Muncipal Solid waste

(Cont…..)
 Land and Ocean Disposal

• Radioactive wastes from nuclear power

stations are generally fused in glass containers
and lowered to the ocean floor. In USA such
wastes are sealed in metal drums and buried
underground at great depths. But they may
leak or be damaged by earthquake and
release the wastes into ground water.
• Hazardous wastes dumped into soil/ditch have
chances of leaking to the ground. A typical
case history is that of the Love Canal in
Niagara Falls, New York, USA. In 1930–53 the
canal ditch was the dumpsite for hazardous
chemical wastes and municipal wastes.
• In the developed countries such as USA about
50–75 million tons of waste are dumped every
year within 200–300 km. of ocean shore. In
earlier years waste dumped into the ocean
100 km. from the shore did little damage. But
over the years industrial wastes and domestic
wastes have become more toxic.
Industrial wastes contain numerous toxins and
sewage sludge also contains lot of toxic
metals. Disease-causing organisms and heavy
metals have destroyed many coastal fisheries.
Anti-dumping Act (1972) has been violated
and many metropolitan cities—New York,
Tokyo, etc.—continue to dump sewage into
the ocean.
• The toxic wastes are converted into less
hazardous products by treatment with acids.
• cyanide containing wastes are decomposed by
interaction with oxygen to form carbon dioxide
and nitrogen. The decomposition can also be
carried out biologically by means of suitable
micro-organisms (bacteria).
• Sludge from petroleum refineries may be spread
on the soil and left to decay into harmless
products.
• NON-HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT
• Two techniques are available—(i) Sanitary
Landfill and (ii) Incineration
 Sanitary landfills
• For sanitary landfill, the following principles
should be followed:
• (i) solid wastes should be deposited in a regulated
manner, preferably in gravel pit;
• (ii) solid wastes should be spread in thin layers
with ground cover of at least 15 cm;
• (iii) all factors likely to contribute to water
pollution should be eliminated;
• (iv) the wastes should not be burnt openly.
 Composting and Municipal
This is biological process where fresh organic wastes are
allowed to be decomposed into humus-like substances. The
process is conducted by a complete automatic system which
consists of several steps: (1) The crude refuse is dumped into a
container or to a belt conveyor. (2) Iron or metallic particles
are removed by a magnetic separator. (3) The material is then
transferred in a wet condition to a rotatory cylinder, The
cylinder rotates slowly on large tyres and the wastes move
from one end to the other. They are thoroughly mixed and
pulverised by abrasion. Air is introducedat low pressure
throughout the length of the cylinder. Here aerobic micro-
organisms ensure rapid decomposition of the wastes under
aerobic conditions.
 Incineration
This is the preferred technique for waste
management, particularly in the developed
countries. It reduces the waste volume by 90% at
900–1000°C. Incineration offers environment-
friendly technique—free from corrosion,
emission of offensive odours and also free from
bacteria and wet organic matter which gives off
foul odours and gases. The waste heat from
incineration can be utilised for supplementing
electricity generation for domestic heating, etc.
The only drawback is that the technique is costly
at present requiring expensive equipment.
• Two types of incinerators are used for unsorted wastes.
The batch type plant is manually stoked and has a relatively
small rated capacity. The operation is intermittent and lacks
uniform burning temperature. This leads to incomplete
combustion and yields an unstable residue. These units are
not suitable for large cities. The continuous feed plant has larger
storage bins, automatic feed hoppers and a variety of moving
gates and ash removal systems. The unit maintains a uniform
combustion range, can be fitted with pollution control devices
and yields stable residue.
Japan since 1970 and Germany since 1990 developed
recycling technology of plastic wastes. The latter was
subjected to incineration and gasification—the
gaseous products were converted to chemical raw
materials (water gas, i.e. carbon monoxide and
hydrogen mixture which can be utilized for production
of methanol) and the heat generated used for electrical
generation units or for domestic heating. The waste
volume shrinks to 20 per cent and carbon dioxide
released to the atmosphere is minimum so that the
technique offers good recycling.
 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
BY BIOTECHNOLOGY
• According to biologists, bacteria and fungi are
capable of decomposing organic waste and it
may be possible to recover resources by this
process. Natural micro-organisms can do this
job—it is also possible to produce such micro-
organismsby genetic engineering. The
promising development is the isolation of
bacteria which can break down
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
New biodegradable plastics are important step
towards solving our solid waste problems in
respect of plastic wastes. On exposure to
micro-organisms which metabolize glucose,
biodegradable polymers break down into
short carbon chains that decomposers can
metabolize. Photodegradable plastics
have been developed, which break down on
exposure to sunlight.
 Composting
• : A biological method of disposal of solid
wastes in which fresh organic wastes are
converted by decomposition into stable
humus-like substance. Aerobic micro-
organisms ensure rapid decomposition of the
wastes.
 Detoxification
• Method of disposal of toxic (poisonous) waste
• by conversion into substances which are not
hazardous. Chemical (addition of acids) or
biological (use of micro-organisms)methods
can be employed. The latter are commonly
used.
 Incineration
Process of burning solid wastes to ashes in a
special furnace (incinerator).

Sanitary Landfill
Disposal of solid waste by dumping in a
gravel pit and covering with soil.