Solid Waste Management

The common man’s perception about solid waste management suffer “not in my backyard” syndrome and leave waste to be taken care by other people only. The active participation of the common people in India is essential to manage the difficulties of source segregation, storage, collection, relocation, carry-age, processing and reutilization of burgeoning solid waste. It is urgent need to promote, awareness towards safe disposal of waste, public-private partnership, and selection of appropriate technology according to waste characteristics for resource recovery as well as energy generation in near future. Planning Commission Report (2014) reveals that 377 million people residing in urban area generate 62 million tons of municipal solid waste per annum currently and it is projected that by 2031 these urban centers will generate 165 million tons of waste annually and by 2050 it could reach 436 million tons. To accommodate this amount of waste generated by 2031, about 23.5 × 107 cubic meter of landfill space is required and in terms of area it would be 1,175 hectare of land per year. The area required from 2031 to 2050 would be 43,000 hectares for landfills piled in 20 meter height and could be an acute challenge for agricultural based Indian economy, health and sustainable environment. To confront this gigantic issue, some remedies have already recommended by the scientist and environmentalist. At first the source of waste generation, disposal and characterization followed by collection and storage has to be achieved and then the solid waste has to be segregated according to their composition. The two leading innovative mechanisms of waste disposal being adopted in India include composting (aerobic composting and vermi-composting) and waste-to-energy (WTE) (incineration, pelletisation, biomethanation). WTE projects for disposal of municipal waste management are a relatively new concept in India. Although these have been tried and tested in developed countries with positive results, these are yet to get off the ground in India largely because of the fact that financial viability and sustainability are still being tested. Composting is the decomposition of organic matter by microorganism in warm, moist, aerobic and anaerobic environment. Composting of municipality solid waste is, therefore, the most simple and cost effective technology for treating the organic fraction of solid waste. It is suitable for organic biodegradable fraction of waste, containing high proportion of lignocelluloses materials, which do not readily degrade under anaerobic conditions, waste from slaughterhouse and dairy waste. Vermicomposting is a system for turning organic waste into nutrient rich soil as it is processed by worms. It cannot really be described as a type of composting, which is a heat producing process that would actually kill worms; whereas vermicomposting should establish environment in which worms can thrive and reproduce. The worms process organic waste excreting them as organic material rich, stable, and plant-available nutrients that look like fine textured soil. Nutrients in vermicompost are often much higher than traditional garden compost. Bio-methanation is the process (two stage: acidification and methanation) of conversion of organic matter in wastes to methane and manure by microbial action in the absence of air through a process called anaerobic digestion. The solid wastes from agro-based industries have high organic content and hence its treatment by the process of bio-methanation is most viable as it produces useful products like biogas and enriched manure. Other useful techniques such as, incineration, pyrolysis etc will be discussed in the future to get rid from this demon. At the end of day the entire civilization should try to minimize nondegradable waste generation because higher the solid waste means more negative environmental impact. Therefore, to protect our Mother Earth 'Think Wise: Wastewise!

Dr. Kaushik Misra, 
Dr. Arunava Sengupta
(Ex. Senior Research Fellow, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur),
Professor, Department of Chemistry 
Techno India University, West Bengal

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Juncture of hope and optimism

"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper"; T S Eliot said this long back and the present situation that is making the earth writhe with pain is a burning testimony to the statement. Humans have always been the superior creature of God and with great knowledge comes great power: the power to undermine the inferior inhabitants and destroy the balance. But then, who would know that a tiny microbe can demolish the walls of superiority and would rewrite the history. Yes, corona virus it is. Ever since it saw light on earth, it has spread faster than wildfire and leaving tragic traces on every place and every country it has visited. It has effaced out nearly 2 lakhs people from the earth, and from India, more than 800 as of current figures. As rightly pointed out by poet, “Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon, but to our ignorance and complacency coming to an end.” And the present situation is apt to justify this. While corona is taking lives and p...
Read more

PANDEMIC TO NORMALCY: A JOURNEY

Mankind is currently capsized in the midst of an "unprecedented" lifestorm - a predicament that has swept through the life of every man, woman and child on the planet. A disease, a pandemic sickness that obeys no boundaries of either caste, creed or religion, social status or international borders, rages through the world, picking up lives with it's cold icy fingers, spreading breathlessness, death and massacre through every street it trundles through. In most countries at the moment, there is a complete or partial lockdown in most states, financial and GDP growth has frozen and fallen below sea level, and life in general, has been compromised massively. Unemployment is on the rise by the minute, the poor are starved and dying from hunger; there is no credit support to national reserve banks and the stock markets have fallen desperately. The healthcare systems of the Third World Nations are in a desolate state; unable to cope with the amount of the cases being reported da...
Read more

Fear of Death, Death of Fear

The last few days have been a witness as to how we spiraled down into the apocalypse of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just when we seemed to have terminated the spread of the virus, thereby bringing the pandemic to an effective halt, there was a resurgence in the strength and virulence of the corona virus. Every time we had wanted to get the latest updates on the pandemic, the TV screen peddled blood-curdling images of disease, death and despair. Be it the instances of people frantically searching for doctors, or images of people gasping for medical oxygen, or the long queue at the crematoriums, we refused to identify our nation with this pandemonium of despondence, where the tirade of death continues unabated. The usual precautions were reinstated, medical resources were mobilized with unparalleled vigour and the government of different states opted for partial or total lockdowns.Naturally, as was the case with the previous national lockdown in which stringent conditions were pressed to cont...
Read more

Novel mutations in Covid 19 genome and its impact on healthcare management

RNA viruses are characterized by a higher rate of mutation than their hosts. The SARS CoV 2 is no exception. Most viral mutations have little to no impact on the virus’s infectivity. But depending on where the changes are located in the viral genome, they may affect a virus’s properties, such as transmission or severity. On an evolutionary basis, mutation contributes to viral genetic variability and fine tune the viral adaptation with the environment in a trial and error method where the fittest variant becomes triumphant. Currently, multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 are circulating globally. Centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) established 3 classes for the SARS-CoV-2 variants: Variant of Interest (VOI), Variant of Concern (VOC), and Variant of High Consequence (VOHC).All VOI share a critical mutation called D614G. This mutant occurred in early phase of the pandemic in Europe and quickly became predominant implying enhanced transmission than the original v...
Read more

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on school education

The Covid-19 pandemic, basically a health related crisis has in its wrath and fury shattered not only the global health care system but has also caused havoc to the entire global economy and wrecked the educational system out and out.   As a student, my primary concern apart from health, well being and safety lies in how to pursue my education to prosper in my career, as the educational system has received the rudest jolt. The worldwide closure of all the educational institutions have grossly affected over 90% of the student population hampering the continuity of learning and its paraphernalia there by throwing their prospective careers at stake.   UNESCO is supporting countries in their valiant effort to mitigate the immediate impact of school closures, particularly for the more vulnerable and disadvantaged communities to facilitate the continuity of education through remote learning.   The severe short term disruption due to lockdown is being acutely felt...
Read more

Is Quantum Computing the Ultimate of Artificial Intelligence?

Image
Artificial Intelligence now-a-days plays a significant role in modern computer science and engineering, as the ultimate objective of the computer science research community is to develop a humanoid that can act perfectly as a human with human like intelligence. The problem undoubtedly, is many fold complex of the present state-of-the art status and needs serious thought. The task is mammoth and needs collective work. It is very difficult to define Human intelligence. However, the power of decision making and problem solving is the back bone of human intelligence, and artificial intelligence is practically the same power possessed by a machine. For artificial intelligence, a machine should be fully capable of generating solutions of a problem or should be capable generating decisions under a certain situation. This generation must be unambiguous, unique and fast. Such generations should be based on online learning. As the designed humanoid is preferred to act as a human, we m...
Read more

Sophia the Humanoid Robot

Image
What are some of the amazing things said by Sophia, the humanoid Robot ? Sophia, the First Humanoid Robot visited Kolkata by the hands of Techno India University on 18th February, 2020. Being the first robot citizen, Sophia doesn't need to show her passport for she travels in a suitcase. Her answers created a buzz in the house. The warmth of her expressions and way of deliverance aroused much awe and pleasure amongst the audience. When the experts asked Sophia about her wishlist in Kolkata, she replied that she would want to visit Jorasanko Thakurbari and admire the hub of culture and tradition. She is well aware of Rabindranath Tagore and Mother Teresa and aptly associates Kolkata to be a place that vibes with everything kind and bright. She even added that human mind fascinates her the most. She wants to see a fuller and greater research on emotions as it is completely unkown to her. At times, human mind amuses her. Talking about her intelligence, Sophia said that hum...
Read more

White Biotechnology

It is inquisitive how new terms in science get coined: some terms appeal to the imagination of a large set of people and then a new area starts. The last few years the increasing use of the word “white biotechnology” has observed in the literature. Recently, three terms (red biotechnology, green biotechnology and white biotechnology) related to biotechnology are frequently used to harmonize concepts of scientists and environmentalists for improving sustainable synthesis. It highlights the application of modern biotechnology for the sustainable and eco-efficient industrial production of chemical, materials and energy. Red biotechnology carry out with the production of high value products (e.g., pharmaceutical proteins), green biotechnology covers the use of plants in biotechnology, whilst white biotechnology, approaches the use of biotechnology in the production of bulk and fine chemicals such as amino acids, vitamins, antibiotics, enzymes, drugs, organic acids and polymers. White biote...
Read more

IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON SCHOOL EDUCATION

Covid-19 has moved like wildfire — at first seemingly far away, then unnervingly close — as it has ripped across the world in a few months, leaving tens of thousands dead, economies flattened, and the futures of hundreds of millions of people in limbo. As many of us shelter in place with no end in sight, it’s only human for us to imagine how life will resume, even if the unfamiliar and unpredictable behavior of the virus has made it difficult to know with any certainty. For many, the doldrums of quarantine are now giving way to post-isolation fantasies, as people pledge to spend more time with family and friends, or finally book that bucket-list trip. But even the smallest and sweetest of goals — getting a haircut, giving a hug, or going to school — could feel like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro when we’re free.But just so we have clarity in judging how much Covid-19 has and will impact school education, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered c...
Read more

The SARS-CoV-2 Structure – An Excerpt

The SARS-CoV-2 Structure – An Excerpt                                  Viruses are submicroscopic infectious particles with a seemingly simpler structure – a genetic material surrounded by a shell mainly composed of proteins. But deep down, they are not that simple at all. The causative agent of recent global pandemic of pneumonia like syndrome or COVID-19 is caused by a newly discovered virus of corona virus family and is nomenclatured as severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus or SARS-CoV-2. It is a spherical virus of approximately 120 nm in diameter. They have RNA as their genetic material. It is this RNA genome that enables them to hijack the human cell machinery to perpetuate themselves by creating a tsunami of new virus particles. The virus latches itself on ACE-2 receptor present in human lower respiratory tract by its spike proteins and starts its journey in the human body. Sugars dot the...
Read more