2. Integrated Solid Waste Management
To achieve the municipal solid waste management goals, it is necessary to establish an integrated and sustainable system that meets the needs of the entire urban population. In this part of the waste management module we will understand the system in place for solid waste management.
Waste hierarchy
To achieve the municipal solid waste management goals, it is necessary to establish an integrated and sustainable solid waste management system that meets the needs of the entire urban population. The waste hierarchy[5] is a set of disposal methods to efficiently use the resources.These include the following :
i) Prevention and reduce:
As per the waste hierarchy, prevention or avoidance of waste at the source is the top most priority. The actions should include reducing the generation of waste such as packaging material or redesigning the products.
ii) Reuse:
The goal of reuse is to maximize the use of the material without putting in additional energy and avoid unnecessary consumption of new materials.
iii) Recycling:
The recycling of materials to new products or raw materials will keep the material in loop and reduce the need for virgin material. Recycling also includes composting of organic waste.
iv) Resource Recovery[6]
:
When recycling is not feasible, the next option should be to recover the energy from the material in the form of heat, electricity, or fuel by combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, etc.
v) Landfill:
The landfill option should be considered only for waste materials that cannot be safely recycled; such as hazardous waste or any rejects.
The below waste hierarchy pyramid figure below shows the most preferred and least preferred processes in the waste management system:
Municipal solid waste management:
Solid waste may be generated from municipal sources (residential) or non municipal sources which include discarded materials from various industries. Municipal solid waste management involves the plan for the generation, collection,transportation and disposal of waste. [7]
The Solid Waste Management Rules 2016[8]
have given an important responsibility to (ULB) to manage the municipal solid waste at the city level. The main goal of municipal solid waste management is to reduce the volumes of waste and to protect the health of the urban population. Further (MSWM) aims to :
- To protect environmental health
- To promote the quality of the urban environment
- To support the efficiency and productivity of the economy
- To generate employment and income
First let’s understand what municipal waste would comprise.
Characterization of municipal Waste:
Municipal solid waste comprises 40-60% of India’s biodegradable waste while the percentage of India’s plastic waste is around 9-10% [9]
of the total waste generated. This MSW is collected from different sources of generation: households, offices, public institutions, and organizations; The characteristics of MSW are dependent on local culture, standard of living and natural resources and consumption patterns which is further divided into different categories like:[10]
1.Biodegradable municipal waste:
This includes kitchen waste, garden waste and vegetable market rejects. The disposal method for this may be composting or biomethanation.
2.Municipal dry waste:
This category includes plastics, paper, household rejects, textile waste, old shoes, post consumer packaging etc. The centralized treatment for this includes sorting, segregation, recycling of recyclable and landfilling of rejects.
3.Biomedical waste:
Solid waste generated from households, hospitals or nursing homes which is also disposed of by controlled incineration. At household level this may include cotton, bandages, sanitary napkins etc.
