Research on solid waste management system: to improve existing situation in Corlu Town of Turkey

Over the past decades, uncontrolled population growth and rapid urbanization and industrialization have resulted in environmental problems in Corlu Town, Turkey. One of the most important problems is solid waste due to inadequate management practices. Nowadays, increasing public awareness of the environment compels local authorities to define and to adopt new solutions for waste management. This paper presents a general overview of current solid waste management practices in Corlu Town and principles of the recommended municipal solid waste (MSW) management system. In Corlu, 170 tonnes of municipal solid waste are generated each day, or 1.150 kg per capita per day. Approximately one-half of the municipal solid waste generated is organic material and 30% of the MSW consists of recyclable materials. The recommended system deals with maximizing recycling and minimizing landfilling of municipal solid waste, and consists of separation at source, collection, sorting, recycling, composting and sanitary landfilling. This study also analyzed the recommended system with respect to feasibility and economics. To evaluate whether the suggested system is cost effective or not, the operating cost of the recommended system and market prices of recyclable materials were compared, and the results show that the recommended system will reduce required landfill volume up to 27% of compared to the present situation. The profit of the recommended system is estimated to be about 80 million US dollars.     

Overview of waste disposal and landfills/dumps in Asian countries

Many cities in developing Asian countries face serious problems in managing solid wastes. The annual waste generation increases in proportion to the rises in population and urbanization. Asian countries with greater rural populations produce more organic waste, such as kitchen wastes, and fewer recyclable items, such as paper, metals, and plastics. Reliable data on solid waste compositions are difficult to obtain, and even if available, they are often not updated. We report the most recent waste composition data in some developing Asian countries. We suggest that a better classification system for landfills is needed to address inconsistencies in data for sanitary landfill sites versus waste dumps. We also discuss the information on waste disposal trends and problems associated with general solid waste management in developing Asian countries.     

Medical waste management in Trachea region of Turkey: suggested remedial action.

The main objective of this paper was to analyse the present status of medical waste management in the Trachea region of Turkey and subsequently to draw up a policy regarded with generation, collection, on-site handling, storage, processing, recycling, transportation and safe disposal of medical wastes. This paper also presents the results of study about awareness on how to handle expired drugs. Initially all health-care establishments in Tekirda?, Edirne and Kyrklareli provinces in Trachea region were identified and the amounts of hospital wastes generated by each of them were determined. Current medical waste-management practices, including storage, collection, transportation and disposal, in surveyed establishments were identified. Finally, according to results, remedial measurements for medical waste management in these establishments were suggested. Unfortunately, medical wastes are not given proper attention and these wastes are disposed of together with municipal and industrial solid wastes. The current disposal method is both a public health and environmental hazard. When landfill sites are visited, many scavengers can be seen sorting for recyclable materials, a practice which is dangerous for the scavengers. In addition, it was found that some staff in health-care establishments are unaware of the hazard of medical wastes. It is concluded that a new management system, which consists of segregation, material substitution, minimization, sanitary landfilling and alternative medical waste treatment methods should be carried out. For the best appropriate medical waste management system, health-care establishment employers, managers and especially the members of house- keeping divisions should be involved in medical waste management practice.     

Transforming an open dump into a sanitary landfill: a development effort in waste management

Upgrading a crude dump site into a sanitary landfill is a very challenging task; Matuail landfill site in Dhaka posed just such a challenge. From the very beginning, the existing disposal site had been used for the crude dumping of solid wastes. All types of solid wastes were haphazardly disposed of all over the site. The existing drainage channels of the dumping ground were not operational due to blockage by indiscriminate waste dumping. A large amount of leachate oozing out from the waste mixed with storm water and made the site esthetically very displeasing and environmentally unsound. This adverse situation sometimes caused disruption of the waste vehicular movement. Step-by-step improvement measures have been taken in the open dump to make it controlled and sanitary by adopting simple and locally available materials, technical guidelines, and construction techniques.     

Assessment and analysis of industrial liquid waste and sludge disposal at unlined landfill sites in arid climate

Municipal solid waste disposal sites in arid countries such as Kuwait receive various types of waste materials like sewage sludge, chemical waste and other debris. Large amounts of leachate are expected to be generated due to the improper disposal of industrial wastewater, sewage sludge and chemical wastes with municipal solid waste at landfill sites even though the rainwater is scarce. Almost 95% of all solid waste generated in Kuwait during the last 10 years was dumped in five unlined landfills. The sites accepting liquid waste consist of old sand quarries that do not follow any specific engineering guidelines. With the current practice, contamination of the ground water table is possible due to the close location of the water table beneath the bottom of the waste disposal sites. This study determined the percentage of industrial liquid waste and sludge of the total waste dumped at the landfill sites, analyzed the chemical characteristics of liquid waste stream and contaminated water at disposal sites, and finally evaluated the possible risk posed by the continuous dumping of such wastes at the unlined landfills. Statistical analysis has been performed on the disposal and characterization of industrial wastewater and sludge at five active landfill sites. The chemical analysis shows that all the industrial wastes and sludge have high concentrations of COD, suspended solids, and heavy metals. Results show that from 1993 to 2000, 5.14+/-1.13 million t of total wastes were disposed per year in all active landfill sites in Kuwait. The share of industrial liquid and sludge waste was 1.85+/-0.19 million t representing 37.22+/-6.85% of total waste disposed in all landfill sites. Such wastes contribute to landfill leachate which pollutes groundwater and may enter the food chain causing adverse health effects. Lined evaporation ponds are suggested as an economical and safe solution for industrial wastewater and sludge disposal in the arid climate of Kuwait.     

Solid waste management in Abuja, Nigeria

The new city of Abuja provided an opportunity to avoid some of the environmental problems associated with other major cities in Africa. The current status of solid waste management in Abuja has been reviewed and recommendations for improvements are made. The existing solid waste management system is affected by unfavourable economic, institutional, legislative, technical and operational constraints. A reliable waste collection service is needed and waste collection vehicles need to be appropriate to local conditions. More vehicles are required to cope with increasing waste generation. Wastes need to be sorted at source as much as possible, to reduce the amount requiring disposal. Co-operation among communities, the informal sector, the formal waste collectors and the authorities is necessary if recycling rates are to increase. Markets for recycled materials need to be encouraged. Despite recent improvements in the operation of the existing dumpsite, a properly sited engineered landfill should be constructed with operation contracted to the private sector. Wastes dumped along roads, underneath bridges, in culverts and in drainage channels need to be cleared. Small-scale waste composting plants could promote employment, income generation and poverty alleviation. Enforcement of waste management legislation and a proper policy and planning framework for waste management are required. Unauthorized use of land must be controlled by enforcing relevant clauses in development guidelines. Accurate population data is necessary so that waste management systems and infrastructure can be properly planned. Funding and affordability remain major constraints and challenges.     

Current situation of used household batteries in Iran and appropriate management policies

Used household batteries are considered as hazardous wastes in many countries due to the potential environmental and human health risks associated with the heavy metals present in batteries. This article presents the current situation of waste household batteries and policies in Iran. Iran with more than 70 million people is a developing country where latest technologies like cell phones and laptops are in widespread use and battery consumption increases accordingly. The household battery demand in Iran has rapidly grown since 2001 and it is expected to increase more quickly in next years, due to increasing technological development. Based on the available data, more than 9800 metric tons of household batteries were imported into Iran in recent decade, with the market value of about US$ 42.6 million. At present, there is no program available in Iran regarding to collection, separation, recycling or safe disposal of used batteries. Therefore, almost all of the spent household are discarded into municipal solid waste (MSW) and sent to sanitary landfills. Appropriate policies to meet safe disposal of household batteries in Iran is also discussed in this investigation.     

Sustainable sanitary landfills for neglected small cities in developing countries: The semi-mechanized trench method from Villanueva,Honduras

Open dumping is the most common practice for the disposal of urban solid wastes in the least developed regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Sanitary landfill design and operation has traditionally focused on large cities, but cities with fewer than 50,000 in population can comprise from 6% to 45% of a given country’s total population. These thousands of small cities cannot afford to operate a sanitary landfill in the way it is proposed for large cities, where heavy equipment is used to spread and compact the waste in daily cells, and then to excavate, transport and apply daily cover, and leachate is managed with collection and treatment systems. This paper presents an alternative approach for small cities, known as the semi-mechanized trench method, which was developed in Villanueva, Honduras. In the semi-mechanized trench method a hydraulic excavator is used for 1–3 days to dig a trench that will last at least a month before it is filled with waste. Trucks can easily unload their wastes into the trench, and the wastes compact naturally due to semi-aerobic biodegradation, after which the trenches are refilled and covered. The exposed surface area is minimal since only the top surface of the wastes is exposed, the remainder being covered by the sides and bottom of the trench. The surplus material from trench excavation can be valorized for use as engineering fill onsite or off. The landfill in Villanueva has operated for 15 years, using a total land area of approximately 11 ha for a population that grew from 23,000 to 48,000, with a land requirement of 0.2 m²/person year, a cover to waste ratio of 0.2, and an estimated soil surplus of 298,000 m³ that is valorized and used onsite. The landfill has been operated solely by the municipality with an operational cost in 2010 estimated at US$4.60 per ton. A modified water balance analysis at Villanueva shows negligible leachate generation from covered trenches and 700 m³/yr (60 m³/ha yr) from the two open trenches required for daily operation. If the site were an open dump, however, leachate generation is estimated to be 3900 m³/ha yr and contaminated runoff 5000 m³/ha yr. A simple model used to estimate dilution of generated leachate based on groundwater flow data and aquifer stratigraphy suggests that the leachate will be diluted by a factor of 0.01 in the aquifer. Leachate contaminants will not accumulate because the aquifer discharges to the Ulua River 2 km south of the landfill. While not suitable for all sites, the Villanueva method nevertheless serves as an excellent example of how a small city landfill with natural compaction of waste and attenuation of leachate can be sustainably operated.     

Management of municipal solid waste in the Three Gorges region

As the fourth phase of the Three Gorges reservoir project commenced in 2008, the rate of water flow in the Yangtze River has obviously decelerated further downstream and water clarity within the storage facility has decreased. Meanwhile, the rate of urbanization in the region is adding to the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) being generated by every day life. The composition of the waste is becoming more diversified and complicated, thereby presenting an increasing threat to the ecological environment and water resources of the Three Gorges region. This paper is a probe into MSW in terms of its characteristics as well as methods of storage, collection, transportation, recycling, treatment and disposal, the protection of environmental ecosystems. Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is one of the major environmental problems in the Three Gorges region, and indeed the whole of China. Based on the analysis of the present situation of MSWM and its treatment/disposal, some methods of sorting, recycling, decomposing, incineration and reuse are described, sanitary landfill as the main disposal method in Chongqing city, incineration being the second. Sanitary landfill or dump was also used for MSW treatment in the Three Gorges region, and this paper also provides some suggestions for improving MSWM in the Three Gorges region.     

Implementation of the semi-aerobic landfill system (Fukuoka method) in developing countries: a Malaysia cost analysis

Most of the existing solid waste landfill sites in developing countries are practicing either open dumping or controlled dumping. Proper sanitary landfill concepts are not fully implemented due to technological and financial constraints. Implementation of a fully engineered sanitary landfill is necessary and a more economically feasible landfill design is crucial, particularly for developing countries. This study was carried out by focusing on the economics from the development of a new landfill site within a natural clay area with no cost of synthetic liner up to 10 years after its closure by using the Fukuoka method semi-aerobic landfill system. The findings of the study show that for the development of a 15-ha landfill site in Malaysia with an estimated volume of 2,000,000 m(3), the capital investment required was about US 1,312,895 dollars, or about US 0.84 dollars/tonne of waste. Assuming that the lifespan of the landfill is 20 years, the total cost of operation was about US 11,132,536 dollars or US 7.15 dollars/tonne of waste. The closure cost of the landfill was estimated to be US 1,385,526 dollars or US 0.89 dollars/tonne of waste. Therefore, the total cost required to dispose of a tonne of waste at the semi-aerobic landfill was estimated to be US 8.89 dollars. By considering an average tipping fee of about US 7.89 dollars/tonne of waste in Malaysia in the first year, and an annual increase of 3% to about US 13.84 dollars in year-20, the overall system recorded a positive revenue of US 1,734,749 dollars. This is important information for the effort of privatisation of landfill sites in Malaysia, as well as in other developing countries, in order to secure efficient and effective landfill development and management.     

Optimisation of MSW collection routes for minimum fuel consumption using 3D GIS modelling

Collection of municipal solid waste (MSW) may account for more than 70% of the total waste management budget, most of which is for fuel costs. It is therefore crucial to optimise the routing network used for waste collection and transportation. This paper proposes the use of geographical information systems (GIS) 3D route modelling software for waste collection and transportation, which adds one more degree of freedom to the system and allows driving routes to be optimised for minimum fuel consumption. The model takes into account the effects of road inclination and vehicle weight. It is applied to two different cases: routing waste collection vehicles in the city of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, and routing the transport of waste from different municipalities of Santiago Island to an incineration plant. For the Praia city region, the 3D model that minimised fuel consumption yielded cost savings of 8% as compared with an approach that simply calculated the shortest 3D route. Remarkably, this was true despite the fact that the GIS-recommended fuel reduction route was actually 1.8% longer than the shortest possible travel distance. For the Santiago Island case, the difference was even more significant: a 12% fuel reduction for a similar total travel distance. These figures indicate the importance of considering both the relief of the terrain and fuel consumption in selecting a suitable cost function to optimise vehicle routing.     

A historical context of municipal solid waste management in the United States.

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in the United States is a system comprised of regulatory, administrative, market, technology, and social subcomponents, and can only be understood in the context of its historical evolution. American cities lacked organized public works for street cleaning, refuse collection, water treatment, and human waste removal until the early 1800s. Recurrent epidemics forced efforts to improve public health and the environment. The belief in anticontagionism led to the construction of water treatment and sewerage works during the nineteenth century, by sanitary engineers working for regional public health authorities. This infrastructure was capital intensive and required regional institutions to finance and administer it. By the time attention turned to solid waste management in the 1880s, funding was not available for a regional infrastructure. Thus, solid waste management was established as a local responsibility, centred on nearby municipal dumps. George Waring of New York City organized solid waste management around engineering unit operations; including street sweeping, refuse collection, transportation, resource recovery and disposal. This approach was adopted nationwide, and was managed by City Departments of Sanitation. Innovations such as the introduction of trucks, motorized street sweepers, incineration, and sanitary landfill were developed in the following decades. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), is the defining legislation for MSWM practice in America today. It forced the closure of open dumps nationwide, and required regional planning for MSWM. The closure of municipal dumps caused a 'garbage crisis' in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Private companies assumed an expanded role in MSWM through regional facilities that required the transportation of MSW across state lines. These transboundary movements of MSW created the issue of flow control, in which the US Supreme Court affirmed the protection of garbage under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Thus MSWM in America today is largely managed by municipalities, and operated by a relatively small number of private companies. It consists of a mixture of landfill, incineration, recycling, and composting, and is regulated under RCRA, the Clean Air Act and other related federal and state laws.     

GIS-based modelling for the estimation of municipal solid waste generation and collection

In the present paper, an innovative model for the estimation of municipal solid waste generation and collection is proposed. This model is part of an extended solid waste management system and uses a spatial Geodatabase, integrated in a GIS environment. It takes into consideration several parameters of waste generation, such as population density, commercial activities, road characteristics and their influence on the location and allocation of waste bins. Ground-based analysis was applied for the estimation of the inter-relations between the aforementioned factors and the variations in waste generation between residential and commercial areas. Therefore, the proposed model follows a unified categorization approach for residential and commercial activities and focuses on the dominant factors that determine waste generation in the area under study. The most important result of the research work presented in the current paper is an accurate estimation of the optimal number of waste bins and their allocation. A new methodology and an appropriate algorithm have been developed for this purpose in order to facilitate routing and waste collection. By using these results, municipalities aware of social, economical and environmental factors, related to waste management, can achieve optimal usage of their resources and offer the best possible services to their citizens.     

Solid waste management in Kolkata, India: practices and challenges

This paper presents an overview of current solid waste management (SWM) practices in Kolkata, India and suggests solutions to some of the major problems. More than 2920ton/d of solid waste are generated in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area and the budget allocation for 2007-2008 was Rs. 1590 million (US$40 million), which amounts to Rs. 265/cap-y (US$6.7/cap-d) on SWM. This expenditure is insufficient to provide adequate SWM services. Major deficiencies were found in all elements of SWM. Despite 70% of the SWM budget being allocated for collection, collection efficiency is around 60-70% for the registered residents and less than 20% for unregistered residents (slum dwellers). The collection process is deficient in terms of manpower and vehicle availability. Bin capacity provided is adequate but locations were found to be inappropriate, thus contributing to the inefficiency of the system. At this time, no treatment is provided to the waste and waste is dumped on open land at Dhapa after collection. Lack of suitable facilities (equipment and infrastructure) and underestimates of waste generation rates, inadequate management and technical skills, improper bin collection, and route planning are responsible for poor collection and transportation of municipal solid wastes.     

Sustainability assessment of municipal solid waste management in Sri Lanka: problems and prospects

Solid waste disposal in Sri Lanka has been assessed using environmental, economic, and social indicators, based on a life cycle approach. The existing situation of open dumping in Sri Lanka was compared with that of a sanitary landfill with gas recovery, since the latter is anticipated to constitute an initial step towards sustainable development. The results revealed the extent to which sanitary landfills with gas recovery systems could contribute to reducing environmental impacts such as global warming potential, acidification potential, and eutrophication potential. Assessment of life cycle cost and damage to human health also showed results in favour of sanitary landfills with gas recovery system. The results obtained quantify the sustainability benefits of the proposed option for solid waste management, and can be useful for justifying policy measures that encourage the replacement of open dumping with sanitary landfills.     

Early detection and evaluation of waste through sensorized containers for a collection monitoring application

The present study describes a novel application for use in the monitoring of municipal solid waste, based on distributed sensor technology and geographical information systems. Original field testing and evaluation of the application were carried out in Pudong, Shanghai (PR China).The local waste management system in Pudong features particular requirements related to the rapidly increasing rate of waste production. In view of the fact that collected waste is currently deployed to landfills or to incineration plants within the context investigated, the key aspects to be taken into account in waste collection procedures include monitoring of the overall amount of waste produced, quantitative measurement of the waste present at each collection point and identification of classes of material present in the collected waste. The case study described herein focuses particularly on the above mentioned aspects, proposing the implementation of a network of sensorized waste containers linked to a data management system.Containers used were equipped with a set of sensors mounted onto standard waste bins. The design, implementation and validation procedures applied are subsequently described. The main aim to be achieved by data collection and evaluation was to provide for feasibility analysis of the final device. Data pertaining to the content of waste containers, sampled and processed by means of devices validated on two purpose-designed prototypes, were therefore uploaded to a central monitoring server using GPRS connection. The data monitoring and management modules are integrated into an existing application used by local municipal authorities.A field test campaign was performed in the Pudong area. The system was evaluated in terms of real data flow from the network nodes (containers) as well as in terms of optimization functions, such as collection vehicle routing and scheduling. The most important outcomes obtained were related to calculations of waste weight and volume. The latter data were subsequently used as parameters for the routing optimization of collection trucks and material density evaluation.     

The practice and challenges of solid waste management in Singapore

This paper presents an overview of the current solid waste management situation in Singapore and provides a brief discussion of the future challenges. Singapore is a small island city-state with a large population, warm climate and high humidity. Over the past two to three decades, rapid industrialization and economic development have caused a tremendous increase in solid waste generation. The yearly disposed solid waste increased from 0.74 million tonnes in 1972 to 2.80 million tonnes in 2000. Solid waste management in Singapore has traditionally been undertaken by the Ministry of Environment (ENV), with the participation of some private sectors in recent years. The hierarchy of solid waste management in Singapore is waste minimization (reduce, reuse and recycle or so-called 3 Rs), followed by incineration and landfill. As land is extremely scarce and only one newly constructed offshore landfill site is available, solid waste incineration has been identified as the most preferred disposal method. Waste minimization, the utilization of incineration ashes, industrial waste management are regarded to be the major challenges in the future.     

Investigating the length of data collection period with respect to rate constant in the first-order decay model

The first-order decay model is the only highly recommended method for estimating landfill gas emissions from solid waste disposal sites according to 2006 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Guidelines. It is also encouraged to collect relevant activity data over the past 50 years to apply the first-order decay model. Even though it is beneficial to facilitate the accuracy of landfill gas emissions estimation, it may not be an easy task to collect reliable data for such a long period of time. It is discussed in this study that a data collection over a shorter period of time may yield a comparable accuracy for emissions estimation depending on methane generation rate or half-life of landfill wastes. Based on the analysis of mathematical properties of the first-order decay model, the estimation accuracy with respect to the length of data collection period has been investigated. Finally, it is also proposed how to estimate the amount of landfill gas emissions and analyze the level of estimation accuracy considering the length of time period since the deposition of wastes.     

Management of hazardous waste in Thailand: present situation and future prospects

 This paper deals with the present scenario of hazardous waste management practices in Thailand, and gives some insights into future prospects. Industrialization in Thailand has systematically increased the generation of hazardous waste. The total hazardous waste generated in 2001 was 1.65 million tons. It is estimated that over 300 million kg/year of hazardous waste is generated from nonindustrial, community sources (e.g., batteries, fluorescent lamps, cleansing chemicals, pesticides). No special facilities are available for handling these wastes. There are neither well-established systems for separation, storage, collection, and transportation, nor the effective enforcement of regulations related to hazardous wastes management generated from industrial or nonindustrial sectors. Therefore, because of a lack of treatment and disposal facilities, these wastes find their way into municipal wastewaters, public landfills, nearby dump sites, or waterways, raising serious environmental concern. Furthermore, Thailand does not have an integrated regulatory framework regarding the monitoring and management of hazardous materials and wastes. In addition to the absence of a national definition of hazardous wastes, limited funding has caused significant impediments to the effective management of hazardous waste. Thus, current waste management practices in Thailand present significant potential hazards to humans and the environment. The challenging issues of hazardous waste management in Thailand are not only related to a scarcity of financial resources (required for treatment and disposal facilities), but also to the fact that there has been no development of appropriate technology following the principles of waste minimization and sustainable development. A holistic approach to achieving effective hazardous waste management that integrates the efforts of all sectors, government, private, and community, is needed for the betterment of human health and the environment. Received: February 26, 2001 / Accepted: October 11, 2002     

Disposal of solid waste in Istanbul and along the Black Sea coast of Turkey

The increasing amount of solid waste arising from municipalities and other sources and its consequent disposal has been one of the major environmental problems in Turkey. Istanbul is a metropolitan city with a current population of around 14 million, and produces about 9000 ton of solid waste every day. The waste composition for Istanbul has changed markedly from 1981 to 1996 with large decreases in waste density, much of which is related to decreased amounts of ash collected in winter. In recent years, the Istanbul region has implemented a new solid waste management system with transfer stations, sanitary landfills, and methane recovery, which has led to major improvements. In the Black Sea region of Turkey, most of the municipal and industrial solid wastes, mixed with hospital and hazardous wastes, are dumped on the nearest lowlands and river valleys or into the sea. The impact of riverside and seashore dumping of solid wastes adds significantly to problems arising from sewage and industry on the Black Sea coast. Appropriate integrated solid waste management systems are needed here as well; however, they have been more difficult to implement than in Istanbul because of more difficult topography, weaker administrative structures, and the lower incomes of the inhabitants.