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TABLE of Contents

Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Types of solid wastes .................................................................................................................................... 5

Why waste management? ............................................................................................................................ 7

Solid waste management in Kollam Cooperation ........................................................................................ 10

Source generation of solid waste ................................................................................................................ 11

Constituents of solid waste ......................................................................................................................... 11

Collection and transportation of solid wastes ............................................................................................. 12

Means of disposal ....................................................................................................................................... 13

A critical analysis about Kollam solid waste management ........................................................................... 14

Suggestions for improvement ..................................................................................................................... 15

Role of an individual in reducing solid wastes ............................................................................................. 16

Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 18

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 20

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1. Introduction

he present human population of India is around 100 millions and that of

the world is around 6 billion. Human beings produce wastes at all levels of

development. In a small agricultural community, these wastes are readily

accepted by the nature in consuming the food particles by the animals and the other

materials incorporating into soil. As the population keeps increasing more people move to

cities. But the increase in population density in urban areas through industrial revolution

has altered the character of wastes in line with rising living standards. These added new

sources of wastes from domestic, industrial, agricultural, mining, and health care. Thus

increased urbanization generates more ravage per square kilometer and the disposal of the

same is becoming a global problem. Rapid industrialization and urbanization without due

regard to environmental considerations are leading to extensive environmental pollution.

The raw materials consumed during these activities result in the dwindling of the non-

renewable wastes generated.

The kinds of waste generated by a society can be categorized into many, of

which some are released into the air and water. The remaining objects or particles are

accumulated on the site where they are produced and are the solid wastes. These solid

wastes that are of no value to the person who is responsible for it are accumulated in

streets and public places. These are wastes, household and industrial hazardous wastes.

Generally many towns are devoid of agriculture and mining wastes, whereas waste from

T

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houses, shops, offices, industries and hospital forms the uncollected refuse blocking streets

and drains. My study deals with those municipal solid wastes and the disposal of it are

usually the responsibility of the government authorities.

Methodology The present study was undertaken to evaluate the management of solid waste

in Kollam Corporation. The wastes generated from various sectors were analyzed and the

data concerning waste management were obtained from Kollam Municipal Corporation.

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2. Types of solid wastes

A solid waste consists of all the unwanted materials of the society. This solid

waste comprises of countless different materials- dusts, food wastes, packing materials,

paper, metals, plastics, glass, discarded clothing and furnishing, garden wastes and

hazardous and radioactive wastes. The

waste generated in our day to day life

can be broadly classified into four-

Domestic waste, hospital waste and

Agriculture waste. These wastes can be

categorized depending on the effect it

produces on the environment and in the

living organism including plants as

a) Toxic waste /Hazardous waste of industrial sector

b) Non toxic waste of domestic sector

c) Pathogenic waste containing disease producing viruses from the hospital sector

Domestic waste comprises of all materials of broken, spoiled or have no

further use to the people. It includes wastes from households, commercial establishment,

institutions, etc. These wastes are also known as municipal waste. They contain the non-

toxic biodegradable (a) garbage of paper, rags, hair, house dust, etc. (b) kitchen waste

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including vegetables (c) sewage and (d) others including plastic covers, bottles, tins, etc.

These domestic wastes have three characteristic – weight, density and constituents. These

vary from town to town. The weight generated per person per day usually lies between 250

gm and 1000 gm world wide. The density varies from 100 kg/m3 to 600 kg/m3 thus the

volume may range between .5 L and 10 L /person/day.

Industrial waste is generally in the form of mine tailings produced when the

valuable one is extracted from large volumes of rocks. Theses wastes in certain cases may

be toxic. The wastes from industrial sector may also include unfinished/ broken products,

materials discarded on manufacturing of the products. They may also contain building

materials like bricks, rock particles etc., over burden from strip mines, smelter slag, and

other residue produced by mining and primary metal processing. Hospital wastes are

generated from health care activities. The practice of medicine results in the generation of

solid waste in the from of needles, cotton, syringes, bottles, plastics bags etc. Hospital

waste may even include operation theaters waste like tissue or blood, flesh etc. These

wastes are highly pathogenic and cause serious health hazardous, because of their physical,

chemical or biological nature

Agricultural waste is generated as a result of the processing of the agricultural

products. These may include crop residue and animal manure, yard and garden wastes.

Agricultural waste is of two types- biomass containing residues like rice husk, bigue etc. and

chemicals containing residues of pesticides and fertilizers. The biomass could be effectively

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used for generating power and producing paper. Whereas the chemical wastes are toxic

and can thus affect the animals and plants through the food chain and thus undergo

biomagnifications.

Why waste management? We produce a variety of waste from domestic garbage and yard waste to

industrial, commercial and construction refuse. Many of the materials in the waste are

valuable resources if they are properly utilized. Moreover, these solids wastes if not

properly managed may create negative impacts. These solid wastes have constituent to

breed the flies and mosquitoes which are effective vectors that spread diseases. Moreover

these wastes may pollute the environment and its natural resources like air water and land.

The open burning of waste causes pollution whereas aerosols and dusts can spread

pathogens from uncollected and decomposing wastes. The polluted water leaching from

the waste dumps causes serious pollution of natural water body system. Similarly the waste

i.e. unsatisfactorily treated can cause severe aesthetic nuisance in terms of smell and

appearance. Thus the solid waste has become problem through out the world. In the

present scenario it is necessary to have a proper solid waste management programme.

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3. Solid waste management

Solid waste management includes all the activities that help in the

Minimization of environmental, aesthetic, and health impacts of the solid waste. The major

controlling measures adopted for the solid waste management are

a) Storage at the point of generation- This includes collection by gathering or picking up

of solid waste, from various sources like homes, apartment, and commercial centre,

public places etc.

b) Segregation is the process of sorting out of the reusable material such as pieces of

metals, glass, rubber, plastics, etc from the wastes.

c) Resource recovery –The solid waste can be reduced in size by the initial collection of

valuable materials from them. The materials recovered from the solid wastes can be

utilized for new uses. Some can be reused after proper cleaning; where as some can

be recycled as the raw material for the new product.

d) Open dumping – This is the process of disposing the solid waste by dumping into the

outskirts of town.

e) Sanitary landfill – This process of disposing the solid waste is within a well compacted

earth cover that protects the area from air pollution and in turn avoids any health

hazards to the human being.

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f) Composting – This type of decomposition and stabilization of solid waste takes place

by biochemical bacteriological process under the controlled conditions.

g) Incineration – This is the process of burning of solid waste at high temperature. The

unexhausted combustibles must be disposed into the other dumps. Incineration is

regarded as a practical method of disposing of certain hazardous waste materials.

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4. Solid waste management in Kollam Cooperation

Solid wastes are produced all over the world and may differ from nation to

nation and from town to town. In this project the study area is limited to Kollam

cooperation, a first order urban area in

Kollam district. Kollam Cooperation is

located between the Arabian Sea on the

west and Ashtimudi Lake on the east.

The Kollam cooperation has a geographic

area of 57.31sq.km and has 50 wards. As

per 2001 census, the population is

361,560 which are around 14% of the

total population of the district. The population density of the area is 6,345 persons/sq.km

.The number of house holds recorded are 85,081.

Geomorphic ally the area is low lying with varying heights from 0-10 m. The

topography of the area revels that the average slope of the place is 4 degree. The area is

having loose coastal sediments in the eastern part and late rite soil in the eastern position.

Kollam generally has a moderate climate with annual rainfall of 325cm.

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Source generation of solid waste In Kollam Municipal Cooperation the number of household are 85,081. The

solid waste generated from the domestic

sector is the major source of solid waste.

Solid wastes are also generated from hotels

and restaurants, commercial

establishments, hospitals, marriage and

functional halls, markets, institutions and

offices, slaughter houses etc. Urbanization

process is progressing along the length and

breadth of Kollam Cooperation. These in

turn produces debris which can be included

as solid waste from construction and demolition sector. Further, the general solid waste

generation can be from the street sweeping

and drain cleaning. As per the statics 170

tons of wastes are generated every day.

Constituents of solid waste

Sources waste (tones)/ day

domestic sources 95

hotels and restaurants 19

commercial establishment 17

institutions and office 7

marriages and other function 1

hospital 2

slaughter houses 2

markets 6

construction & demolition 7

street sweeping 14

total 170

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The major constituents of the waste are paper,

plastics, metals, glass, rubber, leather, ash, sand,

compostable organic matter, batteries, pesticide, medicines

etc. the bulk density of the waste is 168.79 kg/m3. The

percentage wise distribution of the constituents is given in

table 2.

Collection and transportation of solid wastes The solid waste collected from the ground level

collection points are transported to the Kureepuzha depot by

various modes of vehicles by the Kollam Municipal

Cooperation authorities. The data available shows that the total waste generated are not

completely transferred to the dumping yard. As per the official records, out of the 70 tons

generated per day, nearly 30 tons are transported to the deposit site. The remaining is

unaccounted.

constituents percentage

paper 3.32%

plastic 2.15%

metals 0.71%

glass 1.85%

rubber 1.50%

inert 1.44%

ash 2.75%

organic matter 83.80%

medicines 0.93%

others 1.55%

total 100.00%

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Means of disposal

Kollam Cooperation has adopted landfill as an alternative to open dumps

and incineration to deal with solid wastes generated in the city. In the landfill solid

wastes are buried beneath a layer of soil. The development of the landfill was

considered an

improvement over

open dumps because it

eliminated the mightily

appearance of wastes

in the environment

associated with open

dumps. However refuse in landfill continued to produce odor and attract a variety of

insects and other animals prior to burial. In addition, rain water that fill into the open

land fills may pick up pollutants and is moved through the wastes and carried these

pollutants into the soil, the ground waster supply and to the near by waster stream(

Asthamudi Lake). Although landfills were considered a major improvement over the

years, the bulk generation of waste heaps up the waste in the lone Kureepuzha depot.

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5. A critical analysis about Kollam solid waste

management

The study revels that the disposal of solid waste is a problem in Kollam

Municipal Corporation. The major problem was the lack of progress in upgrading waste

disposal technology and techniques. Lack of monitoring and enforcement is another

problem with regard to Kollam Municipal Corporation. Problem of coordination and undue

payment often resulted in wastes being left at transfer points for a long time.

A critical factor in the evaluation of alternative systems of solid waste

management and the establishment of efficient organization is the quantity of

management. It is necessary to employ a complete set of technical skills which derive from

several professional disciplines. These include civil and mechanical engineering, chemical

engineering, transport organization, land use planning and economics. Thus solid waste

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management is a team work. The waste management strategy in Kollam Municipal

Corporation reflects the skilled “man management” which involves the high participation

from a contented staff at all levels. The major obstacle for the solid waste management in

Kollam Municipal Corporation is the lack of public support. This is due to the lack of public

awareness and insufficient attention to community participation in waste management.

The present system of waste management in Kollam Corporation is found to be

insufficient. The collection is not done systemically and the scientific examination of waste

into biodegradable and non-biodegradable is not carried out. Transportation of wastes is

not done in a scientific and healthy way. Only six numbers of vehicles are available to carter

to the entire area with nearly 30 workers associated. Moreover there is no proper

maintenance of dumping yard. It does not have a compound wall and is always hunted by

stray dogs.

Suggestions for improvement The problems associated in the collection, transportation and dumping in

Kollam Corporation can be minimized to some extent by adopting the following techniques.

a) Collections have to be done scientifically

b) Organic and inorganic waste need to be separated

c) Collection to be made effective with the cooperation of the people or polluter

d) More waste bins need to be introduced

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e) Door to door collection can be introduced

f) Number of vehicles need to be increased

g) More laborers should be added for work

h) The accumulation of organic waste may resulted in the formation of leach ate which

pollutes the ground water. There should be measures to get it absorbed.

i) The degeneration of organic wastes resulted in the formation of green house gases.

This needed to be controlled.

j) People should be educated about environmental concerns of open dumping in roads

and village streets.

k) Strict laws should be imposed regarding environment protection.

Role of an individual in reducing solid wastes Solid waste management should be started from the individual level. It is the

duty of the individual to educate producers and consumers about environmental

degradation and control. He should highlight the need to preserve our ecological balance

and protect the environment. In addition to that he should help the citizens to release the

gravity of the problem caused by the pollution. The following ways can be adopted by the

individuals to reduce solid wastes.

a) Always remember the 3R’s- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

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b) Segregate the domestic waste into degradable and non degradable before giving to

municipal dumping pits.

c) Always try to use paper or cloth bag instead of plastic ones.

d) Encourage manufactures by buying products packed in paper or hard board and not

in plastics.

e) Buy oil/fuel in old bottles, after empting and cleaning it of its contents.

f) Explain the importance of recycling and reusing to children and encourage them to

do the same.

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6. Summary

Solid waste management includes all activities that seek to minimize the

health, environment and aesthetic impacts of solid wastes. Successful solid waste

management cannot be achieved without thought, effort and much learning from mistakes.

Solid waste management is much more than a technological issue. It involves managing a

large workforce and working together closely in with the public. Problems with

maintenance and financial aspects are common. The preparation and management of a

good solid waste management system needs inputs from a range of disciplines, and careful

consideration of local conditions.

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the management of solid waste

in Kollam Corporation. It was observed that waste generated in various sectors was

collected at different collection points put up by the municipal corporation through the

corporation area. These wastes were transported through different vehicles modes to the

dumping yard at kureepuzha. The present management is an open and exposed system of

secondary storage. Most of the wastes from the collection points are collected irregularly

and thus the collection points are overflowing. The transporting means presently is through

ill designed vehicles and equipments. Disposal area reveals an absence of long term and

secured landfill. Altogether the improper management can be attributed to the inadequacy

of manpower and week institutional setup.

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Solid waste management is a precondition for sound public health and well

being for better environment and sustainable development. Proper management of waste

is essential to ensure the security of natural resources, minimizing environment health

impacts, risk of disease transmission and preventing the quality of the environment.

However the development of environmentally sound, technologically feasible and

financially viable waste management system should be our ultimate goal. In the modern

world, nothing is considered to be a waste “today’s waste is tomorrows raw material” we

can openly declare that “waste is wealth” and “trash is cash”.

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7. Bibliography

1) Datta, M (1997), “waste disposal in Engineering drndfils”, Narsa publishers, Delhi.

2) Klintoff, (1967) “Management of solid waste in Developing countries”, WHO regional

publications, south East Asia.

3) Gilbertson, Wesley. (1974) “Present and future trends in Municipal Disposal of solid

waste”, public health, WHO.

4) Knox, (2005) “Management of Municipal waste management”, University of western

Ontario, Canada.

5) Sharma P.D, (1998) “Ecology and Environment; solid waste management”, Plant

Pathology Lab, University of Delhi.

6) William .P. Cunningham and Mary Ann Cunningham, (2002) “Solid and Hazardous

waste: Principals of environment Science”, Tata McGraw Hills.