DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

MIZORAM UNIVERSITY
AIZAWL, MIZORAM-796001
2016-2018
INTRODUCTION:
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE" INCLUDES
 Commercial
 and residential wastes
 generated in a municipal or notified areas in either solid or semi-solid form
 excluding industrial hazardous wastes but including treated bio-medical
waste

IPCC: THE IPCC INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING IN MSW:

 food waste; garden (yard) and park waste;

 paper and cardboard; wood;
 textiles; nappies (disposable diapers);
 rubber and leather; plastics;
 metal; glass (and pottery and china); and other (e.g., ash, dirt, dust, soil,
electronic waste)
 CLASSIFICATION
Typical classification of solid waste was suggested by Hosetti and Kumar
(1998) and it is as follows:

 1. Garbage: Putrecible wastes from

food, slaughterhouses, canning and
freezing industries.

 2. Rubbish: non-putrecible wastes

either combustible or non-
combustible. These include wood,
paper, rubber, leather and garden
wastes as comustible wastes
whereas the non-combustible wastes
include glass, metal, ceramics,
stones and soil.

 3. Ashes: Residues of combustion,

solid products after heating and
cooking or incineration by the
municipal, industrial, hospital and
apartments areas.
 4. Large wastes: Demolition and
construction wastes, automobiles, furniture’s,
refrigerators and other home appliances,
trees, fires etc.

 5. Dead animals: Household pets, birds,

rodents, zoo animals, and anatomical and
pathological tissues from hospitals.

 6. Sewage sludges: These include

screening wastes, settled solids and sludges.

 7. Industrial wastes: Chemicals, paints,

sand and explosives.

 8. Mining wastes: Tailings, slug ropes, culm

piles at mine areas

 9. Agricultural wastes: Farm animal

manure, crop residues and others.
Traditionally these wastes are categorized into the following five types:
 Residential: It refers to wastes generated
mainly from dwelling, apartments, and
consisted of leftover food scrapes, vegetables,
peeled material, plastics, wood pieces, clothes
and ashes.

 Commercial: This mainly consists of grocery

materials, leftover food, glasses, and metals,
ashes generated from stores, hotels, markets,
shops and medical facilities.

 Institutional: The wastes generated from
schools, colleges and offices include, paper,
plastics, and glasses.

 Municipal: This includes dust, leaf litter,

building debris, and treatment plant sediments.
These arise from various activities like
demolition, construction, street cleaning, land
scraping etc.

 Agricultural: This mainly includes spoiled food

grains, vegetables, grass, litter etc., generated
from fields and farms.
WASTE COMPOSITION
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Density: It is expressed as mass per unit
volume (kg/m³).
 This parameter is required for designing a
solid waste management program.
 A reduction in volume by 75% is achieved
through normal compaction equipment, so
that an initial density of 100kg/m³ may
readily be increased to 400 kg/m³.
 Significant changes in the density occur as
waste moves from sources to disposal site,
as a result of scavenging, handling,
wetting, and drying by the weather and
vibration during transport.
 Density is critical in the design of sanitary
landfill as well as for storage, collection
and transport of wastes.
 Efficient operation of landfill requires
compaction of wastes to optimum density.
Moisture Content
 It is defined as the ratio of weight of water content in the
waste to the total weight of the wet waste.

 A typical range of moisture content is 20-40% and it varies

with the season of the year. Values greater than 40% are
also not common.
 Moisture increases the weight of the solid wastes and
therefore the cost of collection and transport increases.
 Consequently waste should be insulated from rain or other
extraneous water source.
 Moisture content is critical determinant in the economic
feasibility of waste treatment by incineration.
 During incineration energy must be supplied for evaporation
of water and raising the temperature of vapour.
CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Lipids:
 These are included in the class of fats, oils and grease.
 The principal sources of lipids in the garbage are cooking oil and fats.
 Since lipids become liquids at temperature slightly above ambient they
add to the liquid content during waste decomposition.
 They are biodegradable, but they have low solubility in water and
hence the rate of biodegradation is slow.
Carbohydrates:
 These are primarily originated from the food sources rich in starch and
celluloses.
 These readily biodegrade into carbon dioxide, water and methane.
 Decomposition of carbohydrates attracts the flies and rats and hence
should not be left exposed for long duration
Proteins:
 These are the compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and
oxygen and organic acid with amino groups.
 They are primarily found in food and garden wastes, but their partial
decomposition result in the production of amines, which impart
unpleasant odors.
Natural Fibers:
 These are the natural products contain cellulose and lignins that are
relatively resistant to biodegradation.
 These are found in paper products, food and yard wastes.
 Paper is almost 100% cellulose, cotton over 95% and wood products
over 40-50%.
 These are highly combustible products most suitable for incineration.
 The calorific value of oven dried paper products are in the range
12000-18000 kj/kg.

Synthetic Organic Materials:

 In the recent years plastics have become a significant components of
solid waste, accounting for 1-10%.
 They are highly resistant to the biodegradation; hence their presence
in the waste is objectionable. Currently much attention is given to
reduce this component at disposal sites.
 Plastics have a high heating value, about 32000 kj/kg, which makes
them very suitable for incineration. However, among the plastics
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) when burnt produces dioxin and acid gas.
 The trace gases produced during the burning of plastic are proved to
be carcinogenic.
 EFFECTS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID
WASTES
Insects:
 A common transmission route of bacillary
dysentery, amoebic dysentery and other
diarrhoeal diseases are from human fecal
matter spread through flies to food or water,
thence to man.
 The breeding of mosquitoes in discarded
tyres, tins, and jam bottles are reported.

Rats and other vertebrate vectors:

 The main source of food for rats and other
smaller rodents is refuse and rubbish dumps
where they can quickly proliferate and spread
to neighboring houses.
 The rats become vectors to histoplasmosis,
rat bite fever, salmonellosis, tularemia and
trichinosis etc.
 In addition to this the other birds like pigeons,
crows seagulls also sere as vectors.
Fire:
 Ashes added to combustible refuse pose a
great danger at the source and fire in
uncontrolled tips has been known to burn
for months or even years.
 Flammable industrial wastes increase the
danger of fire and can convert old tyres
into toxic gases (dioxins and furans).

Odor:
 While passing through a crowded city in
tropical areas a travellor may experience
bad smell. It is due to the combination of
rottening vegetation and fecal matter and
other solid wastes indiscriminately
discarded.
 When this stink persists all the day and
night it causes a major environmental
nuisance.
 This bad smell is also due to the release of
hydrogen sulfide during decomposition.
OTHER EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Atmospheric Pollution:
 When refuse is burnt in an open area, a
dense smoke often covers the site and
neighboring land.
 The gaseous discharges from the
incomplete combustion may include
SO2, NOx and various gases. If PVC is
a constituent of the refuse, the gases
may include hydrogen chloride.
 The solid wastes cause air pollution.
Burning of solid wastes in open dumps
or use of improperly designed
incinerators produce excessive pollution.
 Studies revealed that emission from the
uncontrolled burning leads to the
production of particulate matter, sulfur
oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon
monoxides, lead and mercury.
Visual Pollution:

 The aesthetic feeling is offended by the

unsightfullness of piles of wastes on the
roadsides.
 This situation was being made worst by the
presence of scavenging animals, especially
in the third world countries.
 The scavenging animals search their food
in the waste and spread it around places.
 Similarly the rag pickers in India also create
such unhygienic scene while collecting
recyclables.
 This creates an ugly situation and under
such conditions apart form cleaning the
waste, there is a need to educate the public
about environmental health.
 Undesirable noise and traffic sound is also
produced while operating the landfills and
incinerators. This is due to the movement of
vehicles and large machines.
Tourism/Ethics/Recreation:

 Uncontrolled refuse and sanitary tips

in full public view are eye corers.
 If tourism is important in such cases
esthetic nuisance may reduce the
number of visitors with the resultant
economic loss.
 There can be depreciation of the
value of property nearer to a garbage
area or incinerator spillage from
vehicle.
 In addition to this, bad smell,
increase of flies, rats, windblown dust,
paper and plastics all of which are
harmful to the locality.
 On the other hand, refuse can be
used in a well-planned controlled way
to improve low lying and derelict or
arid lands and property values may
then increase in the vicinity.
Water Pollution:

 When the rain run-off joins the

surface water sources there is an
inevitably pollution due to
suspended solid particles.
 Organic matters exert high oxygen
demand and pathogen load can
create a health risk to downstream
users.
 Unless the water table is not high or
underlying rock is not fissured, the
ground water will be hardly affected.
 Dumps should not be close to
shallow wells. A distance of 12 kms
is suggested.
 On the other hand avoidance of
ground water pollution is of
paramount importance in the
dumping of refuse.
Thank You!!