OPEN DUMPS TO NEXUS APPROACH:
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF WASTE MANAGEMENT
Prof. Dr. Hiroshan Hettiarachchi
Academic Officer- Waste Management
Waste: Why is it
an issue
Total annual MSW generation in the
U.S. has increased by more than 60%
since 1980 to the current level of 251
million tons per year (USEPA 2007).
– In 2005, 54% of MSW generated in the U.S. was disposed of
in 1,654 landfills1.
– Hundreds more existing traditional dry landfills are
expected to reach their authorized capacity (Sharma and
Reddy, 2004).
1
MSW Factsheet, Center for sustainable Systems, University of Michigan, 2008
2
Global scale
http://www.letsdoitworld.org/
Who is to bla e…?
One of the attempts to show the total amount of waste generated in all countries.
Modified sizes of countries show the aggregate quantity of waste produced, and the
colours are used to identify specific countries based on the min-imap in the bottom left
corner. Source: Worldmapper, 2011 (www.letsdoitworld.org).
Waste: Is it really waste?
 Conclusion: Waste is a resource and should be
treated as such
 Byproduct of the process of consumption,
 Resource that can be processed to obtain
useful things
 Value not visible until material
is separated which is usually
expensive
(www.hardrainproject.com/hrpl?n=7989)
 However, in some developing
societies it is the livelihood of
people
5
Timeline: Early Days to
Medieval Age
Ancient trash dumps, or middens, such as this one at Harappa
(2600–1900 BC) in Pakistan, are rich hunting grounds for
archaeologists (cnn.com)
Pichtel (2005)
Timeline: Industrial Age & the
20th Century
Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. 1894
destructor furnace at Cambridge
Museum of Technology
(wikipedia.org)
Timeline: Turning Point
97 ’s a d up
Sustainable management became a popular term. This
means: Minimizing volume generated and flown and
Utilization of waste to produce useful products
RRR (reduce, reuse, recycle) also became popular concept
over the past 30-40 years.
9
What is ISWM?
This also lead to the integration of different aspects in waste
a age e t resulti g i a popular phrase I tegrated “olid Waste
Ma age e t I“WM .
epa.gov/globalwarming
Issues with the current
management tools
• Did ISWM help?
– Yes. But it does not solve all issues
• Some components are still not integrated
– Waste water management is an example
• Some aspects are very complex and global
– Illegal dumping, transportation and disposal of e-waste
are examples
Issues: Severity varies
with geography
 Developed world: Under control in some ways. Minimum impact.
 Rural developing world: Less severe impact, less populous, low
consumption rates, high organic content
 Urban developing world: Most severely affected places, densely
populated, economically less prosperous, and have less access to new
technologies
 Examples: Mega cities such as Calcutta, Jakarta, and Sao Paulo
 Latin America: More than 80% (> 600million people) lives in urban areas
.
12
Bangkok (left) and Quito (right) – (Source: Prof. Patrick Hettiaratchi)
Issues: Technology
Transfer
 No one solution fits all situations: Successful solution from one
country should not be forced upon another
 Nature of the issues can look alike
 But issues may be tied to the society/economy in different ways
 Example: scavengers in the waste dump
 Replacing dumps with sanitary landfills can make adverse
impacts, if interrelations have not been identified and addressed
 Potential Solution: Professional establishment for people to do
picking or scavenging in a safe and healthy environment, before
waste reaches the final destination (a landfill)
13
What is next?
Why not look at all related material resources in one
picture before, making decisions on management tools?
Take all interrelated material resources and analyze/plan
as one nexus; so we call it “nexus approach”
In terms of food security water, soil and waste are
interconnected.
Water and soil are natural resources; value well
understood
Waste is a man-made resource; not seen as a resource
by many
Thinking Outside the box:
NEWater as an Example
• NEWater is the brand name given to ultra-pure water
that is produced from reclaimed water in Singapore.
• Wastewater, which is called used water in Singapore, is
treated in conventional advanced wastewater treatment
plants that are called reclamation plants in Singapore.
• The effluent from the reclamation plants is either
discharged into the sea or it is further treated in
NEWater plants using dual-membrane (via
microfiltration and reverse osmosis) and ultraviolet
technologies.
• The quality of NEWater is monitored by, among others,
an international panel of experts. The quality of
NEWater exceeds WHO standards for drinking water.
www.wikipedia.com
Thinking Outside the box:
OrbSys Shower as an Example
• Young scientist (Mahdjoubi’s) from Sweden
• For a 10-minte shower, the closed-loop system utilizes an advanced real-time water
filtration system
• continuously heat, sanitize and pump a set amount of water measuring as little as 1.5
gallons
• flows from the shower head, down to the drain and then re-circulates back again
• cuts water usage on average by 90 percent and energy by 80 percent compared to
standard showers.
• In economic terms, having a unit installed can translate to a combined water and
energy savings of at least €1,000 ($1,351) annually for each person.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/11
/tech/innovation/futuristic-waterrecycling-shower-orbsys/
www.smithsonianmag.com
CONCLUDING REMARKS
 Waste can easily become a nuisance if not managed properly.
 Waste is a resource. But many are still not used to seeing the
value in waster in terms of material resources.
 The management aspects of waste have evolved; but not at the
rate we want it to evolve.
 Taking a nexus approach to handle waste together with soil, and
water, makes sense in terms of the material flow and interrelations.
 More research needed to understand the complex interrelations
17
UNU-FLORES
More info:
http://flores.unu.edu