research article assessment of municipal solid waste...

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Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing Country A. Ahsan, 1,2 M. Alamgir, 3 M. M. El-Sergany, 4 S. Shams, 5 M. K. Rowshon, 6 and N. N. Nik Daud 1 1 Department of Civil Engineering, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Materials Processing & Technology Lab, Institute of Advanced Technology, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Department of Civil Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna 920300, Bangladesh 4 e-School of Health and Environmental Studies, Hamdan Bin Mohamed Electronic University, P.O. Box 71400 Dubai, UAE 5 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Institut Teknologi Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan BS8675, Brunei Darussalam 6 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to A. Ahsan; [email protected] Received 4 October 2013; Accepted 20 January 2014; Published 27 March 2014 Academic Editors: M. W. Bo and L. Mai Copyright © 2014 A. Ahsan et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. is study represents a few basic steps of municipal solid waste management practiced in the six major cities of Bangladesh, namely, Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, and Sylhet. A six-month field study was conducted to identify the solid wastes management steps such as storage at source, separation, on-site storage, collection, transportation, treatment, reuse, recycling, and ultimate disposal. is study addresses the role of the city authority to meet the demand of the city dwellers in solving this emerging socioenvironmental issue and the initiatives taken by some nongovernmental organizations and community based organizations. e problems and constraints of the solid wastes management system are also identified to find a sustainable management concept for the urban areas of Bangladesh. 1. Introduction During the last few decades, the problems associated with municipal solid waste (MSW) management have acquired an alarming dimension in the developing countries. High population growth rate and increase of economic activities in the urban areas of developing countries combined with the lack of training in modern solid waste management practices complicate the efforts to improve the solid waste management services. In developing countries, the per capita generation of the solid wastes in urban residential areas is much less compared with the developed countries; however the capacity of the developing countries to collect, process, dispose, or reuse the solid wastes in a cost effective man- ner is significantly limited compared with the developed countries [1]. e wastes generated by human settlements and the associated problems are similar in the developing nations with variances between regions and locations based on geographic, sociocultural, industrial, infrastructural, legal, and environmental factors [2]. In Bangladesh, like in most developing countries, the solid waste management has so far been ignored and least studied environmental issues. Recently the concerned stake- holders have begun to consider this area to be an essential component to protect human health and nature. e urban population in Bangladesh has increased at a very steep rate of about 6% per year and concentrated mostly in six major cities, namely, Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, and Sylhet. Current estimations showed that about 13% of total population and 55 to 60% of total urban population are living in these cities [3]. In these cities, the city authority, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community based Hindawi Publishing Corporation Chinese Journal of Engineering Volume 2014, Article ID 561935, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/561935

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Page 1: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

Research ArticleAssessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System ina Developing Country

A Ahsan12 M Alamgir3 M M El-Sergany4 S Shams5

M K Rowshon6 and N N Nik Daud1

1 Department of Civil Engineering University Putra Malaysia (UPM) 43400 Serdang Selangor Malaysia2Materials Processing amp Technology Lab Institute of Advanced Technology University Putra Malaysia (UPM)43400 Serdang Selangor Malaysia

3 Department of Civil Engineering Khulna University of Engineering and Technology Khulna 920300 Bangladesh4 e-School of Health and Environmental Studies Hamdan Bin Mohamed Electronic University PO Box 71400 Dubai UAE5Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering Institut Teknologi BruneiBandar Seri Begawan BS8675 Brunei Darussalam

6Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering University Putra Malaysia (UPM) 43400 Serdang Selangor Malaysia

Correspondence should be addressed to A Ahsan ashikcivilyahoocom

Received 4 October 2013 Accepted 20 January 2014 Published 27 March 2014

Academic Editors M W Bo and L Mai

Copyright copy 2014 A Ahsan et alThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License whichpermits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited

This study represents a few basic steps of municipal solid wastemanagement practiced in the sixmajor cities of Bangladesh namelyDhaka Chittagong Khulna Rajshahi Barisal and Sylhet A six-month field study was conducted to identify the solid wastesmanagement steps such as storage at source separation on-site storage collection transportation treatment reuse recycling andultimate disposalThis study addresses the role of the city authority tomeet the demand of the city dwellers in solving this emergingsocioenvironmental issue and the initiatives taken by some nongovernmental organizations and community based organizationsThe problems and constraints of the solid wastes management system are also identified to find a sustainable management conceptfor the urban areas of Bangladesh

1 Introduction

During the last few decades the problems associated withmunicipal solid waste (MSW) management have acquiredan alarming dimension in the developing countries Highpopulation growth rate and increase of economic activitiesin the urban areas of developing countries combined withthe lack of training in modern solid waste managementpractices complicate the efforts to improve the solid wastemanagement services In developing countries the per capitageneration of the solid wastes in urban residential areas ismuch less compared with the developed countries howeverthe capacity of the developing countries to collect processdispose or reuse the solid wastes in a cost effective man-ner is significantly limited compared with the developedcountries [1] The wastes generated by human settlements

and the associated problems are similar in the developingnations with variances between regions and locations basedon geographic sociocultural industrial infrastructural legaland environmental factors [2]

In Bangladesh like in most developing countries thesolid waste management has so far been ignored and leaststudied environmental issues Recently the concerned stake-holders have begun to consider this area to be an essentialcomponent to protect human health and nature The urbanpopulation in Bangladesh has increased at a very steep rateof about 6 per year and concentrated mostly in six majorcities namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna Rajshahi Barisaland Sylhet Current estimations showed that about 13 oftotal population and 55 to 60 of total urban population areliving in these cities [3] In these cities the city authoritynongovernmental organizations (NGOs) community based

Hindawi Publishing CorporationChinese Journal of EngineeringVolume 2014 Article ID 561935 11 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552014561935

2 Chinese Journal of Engineering

organizations (CBOs) and private organizations are workingtogether to manage the MSW system properly Howeverthe overall situation remains unchanged It becomes evidentthat an integrated solid wastes management system (ISWM)is required considering the relevant socioeconomic settingsand technological aspects of the country To explore thepossibility of adopting an ISWM the limitations constraintsand relevant experiences of existing management system arerequired to examine explicitly For this purpose a feasibilitystudy has been conducted to identify the present statusincluding problems and limitations of MSW managementin the least developed Asian countries (LDACs) through aresearch project shortly named as WasteSafe [3] The MSWcomposition generation management and recycling activi-ties in Malaysia (another developing county) are reported byAhsan et al [4] and Samah et al [5 6]

Studies have been conducted in the six major cities ofBangladesh namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna RajshahiBarisal and Sylhet as shown in Figure 1 to identify thestrengths and weakness at all levels of the existing wastesmanagement systems starting from generation source toultimate disposal Data and related information were col-lected for the last six months through field survey publicconsultation literature and other appropriate means [3]Source storage and separation are done in an informal anduncontrolled way hardly 30ndash40 of city dwellers practicedit Door-to-door collection systems have been introducedrecently for wastes collection from the sources (eg houses)and then transport of the waste to the nearest secondarydisposal sites (SDSs) Wastes are collected from generationsources by NGOs CBOs and city authority by door-to-door collection systems Where the door-to-door collectionsystem is unavailable residents dispose the waste in thenearest community bins SDS open land road sides ordrainsWith regard to the city authorities wastes are collectedand transferred to ultimate disposal sites (UDSs) There isno engineering or sanitary landfill in Bangladesh All theultimate MSW disposal sites of Bangladesh are uncontrolledcrude open dumping sites where even minimum environ-mental protections are not provided Recycling reductionand reuse are not getting support from formal authority eventhe composting a great potential sector of waste treatmentandminimization considering the nature ofMSW in LDACsfails to reach the desired target due to improper planning [7ndash9] As a result city authorities are facing very complicatedsituations for the management of the vast quantities of MSWDue to financial constraints lack of motivation absence ofeffective legislation to protect the environment and lackof commitment of authority the MSW has been becominga threat for city dwellers planners and other concernedstakeholders

2 Overview of Municipal Solid Wastes inStudy Areas

Bangladesh the most densely populated LDAC has nearly150 million people living in a flat deltaic land of 147570 km2area that lies between 20∘341015840 and 26∘381015840 north latitude

Figure 1 Location of study sites

and 88∘011015840 and 92∘411015840 east longitude The country is dividedinto six administrative divisions in the same names of the sixmajor cities namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna RajshahiBarisal and Sylhet The six major cities are considered asthe present study sites There are approximately 1750 millionpeople living in these six city corporations [10] generatingabout 7500 tons of MSW daily Table 1 provides the basicinformation of the six city corporations of Bangladesh Thedetailed characteristics of the MSW and the scenario of UDScan be found in Alamgir et al [3 11 12] and Alamgir andAhsan [13 14]

3 General Setup of MSW Management

City authority is responsible for overall management ofMSW in the city corporation areas Generally it consists oftwo functional departmentsmdashconservancy and engineeringdepartments Figure 2 shows the general setup of MSWmanagement in the city corporation of Bangladesh Con-servancy department is responsible for solid waste man-agement including other utility services Furthermore theconservancy department supervises the wastes intensiveworkers for collection and transfer while the engineeringdepartment is responsible for operation and maintenanceoperations involved in the waste management cycle such ascollection on-site storage and transportation vehicles andultimate disposal sites The salary of drivers and helpers ofwaste transfer vehicles is also maintained by the engineeringsection but salary and wages of wastes intensive workers aremaintained by the conservancy department Figure 3 showsthe flow path of MSW from source to ultimate disposal atypical way to handle it in Bangladesh Wastes irrespectiveof types are generally deposited in the community bins andSDSs either by the dwellers themselves or by NGOs CBOscity authority or private sectors In general city authoritycollects wastes from the secondary points and transfers to thedesignated UDSs Major portions of inorganic nonhazardsand slowly biodegradable organic wastes are recycled andreused in the generation points in the secondary points

Chinese Journal of Engineering 3

Table 1 Basic information of six city corporations of Bangladesh

City corporation City area(sq km)

Population(million)

Number ofWards

Wastes generation rate(kgcapday)

Total generation(tonsday) Ultimate disposal site

Dhaka 360 1100 90 040ndash055 5000ndash5500 2Chittagong 156 365 45 030ndash045 1200ndash1400 2Khulna 47 150 31 030ndash040 420ndash520 1Rajshahi 48 045 30 025ndash035 160ndash210 1Barisal 45 040 30 020ndash025 100ndash140 1Sylhet 265 050 27 035ndash045 200ndash240 1

Mayor(elected by city dwellers)

Chief executive officer (government representative)

Transportation facilitiesOn-site storage facilitiesUltimate disposal sites

Repairing and maintenance

MSW managementStreet sweepingDrain cleaningInsects control

Conservancy department Engineering department

Figure 2 General setup of MSW management in the city corpora-tion of Bangladesh

and even inUDSs Composting is one of the common optionsfor treatment and reuse of organic portions of MSW is donein a very small scale by dwellers NGOs private sectorsand even city authority However major portions of wastesremain unmanagedmdashthrowing them in the adjacent spacesroadsides and drains A portion of clinical wastes is managedby NGOs [15] and the remaining follows in the same path ofMSW

4 Source Storage and Collection of Wastes

Residential wastes are the main sources of MSW inBangladesh The other important sources are commercialwastes including markets hotels and restaurants hospi-talclinical wastes institutional wastes including schoolscolleges universities and government offices constructionand demolition wastes and municipal services wastes suchas street sweeping drain cleaning but excluding treatmentfacilities In Bangladesh a significant portion of populationdoes not have access to waste collection services and onlya fraction of the generated wastes are actually collected bydoor-to-door collection systems introduced by NGOs andCBOs in late 90s in Bangladesh for tiny payment Moreoverdue to a lack of motivation awareness and commitment

a considerable portion of wastes 40ndash60 are not properlystored collected or disposed in the designated places forultimate disposal As a result the unmanageable increasingquantity of MSW creates alarming environmental problems

Residents participating in the existing solid waste man-agement system store their solid wastes in plastic or metalcontainers of different sizes and shapes and keep theminside their house or premises mostly in the kitchen andorcorridor Waste collection workers collect the container thendispose it into the collection van and return the emptycontainer Study reveals that source storage and separation oforganic inorganic and hazardouswastes are highly neglectedby the city dwellers Generally commingled solid wastes arecollected in single-compartment vehicles Where door-to-door collection systems are not available house dwellers orservants carry wastes to nearby community binssecondarysites on their own The waste collection trucks collect thewastes at regular intervals for ultimate disposal Householdsstore the wastes at their own responsibility however someNGOs and CBOs even supply the bins to motivate peopleto cooperate with waste management system Experiencesreveal that proper storage and disposal are first steps toachieve the desired goal of solid waste management Moti-vation of house owners and the door-to-door collectionare proven to be very useful However the city authorityhas the lack of resources (eg manpower and budget) toprovide the door-to-door collection system for each house[16] Chittagong and Rajshahi city authorities are involvedin the door-to-door collection system [17] In Khulna totalmanagement in a ward (out of 31 wards) including door-to-door collections has been running by a private sector for thelast 10 years Figure 4 shows thewastes collection system fromgeneration sources and disposalThe role of NGOs andCBOsin waste management is reported by Ahsan et al [16]

5 On-Site Storage

On-site storage spaces are the SDSs transfer stations andhandover points which receive wastes from primary sourcesand then the wastes are transferred from this point to thedesignated location for processingrecyclingtreatment andmostly for ultimate disposal There is no transfer station orhandover point in Bangladesh in a true sense The SDSs areconsidered as the facilities where large amounts of wastes areaccumulated and finally transferred to the desired sites bylarge vehicles such as open or closed trucks and demountable

4 Chinese Journal of Engineering

MSW

Commercial waste

Household waste

Institutional waste

Sludge street sweeping demolition

waste

Door-to-door collection

Community bin

Secondary disposalsite

Collection and transportation

Ultimate disposal site

Clinical waste

Burning unit

Dug pit

Compost plant

Recycling

Collection and transportation

Kitchen waste

Reusable waste

Hazardous waste

Sharp waste

Closed concrete chamber

Washing andshredding

Ashes Market

Unmanagedwaste

Figure 3 Flow diagram of MSWmanagement in Bangladesh

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 4 Wastes collection from generation sources and disposal in secondary points

Chinese Journal of Engineering 5

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5 Secondary disposal sites of MSW

haul container truck A SDSmay be an open space or roadsideaccumulation of solid wastes They are large concrete binsdemountable large steel haul container roadside spaces andunused open low-lying areas In Bangladesh city authority issolely responsible for providing SDS collecting wastes fromSDS and transferring for final disposal as per existing citycorporation act These sites are located in the selected placesbased on population space availability accessibility andother unseen factors Wastes are deposited in SDS (Figure 5)directly by the generators NGOs CBOs and city authoritiesIn some cases especially for the residential areas along nar-row streets where SDS is not suitable to provide communitybins are provided from where wastes are transferred to SDSA wide variety of types and shapes of community bins arebuilt by the civic bodies andor city authorities which arelocated on the roadsides at frequent intervals Communitybins are mostly made of concrete but masonry and steelcontainers are also available The concrete and masonry binsare in variable sizes but normally rectangular in shape whichis one-meter wide one-meter high and one-two-meter longGenerally there is a door at one side and no cover on thetop of the community bins Wastes from community binsare transferred to SDS mostly by city authorities throughnonmotorized rickshaw van and hand trolley

In Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) areas there are morethan 846 SDS 640 community bins and 206 waste con-tainers For the last 2 years two private organizations (in6 wards) disposed the wastes from SDSs to UDSs Theybuilt their own SDS (with a large area) and practiced bettermanagement In Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) areas

the total number of SDS and community bins is 1506 849masonry bin 66 concrete bins 32 steel container and 558open spaces Besides there are huge numbers of unautho-rized small dumping sites spreading throughout CCC InKhulna City Corporation (KCC) there are more than 60SDSs around 1200 community bins and 28 haul containerslocated on roadsides throughout the city In Rajshahi CityCorporation (RCC) areas there are 44 open types SDSs andabout 190 community bins spreading over the whole cityThere are no dustbins in RCC areas recently all the dustbinshave been removed from SDS Rickshaw van pullers collectwastes from different sources and dump them into the openspaces randomly at SDS There are 150 SDSs in Barisal CityCorporation (BCC) areas spearing unevenly over the wholecity as a result somewards of BCCdonot have SDS In SylhetCity Corporation (SCC) areas there are about 74 SDSs out ofwhich only 30 to 35 sites are in use In general the SDSs havebin(s) made of concrete or masonry Recently three large-sized SDSs with better facilities have been constructed withthe assistance of an NGO

In the MSW management tier SDS plays a very pivotalrole However the situations of SDSs in all city corporationsare very much unpleasant and alarming The SDSs aredeteriorating the city environment at a large scale as shownin Figure 5 Since SDS situated mostly at busy roadsidesreceives and delivers wastes proper management with verystrict timing for collection and transfer is required whichcannot be addressed by the city authority with existingmanagement system so alternative options of SDS should beconsidered In the meantime BCC already demolished all

6 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 6 Wastes collection transportation and ultimate disposal

the permanent structures in SDS while SCC is not usingsome points of SDS and already removed roadsides litteringboxes DCC is preparing a master plan and KCC is consid-ering building a transfer station as an experimental stationIn such situation options should be kept open to solve theseproblems either by transfer station or handover points

6 Transportation

The functional element of collection includes not only thegathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials but alsothe transportation of these materials after collection tothe location where the collection vehicle is emptied Onlyrespective city authority is responsible for collecting wastesfrom secondary points and transporting them by motorizedvehiclestrucks and finally disposing them in the designatedUDS(s) of the city Although NGOs and CBOs collect wastesfrom householdsgeneration points and dump them in theSDSs they do not take responsibility for the collection andtransportation of wastes from SDSs However in DCC it isfound that two private companies have been collecting andtransferring wastes from SDS to the city authorityrsquos UDSs forthe last 2 years These two private companies served only 6wards out of 90 wards on a contract basis In KCC a privatecompany has been collecting and transporting wastes fordumping them in the UDS for the last 10 years only in oneward out of the existing 31 wards

Conservancy department set up the time schedule andfix vehicles for collection and transportation Generally

collection vehicles such as dump truck normal truck opentruck tractor with trolley tipping truck (container carrier)desledging vacuum tanker with tractor and power tiller withtrolley stand on the road nearby the SDS for operation Staffare assigned with each vehicle for collection and disposalDemountable containers are only hauled by tipping truckand no workers are required for collection and disposal butits numbers are also limited Wastes are mostly collected indaytime obstructing themovement of pedestrians and trafficsand also transported through busy city areas creating nui-sance and pollution due to being overheaped and uncoveredand due to leakage of liquid from the wastes as shown inFigure 6 City authority does not have the required numberof vehicles and staffs to perform the operation successfullyBesides the present management system is not capable ofutilizing the existing resources properly As a result thecollection of wastes from SDSs is very disappointing andcreating a lot of hazards as wastes remain there for longtimeTable 2 shows the total number of motorized vehicles andamount of wastes collected transported and dumped in thestudied sites

7 Ultimate Disposal Sites

The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid wastes isan important component of integrated waste managementAlthough source reduction reuse recycling and compostingcan divert significant portions of MSW a large amountof wastes still needs to be placed in landfills There is no

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

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Page 2: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

2 Chinese Journal of Engineering

organizations (CBOs) and private organizations are workingtogether to manage the MSW system properly Howeverthe overall situation remains unchanged It becomes evidentthat an integrated solid wastes management system (ISWM)is required considering the relevant socioeconomic settingsand technological aspects of the country To explore thepossibility of adopting an ISWM the limitations constraintsand relevant experiences of existing management system arerequired to examine explicitly For this purpose a feasibilitystudy has been conducted to identify the present statusincluding problems and limitations of MSW managementin the least developed Asian countries (LDACs) through aresearch project shortly named as WasteSafe [3] The MSWcomposition generation management and recycling activi-ties in Malaysia (another developing county) are reported byAhsan et al [4] and Samah et al [5 6]

Studies have been conducted in the six major cities ofBangladesh namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna RajshahiBarisal and Sylhet as shown in Figure 1 to identify thestrengths and weakness at all levels of the existing wastesmanagement systems starting from generation source toultimate disposal Data and related information were col-lected for the last six months through field survey publicconsultation literature and other appropriate means [3]Source storage and separation are done in an informal anduncontrolled way hardly 30ndash40 of city dwellers practicedit Door-to-door collection systems have been introducedrecently for wastes collection from the sources (eg houses)and then transport of the waste to the nearest secondarydisposal sites (SDSs) Wastes are collected from generationsources by NGOs CBOs and city authority by door-to-door collection systems Where the door-to-door collectionsystem is unavailable residents dispose the waste in thenearest community bins SDS open land road sides ordrainsWith regard to the city authorities wastes are collectedand transferred to ultimate disposal sites (UDSs) There isno engineering or sanitary landfill in Bangladesh All theultimate MSW disposal sites of Bangladesh are uncontrolledcrude open dumping sites where even minimum environ-mental protections are not provided Recycling reductionand reuse are not getting support from formal authority eventhe composting a great potential sector of waste treatmentandminimization considering the nature ofMSW in LDACsfails to reach the desired target due to improper planning [7ndash9] As a result city authorities are facing very complicatedsituations for the management of the vast quantities of MSWDue to financial constraints lack of motivation absence ofeffective legislation to protect the environment and lackof commitment of authority the MSW has been becominga threat for city dwellers planners and other concernedstakeholders

2 Overview of Municipal Solid Wastes inStudy Areas

Bangladesh the most densely populated LDAC has nearly150 million people living in a flat deltaic land of 147570 km2area that lies between 20∘341015840 and 26∘381015840 north latitude

Figure 1 Location of study sites

and 88∘011015840 and 92∘411015840 east longitude The country is dividedinto six administrative divisions in the same names of the sixmajor cities namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna RajshahiBarisal and Sylhet The six major cities are considered asthe present study sites There are approximately 1750 millionpeople living in these six city corporations [10] generatingabout 7500 tons of MSW daily Table 1 provides the basicinformation of the six city corporations of Bangladesh Thedetailed characteristics of the MSW and the scenario of UDScan be found in Alamgir et al [3 11 12] and Alamgir andAhsan [13 14]

3 General Setup of MSW Management

City authority is responsible for overall management ofMSW in the city corporation areas Generally it consists oftwo functional departmentsmdashconservancy and engineeringdepartments Figure 2 shows the general setup of MSWmanagement in the city corporation of Bangladesh Con-servancy department is responsible for solid waste man-agement including other utility services Furthermore theconservancy department supervises the wastes intensiveworkers for collection and transfer while the engineeringdepartment is responsible for operation and maintenanceoperations involved in the waste management cycle such ascollection on-site storage and transportation vehicles andultimate disposal sites The salary of drivers and helpers ofwaste transfer vehicles is also maintained by the engineeringsection but salary and wages of wastes intensive workers aremaintained by the conservancy department Figure 3 showsthe flow path of MSW from source to ultimate disposal atypical way to handle it in Bangladesh Wastes irrespectiveof types are generally deposited in the community bins andSDSs either by the dwellers themselves or by NGOs CBOscity authority or private sectors In general city authoritycollects wastes from the secondary points and transfers to thedesignated UDSs Major portions of inorganic nonhazardsand slowly biodegradable organic wastes are recycled andreused in the generation points in the secondary points

Chinese Journal of Engineering 3

Table 1 Basic information of six city corporations of Bangladesh

City corporation City area(sq km)

Population(million)

Number ofWards

Wastes generation rate(kgcapday)

Total generation(tonsday) Ultimate disposal site

Dhaka 360 1100 90 040ndash055 5000ndash5500 2Chittagong 156 365 45 030ndash045 1200ndash1400 2Khulna 47 150 31 030ndash040 420ndash520 1Rajshahi 48 045 30 025ndash035 160ndash210 1Barisal 45 040 30 020ndash025 100ndash140 1Sylhet 265 050 27 035ndash045 200ndash240 1

Mayor(elected by city dwellers)

Chief executive officer (government representative)

Transportation facilitiesOn-site storage facilitiesUltimate disposal sites

Repairing and maintenance

MSW managementStreet sweepingDrain cleaningInsects control

Conservancy department Engineering department

Figure 2 General setup of MSW management in the city corpora-tion of Bangladesh

and even inUDSs Composting is one of the common optionsfor treatment and reuse of organic portions of MSW is donein a very small scale by dwellers NGOs private sectorsand even city authority However major portions of wastesremain unmanagedmdashthrowing them in the adjacent spacesroadsides and drains A portion of clinical wastes is managedby NGOs [15] and the remaining follows in the same path ofMSW

4 Source Storage and Collection of Wastes

Residential wastes are the main sources of MSW inBangladesh The other important sources are commercialwastes including markets hotels and restaurants hospi-talclinical wastes institutional wastes including schoolscolleges universities and government offices constructionand demolition wastes and municipal services wastes suchas street sweeping drain cleaning but excluding treatmentfacilities In Bangladesh a significant portion of populationdoes not have access to waste collection services and onlya fraction of the generated wastes are actually collected bydoor-to-door collection systems introduced by NGOs andCBOs in late 90s in Bangladesh for tiny payment Moreoverdue to a lack of motivation awareness and commitment

a considerable portion of wastes 40ndash60 are not properlystored collected or disposed in the designated places forultimate disposal As a result the unmanageable increasingquantity of MSW creates alarming environmental problems

Residents participating in the existing solid waste man-agement system store their solid wastes in plastic or metalcontainers of different sizes and shapes and keep theminside their house or premises mostly in the kitchen andorcorridor Waste collection workers collect the container thendispose it into the collection van and return the emptycontainer Study reveals that source storage and separation oforganic inorganic and hazardouswastes are highly neglectedby the city dwellers Generally commingled solid wastes arecollected in single-compartment vehicles Where door-to-door collection systems are not available house dwellers orservants carry wastes to nearby community binssecondarysites on their own The waste collection trucks collect thewastes at regular intervals for ultimate disposal Householdsstore the wastes at their own responsibility however someNGOs and CBOs even supply the bins to motivate peopleto cooperate with waste management system Experiencesreveal that proper storage and disposal are first steps toachieve the desired goal of solid waste management Moti-vation of house owners and the door-to-door collectionare proven to be very useful However the city authorityhas the lack of resources (eg manpower and budget) toprovide the door-to-door collection system for each house[16] Chittagong and Rajshahi city authorities are involvedin the door-to-door collection system [17] In Khulna totalmanagement in a ward (out of 31 wards) including door-to-door collections has been running by a private sector for thelast 10 years Figure 4 shows thewastes collection system fromgeneration sources and disposalThe role of NGOs andCBOsin waste management is reported by Ahsan et al [16]

5 On-Site Storage

On-site storage spaces are the SDSs transfer stations andhandover points which receive wastes from primary sourcesand then the wastes are transferred from this point to thedesignated location for processingrecyclingtreatment andmostly for ultimate disposal There is no transfer station orhandover point in Bangladesh in a true sense The SDSs areconsidered as the facilities where large amounts of wastes areaccumulated and finally transferred to the desired sites bylarge vehicles such as open or closed trucks and demountable

4 Chinese Journal of Engineering

MSW

Commercial waste

Household waste

Institutional waste

Sludge street sweeping demolition

waste

Door-to-door collection

Community bin

Secondary disposalsite

Collection and transportation

Ultimate disposal site

Clinical waste

Burning unit

Dug pit

Compost plant

Recycling

Collection and transportation

Kitchen waste

Reusable waste

Hazardous waste

Sharp waste

Closed concrete chamber

Washing andshredding

Ashes Market

Unmanagedwaste

Figure 3 Flow diagram of MSWmanagement in Bangladesh

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 4 Wastes collection from generation sources and disposal in secondary points

Chinese Journal of Engineering 5

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5 Secondary disposal sites of MSW

haul container truck A SDSmay be an open space or roadsideaccumulation of solid wastes They are large concrete binsdemountable large steel haul container roadside spaces andunused open low-lying areas In Bangladesh city authority issolely responsible for providing SDS collecting wastes fromSDS and transferring for final disposal as per existing citycorporation act These sites are located in the selected placesbased on population space availability accessibility andother unseen factors Wastes are deposited in SDS (Figure 5)directly by the generators NGOs CBOs and city authoritiesIn some cases especially for the residential areas along nar-row streets where SDS is not suitable to provide communitybins are provided from where wastes are transferred to SDSA wide variety of types and shapes of community bins arebuilt by the civic bodies andor city authorities which arelocated on the roadsides at frequent intervals Communitybins are mostly made of concrete but masonry and steelcontainers are also available The concrete and masonry binsare in variable sizes but normally rectangular in shape whichis one-meter wide one-meter high and one-two-meter longGenerally there is a door at one side and no cover on thetop of the community bins Wastes from community binsare transferred to SDS mostly by city authorities throughnonmotorized rickshaw van and hand trolley

In Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) areas there are morethan 846 SDS 640 community bins and 206 waste con-tainers For the last 2 years two private organizations (in6 wards) disposed the wastes from SDSs to UDSs Theybuilt their own SDS (with a large area) and practiced bettermanagement In Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) areas

the total number of SDS and community bins is 1506 849masonry bin 66 concrete bins 32 steel container and 558open spaces Besides there are huge numbers of unautho-rized small dumping sites spreading throughout CCC InKhulna City Corporation (KCC) there are more than 60SDSs around 1200 community bins and 28 haul containerslocated on roadsides throughout the city In Rajshahi CityCorporation (RCC) areas there are 44 open types SDSs andabout 190 community bins spreading over the whole cityThere are no dustbins in RCC areas recently all the dustbinshave been removed from SDS Rickshaw van pullers collectwastes from different sources and dump them into the openspaces randomly at SDS There are 150 SDSs in Barisal CityCorporation (BCC) areas spearing unevenly over the wholecity as a result somewards of BCCdonot have SDS In SylhetCity Corporation (SCC) areas there are about 74 SDSs out ofwhich only 30 to 35 sites are in use In general the SDSs havebin(s) made of concrete or masonry Recently three large-sized SDSs with better facilities have been constructed withthe assistance of an NGO

In the MSW management tier SDS plays a very pivotalrole However the situations of SDSs in all city corporationsare very much unpleasant and alarming The SDSs aredeteriorating the city environment at a large scale as shownin Figure 5 Since SDS situated mostly at busy roadsidesreceives and delivers wastes proper management with verystrict timing for collection and transfer is required whichcannot be addressed by the city authority with existingmanagement system so alternative options of SDS should beconsidered In the meantime BCC already demolished all

6 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 6 Wastes collection transportation and ultimate disposal

the permanent structures in SDS while SCC is not usingsome points of SDS and already removed roadsides litteringboxes DCC is preparing a master plan and KCC is consid-ering building a transfer station as an experimental stationIn such situation options should be kept open to solve theseproblems either by transfer station or handover points

6 Transportation

The functional element of collection includes not only thegathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials but alsothe transportation of these materials after collection tothe location where the collection vehicle is emptied Onlyrespective city authority is responsible for collecting wastesfrom secondary points and transporting them by motorizedvehiclestrucks and finally disposing them in the designatedUDS(s) of the city Although NGOs and CBOs collect wastesfrom householdsgeneration points and dump them in theSDSs they do not take responsibility for the collection andtransportation of wastes from SDSs However in DCC it isfound that two private companies have been collecting andtransferring wastes from SDS to the city authorityrsquos UDSs forthe last 2 years These two private companies served only 6wards out of 90 wards on a contract basis In KCC a privatecompany has been collecting and transporting wastes fordumping them in the UDS for the last 10 years only in oneward out of the existing 31 wards

Conservancy department set up the time schedule andfix vehicles for collection and transportation Generally

collection vehicles such as dump truck normal truck opentruck tractor with trolley tipping truck (container carrier)desledging vacuum tanker with tractor and power tiller withtrolley stand on the road nearby the SDS for operation Staffare assigned with each vehicle for collection and disposalDemountable containers are only hauled by tipping truckand no workers are required for collection and disposal butits numbers are also limited Wastes are mostly collected indaytime obstructing themovement of pedestrians and trafficsand also transported through busy city areas creating nui-sance and pollution due to being overheaped and uncoveredand due to leakage of liquid from the wastes as shown inFigure 6 City authority does not have the required numberof vehicles and staffs to perform the operation successfullyBesides the present management system is not capable ofutilizing the existing resources properly As a result thecollection of wastes from SDSs is very disappointing andcreating a lot of hazards as wastes remain there for longtimeTable 2 shows the total number of motorized vehicles andamount of wastes collected transported and dumped in thestudied sites

7 Ultimate Disposal Sites

The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid wastes isan important component of integrated waste managementAlthough source reduction reuse recycling and compostingcan divert significant portions of MSW a large amountof wastes still needs to be placed in landfills There is no

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 3: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

Chinese Journal of Engineering 3

Table 1 Basic information of six city corporations of Bangladesh

City corporation City area(sq km)

Population(million)

Number ofWards

Wastes generation rate(kgcapday)

Total generation(tonsday) Ultimate disposal site

Dhaka 360 1100 90 040ndash055 5000ndash5500 2Chittagong 156 365 45 030ndash045 1200ndash1400 2Khulna 47 150 31 030ndash040 420ndash520 1Rajshahi 48 045 30 025ndash035 160ndash210 1Barisal 45 040 30 020ndash025 100ndash140 1Sylhet 265 050 27 035ndash045 200ndash240 1

Mayor(elected by city dwellers)

Chief executive officer (government representative)

Transportation facilitiesOn-site storage facilitiesUltimate disposal sites

Repairing and maintenance

MSW managementStreet sweepingDrain cleaningInsects control

Conservancy department Engineering department

Figure 2 General setup of MSW management in the city corpora-tion of Bangladesh

and even inUDSs Composting is one of the common optionsfor treatment and reuse of organic portions of MSW is donein a very small scale by dwellers NGOs private sectorsand even city authority However major portions of wastesremain unmanagedmdashthrowing them in the adjacent spacesroadsides and drains A portion of clinical wastes is managedby NGOs [15] and the remaining follows in the same path ofMSW

4 Source Storage and Collection of Wastes

Residential wastes are the main sources of MSW inBangladesh The other important sources are commercialwastes including markets hotels and restaurants hospi-talclinical wastes institutional wastes including schoolscolleges universities and government offices constructionand demolition wastes and municipal services wastes suchas street sweeping drain cleaning but excluding treatmentfacilities In Bangladesh a significant portion of populationdoes not have access to waste collection services and onlya fraction of the generated wastes are actually collected bydoor-to-door collection systems introduced by NGOs andCBOs in late 90s in Bangladesh for tiny payment Moreoverdue to a lack of motivation awareness and commitment

a considerable portion of wastes 40ndash60 are not properlystored collected or disposed in the designated places forultimate disposal As a result the unmanageable increasingquantity of MSW creates alarming environmental problems

Residents participating in the existing solid waste man-agement system store their solid wastes in plastic or metalcontainers of different sizes and shapes and keep theminside their house or premises mostly in the kitchen andorcorridor Waste collection workers collect the container thendispose it into the collection van and return the emptycontainer Study reveals that source storage and separation oforganic inorganic and hazardouswastes are highly neglectedby the city dwellers Generally commingled solid wastes arecollected in single-compartment vehicles Where door-to-door collection systems are not available house dwellers orservants carry wastes to nearby community binssecondarysites on their own The waste collection trucks collect thewastes at regular intervals for ultimate disposal Householdsstore the wastes at their own responsibility however someNGOs and CBOs even supply the bins to motivate peopleto cooperate with waste management system Experiencesreveal that proper storage and disposal are first steps toachieve the desired goal of solid waste management Moti-vation of house owners and the door-to-door collectionare proven to be very useful However the city authorityhas the lack of resources (eg manpower and budget) toprovide the door-to-door collection system for each house[16] Chittagong and Rajshahi city authorities are involvedin the door-to-door collection system [17] In Khulna totalmanagement in a ward (out of 31 wards) including door-to-door collections has been running by a private sector for thelast 10 years Figure 4 shows thewastes collection system fromgeneration sources and disposalThe role of NGOs andCBOsin waste management is reported by Ahsan et al [16]

5 On-Site Storage

On-site storage spaces are the SDSs transfer stations andhandover points which receive wastes from primary sourcesand then the wastes are transferred from this point to thedesignated location for processingrecyclingtreatment andmostly for ultimate disposal There is no transfer station orhandover point in Bangladesh in a true sense The SDSs areconsidered as the facilities where large amounts of wastes areaccumulated and finally transferred to the desired sites bylarge vehicles such as open or closed trucks and demountable

4 Chinese Journal of Engineering

MSW

Commercial waste

Household waste

Institutional waste

Sludge street sweeping demolition

waste

Door-to-door collection

Community bin

Secondary disposalsite

Collection and transportation

Ultimate disposal site

Clinical waste

Burning unit

Dug pit

Compost plant

Recycling

Collection and transportation

Kitchen waste

Reusable waste

Hazardous waste

Sharp waste

Closed concrete chamber

Washing andshredding

Ashes Market

Unmanagedwaste

Figure 3 Flow diagram of MSWmanagement in Bangladesh

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 4 Wastes collection from generation sources and disposal in secondary points

Chinese Journal of Engineering 5

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5 Secondary disposal sites of MSW

haul container truck A SDSmay be an open space or roadsideaccumulation of solid wastes They are large concrete binsdemountable large steel haul container roadside spaces andunused open low-lying areas In Bangladesh city authority issolely responsible for providing SDS collecting wastes fromSDS and transferring for final disposal as per existing citycorporation act These sites are located in the selected placesbased on population space availability accessibility andother unseen factors Wastes are deposited in SDS (Figure 5)directly by the generators NGOs CBOs and city authoritiesIn some cases especially for the residential areas along nar-row streets where SDS is not suitable to provide communitybins are provided from where wastes are transferred to SDSA wide variety of types and shapes of community bins arebuilt by the civic bodies andor city authorities which arelocated on the roadsides at frequent intervals Communitybins are mostly made of concrete but masonry and steelcontainers are also available The concrete and masonry binsare in variable sizes but normally rectangular in shape whichis one-meter wide one-meter high and one-two-meter longGenerally there is a door at one side and no cover on thetop of the community bins Wastes from community binsare transferred to SDS mostly by city authorities throughnonmotorized rickshaw van and hand trolley

In Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) areas there are morethan 846 SDS 640 community bins and 206 waste con-tainers For the last 2 years two private organizations (in6 wards) disposed the wastes from SDSs to UDSs Theybuilt their own SDS (with a large area) and practiced bettermanagement In Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) areas

the total number of SDS and community bins is 1506 849masonry bin 66 concrete bins 32 steel container and 558open spaces Besides there are huge numbers of unautho-rized small dumping sites spreading throughout CCC InKhulna City Corporation (KCC) there are more than 60SDSs around 1200 community bins and 28 haul containerslocated on roadsides throughout the city In Rajshahi CityCorporation (RCC) areas there are 44 open types SDSs andabout 190 community bins spreading over the whole cityThere are no dustbins in RCC areas recently all the dustbinshave been removed from SDS Rickshaw van pullers collectwastes from different sources and dump them into the openspaces randomly at SDS There are 150 SDSs in Barisal CityCorporation (BCC) areas spearing unevenly over the wholecity as a result somewards of BCCdonot have SDS In SylhetCity Corporation (SCC) areas there are about 74 SDSs out ofwhich only 30 to 35 sites are in use In general the SDSs havebin(s) made of concrete or masonry Recently three large-sized SDSs with better facilities have been constructed withthe assistance of an NGO

In the MSW management tier SDS plays a very pivotalrole However the situations of SDSs in all city corporationsare very much unpleasant and alarming The SDSs aredeteriorating the city environment at a large scale as shownin Figure 5 Since SDS situated mostly at busy roadsidesreceives and delivers wastes proper management with verystrict timing for collection and transfer is required whichcannot be addressed by the city authority with existingmanagement system so alternative options of SDS should beconsidered In the meantime BCC already demolished all

6 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 6 Wastes collection transportation and ultimate disposal

the permanent structures in SDS while SCC is not usingsome points of SDS and already removed roadsides litteringboxes DCC is preparing a master plan and KCC is consid-ering building a transfer station as an experimental stationIn such situation options should be kept open to solve theseproblems either by transfer station or handover points

6 Transportation

The functional element of collection includes not only thegathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials but alsothe transportation of these materials after collection tothe location where the collection vehicle is emptied Onlyrespective city authority is responsible for collecting wastesfrom secondary points and transporting them by motorizedvehiclestrucks and finally disposing them in the designatedUDS(s) of the city Although NGOs and CBOs collect wastesfrom householdsgeneration points and dump them in theSDSs they do not take responsibility for the collection andtransportation of wastes from SDSs However in DCC it isfound that two private companies have been collecting andtransferring wastes from SDS to the city authorityrsquos UDSs forthe last 2 years These two private companies served only 6wards out of 90 wards on a contract basis In KCC a privatecompany has been collecting and transporting wastes fordumping them in the UDS for the last 10 years only in oneward out of the existing 31 wards

Conservancy department set up the time schedule andfix vehicles for collection and transportation Generally

collection vehicles such as dump truck normal truck opentruck tractor with trolley tipping truck (container carrier)desledging vacuum tanker with tractor and power tiller withtrolley stand on the road nearby the SDS for operation Staffare assigned with each vehicle for collection and disposalDemountable containers are only hauled by tipping truckand no workers are required for collection and disposal butits numbers are also limited Wastes are mostly collected indaytime obstructing themovement of pedestrians and trafficsand also transported through busy city areas creating nui-sance and pollution due to being overheaped and uncoveredand due to leakage of liquid from the wastes as shown inFigure 6 City authority does not have the required numberof vehicles and staffs to perform the operation successfullyBesides the present management system is not capable ofutilizing the existing resources properly As a result thecollection of wastes from SDSs is very disappointing andcreating a lot of hazards as wastes remain there for longtimeTable 2 shows the total number of motorized vehicles andamount of wastes collected transported and dumped in thestudied sites

7 Ultimate Disposal Sites

The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid wastes isan important component of integrated waste managementAlthough source reduction reuse recycling and compostingcan divert significant portions of MSW a large amountof wastes still needs to be placed in landfills There is no

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 4: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

4 Chinese Journal of Engineering

MSW

Commercial waste

Household waste

Institutional waste

Sludge street sweeping demolition

waste

Door-to-door collection

Community bin

Secondary disposalsite

Collection and transportation

Ultimate disposal site

Clinical waste

Burning unit

Dug pit

Compost plant

Recycling

Collection and transportation

Kitchen waste

Reusable waste

Hazardous waste

Sharp waste

Closed concrete chamber

Washing andshredding

Ashes Market

Unmanagedwaste

Figure 3 Flow diagram of MSWmanagement in Bangladesh

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 4 Wastes collection from generation sources and disposal in secondary points

Chinese Journal of Engineering 5

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5 Secondary disposal sites of MSW

haul container truck A SDSmay be an open space or roadsideaccumulation of solid wastes They are large concrete binsdemountable large steel haul container roadside spaces andunused open low-lying areas In Bangladesh city authority issolely responsible for providing SDS collecting wastes fromSDS and transferring for final disposal as per existing citycorporation act These sites are located in the selected placesbased on population space availability accessibility andother unseen factors Wastes are deposited in SDS (Figure 5)directly by the generators NGOs CBOs and city authoritiesIn some cases especially for the residential areas along nar-row streets where SDS is not suitable to provide communitybins are provided from where wastes are transferred to SDSA wide variety of types and shapes of community bins arebuilt by the civic bodies andor city authorities which arelocated on the roadsides at frequent intervals Communitybins are mostly made of concrete but masonry and steelcontainers are also available The concrete and masonry binsare in variable sizes but normally rectangular in shape whichis one-meter wide one-meter high and one-two-meter longGenerally there is a door at one side and no cover on thetop of the community bins Wastes from community binsare transferred to SDS mostly by city authorities throughnonmotorized rickshaw van and hand trolley

In Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) areas there are morethan 846 SDS 640 community bins and 206 waste con-tainers For the last 2 years two private organizations (in6 wards) disposed the wastes from SDSs to UDSs Theybuilt their own SDS (with a large area) and practiced bettermanagement In Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) areas

the total number of SDS and community bins is 1506 849masonry bin 66 concrete bins 32 steel container and 558open spaces Besides there are huge numbers of unautho-rized small dumping sites spreading throughout CCC InKhulna City Corporation (KCC) there are more than 60SDSs around 1200 community bins and 28 haul containerslocated on roadsides throughout the city In Rajshahi CityCorporation (RCC) areas there are 44 open types SDSs andabout 190 community bins spreading over the whole cityThere are no dustbins in RCC areas recently all the dustbinshave been removed from SDS Rickshaw van pullers collectwastes from different sources and dump them into the openspaces randomly at SDS There are 150 SDSs in Barisal CityCorporation (BCC) areas spearing unevenly over the wholecity as a result somewards of BCCdonot have SDS In SylhetCity Corporation (SCC) areas there are about 74 SDSs out ofwhich only 30 to 35 sites are in use In general the SDSs havebin(s) made of concrete or masonry Recently three large-sized SDSs with better facilities have been constructed withthe assistance of an NGO

In the MSW management tier SDS plays a very pivotalrole However the situations of SDSs in all city corporationsare very much unpleasant and alarming The SDSs aredeteriorating the city environment at a large scale as shownin Figure 5 Since SDS situated mostly at busy roadsidesreceives and delivers wastes proper management with verystrict timing for collection and transfer is required whichcannot be addressed by the city authority with existingmanagement system so alternative options of SDS should beconsidered In the meantime BCC already demolished all

6 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 6 Wastes collection transportation and ultimate disposal

the permanent structures in SDS while SCC is not usingsome points of SDS and already removed roadsides litteringboxes DCC is preparing a master plan and KCC is consid-ering building a transfer station as an experimental stationIn such situation options should be kept open to solve theseproblems either by transfer station or handover points

6 Transportation

The functional element of collection includes not only thegathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials but alsothe transportation of these materials after collection tothe location where the collection vehicle is emptied Onlyrespective city authority is responsible for collecting wastesfrom secondary points and transporting them by motorizedvehiclestrucks and finally disposing them in the designatedUDS(s) of the city Although NGOs and CBOs collect wastesfrom householdsgeneration points and dump them in theSDSs they do not take responsibility for the collection andtransportation of wastes from SDSs However in DCC it isfound that two private companies have been collecting andtransferring wastes from SDS to the city authorityrsquos UDSs forthe last 2 years These two private companies served only 6wards out of 90 wards on a contract basis In KCC a privatecompany has been collecting and transporting wastes fordumping them in the UDS for the last 10 years only in oneward out of the existing 31 wards

Conservancy department set up the time schedule andfix vehicles for collection and transportation Generally

collection vehicles such as dump truck normal truck opentruck tractor with trolley tipping truck (container carrier)desledging vacuum tanker with tractor and power tiller withtrolley stand on the road nearby the SDS for operation Staffare assigned with each vehicle for collection and disposalDemountable containers are only hauled by tipping truckand no workers are required for collection and disposal butits numbers are also limited Wastes are mostly collected indaytime obstructing themovement of pedestrians and trafficsand also transported through busy city areas creating nui-sance and pollution due to being overheaped and uncoveredand due to leakage of liquid from the wastes as shown inFigure 6 City authority does not have the required numberof vehicles and staffs to perform the operation successfullyBesides the present management system is not capable ofutilizing the existing resources properly As a result thecollection of wastes from SDSs is very disappointing andcreating a lot of hazards as wastes remain there for longtimeTable 2 shows the total number of motorized vehicles andamount of wastes collected transported and dumped in thestudied sites

7 Ultimate Disposal Sites

The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid wastes isan important component of integrated waste managementAlthough source reduction reuse recycling and compostingcan divert significant portions of MSW a large amountof wastes still needs to be placed in landfills There is no

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

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Civil EngineeringAdvances in

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Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 5: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

Chinese Journal of Engineering 5

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5 Secondary disposal sites of MSW

haul container truck A SDSmay be an open space or roadsideaccumulation of solid wastes They are large concrete binsdemountable large steel haul container roadside spaces andunused open low-lying areas In Bangladesh city authority issolely responsible for providing SDS collecting wastes fromSDS and transferring for final disposal as per existing citycorporation act These sites are located in the selected placesbased on population space availability accessibility andother unseen factors Wastes are deposited in SDS (Figure 5)directly by the generators NGOs CBOs and city authoritiesIn some cases especially for the residential areas along nar-row streets where SDS is not suitable to provide communitybins are provided from where wastes are transferred to SDSA wide variety of types and shapes of community bins arebuilt by the civic bodies andor city authorities which arelocated on the roadsides at frequent intervals Communitybins are mostly made of concrete but masonry and steelcontainers are also available The concrete and masonry binsare in variable sizes but normally rectangular in shape whichis one-meter wide one-meter high and one-two-meter longGenerally there is a door at one side and no cover on thetop of the community bins Wastes from community binsare transferred to SDS mostly by city authorities throughnonmotorized rickshaw van and hand trolley

In Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) areas there are morethan 846 SDS 640 community bins and 206 waste con-tainers For the last 2 years two private organizations (in6 wards) disposed the wastes from SDSs to UDSs Theybuilt their own SDS (with a large area) and practiced bettermanagement In Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) areas

the total number of SDS and community bins is 1506 849masonry bin 66 concrete bins 32 steel container and 558open spaces Besides there are huge numbers of unautho-rized small dumping sites spreading throughout CCC InKhulna City Corporation (KCC) there are more than 60SDSs around 1200 community bins and 28 haul containerslocated on roadsides throughout the city In Rajshahi CityCorporation (RCC) areas there are 44 open types SDSs andabout 190 community bins spreading over the whole cityThere are no dustbins in RCC areas recently all the dustbinshave been removed from SDS Rickshaw van pullers collectwastes from different sources and dump them into the openspaces randomly at SDS There are 150 SDSs in Barisal CityCorporation (BCC) areas spearing unevenly over the wholecity as a result somewards of BCCdonot have SDS In SylhetCity Corporation (SCC) areas there are about 74 SDSs out ofwhich only 30 to 35 sites are in use In general the SDSs havebin(s) made of concrete or masonry Recently three large-sized SDSs with better facilities have been constructed withthe assistance of an NGO

In the MSW management tier SDS plays a very pivotalrole However the situations of SDSs in all city corporationsare very much unpleasant and alarming The SDSs aredeteriorating the city environment at a large scale as shownin Figure 5 Since SDS situated mostly at busy roadsidesreceives and delivers wastes proper management with verystrict timing for collection and transfer is required whichcannot be addressed by the city authority with existingmanagement system so alternative options of SDS should beconsidered In the meantime BCC already demolished all

6 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 6 Wastes collection transportation and ultimate disposal

the permanent structures in SDS while SCC is not usingsome points of SDS and already removed roadsides litteringboxes DCC is preparing a master plan and KCC is consid-ering building a transfer station as an experimental stationIn such situation options should be kept open to solve theseproblems either by transfer station or handover points

6 Transportation

The functional element of collection includes not only thegathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials but alsothe transportation of these materials after collection tothe location where the collection vehicle is emptied Onlyrespective city authority is responsible for collecting wastesfrom secondary points and transporting them by motorizedvehiclestrucks and finally disposing them in the designatedUDS(s) of the city Although NGOs and CBOs collect wastesfrom householdsgeneration points and dump them in theSDSs they do not take responsibility for the collection andtransportation of wastes from SDSs However in DCC it isfound that two private companies have been collecting andtransferring wastes from SDS to the city authorityrsquos UDSs forthe last 2 years These two private companies served only 6wards out of 90 wards on a contract basis In KCC a privatecompany has been collecting and transporting wastes fordumping them in the UDS for the last 10 years only in oneward out of the existing 31 wards

Conservancy department set up the time schedule andfix vehicles for collection and transportation Generally

collection vehicles such as dump truck normal truck opentruck tractor with trolley tipping truck (container carrier)desledging vacuum tanker with tractor and power tiller withtrolley stand on the road nearby the SDS for operation Staffare assigned with each vehicle for collection and disposalDemountable containers are only hauled by tipping truckand no workers are required for collection and disposal butits numbers are also limited Wastes are mostly collected indaytime obstructing themovement of pedestrians and trafficsand also transported through busy city areas creating nui-sance and pollution due to being overheaped and uncoveredand due to leakage of liquid from the wastes as shown inFigure 6 City authority does not have the required numberof vehicles and staffs to perform the operation successfullyBesides the present management system is not capable ofutilizing the existing resources properly As a result thecollection of wastes from SDSs is very disappointing andcreating a lot of hazards as wastes remain there for longtimeTable 2 shows the total number of motorized vehicles andamount of wastes collected transported and dumped in thestudied sites

7 Ultimate Disposal Sites

The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid wastes isan important component of integrated waste managementAlthough source reduction reuse recycling and compostingcan divert significant portions of MSW a large amountof wastes still needs to be placed in landfills There is no

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

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DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 6: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

6 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 6 Wastes collection transportation and ultimate disposal

the permanent structures in SDS while SCC is not usingsome points of SDS and already removed roadsides litteringboxes DCC is preparing a master plan and KCC is consid-ering building a transfer station as an experimental stationIn such situation options should be kept open to solve theseproblems either by transfer station or handover points

6 Transportation

The functional element of collection includes not only thegathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials but alsothe transportation of these materials after collection tothe location where the collection vehicle is emptied Onlyrespective city authority is responsible for collecting wastesfrom secondary points and transporting them by motorizedvehiclestrucks and finally disposing them in the designatedUDS(s) of the city Although NGOs and CBOs collect wastesfrom householdsgeneration points and dump them in theSDSs they do not take responsibility for the collection andtransportation of wastes from SDSs However in DCC it isfound that two private companies have been collecting andtransferring wastes from SDS to the city authorityrsquos UDSs forthe last 2 years These two private companies served only 6wards out of 90 wards on a contract basis In KCC a privatecompany has been collecting and transporting wastes fordumping them in the UDS for the last 10 years only in oneward out of the existing 31 wards

Conservancy department set up the time schedule andfix vehicles for collection and transportation Generally

collection vehicles such as dump truck normal truck opentruck tractor with trolley tipping truck (container carrier)desledging vacuum tanker with tractor and power tiller withtrolley stand on the road nearby the SDS for operation Staffare assigned with each vehicle for collection and disposalDemountable containers are only hauled by tipping truckand no workers are required for collection and disposal butits numbers are also limited Wastes are mostly collected indaytime obstructing themovement of pedestrians and trafficsand also transported through busy city areas creating nui-sance and pollution due to being overheaped and uncoveredand due to leakage of liquid from the wastes as shown inFigure 6 City authority does not have the required numberof vehicles and staffs to perform the operation successfullyBesides the present management system is not capable ofutilizing the existing resources properly As a result thecollection of wastes from SDSs is very disappointing andcreating a lot of hazards as wastes remain there for longtimeTable 2 shows the total number of motorized vehicles andamount of wastes collected transported and dumped in thestudied sites

7 Ultimate Disposal Sites

The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid wastes isan important component of integrated waste managementAlthough source reduction reuse recycling and compostingcan divert significant portions of MSW a large amountof wastes still needs to be placed in landfills There is no

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 7: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

Chinese Journal of Engineering 7

Table 2 Number of motorized vehicles with transport capacity

City Number ofmotorized vehicles

Amount collectedtransported and dumped

(tonsday)Dhaka 373 2000ndash2400Chittagong 49 500ndash550Khulna 32 240ndash260Rajshahi 15 60ndash80Barisal 7 30ndash40Sylhet 17 60ndash80

controlledengineeredsanitary landfill in Bangladesh Thesites are situated in and around the city areas of low-lyingopen spaces unclaimed lands riverbanks and roadsidesDCC and CCC each operates at two sites namely Matuailand Gabtali and Raufabad andHalishahar respectively whileother city corporations operate at one site each namelyRajbandha Shishu Park North Kawnia and Lalmati Alltypes of MSW are disposed including some portions of med-icalhospital wastes Crude open dumping sites are alwaysincompatible with the surroundings Wind blows wastes tothe surroundings No proper land filling system is followedWind blows litters and spreading wastes outside the site andon the surrounding pond and adjacent surface water

Environmental pollution at open dumping site mayinclude air pollution water and soil contamination due togeneration of leachate gas odor dust and potential firehazard The uncontrolled burning of solid waste createssmoke and other types of air pollution Garbage nuisanceconditions also pose higher risks for human beings As majorparts of disposed wastes are biodegradable organic wastesanaerobic decomposition gases are generated continuouslyHowever there is no provision for the management of thesegases in existing sites causing risk of explosions and firehazard In UDS leachate may percolate and contaminatesurface and groundwater because these sites are not designedfor leachate containmentThe sources (tube-well) of ground-water are very close to the UDS People use this waterfor different purposes like bathing washing drinking andfarming Surface water is also contaminated because solidwastes are dumped nearat the marshy land ponds riversand canals Contaminated water is harmful for fish andaquatic lives by reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen inthe water Chemical and oil constituents which are usuallymixed with MSW can also cause severe water contaminationthatmay kill water birds shellfish and other wildlife Figure 7shows the current scenario of UDSs Details can be found inAlamgir et al [3 12] and Mohiuddin et al [18]

The possible ways to reduceremove the environmentalpollution at the UDS are as follows (i) a few gas flaringunits can be installed in different locations to burn the smallamount of gas and (ii) a thick clay liner using local soil canbe installed before dumping the waste in any new locationsto protect the leachate percolationcontamination

City authorities are facing problems to get new sitesfor ultimate disposal Due to nonengineered situation

the existing sites are also going for early closure Peoplealso protested to close the existing sites because of nuisanceThe existing method that is crude open dumping for ulti-mate disposal is not supported by concerned environmentalexpertsstakeholdersTherefore the city authority is thinkingof upgrading the existing sites to control the negative impactsof the existing situation andmay propose an environmentallysafe sanitary landfill in accordance with local conditions andtechnological and financial capabilities

8 Waste Minimization and Treatment

The MSW management includes and is not limited tothe following components source control reuse recyclingcomposting land filling and energy recovery In the studiedcities there is no controlled or planned waste minimizationprogram Most of the recycling activities are conducted byself-employed workers or scavengers as shown in Figure 8

81 Recycling Recycling is the reprocessing of wastes intoeither the same product (closed loop recycling) or a differentproduct (open loop recycling) It is the key mechanism torecover useful products and reduction in waste quantitySource separation is the best process where different cate-gories of recyclables and organics are separated at source thatis at the point of generation to facilitate reuse recyclingand composting Informal sectors by various groups ofcommunity are playing an important role in recycling ofsolid waste in Bangladesh All the buyers of the recyclableitems belong to the informal sector and only a few formalmanufacturers are involved in using recyclable substanceas raw material However in the studied areas recycling isnot practiced widely and effectively except for certain urbanareas

In Bangladesh generally recycling is carried out inthree phases Phase one is the source separation where thegenerators separate refuse of higher market value such aspapers and paper products bottles fresh containers plasticmaterials tin glass metal old clothes and shoes and sellthese things to street hawkers Hawkers collect reusable andrecyclable materials from house to house and sell them tonearer ldquoVangari Dokansrdquo (recycling shops) In the secondphase the poor children of slum dwellers known as ldquoTokairdquoare collecting different items of low market value from on-site storage binscontainers and open storage spaces Theitems include broken glass cans cardboard waste papersrags pet bottles coconut shells metals and miscellaneouscommercial waste discarded by householdersThe final phaseis the recovering of reusable and recyclable materials fromUDSs Scavengers (Tokai) collect recyclable items mainlywhen collection vehicles are being unloaded at dumpingsite The reclaimed materials are sold to Vangari Dokansby scavengers where intermediate processing like washingdrying and sorting is carried out in proper formand sell thesethings to whole sellers Ultimately all reclaimed materialsare supplied to the appropriate processing factories for reuseas raw materials Plastic materials in small scale are alsoexported to the capital city after shredding and cleaning

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 8: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

8 Chinese Journal of Engineering

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Typical ultimate disposal sites of MSW in Bangladesh

Figure 8 shows the scenario of scavenging of recyclablematerials in a SDS and UDS However the ultimate successof waste minimization might depend on the establishment ofa good market price of these recovered materials A few localsmall industries fully depend on the availability of reclaimedmaterial for reprocessing Commonly nonhazardous wastesare recycled in Bangladesh however there is a strong needfor recycling of hazardous or special wastes (eg solvents)

82 Composting Another form of recycling is compostingControlled biological decomposition of organic wastes pro-duces a soil-like material known as compost Compostingis naturersquos way of recycling organic wastes into new soilused in vegetable and flower gardens landscaping and manyother applications The MSW of Bangladesh is suitable forcomposting due to its high moisture and organic contentsIn Bangladesh mainly NGOs are involved in compostingThey are involved in composting of organic wastes in 4city corporations namely Dhaka Chittagong Khulna andSylhetThere is no compost plant in Barisal and Rajshahi cityBesides the city corporation areas compost plants are also setup in somemunicipalities with technical supports from expe-rienced NGOs financial support from donor agencies withthe collaboration of local city authorities Recently privatecompanies have also come forward to invest in this sectorHowever this sector is also facing several problems suchas finance appropriate technology land proper locationsupply of wastes quality of wastes quality of compost andmarketing facilities Recently a compost plant in Sylhet was

forced to stop its operation due to the objection from adjacentinhabitants The situation of the surveyed compost plants isalso not encouraging [3] some of them are in a stage ofclosing the operation for the inherent reasons In generalhealth and hygienic aspects are absent in all the compostplantsThe staff are not properly trained and even do not careof using personal protective equipments Most of them havebeen suffering from persistent diseases such as cough allergyand skin problem [19 20]

9 Integrated MSW Management Approach

As there is no ldquosolutionrdquo for MSW problems an approachis required for evaluation analysis and synthesis of allaspects necessary for the selection of an ISWM suitable forBangladesh The approach is to seek the improvement ofwaste management through (i) a structural dialogue betweenstakeholders and (ii) the planning and implementation ofchange The dialogue aims to promote desirable checksand balances between the focus and motivation of specificinterests through a modern spreadsheet (i) to promote adevice to think the problems systematically and holisticallyand (ii) to help for setout more selectively a balancedldquobusiness and sustainabilityrdquo for some proposed interventionaction The common spreadsheet format consists of (i)waste system components forming the row headings of thespreadsheet that is contain and collect sort and recovertransfer and treat and dispose andmake safe and (ii) aspectsof evaluating components forming the column headings of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 9: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

Chinese Journal of Engineering 9

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 8 Scavengers collect recyclable materials in SDS and UDS

the spreadsheet that is sources and streams costs andreturns health and environment and community and struc-ture The municipal authority may decide to set up fourworking groups corresponding to the four elements containand collect sort and recover transfer and treat and disposeand make safe (after [21])

Themunicipal authority may appoint independent chair-persons involved representatives from key stakeholders andorganized technical support and wider consultative processesfor each group Overall programming and coordination areprovided by the municipality itself When the functional ele-ments of the waste management services have been evaluatedand selected and all the interfaces and connections betweenelements have been matched for effectiveness and econ-omy the concerned stakeholdersauthoritiescommunitiesare said to have developed an integrated waste managementsystem The IMSW management is defined by researchersand academics as the selection and application of appro-priate techniques technologies and management programsto achieve specific waste management objectives and goalsUnderstanding the interrelationships among various wasteactivitiesmakes it possible to create a plan inwhich individualcomponents complement one another Figure 9 shows amodel for the major elements of ISWM which is modifiedof proposed one by Visvanathan et al [21]

In general the situation of MSW management inBangladesh is very alarming poses serious health threats tohumans and nature and demands immediate and sustainablesolutions The study concludes that the problems will only

be solved by introducing IMSWmanagement systems basedon local needs and socioeconomic conditions to ensureenvironmental sustainability

10 Conclusions

Rapid urbanization and population growth in themajor citiesof Bangladesh creates a huge generation of MSW and theauthority is unable to manage properly with the presentmanagement system economic support human resourcesinfrastructures and technological capabilities Door-to-doorcollection system needs to get support from all stakeholderswith proper awareness motivation and commitment cam-paign Existing on-site storage practices should be changedimmediately by adopting properly designed and maintainedsecondary disposal sites or transfer stations or handoverpoints where it is applicable based on the prevailing socioe-conomic aspects Efficiency of wastes transportation to theultimate disposal sites (UDSs) must be improved with theparticipation of private sector with strict terms and condi-tions Present situation of UDSs requires improvement byproviding a sanitary landfill mechanism in the existing sitesRecycling can be extended with wide varieties of articlesboth in the formal and informal sectors Government supportshould be provided in composting a prosperous sector formanaging a huge amount of organic wastes in BangladeshSince there is no single solution the proposed techniquescan be used to select an integrated solid waste management

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 10: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

10 Chinese Journal of Engineering

Integrated management of municipal solid waste

Avoidance andminimization

GenerationSource storage

Source segregationPrimary collectionHandover points

Local assembling pointsTransfer stationFormal sorting

Transfer and transport Safe disposal

ReuseRecyclingRecovery Reduction

Composting

Stakeholders MSW management aspects

Government and local authorities

1Financiers government foreign agencies and others

NGOsCBOsprivate sector

Technical aspects

Legislativepolicy aspects

Economicalfinancials aspects

Environmental aspects

Publiccommunity involvement

Cultural aspects

Informal sectors

Political sector

Important aspects of municipal solid waste management

City dwellers

Civic societies

Social settings

Evaluation synthesis selection demonstration and reality check

Figure 9 Major elements of integrated MSWmanagement

system based on the local needs socioeconomic settings andtechnological capabilities to ensure the acceptability of theadopted system and the environmental sustainability

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper

Acknowledgment

The partial financial support of the European Unionrsquos AsiaPro Eco Programme of Contract no ASIA PRO ECO-ASIB7-301259816-200479010 for this study is gratefullyacknowledged

References

[1] G Tchobanoglous T Hilary and V Samuel Integrated SolidWaste Management Engineering Principles and ManagementIssues McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 1993

[2] G Tchobanoglous and F Kreith Handbook of Solid WasteManagement McGraw-Hill New York NY USA 2002

[3] M Alamgir C McDonald K E Roehl and A Ahsan EdsIntegrated Management and Safe Disposal of Municipal SolidWaste in Least Developed Asian Countries A Feasibility StudyWasteSafe Publication Khulna Bangladesh 2005

[4] A Ahsan N Ismail M M Rahman et al ldquoMunicipalsolid waste recycling in Malaysia present scenario and futureprospectsrdquo Fresenius Environmental Bulletin vol 22 no 12a pp3654ndash3664 2013

[5] M A A Samah L A Manaf A Ahsan W N A Sulaiman PAgamuthu and J L DrsquoSilva ldquoHousehold solid waste composi-tion in Balakong City Malaysia trend andmanagementrdquo PolishJournal of Environmental Studies vol 22 no 6 pp 1807ndash18162013

[6] M A A Samah L A Manaf P Agamuthu W N A Sulaimanand A Ahsan ldquoReal data composition of municipal solid waste(MSW) generated in Balakong Selangor Malaysiardquo Life ScienceJournal vol 10 no 4 pp 1687ndash1694 2013

[7] M Ali Sustainable Composting Case Studies and Guidelinesfor Developing Countries WEDC Loughborough UniversityLeicestershire UK 1st edition 2004

[8] A M Sinha and I Enayetullah Community Based Solid WasteManagement The Asian Experience Waste Concern DhakaBangladesh 1st edition 2000

[9] I Enayetullah and A M Sinha Decentralized CompostingmdashThrough Public-Private-Community Partnership Experience of

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 11: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

Chinese Journal of Engineering 11

Waste ConcernWaste Concern Dhaka Bangladesh 1st edition2003

[10] BBS Bureu of Statistics Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics DhakaBangladesh 2001

[11] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury K E Roehl E I Stentiford andQ H Bari ldquoBasic characteristics of municipal solid wastes ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference on WastemdashTheSocial Context vol 17 pp 1ndash6 Edmonton Canada 2005

[12] M Alamgir K M Mohiuddin K A Czurda U Glawe andM R Karim ldquoSituation of ultimate disposal sites of municipalsolid wastes in Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the Conference onWastemdashThe Social Context vol 18 pp 1ndash9 Edmonton Canada2005

[13] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoMunicipal solid waste and recoverypotential Bangladesh perspectiverdquo Iranian Journal of Environ-mental Health Science and Engineering vol 4 no 2 pp 67ndash762007

[14] M Alamgir and A Ahsan ldquoCharacterization of MSW andnutrient contents of organic component in Bangladeshrdquo Elec-tronic Journal of Environmental Agricultural and Food Chem-istry vol 6 no 4 pp 1945ndash1956 2007

[15] M Alamgir K H Chowdhury and Q S Hossain ldquoManage-ment of clinical wastes inKhulna cityrdquo inProceedings of the Con-ference on the Role of Renewable and Alternative Energy Sourcesfor National Development pp 146ndash155 Khulna University ofEngineering and Technology Khulna Bangladesh 2003

[16] A Ahsan M Alamgir M Imteaz N N N Daud and RIslam ldquoRole of NGOs andCBOs in wastemanagementrdquo IranianJournal of Public Health vol 41 no 6 pp 27ndash38 2012

[17] K H Chowdhury M Alamgir Q H Bari and M K Chowd-hury ldquoCollection system of solid waste from source in Rajshahicity Bangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meetand International Conference on Civil Engineering pp 25ndash33IEB Dhaka Bangladesh 2005

[18] K M Mohiuddin M Alamgir and K E Roehl ldquoPresentscenario of solid wastes disposal sites in Khulna city ofBangladeshrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Paper Meet andInternational Conference on Civil Engineering pp 429ndash438 IEBDhaka Bangladesh 2005

[19] H An J Englehardt L Fleming and J Bean ldquoOccupationalhealth and safety amongst municipal solid waste workers inFloridardquo Waste Management and Research vol 17 no 5 pp369ndash377 1999

[20] M R Ray S Roychoudhury G Mukherjee S Roy and TLahiri ldquoRespiratory and general health impairments of workersemployed in a municipal solid waste disposal at an openlandfill site in Delhirdquo International Journal of Hygiene andEnvironmental Health vol 208 no 4 pp 255ndash262 2005

[21] C Visvanathan J Trankler Z Gongming et alMunicipal SolidWaste Management in Asia Asian Regional Research Programon Environmental Technology (ARRPET) AIT PathumthaniThailand 2004

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of

Page 12: Research Article Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste ...downloads.hindawi.com/journals/cje/2014/561935.pdf · Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in a Developing

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

International Journal of

RotatingMachinery

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

VLSI Design

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Shock and Vibration

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

Navigation and Observation

International Journal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

DistributedSensor Networks

International Journal of