Solid Waste Assignment - Essay Example

?The level of hazard represented by municipal solid waste (MSW) and impact of disposal Environment Agencies ify waste as either controlled wasteor non-controlled waste. Controlled wastes include wastes generated from urban, sub-urban or city based households (municipal solid waste), commercial and industrial organizations and from construction and demolition. Municipal solid waste (MSW) consists of many different things including food and garden waste, paper and cardboard, glass, metals, plastics and textiles. These are also generated by commercial and industrial organizations although large volumes of chemical and mineral waste are produced in addition, depending on the sector. Agricultural waste comprises mainly slurry and farmyard manure with significant quantities of straw, silage effluent, and vegetable and cereal residues. Most of this is spread on land. Certain types of waste are defined as hazardous because of the inherent characteristics (e.g. toxic, explosive). The three largest waste streams in this category are oils and oily wastes, construction and demolition waste and asbestos, and wastes from organic chemical processes. Non-controlled waste includes waste generated from agriculture, mines and quarries and from dredging operations. In 1998–99 over 470 million tons of wastes were generated in the UK. The mean production of daily household and commercial waste in EU Member States in 1993–96 was approximately 370 kg/capita/annum, ranging from 350 to 430 kg (Waste Statistics). Most people lack of understanding on “hazardous waste”; it doesn’t always mean that when waste is hazardous it is harmful, though most can be. Hazardous waste defines that a waste has a property which might make it harmful to human health and the environment. Most, but not all, wastes produced by humans can be classified as hazardous. That is why, authorities and government agencies concerning environmental issues are stepping forward to the control and proper disposal of hazardous waste. Domestic wastes that are, may be, hazardous are the following: asbestos, pesticides and garden chemicals and medicine, fluorescent tubes and lamps, oils and oil filters, plastics, paints and coatings, household batteries and car batteries, discarded electrical equipment like TVs and radios, and computers, computer monitors and CRTs, fridges and freezers, discarded energy saving light bulbs (CFLs), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), HCFCs, Cathode ray tubes, and tires and rubber. Environmental impact on the disposal of municipal solid wastes (MSWs) Many options may be taken by management of environmental agencies to dispose hazardous wastes, particularly incineration and landfills. However, several potential health risks may result from disposal of municipal solid wastes that may include hazardous waste. The management of the environment agencies has to consider things upon deciding what type of disposal may be taken. Researches and surveys show that there is potential health risk that could result from exposures from decomposing, especially houses near the decomposing sites. Studies show several illness and health related cases occurring on citizens that are nearby (Johnson, 1997). Decomposing sites may leak chemicals and hazardous residues from time to time. Some of the health related cases that are reported were cancers, reproductive disorders and birth defects, other than this, reports and case studies show some symptoms of hazardous material affecting the citizens nearby. Examples are nervous system defects, respiratory symptoms, irritation of the skin, nose and eyes, gastrointestinal problems, fatigue, headaches, psychological problems and some known allergies (Goldman, et al., 1985). On the other hand, potential health risks come also in incineration. The workers involved in the process and the community residents living nearby where affected by the individual pollutants emitted by recycling plants. Some of the individual pollutants that could cause potential health risk on the environment are acidic gases and aerosols, particles, metals and some known organic and in-organic compounds. These individual pollutants may leak down to a stream of water or may be carried by air. Residents living in a community near incineration plants were observed to have lesser number of potential health risks and symptoms of reproductive defects and respiratory symptoms and allergies compared to as living in a decomposing site. However, workers that are exposed to these individual pollutants present in an incineration plant, such as aerosols and acidic gases, where proved to have work-related respiratory gastrointestinal and skin problems (Ikem, et al., 2002). The level of hazard represented by leachate draining from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills The lack of proper management of solid wastes is a major environmental issue. Municipal solid wastes are normally disposed off in uncontrolled and improperly sited open dumps located in public places and sometimes near communities where residences lie. As time goes by, a liquid substance commonly called leachate extracts from the solid wastes and pools through the drainage system which apparently may produce harmful effects to an ecosystem. The composition of leachate varies widely depending on the age of the landfill and the type of solid waste it contains. Waste disposal sites such as landfills are capable of releasing large amounts of toxic chemicals to nearby community water sources and even in the air through leachate and landfill emitted gases. In addition to toxic chemicals, leachate may also contain microbes and bacteria which may be pathogenic producing toxins and are capable of causing public health risks. Leachate may pose risk of unknown level in aquatic ecosystem and so as the community depending on it. Particularly, leachate from municipal solid waste landfills frequently exceeds the standards of drinking water and common surface waters. The leachate therefore has the potential to be hazardous to public and public health (Johnson, 1997). Leachate having organic matters and ammonia suggests a high potential of having public health risks. When ammonia dilutes to drinker water, possible disinfections may occur. However when a large amount of ammonia dilutes in a considerable amount of drinking or surface water, poisoning takes place. This may lead to more complex health problems such as infections resulting from too much nitrate in ammonium compounds. As a result of catalytic interaction, and by the absence of chlorine, ammonia in drinking water may produce metabolism and urinary infections to drinkers (IEH, 1997). Leachate management should be taken in mind as an integral part of landfill siting, planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance. Needless to say, there are strict legislations on municipal solid waste management against the siting of landfills near water bodies and communities in order to prevent the possible transfer of contaminants and toxic chemicals from leachate to the community. Leachate management therefore should be integrated into the framework of constructing landfills (McMurphy, et al., 1996) One of the main objectives of environmental agencies concerning municipal solid waste management is to secure the site, to keep it in control and away to far from harming the health of the public. To meet this objective, other than siting landfills, a very common philosophy used by environmental agencies is the encapsulation and total containment, also known as the dry tomb concept; this is to prevent leachate generation by totally stopping the percolation of water through the waste apart from what may be generated from the moisture content of the waste at the time of disposal. This philosophy works and applicable especially in wet climates. As a result of the process, the waste is preserved for a long time and there may be no environmental effects for the waste remains as they were at the time of disposal. This municipal solid waste management strategy passes the responsibility of leachate management of today’s waste to future generations to take care of encapsulation to prevent contamination of the ecosystem and its environment. However, due to undetermined future events and activities that may occur that could be a hindrance to the encapsulation of municipal solid wastes and the total containment of leachate, perhaps decades or centuries after plant and landfill installation, uncontrollable release of leachate may me possible. This unpredictable release of leachate may lead to an unacceptable effect on the ecosystem and its environment especially on ground and surface water bodies. Leachate is very hard to control. It may be containable and preventable for now, but in a number of decades or centuries, leachate will extract from municipal solid wastes from landfills as the strategies for waste management are most likely to be short-term. Fortunately, this issue of being short-term is already been made answers. Environmental agencies concerning municipal solid waste management have taken the idea of dumping leachate in an underground water body far from community residences. However, the release of leachate to an underground water body should be reasonable. Reasonable in the sense that the amount of leachate released should be permitted only when it is based on the predetermined requirements by the environmental agencies (Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 1989). References: Environment Agency. Waste Statistics for England and Wales 1998–99. Environment Agency Goldman LR, Paigen B, Magnant MM, and Highland JH. 1985. Low birthweight, prematurity and birth defects in children living near the hazardous waste site, Love Canal. Hazard Waste Hazard Mater; 2: 209–23 IEH. 1997. Health Effects of Waste Combustion Products. Leicester: Institute for Environment and Health. Ikem, A.,Osibanjo, O.,Sridhur, M.K.C. and Sobande,A. 2002.Evaluation of ground water quality characteristics near two waste sites in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria. Water-Air-Soil Pollut, 140, 307-333. Johnson BL. 1997. Hazardous waste: human health effects. Toxicol Ind Health; 13: 121–43 McMurphy, L.M. Biradar,D.P., Taets,C. and Rayburn, A.L. 1996. Differential effects of weathered coal fly ash and fly ash leachate on maize genome. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol., 31(2): 166-169. Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 1989. 17th ed. Washington, DC, American Public 0Health Association/American Water Works Association/Water Pollution Control Federation, Read More