State of municipal solid waste management in Delhi, the capital of India

Delhi is the most densely populated and urbanized city of India. The annual growth rate in population during the last decade (1991-2001) was 3.85%, almost double the national average. Delhi is also a commercial hub, providing employment opportunities and accelerating the pace of urbanization, resulting in a corresponding increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) generation. Presently the inhabitants of Delhi generate about 7000tonnes/day of MSW, which is projected to rise to 17,000-25,000tonnes/day by the year 2021. MSW management has remained one of the most neglected areas of the municipal system in Delhi. About 70-80% of generated MSW is collected and the rest remains unattended on streets or in small open dumps. Only 9% of the collected MSW is treated through composting, the only treatment option, and rest is disposed in uncontrolled open landfills at the outskirts of the city. The existing composting plants are unable to operate to their intended treatment capacity due to several operational problems. Therefore, along with residue from the composting process, the majority of MSW is disposed in landfills. In absence of leachate and landfill gas collection systems, these landfills are a major source of groundwater contamination and air pollution (including generation of greenhouse gases). This study describes and evaluates the present state of municipal solid waste management in Delhi. The paper also summarizes the proposed policies and initiatives of the Government of Delhi and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to improve the existing MSW management system.     

Waste collection systems for recyclables: An environmental and economic assessment for the municipality of Aarhus (Denmark)

Recycling of paper and glass from household waste is an integrated part of waste management in Denmark, however, increased recycling is a legislative target. The questions are: how much more can the recycling rate be increased through improvements of collection schemes when organisational and technical limitations are respected, and what will the environmental and economic consequences be? This was investigated in a case study of a municipal waste management system. Five scenarios with alternative collection systems for recyclables (paper, glass, metal and plastic packaging) were assessed by means of a life cycle assessment and an assessment of the municipality’s costs. Kerbside collection would provide the highest recycling rate, 31% compared to 25% in the baseline scenario, but bring schemes with drop-off containers would also be a reasonable solution. Collection of recyclables at recycling centres was not recommendable because the recycling rate would decrease to 20%. In general, the results showed that enhancing recycling and avoiding incineration was recommendable because the environmental performance was improved in several impact categories. The municipal costs for collection and treatment of waste were reduced with increasing recycling, mainly because the high cost for incineration was avoided. However, solutions for mitigation of air pollution caused by increased collection and transport should be sought.     

Proposal for the integration of decentralised composting of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste into the waste management system of Cuba

Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation and management in Cuba was studied with a view to integrating composting of the organic fractions of MSW into the system. Composting is already included as part of the environmental strategy of the country as an appropriate waste management solution. However, no programme for area-wide implementation yet exists. The evaluation of studies carried out by some Cuban and international organisations showed that organic matter comprises approximately 60-70% of the MSW, with households being the main source. If all organic waste fractions were considered, the theoretical amount of organic waste produced would be approximately 1 Mio. Mg/a, leading to the production of approximately 0.5 Mio. Mg/a of compost. Composting could, therefore, be a suitable solution for treating the organic waste fractions of the MSW. Composting would best be carried out in decentralised systems, since transportation is a problem in Cuba. Furthermore, low technology and low budget composting options should be considered due to the problematic local economic situation. The location for such decentralised composting units would optimally be located at urban agricultural farms, which can be found all over Cuba. These farms are a unique model for sustainable farming in the world, and have a high demand for organic fertiliser. In this paper, options for the collection and impurity-separation in urban areas are discussed, and a stepwise introduction of source-separation, starting with hotel and restaurant waste, is suggested. For rural areas, the implementation of home composting is recommended.     

Environmental assessment of alternative municipal solid waste management strategies. A Spanish case study

The aim of this study is to compare, from an environmental point of view, different alternatives for the management of municipal solid waste generated in the town of Castellón de la Plana (Spain). This town currently produces 207 ton of waste per day and the waste management system employed today involves the collection of paper/cardboard, glass and light packaging from materials banks and of rest waste at street-side containers.The proposed alternative scenarios were based on a combination of the following elements: selective collection targets to be accomplished by the year 2015 as specified in the Spanish National Waste Plan (assuming they are reached to an extent of 50% and 100%), different collection models implemented nationally, and diverse treatments of both the separated biodegradable fraction and the rest waste to be disposed of on landfills.This resulted in 24 scenarios, whose environmental behaviour was studied by applying the life cycle assessment methodology. In accordance with the ISO 14040-44 (2006) standard, an inventory model was developed for the following stages of the waste management life cycle: pre-collection (bags and containers), collection, transport, pre-treatment (waste separation) and treatment/disposal (recycling, composting, biogasification + composting, landfill with/without energy recovery). Environmental indicators were obtained for different impact categories, which made it possible to identify the key variables in the waste management system and the scenario that offers the best environmental behaviour. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was used to test some of the assumptions made in the initial life cycle inventory model.     

Attitudes and behaviour towards waste management in the Dublin,Ireland region

The hypothesis of this research was that attitudes about the management of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) are spatially variable, even within a city of modest (1.2 million) population. For a select number of representative electoral districts in the Dublin, Ireland region, residents were surveyed regarding attitudes towards waste management in general, and BMW management in particular. A total of 850 survey responses were collected. Door-to-door interviews produced 688 responses in the residential sector; these were supplemented by 162 responses to a web-based survey.The surveys revealed that the majority of households use local authority, rather than private, waste collection services (both are available). The majority of residents, regardless of the local authority in which they live, were satisfied with their waste management service. “Reducing the quantity of waste generated” was regarded the most important future issue for 28% of residential respondents. Statistical analyses of the survey responses showed that the local authority in which respondents resided significantly influenced most responses (including waste collection service used, waste service satisfaction and backyard composting activity). Many responses (including waste service satisfaction, waste management influences) were also significantly related to the respondents’ personal characteristics (e.g., education level, type of accommodation, age, etc.). These statistical results proved the hypothesis of the research and demonstrated that waste management initiatives designed for one area of the city (or, indeed, for uniform application to the city as a whole) could ignore the needs of other areas. The survey responses suggest that targeted intervention strategies would lead to improved diversion rates of BMW from landfill, a requirement of the Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC.     

Solid waste management practices in Turkey

As an economically developing country, Turkey has very well operated integrated solid waste management applications structured on modern facilities, besides over 2,000 scattered open dump areas in the country. Integrated waste management applications seem eligible for the metropolitan cities like Istanbul and Izmit (Kocaeli). Attempts have not been encouraging for the scattered regional settlements using central storage sites due to financial shortages and received rejections from nearby settlements. Small-scale compact solid waste management systems with materials recycling and composting can be more suitable alternatives in the small-scale regional settlements. The major constituents of municipal solid waste are organic in nature and approximately a quarter of municipal solid waste is recyclable. Although paper, including cardboard, is the main constituent, the composition of recyclable waste varies strongly by the source or the type of collection point. Solid wastes need primary treatment in order to be suitable for incineration and composting. Turkey needs to give more emphasis on the usage of modern solid waste removal technologies to overcome the overgrowing solid waste disposal problems.     

Environmental management by the learning curve

This is a futuristic appreciation of waste management challenges and their solution by means of good management models. A literature review, administrative initiatives, research results, and experiences from practice are combined in this study to render an evolutionary picture of the change in paradigm relative to municipal solid waste possible to occur between 2000 and 2025. The principal stages of progress in the 25 years studied were: the correct characterization of municipal solid waste as a function of geographical location and recycling potential, the divided collection model and its corresponding learning curve, correct opportunity cost accounting tools, and the generally admitted and accepted changeover of municipal solid waste treatment from a technical to a management problem. It is reported that as a result of this progress, the municipal landfill is a species in extinction. Regional landfills with long life spans are the rule in 2025.     

Economies of size and density in municipal solid waste recycling in Portugal

The recycling of municipal solid waste has a remarkable importance in the preservation of the environment and the welfare of the society. However, it is also important that this service can be provided with efficient costs. This paper aims to search for economies of output density and economies of size in the selective collection and recycling activities in Portugal and to identify the size the utilities should have to become more cost efficient. The sample comprises all Portuguese recycling utilities operating in the wholesale segment in the period 2006–2010. The results show that the Portuguese recycling utilities should increase the quantities of municipal solid waste for recycling (especially glass and paper) and also become larger to dimensions corresponding to a supply of 400–550 thousand inhabitants. With the increasing amount of glass collected, utilities are simultaneously struggling to fulfill the targets established by the European legislation and explore the existing economies of output density. The results also show that the management of these services carried out by private companies and the use of incineration (by utilities) seem to reduce the costs of utilities while the regulation of these services and the composting of waste held by utilities tend to increase costs.     

Municipal solid waste management strategies in Turkey

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a major environmental problem in Turkey, as in many developing countries. Problems associated with municipal solid waste are difficult to address, but efforts towards more efficient collection and transportation and environmentally acceptable waste disposal continue in Turkey. Although strict regulations on the management of solid waste are in place, primitive disposal methods such as open dumping and discharge into surface water have been used in various parts of Turkey. This study presents a brief history of the legislative trends in Turkey for MSW management. The study also presents the MSW responsibility and management structure together with the present situation of generation, composition, recycling, and treatment. The results show that approximately 25 million ton of MSW are generated annually in Turkey. About 77% of the population receives MSW services. In spite of efforts to change open dumping areas into sanitary landfills and to build modern recycling and composting facilities, Turkey still has over 2000 open dumps.     

Evaluating the efficiency of municipalities in collecting and processing municipal solid waste: A shared input DEA-model

This paper proposed an adjusted "shared-input" version of the popular efficiency measurement technique Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that enables evaluating municipality waste collection and processing performances in settings in which one input (waste costs) is shared among treatment efforts of multiple municipal solid waste fractions. The main advantage of this version of DEA is that it not only provides an estimate of the municipalities overall cost efficiency but also estimates of the municipalities' cost efficiency in the treatment of the different fractions of municipal solid waste (MSW). To illustrate the practical usefulness of the shared input DEA-model, we apply the model to data on 293 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium, for the year 2008.     

Municipal solid waste generation in municipalities: quantifying impacts of household structure, commercial waste and domestic fuel

Waste management planning requires reliable data concerning waste generation, influencing factors on waste generation and forecasts of waste quantities based on facts. This paper aims at identifying and quantifying differences between different municipalities' municipal solid waste (MSW) collection quantities based on data from waste management and on socio-economic indicators. A large set of 116 indicators from 542 municipalities in the Province of Styria was investigated. The resulting regression model included municipal tax revenue per capita, household size and the percentage of buildings with solid fuel heating systems. The model explains 74.3% of the MSW variation and the model assumptions are met. Other factors such as tourism, home composting or age distribution of the population did not significantly improve the model. According to the model, 21% of MSW collected in Styria was commercial waste and 18% of the generated MSW was burned in domestic heating systems. While the percentage of commercial waste is consistent with literature data, practically no literature data are available for the quantity of MSW burned, which seems to be overestimated by the model. The resulting regression model was used as basis for a waste prognosis model (Beigl and Lebersorger, in preparation).     

A purview of waste management evolution: special emphasis on USA

The generation of waste in urban regions over time is seen to impact the balance of anthropogenic and natural resources. Various national and international initiatives to manage urban solid waste are in place and has thus have evolved at present to form an assortment of different subcomponents involving environmental, administrative, regulatory, scientific, market, technology, and socio-economic factors, which has increasing bearing on the US due to its volume and nature of discards. This paper draws together the various aspects of municipal solid waste (MSW) management as it evolved, particularly in the American society through reviewing works and findings. In many parts of the country, waste management at present, primarily involves landfilling, incineration with and without energy recovery, recycling and composting. Legislation, nature of wastes and market trends continue to redefine management operations and its responsibilities and impacts. Complexities are added to it by the nature of urban development as well. New studies and concepts like 3Rs, cradle-to-cradle, industrial ecology, and integrated waste management are adding new dimensions for solving waste problems towards achieving sustainable resource use. Local initiatives, both public and private are in the forefront of adopting alternate waste management procedures. The assistance from various government and private bodies, supporting shifts in waste management approaches, have immense value, as according to the new paradigms, nothing goes to waste.     

The treatment of infectious waste arising from home health and medical care services: present situation in Japan

The management of waste materials arising from home health and medical care services (HHMC wastes) in Japan is now receiving greater attention from governmental workers dealing with general household waste materials. In general, HHMC waste materials are collected in a mixed form, transported and disposed of along with municipal solid wastes. As a result, municipal workers are suffering needle stick accidents so that infections associated with HHMC waste materials may occur. The collection and transportation by patients and their families of HHMC waste materials with sharp-edges, such as injection needles, to medical-related facilities can prevent municipal workers from experiencing needle-prick accidents. One of the most important strategies for medical-related facilities is hence the education of patients and their families. Improved rules for handling HHMC waste materials are essential for the safe and effective management.     

Carbon--making the right choice for waste management in developing countries

Due to initiatives such as the clean development mechanism (CDM), reducing greenhouse gas emissions for a developing country can offer an important route to attracting investment in a variety of qualifying project areas, including waste management. To date CDM projects have been largely confined to schemes that control emission from landfill, but projects that avoid landfilling are beginning to be submitted. In considering the waste options which might be suitable for developing countries certain ones, such as energy from waste, have been discounted for a range of reasons related primarily to the lack of technical and other support services required for these more sophisticated process trains. The paper focuses on six options: the base case of open dumping; three options for landfill (passive venting, gas capture with flaring, and gas capture with energy production), composting and anaerobic digestion with electricity production and composting of the digestate. A range of assumptions were necessary for making the comparisons based on the effective carbon emissions, and these assumptions will change from project to project. The highest impact in terms of carbon emissions was from using a sanitary landfill without either gas flaring or electricity production; this was worse than the baseline case using open dumpsites. Landfills with either flaring or energy production from the collected gas both produced similar positive carbon emissions, but these were substantially lower than both open dumping and sanitary landfill without flaring or energy production. Composting or anaerobic digestion with energy production and composting of the digestate were the two best options with composting being neutral in terms of carbon emissions and anaerobic digestion being carbon negative. These generic conclusions were tested for sensitivity by modifying the input waste composition and were found to be robust, suggesting that subject to local study to confirm assumptions made, the opportunity for developing CDM projects to attract investment to improved waste management infrastructure is significant. Kyoto credits in excess of 1 tCO2e/t of waste could be realised.     

Life-cycle assessment of municipal solid wastes: development of the WASTED model

This paper describes the development of the Waste Analysis Software Tool for Environmental Decisions (WASTED) model. This model provides a comprehensive view of the environmental impacts of municipal solid waste management systems. The model consists of a number of separate submodels that describe a typical waste management process: waste collection, material recovery, composting, energy recovery from waste and landfilling. These submodels are combined to represent a complete waste management system. WASTED uses compensatory systems to account for the avoided environmental impacts derived from energy recovery and material recycling. The model is designed to provide solid waste decision-makers and environmental researchers with a tool to evaluate waste management plans and to improve the environmental performance of solid waste management strategies. The model is user-friendly and compares favourably with other earlier models.     

Solid waste management practices and review of recovery and recycling operations in Turkey

This paper provides a general overview of solid waste data and management practices employed in Turkey during the last decade. Municipal solid waste statistics and management practices including waste recovery and recycling initiatives have been evaluated. Detailed data on solid waste management practices including collection, recovery and disposal, together with the results of cost analyses, have been presented. Based on these evaluations basic cost estimations on collection and sorting of recyclable solid waste in Turkey have been provided. The results indicate that the household solid waste generation in Turkey, per capita, is around 0.6 kg/year, whereas municipal solid waste generation is close to 1 kg/year. The major constituents of municipal solid waste are organic in nature and approximately 1/4 of municipal solid waste is recyclable. Separate collection programmes for recyclable household waste by more than 60 municipalities, continuing in excess of 3 years, demonstrate solid evidence for public acceptance and continuing support from the citizens. Opinion polls indicate that more than 80% of the population in the project regions is ready and willing to participate in separate collection programmes. The analysis of output data of the Material Recovery Facilities shows that, although paper, including cardboard, is the main constituent, the composition of recyclable waste varies strongly by the source or the type of collection point.     

The use of life cycle assessment for the comparison of biowaste composting at home and full scale

Environmental impacts and gaseous emissions associated to home and industrial composting of the source-separated organic fraction of municipal solid waste have been evaluated using the environmental tool of life cycle assessment (LCA). Experimental data of both scenarios were experimentally collected. The functional unit used was one ton of organic waste. Ammonia, methane and nitrous oxide released from home composting (HC) were more than five times higher than those of industrial composting (IC) but the latter involved within 2 and 53 times more consumption or generation of transport, energy, water, infrastructures, waste and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions than HC. Therefore, results indicated that IC was more impacting than HC for four of the impact categories considered (abiotic depletion, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidation and cumulative energy demand) and less impacting for the other three (acidification, eutrophication and global warming). Production of composting bin and gaseous emissions are the main responsible for the HC impacts, whereas for IC the main contributions come from collection and transportation of organic waste, electricity consumption, dumped waste and VOCs emission. These results suggest that HC may be an interesting alternative or complement to IC in low density areas of population.     

Green house gas emissions from composting and mechanical biological treatment.

In order to carry out life-cycle assessments as a basis for far-reaching decisions about environmentally sustainable waste treatment, it is important that the input data be reliable and sound. A comparison of the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with each solid waste treatment option is essential. This paper addresses GHG emissions from controlled composting processes. Some important methodological prerequisites for proper measurement and data interpretation are described, and a common scale and dimension of emission data are proposed so that data from different studies can be compared. A range of emission factors associated with home composting, open windrow composting, encapsulated composting systems with waste air treatment and mechanical biological waste treatment (MBT) are presented from our own investigations as well as from the literature. The composition of source materials along with process management issues such as aeration, mechanical agitation, moisture control and temperature regime are the most important factors controlling methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammoniac (NH3) emissions. If ammoniac is not stripped during the initial rotting phase or eliminated by acid scrubber systems, biofiltration of waste air provides only limited GHG mitigation, since additional N2O may be synthesized during the oxidation of NH3, and only a small amount of CH4 degradation occurs in the biofilter. It is estimated that composting contributes very little to national GHG inventories generating only 0.01-0.06% of global emissions. This analysis does not include emissions from preceding or post-treatment activities (such as collection, transport, energy consumption during processing and land spreading), so that for a full emissions account, emissions from these activities would need to be added to an analysis.     

Solid waste treatment opportunities in the Palestinian authority areas

Municipal services in the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS), are facing serious difficulties that have been intensified following the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in late September 2000. The solid waste management services, being the most essential services provided by the municipalities and village councils, are mostly affected by the ongoing harsh situation and hence proper solutions that take into account the actual amount of generated municipal solid waste and its composition is a pre-requisite for planning proper treatment. Hence, a study was carried out to identify the actual status of solid waste in eight West Bank districts. A social survey was also conducted to collect information concerning the level of public awareness among communities surveyed to the perception of solid waste recycling and reuse. The results of the survey conducted in 2001–2002 were later reviewed during July–October 2008 to assess if the trend of domestic solid waste generation had changed. Based on the survey and post-assessment, it is found that political and economic conditions have both significantly impacted the trend of generated municipal solid waste and since no improvements in either condition are forthcoming, it is concluded that survey results could be used in a planning study. A possible handling of the generated wastes may entail transferring the recyclable waste to Israeli recycling industries, and in constructing three composting plants in different accessible locations in the West Bank.     

The impact of Local Authorities’ interventions on household waste collection: A case study approach using time series modelling

At a local Government level there have been many interventions and changes made to household waste collection services to meet new regulatory requirements. These changes include separate collection of recyclable and organic materials. This paper has used a time series model to quantify the success of interventions introduced by a LA.The case study was a medium sized UK LA, Charnwood Borough Council (CBC), the research analyses monthly data of quantities of recyclates, garden waste for composting and residual waste for landfill disposal. The time series model was validated with a five year data set and used to measure the impacts of the various changes to identify which intervention was the most successful, while controlling for season and number of working days. The results show the interventions analysed both had abrupt and permanent positive impacts on the yield of recyclable materials, and a corresponding negative impact on the residual waste.The model could be added to the National data base to help LAs to compare interventions and to understand which schemes encourage householder participation and improve recycling performance.