Landfills, Waste Treatment, And Integrated Waste Management: A Comprehensive Overview

Introduction to Landfills and Waste Treatment

The topic of landfills, waste treatment, and integrated waste management is hotly debated topic in the United States and around in the globe. A landfill is a particularly planned facility for the burial of municipal solid waste. They are planned in such a manner that leachates cannot split down through the topsoil into the water table. The United States is experiencing an enormous solid-waste dumping disquiets, particularly in metropolitan parts (Themelis & Mussche, 2013). US residents create more than a kg of waste per individual daily,  an additional waste that can be disposed of in an ecologically sound but local and economical way. Most landfills are within 5-10 years of closing unless present amenities are advanced or novel landfills released (Menikpura, Sang-Arun & Bengtsson, 2013). Urban zones have a shortage of space for new landfills due to the associated urban populace that upholds “Not in My Back-Yard (NIMBYs) attitude. For instance, New England and the rest of the northeast is more pressed zones in the US. Rates of dispose of municipal solid wastes have risen steeply in latest years as well.  The evidence suggests that at present the country faces a nationwide waste disaster, and perhaps solid waste management should change if people are to persist in the subsequent decades (Kulczycka, Lelek, Lewandowska & Zarebska, 2015). 

When one toss garbage in the nearest dumpster, one cannot give a second thought as to where it heads after it has been collected by trash pickup service.  To assist comprehend common waste management practices; the paper discusses three common types of landfills.  To begin, municipal solid waste landfills comprise the household trash that is typically sent to a municipal solid waste landfill (Ali, Pervaiz, Afzal, Hamid & Yasmin, 2014). These landfills must be positioned at a secure scope away from the commercial district and neighborhoods. Also, they must be equipped with leach collection scheme that can avert the surrounding groundwater from becoming contaminated. Second, industrial waste landfills are particularly designated for the disposal of solid waste products such as glass, plastics, concrete and construction debris.  However, it is worth noting that hazardous waste such as asbestos cannot be processed at a standard industrial waste landfill facility.  The third kind of landfill is well-known as hazardous waste landfill. Since these classes of landfills are designed to accommodate numerous types of hazardous waste, they are subject to strict rules from the EPA.   Every hazardous waste landfills ought to have a runoff control system, double liners, and leak detection technology (Menikpura, Sang-Arun & Bengtsson, 2013).

Types of Landfills: Municipal Solid Waste, Industrial Waste, and Hazardous Waste

When individuals reason about the solid waste management, they probably link it with the trash being discarded in landfills or burned. While such action comprises a crucial part of the procedure, numerous components are encompassed in the formation of an optimum integrated solid waste management.  The following are major waste treatment and disposal methods. Thermal treatment comprises the courses that apply heat to treat waste materials. Incinerations being one of the thermal treatments involve the ignition of waste constituents in the oxygen existence. The combustion changes the waste into the ash, waste vapor, and carbon dioxide (Buclet & Godard, 2013). 

  Another thermal treatment is gasification and pyrolysis. Both methods decompose the organic waste substances by uncovering waste to low quantities of oxygens and very extreme temperature (Singh, Gupta & Chaudhary, 2014).  Pyrolysis utilizes no oxygen while the gasification permits a very low amount of oxygen in the procedure. Gasification is more advantages than pyrolysis as it permits the scorching process to recover power without causing an air contamination.  Finally, the open burning as thermal treatment uses incinerators where no pollution control devices are used.  The methods discharge substances such as polycyclic aromatic, hexachlorobenzene, dioxins and particulate matters substances (Arena & Di Gregorio, 2014).

Biological waste treatment is another way of treating waste materials.  Composting is one of the biological treatments of methane which is a well-schemed aerobic disintegration of organic ingredients by the act of trivial microorganism and invertebrates (Pirsaheb, Khosravi & Sharafi, 2013). The frequently used compositing methods are vermin, static pile, in-vessel, and windrow composting.  Anaerobic digestion process also uses biological treatment to decompose organic substances. However, it uses an oxygen and bacteria-free surrounding to decay the waste substances whereas composting must use vapor to assist the microbe’s development (Özbay, 2015).

Finally, the landfills and dumps are also one of the waste treatment methods. Sanitary landfills offer the most frequently used waste discarding solution and are designed to reduce to remove of peril of ecological or health risks due to the waste dumping.  Controlled dumps are less or more the same as sanitary landfills.  However, controlled dumping may have well-organized capacity but no cell-planning. Then, bioreactors landfills arise due to the recent technological study.  The processes use the superior microbiological process to hasten the waste decomposition. The controlling aspects are a steady addition of liquid to sustain optimal moisture for microbial digestion.  

Apparently, landfill places are regularly very unpopular with the populace, frequently called “Not in My Back Yard” (Kinnaman, 2017). Landfill sites influence the natural scenery as they smell, and it becomes a bacterial propagation ground. The noise, odor, movement, and insects that accompany landfills can lessen the house rates. Because of an upsurge in vermin enclosing the landfills, diseases become a concern with other advance fitness effects such as cancer, birth shortcomings, and breathing illness are also related with contact to landfill places (Kinnaman, 2017).  The presence of large amounts of a mixture of possibly dangerous chemical in landfills places near to the inhabited areas has increasingly adverse disquiets.  The concerns have led to a considerable number of researches on the health impacts linked with the landfill sites.  An intensification in self-reported well-being results such as respiratory symptoms, lethargy, mental conditions, and gastrointestinal apprehensions have been established steadily in health studies nearby locations where disquiets were apparent.  Evidence for a causal link between landfill contacts and cancers is still feeble.  Cancers are hard to research due to its long inexpression period (Kinnaman, 2017). A number of researches have also proposed a link between housing nearness to landfills places and dire pregnancy results. An upsurge in babies with low birth masses has been the steadiest discovery in a single-site investigation. The low birth weight is believed to be a profound indicator of the impacts of chemical exposure.  Trivial growth in the perils, particularly birth defects such as the central nervous system, cardiac defects, and musculoskeletal deficiencies has been recounted in a multisite examination.  Specifically to children, it has also been reported that an increase of chromosomal variation in the vicinity of landfill sites. This gives a sign that kids are more vulnerable to low-level contacts from waste situates (Jayakrishnan, Jeeja & Bhaskar, 2013). 

Waste Treatment Methods: Thermal and Biological Treatment

The landfills need for current facilities and spaces are filling quickly.  A simple rule of the thumb shows that every 10,000 individuals need about 3 acre-feet of space annually, for a huge city of a million persons, space is a significant mass of real estate.  The amount of landfills in the US has reduced from above 7,300 in 1989 to less than 1,800 in 2007 (Themelis & Mussche, 2013). For instances, New Jersey has to transport 50% of its solid waste or 11 million tons annually to neighboring states.  In March 2001, New York City (NYC) shut its new landfill on Staten Island. This one facility was the hugest landfill in the sphere, getting over 12,000 tons of garbage daily from 50% of the 8.6 million individuals in NYC.  Moisture and air ought to be properly organized to change these organic materials into droppings. Compositing minimizes the volumes of material send to up to 30%. By 2005, closely half of the states had barred places from landfills and numerous advanced yard waste composting amenities (Themelis & Mussche, 2013).  Additionally, US incinerate approximately 10% metrics tons annually of the MSW. Typically, burners radically minimize the capacity of MSW by 90% (Kalmykova & Fedje, 2013). The biggest concerns are changing individual’s approaches from a throwaway community to a more environmental friendly social order.  Those countries with the most active recycling exertions offer legal or economic motivations to reuse.  Oregon cemented the method and passed a relevant initial regulation in the early 1970s (Themelis & Mussche, 2013). Extra states have followed the suite with compulsory reusing or bottle deposit such as Connecticut and California.  Still, the US only accomplishes to reprocess 20% of its solid waste, considerably lesser than the reusing exertion in Netherlands and Switzerland.  In 2008, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis attained recovering rates of over 50% of their solid waste stream (Pirsaheb, Khosravi & Sharafi, 2013).

The modern landfill is designed to guard the environmental from discard or waste. They utilize liners and cap systems to control to the greatest extent possible. The most considerable hazards are the leachate generation and the production of methane gas. As they degrade, they release explosive gases and toxic liquid referred to as leachate (Wu, Lim, Lim & Shak, 2014).  Hence, the modern landfills use a multi-layer to make sure hazards do not spill from the landfill and into groundwater. New Mexico’s solid waste regulation requires landfills to be constructed at least 100 feet above the nearest aquifer or groundwater.  Regardless of the distance above water, the landfills must test the water regularly to make sure no contamination has happened (Kinnaman, 2017). 

Concerns and Challenges Related to Solid Waste Management

Conclusion

 Integrated solid waste management is a method that comprises a blend of waste deterrence, waste minimization, and disposal practices to actively regulate the concerns of municipal solid waste, by recycling, reprocessing, reducing and composting waste substances.  Landfilling is a major component to integrated waste management. No matter what tools are accessible, one can aid by decreasing the quantity of waste that the country generates. Aside from the financial impacts, waste that is buried in a landfill will breaks down slowly and presents difficulties for future generations. Several well-established techniques are available to reliably and consistently treat landfill wastes. For the future arrangement and directive of landfill places, it is crucial to distinguish which kinds of locations are most prospective to involve hazards. Landfills locations may vary significantly in the situations that render them peril and the circumstances that define the contact to and resulting wellbeing dangers posed by waste.

References

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