what is solid waste management ?

The term solid waste management mainly refers to the complete process of collecting, treating and disposing of solid wastes.

• with surge up of population in urban areas ,the waste residues are managed by mostly informal waste collectors from the municipal cities of India.

who are this informal waste collectors ?

• They are some individuals, associations or waste-traders who are involved in sorting, sale and purchase of recyclable materials.

informally engaged in the collection and recovery of reusable and recyclable solid waste from the source of waste generation to sale of waste to recyclers directly or through intermediaries.

• It is estimated that informal waste economy generates employment 0.5-2.5% of urban population throughout worldwide .

Things to know about solid waste - Solid or semi-solid domestic waste, sanitary waste, commercial waste, institutional waste, catering and market waste and other non-residential wastes, street sweepings, silt removed or collected from the surface drains, horticulture waste, agriculture and dairy waste, treated biomedical waste excluding industrial waste, bio-medical waste and e-waste, battery waste, radio-active waste etc.

Cons of waste management:

• Increasing urbanization in India has resulted in hyper-consumerism, resulting in more waste generation.

• Organic farming and composting are not economically attractive to the Indian farmer, as chemical pesticides are heavily subsidised, and the compost is not efficiently marketed.

• Lack of financial resources with Municipal Corporations/Urban Local Bodies, result in poor collection, transportation and management of solid waste.

• Lack of processing or recycling units -with help of processing units separation of minerals like copper ,iron ,gold , Aluminium Etc,.

• A waste-to-energy or energy-from-waste plant converts municipal and industrial solid waste into electricity and/or heat for industrial processing.

Types of solid waste :Municipal solid waste can further be divided into biodegradable, recyclable and hazardous domestic wastes. The biodegradable waste includes rotten food, vegetable peel and mostly wet kitchen waste. Recyclable waste includes plastic and hazardous wastes include, bulb, batteries, etc.

The industry generated waste from chemical factories, medical waste from hospitals are considered as Hazardous Solid Waste and they need special settings to dispose of them.

by khas