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Introduction :
Waste disposal is one of the major problems in the world and India is no exception. The
constituents of MSW are highly heterogeneous and their percentage widely depends on sources
like residential places markets and office areas. The waste collection efficiency in India ranges
from 70% - 90% in cities and 50%-70% in towns and cities. This report try's to present concept in
the form of flow chart and study them.

S.no Title Pg.no.

1. Solid waste management components 01
2. Types of waste 01
4. Methods of collection 02
5. Segregation 03
6. storage 03
7. Transportation 04
8. Methods of processing and disposal of solid waste 04
9. Basic unsanitary landfills and open burning 06
10. Sanitary landfills and open burning 06
11. Waste to energy 06
12. Aerobic digester 06
13. Anaerobic digester 07
14. Recycling 07

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 1.waste
generation
2.collec
7.Disposal tion

Solid waste
6.Processing management 3.Segregation
includes

5.Transport
ation 4.Storage

Types :

2.1Source-based 2.2Type-based
classification classification

1. Residential 1. Ashes and residues

2. Commercial 2. Garbage
3. Institutional 3. Combustible and
4. Municipal non-combustible
5. Industrial wastes
6. Agricultural 4. Bulky wastes
7. Open areas 5. Street wastes
6. Biodegradable and
non-biodegradable
wastes
7. Dead animals
8. Abandoned
vehicles

Methods of collection

1.Door to 2.Road to bin collection by

door sweeping

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 Segregation :

Organic Dry Reject Waste

Sanitary waste Sharp waste

Kitchen Non E-waste
E-waste 1. Diapers 1. Razors
waste and 1. Paper
1. Batteries 2. Bandages 2. Used
garden 2. Metal
2. CD’s 3. Condoms syringes
waste 3. Glass
3. Thermo 4. Used 3. Injection
4. Rubber vials
meter tissues
5. Mops
4. Bulbs 5. Medicines
6. Cosmetics
and tube 6. Swept
7. Hair
lights dust
8. Coconut
5. Comput
shells
er waste
Constructional
debris

1. Rubble
2. Paints
3. Silt from drain
4. Flower pots
5. Broken glass
Storage

Green Blue Red

1. Dry waste 1. Sanitary
1. Tea bags 2. Paper Napkins
2. Dry leaves 3. Card board 2. Diapers
3. Cooked 4. Plastic containers 3. Thin plastic
food 5. Plastic bags wrappers
4. Cloth 6. Metals 4. Soiled
5. Wood 7. Tetra pack cartoons containers
(pencils) 8. Medicine strips 5. Thermocole
etc. pharmacy 6. Styrofoam
9. No wet and soiled
packing
Note:
Storage should be strong, watertight, not easily corrodible, rodent-resistant, insect-resistant,
have handles at the sides and tight fitting overlapping covers and shall not exceed 60 pounds in
weight when full
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 Transportation : primarily done by specially designed trucks

Secondary (at the site done in two ways )

1
1.Basic unsanitary land fills
M and open burning
e
t
h 2.Landfills that do not
capture CH4
o
d
s 3.Modern landfills
recovering and using CH4

o
3.Modern landfills
f recovering and using CH4 1. Gasification
2. Pyrolysis
d 4.Waste to energy 3. Refuse derived fuel
4. Incineration
i
s
p 1. Window composting
o 5.Aerobic composting
2. Vermi composting
s
a 6.Anaerobic composting 1. 1.small scale
l biomethanation
2. Large scale
7.Recycling ( Formal and biomethanation
& informal recycling
Processing

1 Report published b Ranjith Kharvel Annepu Columbia University in the City of New York
January 10, 2012 5
1.Basic unsanitary land fills and open burning :
There is no specific definition for unsanitary landfilling. However, it is generally characterized by
open dumping of wastes, lack of monitoring of the site, stray animals and birds feeding on the
wastes, absence of leachate or methane collection systems and wastes exposed to natural
elements.
The direct implications of landfilling include burying materials which were extracted by energy
and infrastructure intensive and in most cases environmentally harmful methods and in turn
depleting earth’s natural resources. From an energy recovery perspective, landfilling is equivalent
to burying barrels of oil. Apart from these moral implications, landfilling causes extensive public
health and environmental damage. Landfills create unsanitary conditions in the surroundings,
attract pests and directly impact human health. Unsanitary landfills also contaminate ground and
surface water resources when the leachate produced percolates to the water table or is washed
as runoff during rains. Unmonitored landfills catch fires due to methane generation and heat and
result in uncontrolled combustion of wastes, releasing harmful gases like carbon monoxide,
hydrocarbons and particulate matter into low level atmosphere. In addition to these harmful
impacts, unsanitary landfills contribute to Climate Change by releasing methane, a green house
gas (GHG) with 21 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide (in the first year of
release, methane is 71 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a GHG).
2. Sanitary land fills and open burning :
United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) defines sanitary landfilling as the controlled
disposal of wastes on land in such a way that contact between waste and the environment is
significantly reduced and wastes are concentrated in a well defined area. Sanitary landfills (SLFs)
are built to isolate wastes from the environment and render them innocuous through the
biological, chemical and physical processes of nature. UNEP also recognizes three basic conditions
to be fulfilled to be designated as an SLF:
a) Compaction of the wastes,
b) Daily covering of wastes (with soil or other material) and
c) Control and prevention of negative impacts on public health and environment.
On the hierarchy of waste management, sanitary landfilling is expanded into three different
categories
a) SLFs recovering and using methane (CH4)
b) b) SLFs recovering and flaring CH4
c) c) SLFs without any CH4 recovery
3.Waste to energy :
Waste-to-Energy combustion (WTE) is defined as a process of controlled combustion, using an
enclosed device to thermally breakdown combustible solid waste to an ash residue that contains
little or no combustible material and that produces, electricity, steam or other energy as a result.
Even though both WTE combustion and RDF combust MSW, the objective of WTE combustion is
treating MSW to reduce its volume. Generating energy and electricity only adds value to this
process.
WTE combustion decreases the volume of wastes by up to 90%. Such reduction in volume would
prolong the life of a 20 years landfill to 200 years. However, MSW should be combusted after all
possible recycling and composting has been done. The input to WTE plants should be the rejects
from material recovery and/or composting facilities. Such an integrated system can decrease the
amount of wastes landfilled and prolong the life of landfills further.
3.Aerobic digester :Similar to the recycling of inorganic materials, source separated organic
wastes can be composted and the compost obtained can be used as an organic fertilizer on
agricultural fields. Organic compost is rich in plant macro nutrients like Nitrogen, Phosphorous
and Potassium, and other essential micro nutrients. Advantages of using organic manure in
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agriculture are well established and are a part of public knowledge.
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) defines composting as the biological
decomposition of biodegradable solid waste under predominantly aerobic conditions to a state
that is sufficiently stable for nuisance-free storage and handling and is satisfactorily matured for
safe use in agriculture. Composting can also be defined as human intervention into the natural
process of decomposition as noted by Cornell Waste Management Institute. The biological
decomposition accomplished by microbes during the process involves oxidation of carbon
present in the organic waste. Energy released during oxidation is the cause for rise in
temperatures in windrows during composting. Due to this energy loss,
4.Anaerobic diegestor :
The USEPA defines Anaerobic Digestion (AD) as a process where microorganisms break down
organic materials, such as food scraps, manure and sewage sludge, in the absence of oxygen. In
the context of SWM, anaerobic digestion (also called Anaerobic Composting or Biomethanation)
is a method to treat source separated organic waste to recover energy in the form of biogas, and
compost in the form of a liquid residual. Biogas consists of methane and carbon dioxide and can
be used as fuel or, by using a generator it can be converted to electricity on-site. The liquid slurry
can be used as organic fertilizer.
5.Recycling :
Reducing and reusing are the most effective ways to prevent generation of wastes. Once the
wastes are generated and collected, the best alternative to handle them would be recycling
where the materials generally undergo a chemical transformation. Sometimes, reusing can also
happen after collection, in cases where informal traders collect materials of no use from
households, reshape or repair them and sell in second-hand markets. Unlike reusing a used
material, recycling involves using the waste as raw material to make new products. Recycling thus
offsets the use of virgin raw materials.
It is known that as much as 95% of a product’s environmental impact occurs before its discarded,
most of it during its manufacturing and extraction of virgin raw materials. Thus, recycling is
pivotal in reducing the overall life cycle impacts of a material on environment and public health.
Recycling however requires a separated stream of waste, whether source separated or separated
later on (after collection).
Due to the limitations for source separation (See Section 5.6), wastes are collected in a mixed
form which is referred to as municipal solid waste (MSW). Once the wastes are mixed it becomes
difficult to separate them. Recyclables can still be separated manually to some extent. Such
separation and sale of recyclables from mixed wastes provides livelihood to marginalized urban
populations in low and middle income countries. High income countries use machines to do the
same but they would need the recyclables to be collected as a separate dry stream without
mixing with organic food wastes.
The separated stocks of paper, plastic, glass and metal can then be recycled. A hundred percent
separation of these materials from MSW is highly energy and time intensive and is generally not
carried out. Therefore, mixing of waste will always result in a fraction of residues, which can
neither be recycled nor composted and needs to be combusted in RDF or WTE plants to avoid
landfilling, and generate energy.