During the course of history, human activities
for survival like consumption and production often
linked to solid waste. Solid wastes are the material
that arises from various human and economic
activities, which tend to increase with sophisticated
living standard and changing consumption pattern. It
has been produce since the beginning of civilization.
Any useless, unwanted, or discarded material that is
not liquid or gas can be call solid waste example of
mixture of substances including fine dust, cinder,
metal, glass, paper and cardboard, textiles, and
plastic characterize as solid waste
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Industrial Waste,
Municipal Solid Wastes,
Agricultural Waste,
Mining Waste,
Energy Production Waste,
Dredging Waste.
RESOURCE ECONOM ICS
ENVIRONM ENTAL ECONOM ICS
Recycle (RRP)
PRODUCERS
Residual (RP)
RDP
Discharge
Goods
CONSUMERS
Residual (RC)
RDC
Recycle (RRC)
NATURAL ENVIRONM ENT
Fundamental balance Model made by Field M and Field B
Ever
increasing
population
growth,
rapid
urbanization and industrialization are contributing to the
generation of solid waste in huge quantities. With the
progress of civilization, the waste generated become of a
complex in nature. To illustrate how material becomes a
waste a fundamental balance model made by Field M and
Field B shown.
In the material balance model shown , consumers
has a residual and producers on the other hand produces
residual to as waste in production. Only a portion of
residual is being recycled. In this model, it only foretells
that a percentage of the residual is being recycled and the
rest of it is discharge or waste. In the material balance
model, we can say that a portion of discharge may contain
solid waste. This model let us show that too much
consumption and production leads to too much waste.
Solid waste as man made problem
have been scrutinize for us to understand
better what is its effect and impacts in our
lives. As humans, it is a challenge for us
to solve this problem and this paper
envisions tackling what we can do in our
own made problem, which is solid waste.
The common thread through these environmental
crises is unsustainable consumption. From production,
consumption and disposal of goods, humans todayindividually and collectively-are asking more of the
planet than ever before. On the contrary, humans could
live quite well within the Earth's limits. However, we
should cultivate a greater understanding as consumers
through knowing causes of solid waste.
The number of humans on the planet rose
dramatically during the 20th century. Human consumers
are a major cause of waste. The most populous countries in
the world, such as India, China and the United States,
produce the most waste, according to the United Nations.
As populations in those countries increase, so does the
solid waste disposal and its negative impact on the
environment. Large populations of consumers buy more
goods and therefore dispose of more waste.
Population increase also puts pressure on existing
housing, raising prices and forcing some people out of
the city because they cannot afford to live there. Some
people respond to rising prices by moving to the outer
fringes of the city, promoting urban sprawl. Generally,
these fringe areas poorly served by public transport and
other community facilities, so urban sprawl involves
additional motor vehicle travel to work and to
community facilities. It can also mean that prime
agricultural
land
turned
over
to
residential
developments.
Seeing the exponential way of growth in
population, a massive consumption and
production caused solid waste as problem.
Goods that are being produce by producer and
consume by the consumers will become a
residual after being sell or use.
Disposing of materials that is not in need or cannot
be use causes solid waste in relation with population.
Domestic solid waste generated by household’s accounts
for one-third to one-half of all solid waste generated in
large cities. This amount depends on the numbers of
people and the amount of rubbish they each generate. The
population issues committee estimates that almost half of
the growth in solid waste is due to population growth, and
just over half is due to increased resource use per person.
The relationship between numbers of people and the
garbage generated is significant.
Lack of Enforcement
Another reason for solid waste along with its
practices by people is cause of lack of effective
enforcement. Without enforcement of politicians
through ordinances and policies, no fear exists of
caught. Those constituents, who might dump wastes
for any of the reasons given above, are encouraged
through a lack of dissuasion to do otherwise.
Some of the most profound consequences of
our consumer culture upon the well-being of people
worldwide still loom on the horizon. Our lifestyle
choices indirectly affect the livelihoods of people who
step lightly upon the earth. Tragedy of the commons
is one of the causes of solid waste due to incorrect
mind set of humans seeing someone doing an
irrational activity (improper disposal) may lead to an
influence of another do such wrong doing.
As part of progress or as human
activities will not be absent in day-to-day.
Some of these activities cause solid waste like
farming, mining, industrial and medical
waste.
In early pre-industrial times, waste was
mainly composed of ash from fires, wood, bones,
bodies and vegetable waste. It was disposed of in
the ground where it would act as compost and
help to improve the soil. Ancient rubbish dumps
excavated in archaeological digs reveal only tiny
amounts of ash, broken tools and pottery.
Everything that could be was repaired and reused.
Populations were smaller.
During the Medieval period people did not
understand garbage was a threat until urban
populations boomed. As cities began to develop,
people burned their personal trash, buried it, or let it
pile up. As waste piled up in urban settings, the
resulting filth caused stench, harbored rats and other
pests, led to contaminated water supplies and
perpetuated human disease. Some of the earliest
organized waste management techniques developed
during this period as a way to stop and prevent
further disease.
The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century in
Europe and the Americas. The availability of raw
materials, increased trade and growing populations
stimulated new inventions and the development of
machinery. Growing populations and increased
production led to greater amounts of waste. Government
officials and the public increasingly became concerned
about waste.
Over years we can see that unawareness, lack of
education and lack of policy makes the problem of solid
waste come into life. In some countries especially those
poor ones, the problem of solid waste sprouted when
improper management of solid wastes and the lack of
seriousness in the enforcement of solid waste disposal
code. It is a big challenge for as human beings to protect
our planet from destruction such as solid waste that has
impact to environment. Solid waste that made by human
and only us, human beings can solve such problem.
Effects of Solid
Waste
Human activities lead to catastrophe such
as solid waste. These manmade problem leads
to serious problems. It therefore becomes
important for this study to examine the effects
of solid waste. This research intended to
provide insights to citizens for realization why
solid waste is a crisis.
DISEASE
Certain chemicals if released untreated, e.g. cyanides,
mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls are highly toxic and
exposure can lead to disease or death. Some studies have
detected excesses of cancer in residents exposed to hazardous
waste. Many studies carried out in various parts of the world to
establish a connection between health and hazardous waste.
This may lead to epidemic outbreaks. Many diseases
like cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, virus attacks mostly
children, plague, jaundice, or gastro-intestinal diseases may
spread and cause loss of human lives. In addition, improper
handling of the solid wastes gives health hazard for the
workers who come in direct contact with the waste.
Solid waste pollutes surrounding and may
lead to degradation of natural resources. This
degradation makes place .Discourage tourism and
other business. The unpleasant odor and
unattractive appearance of piles of uncollected
solid waste along streets and in fields, forests and
other natural areas can discourage tourism and the
establishment and or maintenance of businesses.
The inappropriate storage and disposal of organic
waste attracts rodents and insects, which may increase the
frequency of gastro-intestinal and parasitic diseases. One of
the most frequent environmental health complaints in
some area was relate to mice, rats and bedbug infestations.
The garbage becomes breeding grounds for diseasecarrying vectors such as flies, mosquitoes, rats and
cockroaches. Reports say that about 8,00,000 flies is
produced in one cubic meter of garbage, which carry
pathogenic organisms, causing dysentery, diarrhea, etc.
rats, carriers of insects and bio-organisms, cause plague.
Water pollution resulting from flows of solid
waste and urban run-off also related to population
levels (although it is also a function of treatment
and urban design). River system is already under
severe stress because of urban development.
Nutrient, bacteria and virus levels are high
because of inflows in solid waste and agricultural
run-off.
Illegal dumping has major impacts across the
city especially on open spaces and often occurs in
areas with poor service provision floods. Due to a lack
of environmental awareness and poor infrastructure,
there are large amounts of litter on the streets, on
pavements and on unoccupied open or municipal
land. Most of the litter ends up in nearby streams or in
manholes, which eventually ends up clog in drainage
systems.
Methane and carbon dioxide are two major gases produced from
the decomposition of the organic fraction of solid waste most especially in
the landfill. Methane gas (CH 4) has a 21-fold global warming potential as
compared to carbon dioxide (CO 2). According to the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, such emissions contribute to 18% of the total
methane emissions to the atmosphere, ranging from 9 to 70 Tg (megatons)
annually.
Therefore, landfills have been implicated as the largest source of
atmospheric methane in the world, leading to a natural phenomenon called
"global warming" (Hansen, 2005a).Due to global warming, changing
temperature and rainfall patterns will bring a variety of pressure upon
plant and animal life. If temperature rises as projected, one-third of species
will be lost from their habitat, either by moving elsewhere or by becoming
extinct (Hansen, 2005b).
Methane and carbon dioxide that a solid waste emits
may lead to climate change. Climate change could result in
changes in temperatures, cloud cover, rainfall patterns,
wind speeds, and storms: all factors that could affect future
waste management facilities development and operation.
For instance, landfill sites can be operational for decades
and remain active for decades following their closure.
There is, therefore, a need to consider potential changes in
waste management over significant timescales and respond
appropriately.
Waste pickers and
waste workers
Solid waste somehow has a good
effect. It provides job most especially for
the poor. As people willing to pay to clean
up their mess , waste pickers and waste
workers exist. Somehow solid waste has a
good impact in humans.
Modernization and progress has had its share of
disadvantages and one of the main aspects of concern is the
pollution it is causing to the earth – be it land, air, and water.
With increase in the global population and the rising
demand for food and other essentials, there has been a rise
for waste generated daily by each household. This waste
ultimately thrown into municipal waste collection centers
from where it was collect by the area municipalities to
thrown into the landfills and dumps. However, due to either
resource crunch or inefficient infrastructure, not all of this
waste is collected and transported to the final dumpsites. If
at this stage the management and disposal improperly done,
it can cause serious impacts on health and problems to the
surrounding environment.
The group at risk from the unscientific disposal of solid waste
include – the population in areas where there is no proper waste
disposal method, especially the pre-school children; waste workers;
and workers in facilities producing toxic and infectious material. Other
high-risk group includes population living close to a waste dump and
those, whose water supply has contaminate either due to waste
dumping or due to leakage from landfill sites. Uncollected solid waste
also increases risk of injury, and infection
Exposure to hazardous waste can affect human health,
children being more vulnerable to these pollutants. In fact, direct
exposure can lead to diseases through chemical exposure as the
release of chemical waste into the environment leads to chemical
poisoning. Many studies carried out in various parts of the world to
establish a connection between health and hazardous waste.
Waste from agriculture and industries can cause
serious health risks. Other than this, co-disposal of industrial
hazardous waste with municipal waste can expose people to
chemical and radioactive hazards. Uncollected solid waste
can also obstruct storm water runoff, resulting in the forming
of stagnant water bodies that become the breeding ground of
disease. Waste dumped near a water source also causes
contamination of the water body or the ground water source.
Direct dumping of untreated waste in rivers, seas, and lakes
result in the accumulation of toxic substances in the food
chain through the plants and animals that feed on it.
Most adverse environmental impacts from solid
waste are rooted in inadequate or incomplete collection and
recovery of recyclable or reusable wastes, as well as co
disposal of hazardous wastes. These impacts are also due to
inappropriate sitting, design, operation, or maintenance of
dumps and landfills. Improper waste management
activities can an open refuse dump in downtown. During
the rainy season, part of the dump was submerged in
water, threatening the health and water supply of the
surrounding area.
Contaminate ground and surface water.
Municipal solid waste streams can bleed toxic
materials and pathogenic organisms into the leachate
of dumps and landfills. (Leachate is the liquid
discharge of dumps and landfills; it is composed of
rotted organic waste, liquid wastes, infiltrated
rainwater and extracts of soluble material.) If the
landfill is unlined, this runoff can contaminate
ground or surface water, depending on the drainage
system and the composition of the underlying soils.
Garbage is often burn in residential areas
and in landfills to reduce volume and uncover
metals. Burning creates thick smoke that
contains carbon monoxide, soot and nitrogen
oxide, all of which is hazardous to human health
and degrades urban air quality. Combustion of
polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs) generates highly
carcinogenic dioxins damage ecosystems.
Waste management processes and climate
change operate at similar timescales, so there is a
need to understand what the potential climate change
impacts may be on waste management in order to
begin the process of identifying what changes may be
need in waste management operations, regulations,
strategy, planning and policy. Climate change is a
serious international environmental concern.
MITIGATION
In most developed and developing countries with
increasing population, prosperity and urbanization, it
remains a major challenge for municipalities to solve solid
waste, especially in a changing climate. A cornerstone of
sustainable development is the establishment of affordable,
effective and truly sustainable waste management practices
in developing countries. It must be further emphasized that
multiple public health, safety and environmental cobenefits accrue from effective waste management practices
which concurrently reduce GHG emissions and improve
the quality of life, promote public health, prevent water
and soil contamination, conserve natural resources and
provide renewable energy benefits.
To aid the problems solutions are explained to lessen the
problem through understanding the causes and mechanism of
the solid waste. And through:
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Education about Solid Waste Management
School education
Outreach to the community
Cooperation in public education for awareness
Humans Participation in aiding Solid Waste
Policy and Implementation
Special Campaigns and Drives (Clean-up drives)
Environmental movements incorporating city cleanliness
In response to mounting solid waste problems, EPA
published The Solid Waste Dilemma: An Agenda for Action in
1989, which presents goals and recommendations for action by
the EPA, state and local governments, industry, and consumers
to address the solid waste problems facing the United States. The
EPA recommends an integrated, hierarchical approach to waste
management using four components: Source reduction, recycling
and landfills.
This strategy favors source reduction to
decrease the volume and toxicity of waste and to
increase the useful life of products. After source
reduction, recycling, including composting is the
preferred waste management approach to divert
waste from combustors and landfills. Combustion
is used to reduce the volume of waste being
disposed as well as to recover energy, whereas
landfills are used for the final disposal of nonrecyclable and noncombustible material.
Source reduction, also known as waste prevention,
is a front-end approach to addressing Municipal Solid
Waste problems by changing the way products made and
used. It represents an attempt to move away from the
traditional "end-of-the-pipe" waste management approach
used in the past. Source reduction at the "beginning of the
pipe" defined as the design, manufacture, and use of
products in a way that reduces the quantity and toxicity of
waste produced when products reach the end of their
useful lives.
RECYCLING
Landfills
Even with the use of source reduction, recycling, and
combustion, there will always be waste that ultimately must be
disposed of in landfills. According to the EPA's Municipal Solid Waste in
the United States: 1999 Facts and Figures, landfill disposal still remains
the most widely used waste management method (accounting for
approximately 57.4% of the total). Many communities now face
difficulties sitting new landfills largely because of increased citizen and
local government concerns about the potential health risks and
aesthetics of situating a landfill in their neighborhoods. The EPA issued
new technical standards for MSW landfills in 1991. These addressed
several aspects of landfill management, including location restrictions,
design and operating criteria, and groundwater monitoring. Even with
national landfill standards, decreasing landfill capacity and the
difficulties associated with the construction of new landfills remain
significant issues.
Solid waste is a man made problem and only humans can solve this
one. Solid waste cannot be abolish since its part of consumption and
production but we can solve this if we do actions to lessen such things.
Education is the number one tool because the public cannot be
expected to cooperate in matters as complex as Solid Waste
Management if they are ignorant of the conditions of solid wastes in
their cities, the extent of the problem, and the environmental hazards of
poor waste management. The information the public needs is not
simply the risks to their own health of not observing hygiene in waste
handling, or the difficulties the authorities encounter if wastes are not
deposited in the appropriate places. They should know the conditions
of the garbage dumps, the total quantities of wastes generated, the
proportions that are picked up and treated, the nature of leachates
produced at dumps and whether these are contaminating water
supplies, and so on.
CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATION
Few of the project papers explicitly discuss these
differing views; they are, for the most part, implicit
in the recommendations made on citizen
participation. These recommendations and the
examples explained in the papers and discussion
classified into components that suggest widening
arenas of action for solid waste problems:
1.
Actions to support the routines of solid
waste collection as currently practiced, including
the self-help efforts of groups not adequately
served by public institutions;
2.
General public education useful for creating
understanding of issues and problems in solid
waste management, including personal health
education, environmental health, waste problems
for the society, and attitudes to wastes and waste
workers;
3.
Attempts to integrate attention to solid
wastes into community development;
4.
Special campaigns, competitions and drives by
governments to raise profile of solid waste
management or serve purposes of general
public awareness of solid waste issues;
5.
Suggestions for developing more integrated
and comprehensive approaches to solid waste
management at metropolitan and national
levels.