8 - Solid, Liquid, and Gaseous Waste Management

• Solid waste management involves wastes from human/animal activities, typically solid and discarded as useless/unwanted.
• Solid waste should ideally comprise only residual waste due to evolving consumer behavior.
• Origins: households, businesses, healthcare facilities, agricultural and construction, hazardous materials.
• Improper management leads to pollution, pests, and diseases.
• Liquid wastes include domestic and industrial wastewater, agricultural runoff, hazardous liquids like oil spills, and need treatment.
• Wastewater must match the receiving body of water's class.
• Gaseous wastes from industrial, vehicle, agricultural, and household sources contribute to air pollution and climate change.

Three General Categories of Solid Waste

• Municipal solid waste comes from domestic, commercial, and institutional activities in urban areas.
• Municipal solid waste includes organic, recyclable, and residual waste that need to be specifically thrown away.
• Residual waste may undergo incineration, now banned in the Philippines.
• Rapid urbanization and population growth increase municipal solid waste, making management difficult.
• Industrial solid waste is from industrial activity and includes rubbish, ashes, non-hazardous, and hazardous waste.
• Industrial solid waste byproducts: production, packaging, maintenance.
• Examples of industrial solid waste: Scrap metals, plastic trimmings, defective products.
• Industrial solid waste can come from construction, demolition, and mining industries and must be carefully managed.
• Hazardous Solid waste: poses immediate or long-term danger to human, plant, or animal life.
• Arises from industrial and healthcare facilities, laboratories, and households.
• Hazardous solid waste presents toxicity from heavy metals and pesticides, and is ignitable, corrosive and reactive.

Public Health Significance

• Aesthetic problems come from open dumps/overflowing bins leading to foul odors, as well as reduced quality of life.
• Clogging of sewers causes flooding and increases risk of water-related diseases.
• Decomposing waste breeds insects/rodents.
• Leachate from decomposing waste causes groundwater pollution contaminating drinking water.
• Open burning/incineration causes gasses to release, contributing to pollution and respiratory diseases.
• The Clean Air Act prohibits open burning due to pollution.
• Inadequacies in solid waste management are expected due to rising population.

Solid Waste Generation

• In 2020, the Philippines produced ~16.63 M metric tons of municipal solid waste with urban areas generating a higher waste ratio than other areas.
• The COVID-19 pandemic impacted waste generation because of PPE/disposable items.

Solid Waste Flow in Metro Manila

• Metro Manila generates a substantial amount of solid waste originating from households, establishments, industries, healthcare facilities, and institutions.
• Self-disposal = 6%
• Illegal dumping = 31%
• Recycling = 4%
• Collection 69%

Solid Waste Management

• Solid waste management is a system involving waste collection, transport, treatment, and disposal.
• Key is protecting the environment and the health of people in the community.
• Processing, recovery, and recycling matter before garbage disposal.
• Functional elements of solid waste management are generation-storage-collection-transfer->transport->processing and recovery.
• Onsite handling and storage include segregating materials into biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and recyclable.
• Collection transfer happens to designated facilities and if successful the final step of dispose occurs in landfills.

Waste Generation

• Waste production relates to households, businesses, industries, and institutions.
• Addressing waste minimizes unnecessary waste, conserves resources, and lessens impacts.
• Industries and households can reduce material use by avoiding single-use plastics, and reduce packaging.
• Waste generation data helps authorities/local governments develop strategies and infrastructure.

Waste Reduction Hierarchy

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Recovery
• Landfill
• Most favorable = reducing waste produced.
• Materials from microwavable containers can be reused instead of wasting/disposing.

Factors Contributing to Increasing Amounts of MSW

• Increasing populations relate to more people generating increase waste.
• Communities with higher-incomes also generate more waste, as well as packaging and disposable products.
• Increasing consumption of convenience items/disposable products contribute to waste volume.
• Shifting towards more electronics adds electronic waster
• Disposable materials and more electronic generate largests amounts of waste

Integrated Approach of Solid Waste Management

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle/Compost
• Recover/Energy-from-waste
• Dispose/Landfill

Storage

• Storage impacts characteristics of waste, public health, and aesthetic conditions, and where segregation is a primary step in waste reduction and recycling

Collection of Solid Waste

• Collection encompasses gathering/hauling of waste from collection points to disposal site, costing 50-70% of total solid waste management.
• Timing matters during collection, in addition to collection and type of collection vehicles.
• Separate collection system for hazardous waste with a trained solid waste collection crew.

Processing and Recovery

• Process can include facilities for SW separate/process material.
• Material recovery facility
• Transfer station
• Combustion facilities
• Disposal site

Transfer and Transport

• Transfer and trnasport encompasses transport which encompasses transference of waste and how it goes out to be properly disposed

Disposal

• The remaining waste after waste reduction, recycling and reuse are disposed of in sanitary landfills.
• Sanitary Landfill: engineered facility designed and operated to minimize health/environment impacts and ensure safe long-term disposal.

Healthcare Waste

• Diagnosis relating to human beings or animals.
• Research pertaining to said activities.
• Testing or production of biological products.

Classification of Hospital Waste

• General
• Infectious
• Pathological
• Sharps
• Pharmaceutical
• Chemical
• Pressurized containers
• Radioactive

General Waste

• Similar to Household wastes as non-infectious

Infectious Waste

• Agent agent transfer from laboratory
• Wastes from surgery
• Wastes in contact with blood or body fluids
• Autoclaving is commonly used to prevent the spread of disease

Pathological Waste

• Consists of tissues, organs, body parts, human fetus and animal carcass, blood and body fluids.
• Anatomical waste are recognizable human body parts within the pathological waste category.

Sharps

• Anything that could cut that includes needles and broken glass.

PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE

• Includes all expired drugs that are no longer use

CHEMICAL WASTE

• All chemicals are discarded

Pressurized Materials

• All items or cartridges

Radioactive Waste

• Wastes with radioactive particles