What is Solid Waste Management?

In this concept I’m going to flash on “Solid Waste Management”. Higher standards of living of ever increasing population has resulted in an increase in the quantity and variety of waste generated. It is now realized that if waste generation continues indiscriminately then very soon it would be beyond rectification.

What is Solid Waste Management?

Management of solid waste has, therefore, become very important in order to minimize the adverse effects of solid wastes. Solid waste (waste other than liquid or gaseous) can be classified as municipal, industrial, agriculture, medical, mining waste and sewage sludge.

Three source of solid waste generation may be identified broadly i.e. domestic, industrial and hospital.

Effects of Solid wastes

(i)                  Children, while playing can hurt on piles of debris and may get trapped in old used articles of waste.

(ii)                Extra rainy water (run-off water) on dumped debris pollutes the ground, surface and well water.

(iii)               Proper drainage system may get blocked, thus making areas more susceptible to floods.

(iv)              In India, it is practice to burn the dumping in-spite of proper disposal system. It may cause following effects:

(a)    May cause forest fire.

(b)   Formation of ozone, a cause of air pollution.

(c)    Ground level ozone can aggravate respiratory problems like asthma.

(v)                Ugly scene.

(vi)              Health hazards.

(vii)             Foul smell.

(viii)           Breeding ground for pests.

(ix)              Industrial solid wastes are sources of toxic substances.

Management of Solid waste

For waste management we stress on ‘three Rs’-Reduce, reuse and Recycle before destruction and safe storage wastes.

(i)                 Reduction in use of raw materials: Reduction in the use raw material will correspondingly decrease the production of waste. Reduce demand for any metallic product will decrease the mining of its metal and would cause less production of waste.

(ii)               Reuse of waste materials: The refillable containers, which are discarded after use can be reused. Villagers make casseroles and silos from waste paper and other wastes materials. Making rubber rings from the discarded cycle tubes, which are used by the newspaper vendors instead of rubber bands reduces the waste generation during manufacturing of rubber bands. Because of financial constraints poor people reuse their materials to the maximum.

(iii)             Recycling of materials: Recycling is the reprocessing of discarded material into new useful products.

So these are the ‘solid waste management’. If you have any question related this article please comment below.

Hope this article was helpful to you!