Dear students. Welcome back to the course on SWM.

In the previous lecture we had discussed about

Now lets start with the 2nd module.

Apart from the earlier discussed types of wastes, there are few categories of waste which are emerging
as a challenge for the government bodies to tackle. Among this the first is:

Construction and demolition wastes: These are wastes generated as a result of construction,
refurbishment, repair and demolition of houses, commercial buildings and other structures. They consist
mainly of earth, stones, concrete, bricks, lumber, roofing and plumbing materials, heating systems and
electrical wires and parts of the general municipal waste stream. These wastes are a potential source for
recycled aggregates and many researches are ongoing in order to maximize their utilization in the
construction industry.

Next is the Farm wastes: These wastes result from diverse agricultural activities such as planting, and
harvesting. In India, these are directly burned causing a huge pollution issue in northern states. Proper
management of these waste is only way to tackle this issue.

Another important waste is Sewage wastes: The solid by-products of sewage treatment are classified as
sewage wastes. They are mostly organic and derived from the treatment of organic sludge separated
from both raw and treated sewages. The inorganic fraction of raw sewage such as grit and eggshells are
separated at the preliminary stage of treatment, as it may entrain putrescible organic matter with
pathogens and must be buried without delay. The bulk of treated, dewatered sludge is useful as a soil
conditioner but is invariably uneconomical. Solid sludge, therefore, enters the stream of municipal
wastes, unless special arrangements are made for its disposal.

Final type is the waste generated from Open areas: this includes wastes from areas such as Streets,
alleys, parks, vacant lots, playgrounds, beaches, highways, recreational areas, etc. Swatch Bharat
Abhayan is scheme started by GOI in order to control specially this type of waste by spreading
awareness among the citizens.

generation of waste has been around for a very long time. There have been problems with waste since the
very beginning of the mankind. In terms of how they have been managed, the basic means of dealing
with waste are dumping, burning, recycling and the waste minimization.

Anywhere humans have existed they have dumped the garbage, It is usually dumbed in the low-lying area
as putting it in a low-lying areas one will fill up ground to the same level. Also generally waste are being
burned uncontrollably. On may also burn it a controlled environment. The controlled burning of garbage
can help to produce heat, produce electricity and all those kinds of stuff. Then the question arises that
Why do we have to burn it? It saves space, you can have a more land because if you have hundred tons of
garbage and if you burn it, you are ending up with 10 tons of residual. So rather than having hundred tons
of garbage to be disposed on the landfill, you burn it, you recover energy from that and then you have 10
tons of residual. Many countries around the world even for that 10 tons they are going for recycling of
that, separated into different fraction and use it as a construction material for road construction or for
some other construction activities like Fly ash is being used for cement manufacturing and remaining
residual may go to the landfill. In the developed country specially in the Western European countries, this
value has although gone almost gone down to 2 – 3%. So when I say 2 to 3% like if you have a start with
hundred tons of garbage you are only sending 3 tons of the residual to the landfill after treating in a
thermal treatment plant, so that is a recovering nearly 97 – 98% in different forms. So that helps in terms
of the waste going to the landfill helping in extending the life of the landfill and so that is because of that
will do not have to build a new landfill later on.

Now we will look into the brief history of solid waste. That will make you understand what is the need of
this course which in turn will keep you motivated to learn. So, let us talk about the history of the solid
waste. As I said earlier, as soon as the human started producing things, we started producing waste and so
we have been dumping this waste wherever we could find a space. As the population increased and cities
and towns grew, this dumping space kept on going outside of the city boundary, usually between the 2
city boundaries you will have the dumping sites and but when you take it outside of the city boundary we
have to transport the waste. So, the transportation of the garbage becomes important. Today collection
and transportation of the garbage is actually the number 1 in terms of the cost factor. So if you can help in
reducing this by coming up with a better route, better optimization even if you can help in reducing even
one truck it will helps in reduction of cost.

The uncontrolled dumping has been going on for many societies for century as in terms of the history of
solid waste. There have been cases where people have got sick. The improper management of waste was
directly linked to the human health and of course the environmental health.

Now the question arises is how we can do in terms of proper management of the garbage. When we
manage the garbage properly it helps in terms of preventing the environmental damage. when we say
environmental damage what does it mean? We mean the damage to air, damage to the soil, damage to the
water. i.e. if water is damage my drinking water source is getting polluted. By drinking water sources
getting polluted plants do not get water that they are designed to process. Hence if it get contaminated
water I consume gets contaminated either through my food intake or via my water intake which might
make me sick. Hence The bottom-line is that we have to learn that how to better manage the waste
material

That is why the subject of waste management becomes very important because it is link to the
environmental health also linked to the human health.

In terms of waste management we have looked at its history what has been happening, so now we will see
what is happening today in the next part.

In terms of the present-day a big component of the waste management is 3Rs. 3Rs concept is very
common that you may have also seen . Many place you would have seen this recycling sign. What is this
3Rs?

First is the Reduce, i.e here we are trying to reduce the waste that is being produced in the 1 st place i.e
lesser the produce lesser will be the net waste. Then second is the reuse the waste i.e “ re-use” material in
their original form instead of throwing away and then third is recycle i.e. divert part of the waste stream
back into production.
Many times these days that you see we have 4Rs - 5Rs, it they say reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and
there are some cases they also used 5 Rs. The Recover means- this is recovery of waste without any pre
processing and the Refuse means- not to purchase things one don’t need

The bottom line is to try to reduce the amount of garbage going to the landfill. The amount of waste
needs to be minimized.

Solid waste management (SWM) is associated with the control of waste generation, its storage,
collection, transfer and transport, processing and disposal in a manner that is in accordance with the
best principles of public. health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics, public attitude and
other environmental considerations. Put differently, the SWM processes differ depending on factors
such as economic status (e.g., the ratio of wealth created by the production of primary products to that
derived from manufactured goods, per capita income, etc.), degree of industrialisation, social
development (e.g., education, literacy, healthcare, etc.) and quality of life of a location. In addition,
regional, seasonal and economic differences influence the SWM processes. This, therefore, warrants
management strategies that are economically viable, technically feasible and socially acceptable to carry
out such of the functions

Protection of environmental health.

Promotion of environmental quality.

Supporting the efficiency and productivity of the economy.

Generation of employment and income.

SWM has socio-economic and environmental dimensions. In the socio-economic dimension, for
example, it includes various phases such as waste storage, collection, transport and disposal, and the
management of these phases has to be integrated. In other words, wastes have to be properly stored,
collected and disposed of by co-operative management. In addition, poor management of wastes on the
user side such as disposing of wastes in the streets, storm water drains, rivers and lakes has to be
avoided to preserve the environment, control vector-born diseases and ensure water quality/resource.

With that I would like to close this particular module. In this module we discussed few of the current
emerging issues with the waste generation. Also, we looked into the brief history of waste management
and later we discussed the present day philosophy of solid waste management of 3Rs. In the last section
we got basic knowledge of terms related to SWM. In the next module we would learn in detail what is
SHM system, its fundamental elements, factors affecting SWM system. Also the issues and problems
with the SWM in context to Indian scenario will be discussed in details. With this we will end this
module. Thank you.