The current situation of solid waste generation and its environmental contamination in China

In China, controlling environmental pollution resulting from solid waste (SW) and hazardous waste (HW) has become one of the most pressing tasks in the field of environmental engineering. It is reported that the annual generation of industrial solid waste (ISW) in China exceeded 0.6 billion tons in the 1990s, and is increasing every year. Although ISW management has been strengthened in recent years, about 40% of SW is put in uncontrolled landfill without appropriate treatment. According to statistics from the national Environmental Protection Agency, the cumulative ISW uncontrolled landfill in China had reached 6.6 billion tons by the end of 1995, occupying around 55 000 hectares of land. Although some major uncontrolled landfills were constructed, nonetheless groundwater contamination resulted from the use of low-standard liners and poor management. Furthermore, about 20 million tons of ISW was discharged into the environment illegally, and a third of this waste was discharged directly into water bodies, making ISW one of the greatest pollution sources for surface water and ground water. Environmental pollution accidents resulting from SW occur about 100 times a year in China, and environmental issues frequently arise because of ISW pollution. The practices of SW management, treatment, and disposal started relatively late in China, and for a long time the management of SW pollution has received little attention compared with water and air pollution management. China faces problems such as the insufficiency of management laws and regulations, insufficient investment, inadequate treatment and disposal technology, and a lack of qualified technicians. At present, most treatment and disposal technology cannot meet the requests for solid waste pollution control. In order to protect, restore, and improve environmental quality in China and to realize sustainable development, the safe management and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes is a pressing challenge. In recent years, much attention has been paid to SW management in China, and investment to develop management and treatment technologies has increased. In 1995, the Law for Solid Waste Pollution Protection was issued, and work on solid waste treatment and disposal began to be legally managed. SW treatment and disposal facilities have been constructed, and now operate in some large and medium-sized cities. In particular, rapid improvements have been seen in ISW recycling, collection, and disposal of municipal solid waste and regional HW management. All the figures in this paper are from 1995, and represent the situation in China in that year. Received: April 18, 2000 / Accepted: May 15, 2000     

Recycling of plastic packaging waste in Bandung City,Indonesia

Economic growth, changing consumption and production patterns are resulting in rapid increase in the generation of plastic wastes, including plastic packaging waste (PPW). A variety of PPW is identified in the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream. In this paper, quantity and composition of PPW at generators (residential and nonresidential sectors) and at the informal sector of waste recycling were measured, and accordingly the flow of PPW within Bandung City, Indonesia was analyzed. Though the generation rate per capita is not so high (25.1 g per day), total PPW generated by 2.3 million inhabitants in Bandung becomes 58.4 tonnes per day (3.76 % of total MSW generated). Due to lack of integrated MSW management, most of PPW is neither collected properly nor disposed of in appropriate manner by the municipality. Collection of valuable wastes including PPW is done predominantly by the informal sector without regard to health and safety. It is predicted that total PPW recycled by various informal waste recycling players like scavengers, junkmen, intermediates, and dealers is 27.5 tonnes per day (64.6 % of total PPW generated). Interviews regarding the existing handling methods and incentives preferred by generators to increase the recycling rate are also presented.     

An Overview of Solid Waste Management and Plastic Recycling in Qatar

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) constitutes one of the most crucial health and environmental problems facing authorities in the Arabian Gulf. Recent literature on current solid waste management (SWM) in Qatar has been reviewed in this paper, and a focused study has been carried out to provide a review on the total amount of municipal solid waste generated, stored, collected, disposed as well as the constituents of the waste. The analysis showed that Qatar produced around 2,000,000 tons of solid municipal waste annually, corresponding to a daily generation rate per capita of about 2.5 kg. About 60% of MSW is organic material and about 300 kg is composed daily. Landfill and composting is considered the most appropriate waste disposal techniques in Qatar. Um-Al-Afai landfill has nearly 80% of MSW. Because of the increased migration in Qatar, there is a sharp rise in the volume and also in the variety of solid waste. It is important to alleviate societal concerns over the increased rate of resource consumption and waste production; thus, policy makers have encouraged recycling and reuse strategies to reduce the demand for raw materials and to decrease the quantity of waste going to landfill. An example of the benefit of mechanical recycling of plastics compared to land filling and composting was conducted by GaBi 4 life cycle analysis tool which showed the benefits to the global warming and human toxicity. Recycling is the favored solution for plastic waste management, because it has a lower environmental impact on the defined impact categories, from Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Human Toxicity Potentials (HTP) indicators.     

Municipal solid waste management in Beijing City

This paper presents an overview of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Beijing City. Beijing, the capital of China, has a land area of approximately 1368.32 km² with an urban population of about 13.33 million in 2006. Over the past three decades, MSW generation in Beijing City has increased tremendously from 1.04 million tons in 1978 to 4.134 million tons in 2006. The average generation rate of MSW in 2006 was 0.85 kg/capita/day. Food waste comprised 63.39%, followed by paper (11.07%), plastics (12.7%) and dust (5.78%). While all other wastes including tiles, textiles, glass, metals and wood accounted for less than 3%. Currently, 90% of MSW generated in Beijing is landfilled, 8% is incinerated and 2% is composted. Source separation collection, as a waste reduction method, has been carried out in a total of 2255 demonstration residential and commercial areas (covering about 4.7 million people) up to the end of 2007. Demonstration districts should be promoted over a wider range instead of demonstration communities. The capacity of transfer stations and treatment plants is an urgent problem as these sites are seriously overloaded. These problems should first be solved by constructing more sites and converting to new treatment technologies. Improvements in legislation, public education and the management of waste pickers are problematic issues which need to be addressed.     

Mechanical behavior of typical hazardous waste and its influence on landfill stability during operation

The stability of hazardous waste (HW) landfill is a major security risk to the landfill environmental safety. The mechanical behavior of waste controls many aspects of landfill design and operation, including stability and settlement issues and the integrity of geosynthetic and liner components. This study presents the results of a laboratory experiment to learn the mechanical properties of HW collected from the Hangzhou HW landfill. Measured mechanical behavior was compared with results for municipal solid waste (MSW) to assess their discrepancies. The particle size of HW was analyzed by the sieving and hydrometer methods. Because HW comes primarily from industrial plants in the form of sludge or slag, their particle sizes are generally smaller than those of MSW. This study indicates that the shear strength parameters of HW are more sensitive to the methods of testing and calculation than those of MSW. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the safety factor of a landfill is affected by the mechanical properties of HW, especially cohesion and friction angle. Because of the lower particle size and wider compression ratio, compared to MSW, an HW landfill should be taken more care in its operational procedures so as to increase its stability.     

Municipal solid waste management in Tehran: current practices, opportunities and challenges

Tehran, the capital city of Iran and a metropolis with a population of 8.2 million and containing 2.4 million households, generated 2,626,519 tons of solid waste in 2005. The present study is aimed at evaluating the generation, characteristics and management of solid waste in Tehran. Municipal solid waste comprises more than 97% of Tehran's solid waste, while three other types of solid waste comprise less than 3% of it, namely hospital waste (1.0%), industrial waste (0.6%) and construction and demolition waste (0.5%). The contribution of household solid waste to total municipal solid waste is about 62.5%. The municipality of Tehran is responsible for the solid waste management of the city; the waste is mainly landfilled in three centers in Tehran, with a small part of it usually recycled or processed as compost. However, an informal sector is also active in collecting recyclable materials from solid waste. The municipality has recently initiated some activities to mechanize solid waste management and reduce waste generation. There remain important challenges in solid waste management in Tehran which include: the proper collection and management of hospital waste; public education aimed at reducing and separating household waste and educating municipal workers in order to optimize the waste collection system; and the participation of other related organizations and the private sector in solid waste management.     

Evaluation of municipal solid waste flow in the Bandung metropolitan area, Indonesia

This article covers partial results for research which was carried out to determine the effectiveness of municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling in Bandung metropolitan urban areas. It focuses on the results of waste flow analysis as basic information in developing better MSW management systems, especially in applying the reduce, reuse, recycle (3Rs) concept. The dependence upon final disposal sites in MSW management and the difficulties in finding disposal sites have resulted in interest in the 3Rs concept. In this research, the determination of waste compositions and the potential of recycling were evaluated based on data from interviews with householders, members of the nonhousehold sector, and recycling actors and on measurement. The informal sector activities observed were mainly from handcart crews, mobile scavengers, transfer point scavengers, final disposal scavengers, waste traders, and recycling business people at several locations in Bandung and Cimahi cities. The estimated waste recycling and composting by stakeholders has not yet achieved 10% (wet weight) of the total waste generated. As in other major cities in developing countries, the informal sectors hold an important role in the recovery of usable materials from waste. However, inorganic waste recycling activities from this sector have not even reached 8% (wet weight) of the total waste generated.     

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.     

Comparison of old and new municipal solid waste management systems in Denizli, Turkey

Rapid economic growth, increasing population and change in living standards contribute to increasing the generation rate of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Denizli city, like other Turkish cities. The improper and poor MSW management system (old system) in Denizli caused environmental problems originating from the uncontrolled release of methane and leachate. In addition, the disposal of recyclable materials in unsanitary landfills is responsible for the consumption and destruction of natural sources. This paper presents a general overview of old and new MSW management practices in Denizli. Detailed data on MSW management practices including collection, transportation, disposal and recycling have been presented. The amount of solid waste generated in Denizli over the last decade has increased steadily over the years, from 108,500 tons in 1995 to 179,495 tons in 2006. The average MSW generation rate was found to be 1.23kg/day per capita. The major constituent of MSW in Denizli is food waste, but the percentage of recyclable waste has increased significantly recently. Except for metal wastes, the percentages of recyclable waste materials in Denizli are higher than in all neighborhood cities. The objective of this study is to compare the old and new MSW management systems in Denizli city. The MSW management system has been changed entirely last five years. A dumpsite was closed and a sanitary landfill with a composting facility was constructed. In addition, source separated collection has been carried out since 2002. The quantity of recyclable waste collected increased from 195 to 1549 tons. The amount of recyclable waste will continue to be increased by expanding the source separation collection system to all the districts of the city and preventing scavenging. Thus, revenue from recyclable waste ($7227 in 2006) is expected to increase. In addition, the capacity of the composting facility will be increased. Most importantly, information to increase public participation and awareness in municipal recovery programs has to be provided.     

Estimation of construction waste generation and management in Thailand

This study examines construction waste generation and management in Thailand. It is estimated that between 2002 and 2005, an average of 1.1 million tons of construction waste was generated per year in Thailand. This constitutes about 7.7% of the total amount of waste disposed in both landfills and open dumpsites annually during the same period. Although construction waste constitutes a major source of waste in terms of volume and weight, its management and recycling are yet to be effectively practiced in Thailand. Recently, the management of construction waste is being given attention due to its rapidly increasing unregulated dumping in undesignated areas, and recycling is being promoted as a method of managing this waste. If effectively implemented, its potential economic and social benefits are immense. It was estimated that between 70 and 4,000 jobs would have been created between 2002 and 2005, if all construction wastes in Thailand had been recycled. Additionally it would have contributed an average savings of about 3.0 x 10(5) GJ per year in the final energy consumed by the construction sector of the nation within the same period based on the recycling scenario analyzed. The current national integrated waste management plan could enhance the effective recycling of construction and demolition waste in Thailand when enforced. It is recommended that an inventory of all construction waste generated in the country be carried out in order to assess the feasibility of large scale recycling of construction and demolition waste.     

The impact of tourism on municipal solid waste generation: The case of Menorca Island (Spain)

Tourism can sustain high levels of employment and income, but the sector is a source of environmental and health impacts. One of the most important is the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW). However, there is a lack of studies which quantify how much the tourist population engages in total MSW and separately collected recyclables. The aim of this paper is to estimate the impact of the tourist population on MSW, both total and separately collected, for the period 1998–2010, for the Mediterranean island of Menorca (Spain). We use dynamic regressions models, including data for monthly stocks of tourists. The results show that, on average, a 1% increase in the tourist population in Menorca causes an overall MSW increase of 0.282% and one more tourist in Menorca generates 1.31 kg day^?1 (while one more resident generates 1.48 kg day^?1). This result could be useful to better estimate the seasonal population of different regions, since intrannual fluctuation of MSW is used as a proxy measure of actual population (the sum of residents and tourists). Moreover, an increase of 1% in the tourist population causes an increase of 0.232% in separately collected recyclables and an additional tourist generates 0.160 kg day^?1. One resident selectively collects on average 47.3% more than one tourist. These results can help in the planning of waste infrastructure and waste collection services in tourist areas.     

Report on waste dump sites around Bangalore

The present work aims at identifying, locating and quantifying the industrial and domestic waste dump sites located in and around Bangalore urban and rural districts of Karnataka state, India. Bangalore has a population of 6 million and has more than 2000 industries working at various industrial estates and other locations around the city. It was reported that about 1500 tons of municipal waste per day is being generated from Bangalore city. Studies reveal that there is no scientific treatment and disposal facility for scientific management of the waste generated. The waste from industries and community areas is disposed in an unscientific manner at several open dump sites across the city. There are more than 60 dump sites consisting of both municipal and industrial waste existing in and around Bangalore city; the locations are totally unhygienic. Based on the experience gained from field visits, physical observation of the waste disposed, quantity and nature of the waste disposed, each site was given with a grading based on polluting potential of the site. For selected sites, ground water samples were collected from nearby surface or bore wells and analysed for possible contamination. From the study, it was found that the site needed immediate attention and comes under severe impact category of 27 numbers and that of medium and low impact are 18 and 6 numbers, respectively. The disposal sites have got tremendous potential of spreading the epidemics/diseases to the people living in their immediate vicinity and at nearby places.     

Municipal solid-waste management in Istanbul

Istanbul, with a population of around 13 million people, is located between Europe and Asia and is the biggest city in Turkey. Metropolitan Istanbul produces about 14,000 tons of solid waste per day. The aim of this study was to assess the situation of municipal solid-waste (MSW) management in Istanbul. This was achieved by reviewing the quantity and composition of waste produced in Istanbul. Current requirements and challenges in relation to the optimization of Istanbul’s MSW collection and management system are also discussed, and several suggestions for solving the problems identified are presented. The recovery of solid waste from the landfills, as well as the amounts of landfill-generated biogas and electricity, were evaluated. In recent years, MSW management in Istanbul has improved because of strong governance and institutional involvement. However, efforts directed toward applied research are still required to enable better waste management. These efforts will greatly support decision making on the part of municipal authorities. There remains a great need to reduce the volume of MSW in Istanbul.     

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     

Recovery and recycling practices in municipal solid waste management in Lagos, Nigeria

The population of Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, increased seven times from 1950 to 1980 with a current population of over 10 million inhabitants. The majority of the city's residents are poor. The residents make a heavy demand on resources and, at the same time, generate large quantities of solid waste. Approximately 4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated annually in the city, including approximately 0.5 million of untreated industrial waste. This is approximately 1.1 kg/cap/day. Efforts by the various waste management agencies set up by the state government to keep its streets and neighborhoods clean have achieved only minimal success. This is because more than half of these wastes are left uncollected from the streets and the various locations due to the inadequacy and inefficiency of the waste management system. Whilst the benefits of proper solid waste management (SWM), such as increased revenues for municipal bodies, higher productivity rate, improved sanitation standards and better health conditions, cannot be overemphasized, it is important that there is a reduction in the quantity of recoverable materials in residential and commercial waste streams to minimize the problem of MSW disposal. This paper examines the status of recovery and recycling in current waste management practice in Lagos, Nigeria. Existing recovery and recycling patterns, recovery and recycling technologies, approaches to materials recycling, and the types of materials recovered from MSW are reviewed. Based on these, strategies for improving recovery and recycling practices in the management of MSW in Lagos, Nigeria are suggested.     

乌鲁木齐市工业固体废物资源化现状、趋势及建议

分析了乌鲁木齐市工业固体废物产生现状及其资源化利用情况,预测了＂十二五＂期间乌鲁木齐市工业固体废物产生量及资源化利用量。针对乌鲁木齐市工业固体废物资源化利用存在的问题,提出了实施工业固体废物资源化利用过程中,应该减少工业固体废物排放总量、扩大资源化利用途径、推进资源回收和资源化利用的产业化进程、加强工业固体废物监督管理工作等建议。     

MSW management for waste minimization in Taiwan: the last two decades

Taiwan is the second most densely populated country in the world; its 22.604 million residents (2002) live in an area of 35,967 km2 (628 people/km2). Taiwan's economy has grown rapidly during the last 20 years, resulting in a corresponding increase in the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW). This study describes and evaluates the municipal solid waste management system in Taiwan. The study's results indicate that the amount of MSW began to decline after 1997, when the government enforced aggressive MSW management policies. By 2002, total MSW production had dropped by 27%, and the average daily per capita weight of MSW had fallen from 1.14 kg in 1997 to 0.81 kg in 2002. Summarizing the successful experience of MSW reduction in Taiwan, the most important factor was the government's combining of the MSW collection system with reduction/recycling programs. The second most important factor was the policy of extended producer responsibility, which laid a foundation of recycling by producers and retailers and promoted public recycling.     

Solid industrial wastes and their management in Asegra (Granada, Spain)

ASEGRA is an industrial area in Granada (Spain) with important waste management problems. In order to properly manage and control waste production in industry, one must know the quantity, type, and composition of industrial wastes, as well as the management practices of the companies involved. In our study, questionnaires were used to collect data regarding methods of waste management used in 170 of the 230 businesses in the area of study. The majority of these companies in ASEGRA are small or medium-size, and belong to the service sector, transport, and distribution. This was naturally a conditioning factor in both the type and management of the wastes generated. It was observed that paper and cardboard, plastic, wood, and metals were the most common types of waste, mainly generated from packaging (49% of the total volume), as well as material used in containers and for wrapping products. Serious problems were observed in the management of these wastes. In most cases they were disposed of by dumping, and very rarely did businesses resort to reuse, recycling or valorization. Smaller companies encountered greater difficulties when it came to effective waste management. The most frequent solution for the disposal of wastes in the area was dumping.     

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.     

Life cycle assessment of solid waste management options for Eskisehir, Turkey

Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to determine the optimum municipal solid waste (MSW) management strategy for Eskisehir city. Eskisehir is one of the developing cities of Turkey where a total of approximately 750tons/day of waste is generated. An effective MSW management system is needed in this city since the generated MSW is dumped in an unregulated dumping site that has no liner, no biogas capture, etc. Therefore, five different scenarios were developed as alternatives to the current waste management system. Collection and transportation of waste, a material recovery facility (MRF), recycling, composting, incineration and landfilling processes were considered in these scenarios. SimaPro7 libraries were used to obtain background data for the life cycle inventory. One ton of municipal solid waste of Eskisehir was selected as the functional unit. The alternative scenarios were compared through the CML 2000 method and these comparisons were carried out from the abiotic depletion, global warming, human toxicity, acidification, eutrophication and photochemical ozone depletion points of view. According to the comparisons and sensitivity analysis, composting scenario, S3, is the more environmentally preferable alternative. In this study waste management alternatives were investigated only on an environmental point of view. For that reason, it might be supported with other decision-making tools that consider the economic and social effects of solid waste management.