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News/Events » AN EXPLANATORY ACCOUNT ON PAST AND PRESENT SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN IMO STATE by: Osaroju(m) .:. Thu, 24 Nov, 2022 - 03:16:41:am GMT


Solid wastes are solid or semi-solid materials that are produced as a result of various activities. They are discarded materials, meaning they are to be disposed of, although some of their components can be used
Hosam M., Amal I. Hassan (2021)

Solid waste is useless and sometimes hazardous material with low liquid content. Solid wastes include municipal garbage, industrial and commercial waste, sewage sludge, wastes resulting from agricultural and animal husbandry operations and other connected activities, demolition wastes and mining residues.


Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. UN Statistics Division (2017)

The management of solid waste can include source reduction, recycling, storage, collection, transportation, processing, and disposal. Examples of solid waste facilities include landfills, composting sites, transfer stations, incinerators, and processing facilities. Such facilities may be publicly or privately owned.


The answer to the question, What are the main objectives of waste management” starts with minimizing the amount of waste produced. Waste Control blog (2022)

The objective of solid waste management is to reduce the quantity of solid waste disposed off on land by recovery of materials and energy from solid waste. This in turn results in lesser requirement of raw material and energy as inputs for technological processes.

Waste management reduces the effect of waste on the environment, health, and so on. It can also help reuse or recycle resources, such as paper, cans, glass, and so on. There is various type of waste management which have been utilized with IMO state in the past and also used in this present time, that include the disposal of solid, liquid, gaseous, or hazardous substances.


Environmental contamination due to solid waste mismanagement is a global issue. Navarro Ferronato and Vincenzo Torretta (2019)

Poor waste has been a major problem to human existence and it affects both rural and urban areas within the state. Various methods of waste disposal exist and this study assessed the waste man-agement practices among residents of Imo state, Nigeria.

TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL OF MUNICIPAL WASTE

As IMO state grows in size with a rise in the population around its cities, the amount of waste generated is increasingly becoming unmanageable. The local corporations have adapted different methods for the disposal of waste, which are– open dumps, landfills, sanitary landfills, and incineration plants (though, this is not so common). One of the important methods of waste treatment is composting.


Open dumps

Open dumps refer to uncovered areas that are used to dump solid waste of all kinds. The waste is untreated, uncovered, and not segregated. It is the breeding ground for flies, rats, and other insects that spread disease. The rainwater run-off from these dumps contaminates nearby land and water thereby spreading disease. In some countries, open dumps are being phased out.

Landfills

Landfills are generally located in urban areas where a large amount of waste is generated and has to be dumped in a common place. Unlike an open dump, it is a pit that is dug in the ground. The garbage is dumped and the pit is covered thus preventing the breeding of flies and rats. At the end of each day, a layer of soil is scattered on top of it and some mechanism, usually an earth-moving equipment is used to compress the garbage, which now forms a cell. Thus, every day, garbage is dumped and becomes a cell. After the landfill is full, the area is covered with a thick layer of mud and the site can thereafter be developed as a parking lot or a park.

Landfills have many problems. All types of waste is dumped in landfills and when water seeps through them it gets contaminated and in turn pollutes the surrounding area. This contamination of groundwater and soil through landfills is known as leaching.

Sanitary landfills

An alternative to landfills which will solve the problem of leaching to some extent, is a sanitary landfill which is more hygienic and built in a methodical manner. These are lined with materials that are impermeable such as plastics and clay, and are also built over impermeable soil. Constructing sanitary landfills is very costly and they are have their own problems. Some authorities claim that often the plastic liner develops cracks as it reacts with various chemical solvents present in the waste.

The rate of decomposition in sanitary landfills is also extremely variable. This can be due to the fact that less oxygen is available as the garbage is compressed very tightly. It has also been observed that some biodegradable materials do not decompose in a landfill. Another major problem is the development of methane gas, which occurs when little oxygen is present, i.e. during anaerobic decomposition. In some countries, the methane being produced from sanitary landfills is tapped and sold as fuel.

Incineration plants

This process of burning waste in large furnaces is known as incineration. In these plants the recyclable material is segregated and the rest of the material is burnt. At the end of the process all that is left behind is ash. During the process some of the ash floats out with the hot air. This is called fly ash. Both the fly ash and the ash that is left in the furnace after burning have high concentrations of dangerous toxins such as dioxins and heavy metals. Disposing of this ash is a problem. The ash that is buried at the landfills leaches the area and cause severe contamination.

Burning garbage is not a clean process as it produces tonnes of toxic ash and pollutes the air and water. A large amount of the waste that is burnt here can be recovered and recycled. In fact, at present, incineration is kept as the last resort and is used mainly for treating the infectious waste.


X. Xiong, X. Liu, K.M. Iris, L. Wang, J. Zhou, X. Sun, J. Rinklebe, S.M. Shaheen, Y.S. Ok, Z. Lin, Potentially toxic elements in solid waste streams: Fate and management approaches, Environ. Pollut. 253 (2019) 680-707.


"United Nations Statistics Division – Environment Statistics". unstats.un.org. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017

Waste Control blog (2022)

Ferronato and Vincenzo Torretta (2019), Waste management in developing countries.

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