SOLID WASTE AND ITS TYPES

Any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas produced in the normal course of human activities is called solid waste or refuse. Some common types of solid waste are:

·        Garbage (food waste)

·        Rubbish (paper, plastics, wood, metals,             throw away container, glass)

·        Demolition products ( bricks, masonry, pipes, gravel, sand)

·        Sewage (sludge and solid from the coarse screening)

·        Dead animals

·        Manure and other discarded material

Classification of waste based on decomposability

Decomposable

Decomposable refuse component generally includes organic material of human or animal origin, e.g. discarded food items, vegetables peelings, cow dung and dead animals etc. Decomposable refuse deteriorates with time giving off foul odour. Rotten waste can be good habitat for pathogens, so If not disposed in time, it can be hazardous for human health.

Non-decomposable

Non-decomposable refuse includes plastic, metal, stones, sands, wood, bricks, glass, throw away containers etc. Non-decomposable refuse have a tendency to get scattered and thereby spread filthiness, all around.

Classification of Solid Waste based on hazard

Non-Hazardous Solid Waste

The waste which does not pose significant risk on human health and environment are termed as non-hazardous solid wastes. “Any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations and from community activities” are non-hazardous solid waste

 Hazardous Waste

The waste which cause or contribute potential to serious hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed are called hazardous solid waste. Hazardous waste are by nature are

·     Toxic

·     Ignitable: catches fire easily (gasoline, paints, and solvents)

·     Reactive: reactive or unstable enough to explode or release toxic fumes

·     Corrosive: capable of corroding metal containers such as tanks, drums

        

Examples of Hazardous Waste

·     Contains one or more of 39 identified compounds including Persistant Organic Pollutants (POPs: Aldrin, chlordane, DDT, Dieldrin, Endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, Mirex, Toxaphene, PCBs, and Polychlorinated Dioxins and polychlorinated furans)

·     Radioactive waste

·     Mining wastes

·     Oil and gas drilling wastes

·     Liquids containing organic hydrocarbons

·     Cement kiln dust

EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON HUMAN BEINGS

1.                Ozone an, both components of “photochemical smog”, irritate eyes, impair vision, make breathing difficult, and aggravate asthma. Moreover, they aggravate chronic lung diseases and reduce resistance to colds and pneumonia. Meanwhile, speed up aging of lungs cell  through oxidation

2.                Allergens: Allergens such as pollen, house dust mites’ feces and moulds in indoor environments of high humidity can cause allergic asthma (reversible narrowing of lower airways), allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in children and young adults, and recurrent bouts of pneumonia or milder attacks of breathlessness.

3.                Asbestos and other mineral fibers may be a cause of an increased incidence of lung cancer. Acute exposure to asbestos and glass fibers can cause severe skin irritation.

4.                Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in the air obstructs breathing and irritates eyes. Further, it aggravates asthma and chronic bronchitis. But, its effect is far greater when it gets adsorbed on moist tissues in the lungs. It forms sulphuric acid which burns into the lungs and causes respiratory ailments. Nitric acid, similarly formed, also causes respiratory ailments in a like manner. Both NO₂ and SO₂ contribute to acid rain.

5.                Nitrogen Oxides (NOX): Nitrogen oxides are smog-forming chemicals, created by the burning of gasoline, natural gas, coal, oil etc.

Cars are a major source of NO₂. Health effects include lung damage and illnesses of the respiratory organs.

6.                Lead is poured into the atmosphere through automobile exhaust, paints, smelter, lead manufacture factory, storage batteries etc. When inhaled, it accumulates in bones and other tissues, threatening to cause irreversible brain and kidney damage. Young children are most vulnerable because their nervous systems are still developing. Excessive absorption of lead can decrease a child's intelligence, shorten his or her attention span, cause learning disabilities or cause hyperactivity. Elevated blood lead levels in adult males have been linked to high blood pressures indicating that many heart attacks may be brought on by lead in the systems. Further, lead causes digestive and other health problems ultimately, causing carcinogenic.

7.                Carbon monoxide (CO), Carbon Monoxide results from burning of gasoline, natural gas, coal, oil etc. and incomplete burning of any organic material. CO reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood by combining with hemoglobin to form carboxyhaemoglobin. And thus it brings about asphyxiation. In minute quantities, it can cause breathlessness, tiredness, impairs perception and thinking. At high levels it causes collapse, coma, irreversible brain cell damage, and ultimately death.

8.                Particulate Matter (PM): In addition to smoke and soot generated by burning of fossil fuels, tobacco smoke, by industrial processes, agriculture, wild fires etc., particulate matter consists of tiny aerosol particles formed from gaseous emissions of sulfur dioxide and VOCs. Particulate pollution is classified by size, with finer particles (PM2.5, i.e. particles of 2.5 microns size and less) considered to be more dangerous than coarser material (PM10) because they are small enough to evade the body’s respiratory defence mechanisms and lodge deep in lung tissue. For that reason, these tiny particles appear to have the greatest health-damaging potential. Many scientific studies have linked breathing PM to a series of significant health problems, including:

• Nose and throat irritation

• Increases in respiratory symptoms (like coughing and difficult or painful breathing)

• aggravated asthma

• decreased lung function

• Lung damage

• Bronchitis

• Early death

TEMPERATURE INVERSION

During day light the sun warms the air near the earth’s surface. Normally, this warm air and most of the pollutants it contains rises to mix with the cooler air above it. This mixing of warm and cold air creates turbulence, which disperses the pollutants. However, under certain atmospheric conditions a layer of warm air can lie atop a layer of cooler air nearer the ground, a situation known as a temperature inversion. Because the cooler air is denser than the warmer air above it, the air near the surface does not rise and mix with the air above it. Pollutants can concentrate in this stagnant layer of cool air near the ground.

There are two types of temperature inversion. (a) Subsidence temperature inversion: occurs when a large mass of warm air moves into a region at high altitude and floats over a mass of colder air near the ground. This keeps the air over a city stagnant and prevents vertical mixing and dispersion of air pollutants. Normally such conditions do not last long. (b) Radiation temperature inversion: occurs typically at night as the air near the ground cools faster than the air above it. As the sun rises and warms the earth’s surface, a radiation inversion normally disappears by noon and disperses the pollutants built up during the night.

However, under certain conditions, the temperature inversion can last for several days and allow pollutants to build up to dangerous concentrations. Areas with two types of topography and weather conditions are especially susceptible to prolonged temperature inversion.

i)       Town or city located in a valley surrounded by mountains that experiences cloudy and cold weather during part of the year.

Highly populated coastal (sea) city surrounded by mountains on three sites with sunny climate.

GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming refers to the risingaverage temerature of earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F) with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain most of it is caused by increasing concentrations og green house gases produced by human activities such as deforestation and burning of fossil fuels These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized countries.

An increase in global temperature will cause sea level to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, and a probable expansion of subtropical desert.  Warming is expected to be strongest in arctic and would be associated with continuing melting of glacier. Other likely effects of the warming include more frequent occurrence of unexpexted weather events including heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall events,extinction of species due to shifting temperature regimes, and changes in crop yields. Warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe, with projections being more robust in some areas than others. In a 4 degree celcius world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world, while the limits for adaptation for natural systems would largely be exceeded throughout the world. Hence, the ecosystem services upon which human livelihoods depend would not be preserved.

BIODIVERSITY

 There are millions of living beings including plants, animals, birds and micro level organisms

 on the earth. There are differences and diversities among them. These diversities and 

differences in ecosystem refer to bio-diversity. This is the bio-diversity of heredity and 

species. Bio-diversity brings differences in the ecosystem where organism and gene play 

an important role. Bio-diversity of an area refers to existing organism, gene, animals, and

ecosystem per unit of land. In totality, bio-diversity refers to the existing number of living

organisms and their diversity.

Bio-diversity can be classified into three groups – species, ecosystem and genes. Man, elephant, birds, maize, wheat, pluses, potatoes and plants are included within species. The species of organism and virus are also included in them. This is the numerical counting of species. Ecosystem is a habitat for the living beings. The structure of ecosystem causes bio-diversity. Even living beings have their own heredity qualities. The people of the Himalayas have the hereditary quality to tolerate severe cold whereas those of the region can tolerate hot temperature.

Bio-diversity differs according to the geographical regions. Therefore, there are diversities in living things. Some living beings found on land, some in the water and the other in the atmosphere. Similarly, some plants are found in lithosphere whereas the others found in hydrosphere. Some plants are floating on the water while others live under it. Bio-diversity and conservation have been maintained because living beings can adjust themselves according to geographical conditions. The living beings within bio-diversity exists in association with special relationship among them. If one species in destroyed or disturbed, the whole system of living things will be affected. The negative effects on their system of living beings will disturb the whole ecosystem. For example, the forested area of any place is destroyed, the system, the vegetation, wild life and other living beings will be negatively affected. It will be difficult for them to live in their area.

FLOOD

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its usual boundaries.

While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless such escapes of water endanger land areas used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area.

Floods can also occur in rivers, when flow exceeds the capacity of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders. Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they are placed in natural flood plains of rivers. While flood damage can be virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of mind, people have lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel and commerce by being near water. That humans continue to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is evidence that the perceived value of living near the water exceeds the cost of repeated periodic flooding.

DROUGHT

A drought  is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. 

Generally, rainfall is related to the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, combined with the upward forcing of the air mass containing that water vapor. If either of these are reduced, the result is a drought. This can be triggered by an above average prevalence of high pressure  carrying continesntal, rather than oceanic air masses (i.e. reduced water content), and ridges of high pressure area form with behaviors which prevent or restrict the developing of thunderstorm activity or rainfall over one certain region.n persist for several years, even a short, intense drought can cause significant damage and harm the local economy.