Hello Students !
In Today's class, we are going to Learn about Solid Waste Management
So..I have a Newspaper here
and..once I have finished reading this newspaper, I will be crushing it and throwing it outside
So what have I done ? I have generated Solid Waste !
Solid Waste Generation is one of the biggest problems
and an even bigger problem is the handling of Solid waste
You see.like in other kinds of environmental pollution, you cannot prevent or control the generation of solid waste...
You can only manage the Solid waste
and that is why you often refer to this as Solid Waste Management
So, what happens after we generate this Solid Waste ?
So, once you generate the Solid waste, you are going to put it in the dustbin
or..the ground, and somebody has to collect it after you !
and once they collect it, that process is called Collection
so..once it is collected, it becomes the responsibility of the Civic bodies to collect and transport it to the common place of solid waste management
But..even before Transportation, they will have to segregate the waste
into Biodegradable..for example, this paper..is biodegradable..but Plastic is not so biodegradable...it is non biodegradable material
and so you have to segregate it into biodegradable and non biodegradable....
you have to transport the waste...and finally....you have to dispose the waste
so..what are the steps ? No.1 Generation of the Solid waste
Number 2: Collection of the Solid Waste
Number 3: Segregation of the Solid Waste
Number 4: Transportation
Now you can either transport it before segregation or after segregation
okay ?...and number 5: is the final..disposal of the solid waste
Now how do people dispose of the solid waste at the very end of the chain ?
Generally, solid waste is disposed in Landfills..which are large areas of land which are generally not..used for any other purpose but for dumping of solid waste
and this is the biggest problem..the Landfill cannot be placed near the location where you live...
Imagine having a Landfill just behind your house !!! the smell will be horrible !
But..land availability is becoming lower and lower...and our waste generated is becoming higher and higher
and these are the biggest challenges for solid waste management
So...Landfill is one method..the other method is that...you will often see when you go out..you will be seeing smoke...they will be burning the waste
So.. Incineration..controlled burning of waste..either in an Incinerator or outside by setting things on fire..that is one way to reduce
the volume of the solid waste and convert it into ash
after Incineration and Landfill...the third method is much more Eco friendly
and that is Composting..what you do is you arrange the biodegradable solid waste in piles...you allow the activity of Thermophilic micro-organisms
to act on it..and eventually over time..
you turn it..keep turning it over time..eventually after some time the biodegradable material will compress (reduce)
and because of microbial activity..they will get converted into Compost
and Compost is an organically enriched concentrated material..that you can use as a Soil additive
for the effective growth of plants
so it is like a fertilizer..but not exactly..it is more of an amendment to the soil to make it much more easy
for the availability of nutrients
so these are the basic things in solid waste management
and...solid waste management is not an easy joke !
sometimes it becomes important to assess whether it is possible to obtain energy from the solid waste management sites !
for example..Methane can be recovered from Landfills
One of the most important "Mantra" for solid waste management is the 3R Principle
Reduce...Reuse and Recycle
See. first of all, you have to reduce the generation of solid waste
In the begining..I crushed the newspaper...I should not have done it
I should have read the newspaper and instead of crushing it..I should have folded it neatly
arranged it in my house and I can do one of the things..
I can either reduce the use of newspaper by switching over to Digital media
and even if I do use the newspaper...
I can reuse the newspaper for other purposes..
such as packing things
or maybe I can collect them and sell to the recycler unit and get some money in turn..ok ?
that is reuse ! or I can recycle the newspaper..put it to recycling and get fresh paper
so the difference between reuse and recycle should be very very clear for you
reuse is where..you take somethiing..a waste material..and you make use of it for some other purpose..that is Reuse
but recycle is where you take that waste material
you destroy it completely and you reassemble it..you reconstitute it from its original concentration
and then you make something new out of it !!!
so the 3R principle is one way you can manage the solid waste management
another way is called as Source Reduction
and this is the first part of the 3R Principle
Reduce. So if you are able to reduce the generation of solid waste in the first place...
then that is the perfect solution to solid waste management !
because you see we cannot prevent the generation of solid waste..and solid waste is not just newspaper
it is so many things..when you eat a bag of chips..when you buy something from the shop
you are invariably contributing to the solid waste
so there is no way we can completely avoid the generation of solid waste..it is not possible
and..I have not even spoken about the solid waste generated from our bodies !!!
that's an even bigger problem !
If you allow solid waste to proliferate..then that may lead to several diseases
another important aspect of solid waste management is.. segregation at source
this is one way in which solid waste can be managed
instead of segregating the solid waste at the centralized civic body's facilities....
it would be better...and easier....
if the solid waste were segregated into biodegradable and non biodegradable..right at your house itself !
so that you can yourself compost your biodegradable waste
and generate enough compost..soil additive...for your own garden
and the non biodegradable waste will be easily segregated by the civic bodies
so source reduction...
and segregation at source
these two steps are very very important
and they both form part of the 3R principle
of solid waste management
so let me revise everything once again for you
solid waste can be defined or differenciated into two types
biodegradable and non biodegradable
solid waste cannot be prevented or controlled
you can only manage the solid waste.. which is why we call it as solid waste management
and please do not assume that solid waste is generated only in cities
it is also generated in villages.. it is generated in agriculutural sites..Agro waste..we call it
and it is also generated in Industries
much more than we deem as comfortable
and this solid waste management steps involves the...
the generation of solid waste
the collection of solid waste
the segregation of solid waste
the transportation and
finally the disposal
and there are three methods
fundamental methods of disposal...
one is to dispose them in landfills
the second is to incinerate them to reduce the volume of solid waste
and the third is to subject them to the process of composting
but this is only possible for biodegradable waste materials
finally..there is the 3R principle
which helps us to reduce the incidence of solid waste..the 3R's stand for...
Reduce...Reuse and Recycle
and two very good methods of reducing the generation of solid waste is to reduce the incidence of
solid waste in the first place..which is source reduction
and..segregation at source..which is...
rather than making the task of segregation...
...the responsibility of the civic bodies...
you segregate your own waste
so that it becomes easier at the end for them
Thank you !
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