Solid Waste Issue:

Sources, Composition, Disposal,

Recycling, and Valorization
Hussein I. Abdel-Shafy a, Mona S.M. Mansour b,
a Water Research & Pollution Control Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo,
Egypt
b Analysis & Evaluation Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Ahmed El-
Zomor
Street, Nasr City Cairo, Egypt

 Disposal of solid wastes is a stinging and widespread problem in both urban and rural areas
in many developed and developing countries. Municipal solid waste (MSW) collection and
disposal is one of the major problems of urban environment in most countries worldwide
today.
 MSW management solutions must be financially sustainable, technically feasible, socially,
legally acceptable and environmentally friendly. Solid waste management issue is the biggest
challenge to the authorities of both small and large cities’.
 Valorization of food organic waste is one of the important current research areas. The
conventional landfill, incineration, composting, and ways of handeling solid wastes are
common as mature technologies for waste disposal. The most commonly used technologies
for the treatment and valorization of the organic fraction of MSW are composting and
anaerobic digestion (AD).
 Most of the organic solid wastes (OSW’s) are composed of agricultural waste, household food
waste, human and animal wastes, etc. They are normally handled as animal feed, incinerated
or disposed to landfill sites. OAW’s are comprised of materials rich in proteins, minerals, and
sugars that could be used in other processes as substrates or raw materials.
 The inadequate waste management cause alteration the ecosystems including air, water, and
soil pollution, thus it represents a real threatening to human health. The local population
nearby MSW facilities have low weight at birth, congenital anomalies, and few types of
cancers.
 The improper bin collection practices, collection, transfer and/or transport systems have great
effect on the characteristics of the solid wastes. As plastics are essentially hydrocarbons, they
possess a calorific values ranged between 30 and 40 MJ/kg. Thus, they can be burned or
incinerated in the municipal or other dedicated wastes with power and heat generation.
 Waste valorization concerns with the process of converting waste materials into more useful
products including fuels, materials, and chemicals.
 Organic solid state fermentation (SSF) is presented as a promising technology for organic
waste. The utilization of household food wastes with high dry content to produce high yields of
ethanol by SSF valorization is achieved via the bioconversion of these wastes.
Microorganisms play an important role in the degradation of organic wastes into their
constituents to convert them into high value-added products.
 Valorization of organic matter solid waste can be accomplished via composting and anaerobic
digestion. The advantage of producing compost is the technical simplicity of the process. To
cover part of the integrated solid waste management strategies costs, it was found that
valorizing and recycling activities, has turned into a valuable income.
Review on the Impacts of Waste
Disposal Sites in the Philippines
Van Ryan Kristopher R. Galarpe1,
1
Department of Physics, College of Science and Mathematics, University of Science and
Technology of Southern Philippines
C.M. Recto Avenue, Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro, 9000 Philippines

 The Republic Act (RA) 9003-Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) Act of 2000 of the
Philippines provides the mandate and framework for solid waste management in the country.
The implementation however on the local government units reflects the lack of institutional
arrangements for waste management. Reasons were drawn from inadequate technical and
financial resources, lack of political will, unwillingness of stakeholders, and minimal local
awareness.

 Present studies reviewed in this paper evidenced the threat that disposal sites may pose to
the environment from potential leaching of hazardous chemicals due to dumped wastes. Also
highlights the opportunities drawn by adjacent community through employment (scavenging)
from the disposal sites.

 Disposal sites must have appropriate control for leachate, landfill gas, and a lined pit to
ensure safe operations. On site monitoring, however, revealed incomplete leachate and gas
handling and a need to rehabilitate the disposal site facilities.

 Overall, it can be inferred that potential contamination of disposal sites to environment can
manifest in groundwater, soil, air, plants, and scavenging animals adjacent to the site.
Adjacent community can similarly be affected jeopardizing their own health.

 Although disposal sites can pose health risks, community tends to continually settle with
present options owing to perceived economic dependence through employment and
resources.
Toward Sustainable Development of
a Landfill: Landfill to Landscape and
Landscape along with Selection
(A Review)
Ashkan Nochian*, Osman Mohd Tahir, Suhardi Mualan and Ding Rui
Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra
Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

 Among prevalent methods of disposal for municipal solid waste, landfilling is the most
common one. A landfill requires a piece of land and receive a huge amount of wastes for a
certain period of time. Therefore, an important question arises on how to re-use this piece of
threatening land.

 The aim of this study is to highlight the benefits of landscape work with the roles of landscape
architects or equivalent disciplines to succeed a sustainable development of a landfill site not
only after the landfill being closed but also from the beginning of it.

 Landscape work is commonly used in the closure and post-closure stage to stabilize landfill’s
topsoil (capping), control run-off, integrate the rehabilitated site into its surrounded
environment, and eventually build a green space for the benefits of communities. In other
words, in landfill industries landscape mainly bring into consideration in the final stage which
called closure and post-closure (Laner et al., 2012; Tasmanian Department of Primary
Industries, 2004). However, this study found out that the landscape can play a significant role
along with landfill from a very early stage to the last to create a real sustainable project.

 In conclusion, it can be stated that turning a landfill site to a landscape area after the site
being closed (which is common practice in many parts of the world) does not guarantee the
achievement of sustainability, rather landscape has to be along with landfill from beginning
stage to the end.
A Systems Approach on Solid Waste
Management in Metro Manila,
Philippines
Rhea Abigail Navarro
Lund University, Sweden 26 November 2003

 The thesis endeavors to present solid waste management in Metro Manila as a system and
recommend solutions using a systems approach. The specific aims are the following:
• To present the current state of SWM in Metro Manila, the challenges it faces and the
actors involved.
• To analyze the relationships between significant elements in the Metro Manila SWM
system using causal loop analysis.
• To create models to illustrate these relationships.
• To create and model scenarios wherein different solutions in the SWM system are
applied.
• To evaluate the effect of these improvements to the SWM system.
• To recommend and discuss applicable solutions to the SWM system.

 This study looks into the solid waste management situation in Metro Manila, Philippines as a
system. It looks specifically, into the wastes generated, its generators and the policies, the
authorities and bodies involved in its management. Solid waste, here, refers to municipal solid
waste that is under government responsibility.

 Metro Manila generates a total of 6 140.40 tons of refuse/day (see Table 6.1). Per capita
generation may vary depending on income level. In 1997, the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) study team found a ratio of 500:451:344 for high, middle and low
income per capita generation, respectively (JICA/MMDA, 1999). Using this information, a
weighted average is calculated.
Opportunities and Threats to
Adjacent Community in a Sanitary
Landfill, Philippines
Van Ryan Kristopher R. Galarpe a,b and Richard B. Parilla c
a Faculty, Biology Department, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, Cagayan de Oro City,
Philippines 9000
b Faculty, Chemistry Department, Mindanao University of Science and Technology,
Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines 9000
c Biology Department, University of San CarlosNasipit, Talamban, Cebu City, Philippines
6000

 This study assessed the adjacent community in Cebu City Sanitary Landfill (CCSL),
Philippines. Data were gathered on April, 2011 using interview-questionnaire covering sixty
three households. Areas assessed include the general household profile, perceived
opportunities, water resources and utilization, health status and services, waste management
practices, and perception to CCSL management and institutions.

 Result showed that households perceived opportunities in CCSL as a result of employment,

resources, and security through informal workforce like scavenging. However, the adjacent
community was found to be at high risk owing to use of contaminated groundwater and
unsafe waste management practices. These threats were manifested through prevalence of
gastrointestinal, respiratory, and dermal diseases.

 Households also acknowledged the negative impacts to health and environment however
their major concern was accessed to employment upon closure and relocation of CCSL. The
study provided basis for policy makers and concern institutions on identifying basic services
to be made available to the adjacent community considering the closure of CCSL.

 Groundwater quality report and analyses metals in plant species in CCSL revealed potential
threats to the environment and the health of the adjacent community. Hygiene among
surveyed household was seen as an area of concern particularly on groundwater utilization
(cooking, bathing, cleaning, and washing), septic and sewerage, facilities, and waste
management practices which primarily include dumping elsewhere and burning.

 Prevalence of gastrointestinal, respiratory, and dermal diseases exists. Despite the seen
health threats scavenging and enterprising through store facilities (e.g. junk shops) continues
as the CCSL provided the community in general opportunities, namely, employment,
resources, and security. It is recommended to consider the result of this study for policy
implementations for CCSL closure and providing sustainable services to the adjacent
community like livelihood and health services.
Efficiency Evaluation of Philippines
Waste Management Sector: A Two-
stage Approach
Junelyn Pagunsan*, Koji Shimada** (2014)

 This paper seeks to evaluate how efficient the Philippines local government units (LGUs) in its
implementation of Republic Act No. 9003 or Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000
using a two-stage approach.

 First, the relative efficiency of each LGU in the implementation of solid waste management is
estimated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Thereafter, second stage utilized the
Tobit Regression Analysis to further analyze the effect of the following explanatory variables
(land area, number of barangays, poverty incidence, environmental governance and dummy
variable – the ownership of disposal facility) on the DEA estimates.

 First stage results show that the inefficiency of the LGUs in implementing the solid waste
management can be attributed to the mismanagement of funds and inappropriate operational
scale. However, mismanagement and inappropriate operational scale may not be entirely the
basis of inefficiency because second stage results show that all the explanatory variables
evaluated have significant relation to the performance of the LGUs.

 Globally, cost efficiency and economic effectiveness in providing solid waste services were
triggered by the budget restriction, increasing cost of solid waste and the growing importance
of the said services in the economic development of a country. In the Philippines, the LGUs
with higher income and good environmental governance can obtain better performance. Good
governance foster public trust and boosts credibility of their actions. On the other hand,
having a bigger number of barangays can worsen the LGU’s performance. Rapid increase in
population may result to an increase in the number of barangays.

 Strengthening the community-based solid waste management system in the barangay level
can improve LGUs’ performance. The implications for the mixed influence of land area,
poverty incidence and ownership of disposal facility are case-to-case basis.

 Greater land area will provide for the establishment of disposal facility for the nationwide case
except in Metro Manila wherein establishment of disposal facility for some LGUs are no
longer possible. On the case of poverty incidence, integration of the informal sector to the
formal solid waste management system can contributes for the efficiency of the LGUs.
Characterization and
Electrocaogulative Treatment of
Nanofiltration Concentrate
of a Full-scale Landfill Leachate Treatment Plant
Selin Top, Elif Sekman, Sinem Hoşver, M. Sinan Bilgili
Yildiz Technical University, Davutpasa Campus, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Environmental
Engineering
Department, 34220, Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey

 Landfill leachates consist of a complex mixture of organic and inorganic components which
can be contain toxic and hazardous contaminants. Hence, landfill leachates have to be
collected and treated. Since the variations in volume and composition, the conventional
treatment methods are inadequate and its treatment is quite hard to supply the discharge
standards. Therefore more effective treatment methods have been proven to treat leachate.

 Electrocoagulation is an alternative technology for water and wastewater treatment systems

and most effective in removing inorganic contaminants and pathogens.

 The objective of this study was the characterization and the investigation of treatability of
nanofiltration (NF) concentrate from a full-scale leachate treatment plant. The performance of
the electrocoagulation process for the treatment of NF concentrate was reported under
different currents densities and durations. pH, conductivity, color, chloride (Cl−), chemical
oxygen demand (COD), inert COD, total phosphorus, total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and
ammonia nitrogen (NH3–N), were analyzed during the characterization studies. Additionally,
heavy metal analysis (Cu, Zn, Pb, and Ni) was realized.

 The present study has shown the applicability of electrocoagulation method in the treatment
of nanofiltration membrane concentrate of a full-scale landfill leachate treatment plant. The
influence of variables such as electrolysis time, current density, type of electrode material on
the removal of color, COD, and phosphorous has been determined.

 According to the results, the most acceptable current intensity for COD, color, and
phosphorus removal was determined to be 15.9 mA/cm2 and the most acceptable treatment
time was determined to be 30 min. The treatment efficiencies for COD, color, and phosphorus
at 15.9 mA/cm2 and 30 min were determined as 45%, 60%, and 91.8%, respectively.
Characterization of Leachate from Non-
Sanitary Municipal
Solid Waste Landfill in Novi Sad
K. Antić*, M. Petrović*, D. Adamović*, M. Turk-Sekulić*, D. Sakulski** and
J. Radonić*
* Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad,
Dositej Obradović Square 6, 21101 Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia (E-mail:
[email protected])
** BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad, Dr. Zorana Đinđića 1, 21101 Novi Sad, Republic of
Serbia

 Leachate is produced through complex chemical reactions, infiltration of the atmospheric

water in the landfill body and the water contained in the waste, as well as through dissolution
of waste pollutants. Due to its toxic composition, leachate pollutes soil and groundwater. It is
very difficult to foresee real composition of landfill leachate due to dynamics of the processes
occurring in the landfill body and the impact of a large number of variable factors.

 Leachate is the entity resulted from a several factors in both, the landfill body itself (landfill
age, morphological waste composition, temperature and humidity, migration of fluid, pre-
disposal waste treatment technology, thickness of the landfill body, waste decomposition
stage), and outside of it (meteorological parameters, with focus on annual precipitation
volume, as well as seasonal variations). The process of landfill filtrate forming includes
decomposition of solid organic matter in the water drained through the landfill body and
generating of new substances by biological processes and chemical reactions, which
inevitably occur within the landfill body.

 Qualitative composition of the leachate is characterized by pollutants that can be classified

into four groups - soluble organic components, inorganic macrocomponents, heavy metals
and xenobiotic organic compounds.

 The main objective of the conducted research was determination of the quality and organic
profile of the leachate collected at non-sanitary municipal solid waste landfill in Novi Sad, by
performing a screening analysis using GC-MS device.

 Considering that the leachate from the non-sanitary municipal solid waste landfill in Novi Sad
is not treated, the identification of specific pollutants is important from the aspect of
environmental and health risk assessment. In addition, it is necessary to be aware of the
presence and content of these pollutants in the landfill leachate, as well as their possible
synergistic effects when developing, selecting and optimizing future treatments.
Landfill Leachate
Technologies: A Review
1
Prof. Mitali Shah & 2Miss Jayshree Gami
1
Assistnat Professor 2Student
1,2
Department of Civil Engineering
1,2
SCET, Surat, Gujarat, India

 Land filling of hazardous industrial solid waste is a major issue of the waste management
system in India. The generated Leachate from landfills must be appropriately treated before
being discharged into the environment. Technologies used for Leachate treatment can be
classified as follows (1) biological methods, (2) chemical and physical methods and (3)
emerging technologies. Here is a review of the main processes currently used for the landfill
Leachate treatments.

 Wastewater is the liquid waste removed from residential area, institutions, commercial and
industrial area together with groundwater, storm water and surface water may present.
Wastewater has physical properties such as odour, colour and chemical constituents which
can be organic or inorganic and biological constituents such as microbes and also dissolved
gases such as oxygen, methane etc.

 Biological treatment of leachate is the most widely used treatment method in the world.
Compared to physicochemical methods, biological methods are environmentally friendly.
Biological treatment can be aerobic, anaerobic or natural systems. With proper analysis and
environmental control, almost all contaminants can remove biologically.

 Suspended growth and attached growth systems are the two basic biological processes. In
suspended growth, microorganisms involved in the treatment of wastewater are kept in
liquid suspension with mixing. Activated sludge process (ASP) is the most widely applied
suspended growth method. Microorganisms involved in degradation of organic matter in
wastewater are attached to an inner packing material. The trickling filter is an example of
attached growth. ASP, sequencing batch reactors (SBR), oxidation lagoons, extended aerated
systems, rotating biological contactors; biological aerated filters are several aerobic
treatment methods.

 Among the electrochemical technologies, the most studied in landfill leachate treatment are
electrocoagulation, electro-Fenton and electrochemical oxidation. The electrochemical
technologies are based on electron transfer. An electrochemical cell is required, where
electrodes are in contact with the polluted solution and connected by an external circuit. The
main advantage of these technologies is their environmental compatibility, since its main
reagent, the electron, is a clean reagent. Other advantages are related to its versatility and
amenability of automation.
Preparation of Activated Carbon
from Sugarcane Bagasse by
Microwave
Assisted Activation for the Remediation
of Semi-aerobic Landfill Leachate
K.Y. Foo a,b,, L.K. Lee b,c, B.H. Hameed d
a
Environment and Occupational Health Programme, School of Health Sciences, Health Campus,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
b
River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Engineering Campus, Universiti
Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
c
Nutrition Programme, School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150
Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
d
School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong
Tebal,
Penang, Malaysia

 This study evaluates the sugarcane bagasse derived activated carbon (SBAC) prepared by
microwave heating for the adsorptive removal of ammonical nitrogen and orthophosphate
from the semi-aerobic landfill leachate.

 The physical and chemical properties of SBAC were examined by pore structural analysis,
scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and elemental
analysis. The effects of adsorbent dosage, contact time and solution pH on the adsorption
performance were investigated in a batch mode study at 30 _C. Equilibrium data were
favorably described by the Langmuir isotherm model, with a maximum monolayer adsorption
capacity for ammonical nitrogen and orthophosphate of 138.46 and 12.81 mg/g, respectively,
while the adsorption kinetic was best fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The
results illustrated the potential of sugarcane bagasse derived activated carbon for the
adsorptive treatment of semi-aerobic landfill leachate.

 The burial of municipal solid waste in landfills is the most common and desirable integral
indispensable solid waste management strategy for sustainable disposal of residue waste
from separation, recycling and incineration, both in fully industrialized and developing
countries.

 Landfill leachate is a soluble organic and mineral compound formed by excess water
percolating through the waste layers in a landfill, induced by the gravity force, precipitation,
irrigation, surface runoff, rainfall, snowmelt, refuse decomposition, groundwater intrusion and
initial moisture content presents within the landfills.

 If poorly managed, the landfill leachate may become a source of hydro-geological

contamination due to the risk of leachate infiltrating into the natural environment and
groundwater table.