such an approach has been tried by control point defining the basic problems in waste disposal. This resulted in a broad analysis that firstly, identified the inter-links between the solid waste streams and their surroundings, and secondly, illustrated the magnitude of environmental consequences associated with the whole system. Another highlight issue is the large impact of untreated waste on the environment. In some cases, this impact is even dominating the total picture of an improved waste management system. The reduction of untreated waste through better arrangements and an improved waste collection system was identified to be the key if significant change is attempted to. Another highlight is to utilizing of solid waste in CEC Industry is help full in minimizing the impact of solid waste on environment. There is a tremendous scope for setting up secondary industries for recycling and using such huge quantity of solid wastes as minerals or resources in the production of construction materials. Fly Ash has become an important raw material for various industrial and construction applications. It is widely used in manufacturing of bricks, cement, asbestos-cement products and roads/embankments etc. The alternative construction materials obtained from industrial, agro-industrial and mining solid wastes have ample scope for introducing new building components that will also reduce the cost of construction to some extent. Finally, the way of looking at solid waste management with a broader perspective, is a prospective approach to achieve more just analysis and introduce an effective, rational, and integrated policies and programs; attempting to maximally avoid impacts from related-systems, and taking into account the potentials of energy and materials from waste rather than merely see it as a local burden. Enhanced awareness of decision makers may lead to changing national socioeconomic and industrial development policies and associated government programmes in favor of improving solid waste management systems in developing countries. REFERENCES: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

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