Solid Waste: Pollution, Cause, Health Hazards and Waste Management

Solid waste pollution is the presence or excessive presence of solid wastes in the environment (air, water, soil), making it less fit or unfit for living beings. Solid wastes are the discarded, abandoned, useless or unwanted solid materials generated in residential, industrial, commercial, construction and hospital areas. Solid waste includes not only solid but semi-solid, semi-liquid, solid in liquid wastes too. Colloquially, terms like garbage, rubbish, litter are used synonymously with solid wastes.

Key Terms: Pollution, solid waste management, environment, municipal waste, biomedical waste, solid wastes, air, water, soil

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Types of Solid Waste

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Solid waste can be divided according to its origin, content and hazard potential:-

Also read: Biodiversity and conservation

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Cause of Solid Waste Pollution

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Major factors causing solid waste pollution:

• Residential and household wastes (Municipal Solid Wastes) are one of the major causes of solid waste pollution. The garbage from these places includes consumer goods like food waste, plastic, paper, glass, leather, cardboard, metals, ash and electronic waste such as IC boards, wires, batteries, etc.
• Commercial places like shops, malls, markets, hotels cause solid waste pollution by improper disposal of papers, cups, plastic plates, packaging materials, cans, bottles, polythene bags, etc.
• Light and heavy manufacturing units produce industrial waste like metals, dyes, chemicals which if not disposed of properly cause solid waste pollution.
• Construction and mining areas produce dust, concrete, scrap metals, and wood.
• Biomedical waste generated during diagnosis, treatment or prevention of diseases by hospitals include sponges, syringes, needles, bandages. It also includes infectious fluids or materials.
• Spoiled agricultural and dairy produce from farmland, orchards, dairies too cause solid waste pollution.
• Left out bodies of dead animals on roads, rivers and lakes causes organic solid waste pollution.
• Digitalisation of our world has led to rise in use of electronic gadgets like television, mobile phones, laptops, digital watches. And short shelf life of these items and social trends around these gadgets leads to early disposal, thereby leading to electronic solid waste pollution.

The reason for exponential rise in generation of solid wastes and rise in solid waste pollution is attributed to uncontrolled human population growth, rapid urbanization and industrialisation.

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Reasons for the rise of solid waste pollution:

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• Careless behaviour, lack of awareness and ‘throw away culture’ has amplified the problem of solid waste pollution.
• Disbelief in science and scientific prediction has led to inaction regarding matters of solid waste pollution.
• Lack of public funding in infrastructure for solid waste management like incineration plants, boilers, and in awareness generation has caused accumulation of solid wastes in landfills, open areas leading to more solid waste pollution.
• Less emphasis on research and development in solid waste management technologies has slowed down the rate of proper disposal of solid wastes, whereas the rate of solid waste generation and solid waste pollution is increasing with each passing day.
• Manpower to actually work on issues of solid waste pollution, management, mitigation, prevention, reuse, recycle is also lacking.

Also read: Water Pollution

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Effects of Solid Waste Pollution

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• Human health is adversely affected due to solid waste pollution. Solid waste dumping areas become breeding grounds for disease causing microorganisms.
• Leaching of solid waste to groundwater, lakes, rivers leads to the pollution of water resources.
• Animal lives and health is also affected due to above-mentioned reasons.
• Plants take up solid, semi-solid waste through their roots thereby causing diseases and less yield. Affected crops also affect humans.
• Solid waste pollution is interlinked with air, water pollution, and one feeds into another.
• Many of the solid wastes are non-degradable. They remain in the environment for many decades.
• Choking of drains because of plastics, papers, scraps due to solid waste pollution leads to accumulation of dirty water.
• Solid waste pollution in the present will affect the lives of future generations.
• Solid waste pollution disturbs the aesthetic and beauty of the natural environment.

Also read: Sewage Treatment

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Solid Waste Management

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Collection, treatment, and disposal of solid waste is called Solid waste management.

Various processes and techniques are adopted to treat and dispose solid waste, and reduce solid waste pollution:

• Open dump field: Away from residential areas, here wastes are dumped untreated, unsegregated. This type of disposal is being phased out.
• Landfills: Pits are dug in ground and solid wastes are dumped. After the pits get filled, it is covered with thick layers of mud and sealed.
• Sanitary landfills: These are modified versions of landfills. The bottom and sides of the pits are lined with plastic, clay or concrete to prevent leaching of waste to underground water.
• Incineration plants: Solid wastes are burned in large furnaces at high temperature.
• Pyrolysis: Pyrolysis is combustion of solid waste in absence of oxygen under pressure as an alternative to incineration. Since incineration is a comparatively less clean process, pyrolysis is preferred.
• Composting: Biological solid wastes are treated with micro-organisms like bacteria and fungi to degrade the organic waste to humus.
• Vermiculture: Earthworms are used to decompose solid waste. 

Solid Waste Pollution in India

• In 2014, the Planning Commission of India predicted that the volume of municipal solid waste will increase to 165 million tonnes by 2030.
• About 43 million tonnes of solid wastes were collected in 2014, of which about 25% of waste was treated and the rest 75% of waste was dumped in landfill sites.
• According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations University, India generated 1.975 million tonnes of e-waste in 2016. Indians generated approximately 1.5 kg of e-waste per capita.

Solid Waste Pollution in Worldwide

According to the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP), an estimated 11.2 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected worldwide every year. And decay of the organic proportion of solid waste is contributing about 5 % of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Also Read: 

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Things to Remember

• Solid waste pollution is interlinked with air, water pollution, and one feeds into another.
• Solid waste includes not only solid but semi-solid, semi-liquid, solid in liquid wastes too. The criterion is not restricted to the state of waste being solid.
• Collection, treatment, and disposal of solid waste is called Solid waste management.
• Indians generated approximately 1.5 kg of e-waste per capita in 2016.

Read More: Effects of air pollution on environment

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Previous Year Questions

1. Which is wrong with respect to our responsibility as a human being to protect our environment? [JEE Mains 2019]
2. BOD stands for? [JEE Mains 2016]
3. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) value can be a measure of water pollution caused by the…? [JEE Mains 2016]
4. Ozone is destroyed by CFCs in the upper stratosphere Ozone holes increase the amount of UV…? [JEE Mains 2019]
5. Addition of phosphate fertilisers to water bodies causes? [JEE Mains 2015]
6. A water sample has ppm level concentration of the following metals…? [JEE Mains 2019]

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Sample Questions

Ques 1. Discuss briefly: Municipal solid wastes (2 Marks)

Ques 2: What are electronic wastes? Give examples. (2 Marks)

Ques 3: What is pyrolysis? (1 Marks)

Ques 4: What is solid waste management? (1 Marks)

Ques 5: Give three methods to reduce the problem of solid waste pollution. (3 Marks)

Ques 6. What are the sources of solid waste pollution? (1 Marks)

Ques 7: Define solid waste. (2 Marks)

Ques 8: Describes types of solid waste based on their origin, composition and effects. (5 Marks)

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