Solid waste generation is a phenomenon that is growing rapidly all over the world due to rapid urbanization and changing lifestyles. The average per capita waste generation has increased drastically in the past few decades. As per estimates, around 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste is generated worldwide every year. The largest waste generators are densely populated countries like the United States, China, and India. With rising incomes and consumption, waste generation is expected to rise further in the coming years.
Current Methods of Wet Waste Management
Most cities and municipalities have a systematic process of waste collection in place. Wet Waste Management is primarily collected from households, commercial establishments, and public places by local authorities or private operators. The waste is then transported to intermediate processing and disposal sites such as transfer stations or landfills using waste collection vehicles like garbage trucks, dumper placers etc. While door-to-door collection helps achieve high collection efficiency, it is a labor-intensive and expensive process. Other methods involve dumper bins or community bins where residents drop off their waste.
Processing Methods for Municipal Waste Stream
After collection, the next step is processing and treating the heterogeneous waste stream. The waste passes through various mechanized and manual sorting, segregation, and processing steps.
Composting and Anaerobic Digestion
Of the various waste processing techniques, composting and anaerobic digestion are gaining ground worldwide. Composting is the biological degradation and stabilization of organic waste using microorganisms. It converts waste into a stable humus-like material called compost which is a good soil conditioner. Similarly, anaerobic digestion is a process where microbes break down biodegradable material in an oxygen-less environment and produce methane-rich biogas that can be used for energy generation. These methods help divert a large fraction of waste from landfilling while producing value-added outputs.
Waste-to-Energy Technologies
Waste-to-energy or energy recovery from waste is another integral part of modern waste handling systems. Technologies like incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis burn mixed waste streams to produce heat and energy in the form of electricity or fuels like synthetic gas. While energy recovery reduces the volume of waste, these technologies need to address concerns around emissions and toxic ash disposal. Advanced emissions control systems are required to make such plants environmentally sustainable.
With the rising emphasis on circular economy and recycling, setting up multi-level material recovery facilities has become important. These facilities employ advanced sorting machines combined with manual sorting to separate different kinds of recyclables like paper, plastic, metal, glass from mixed waste streams. The recovered materials are baled and sent for recycling. To help achieve higher recovery rates, it is important to sensitize and educate citizens about proper waste segregation at source.
The Challenge of Plastic Waste handling
Plastic waste has emerged as a major problem globally due to the extensive use of single-use plastics and lack of infrastructure for plastic waste handling in many places. Most plastics do not biodegrade and persist in the environment for centuries. Only around 9% of all plastics produced get recycled globally each year. The rest is burned or dumped in landfills and the natural environment. Microplastics from plastic debris have also polluted waterbodies and entered the food chain. Advanced plastic waste recycling technologies along with initiatives like ban on single-use plastics will be crucial to address this challenge.
Issues with Existing Landfilling Practices
While landfilling continues to be the dominant waste disposal method globally, the practice is unsustainable and poses numerous threats if not properly managed. Open dumping and burning of waste in landfills release harmful emissions and leachate can contaminate soil and groundwater supplies. Planned scientific landfilling with impermeable lining, leachate collection, and landfill gas capture systems is a must. There is also a need to reclaim abandoned and decomposing landfill sites for developing green spaces.
Adoption of Sustainable Community-level Practices
For effective waste handling, community participation and behavioral change are very important. Initiatives like home composting, decentralized waste processing, zero waste practices, and responsible consumption can help reduce waste burden at source. Regular awareness drives are needed to promote practices of reduce, reuse and recycling at the local level. Engaging with informal waste pickers through cooperatives and providing them social security can also boost sustainable waste handling.
Challenges in Developing Countries
Developing nations face major challenges in building waste handling infrastructure and systems due to financial and technological constraints. Most cities lack proper systems for waste collection, transportation, and processing. Open dumping and burning of waste is very common. There is also a lack of integrated planning and monitoring of waste handling activities. International development organizations are helping tackle this through technical cooperation programs and promoting affordable and decentralized solutions. But huge long-term investments will be needed to transition towards scientific solid waste handling in developing countries.
Efficient waste handling requires synergy between technical, financial, policy, community-based, and environmental aspects across the complete waste stream. While challenges persist, growing awareness and focus on resource recovery over disposal are driving significant improvements worldwide. Coordinated efforts are needed across national and local governments, private operators, communities, and international bodies to develop robust yet affordable systems for sustainable waste handling meeting the needs of modern as well as future societies.
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