Department of

Geology
and Environment science
at Islamic University of Gaza
(IUG)
-represent-
Solid Waste Management

Presented by
Prof. Dr. Samir Afifi

-March 2007-
 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1-Solid Waste Management in Developing

Countries
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Challenges in Solid Waste
Management
1.3 Factors Influencing Solid Waste
Management
1.4 Integrated Solid Waste Management
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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Definitions:
What is Solid Waste Management?
It includes all activities that seek to
minimize the health, environmental and
aesthetic impacts of solid wastes.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Solid waste is material, which is not in

liquid form, and has no value to the
person who is responsible for it.
Synonyms to solid waste are terms
such as “garbage”, “trash”, “refuse”
and “rubbish”.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Municipal Solid Waste refers to solid

wastes from houses, streets and public
places, shops, offices, and hospitals,
which are very often the responsibility of
municipal or other governmental
authorities.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Continue Municipal Solid Waste

Solid waste from industrial processes are
generally not considered "municipal" however
they need to be taken into account when
dealing with solid waste as they often end up in
the municipal solid waste stream.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

One to two thirds of the solid waste

generated is not collected. As a result:
•Breeding of insect and rodent vectors and
spread of diseases
•Waste is often disposed of in uncontrolled
dumpsites and/or burnt, polluting water
resources and air

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Municipal Solid Waste Management

(MSWM) is much more than a technological
issue - it always also involves institutional,
social, legal, and financial aspects and
involves coordinating and managing a large
workforce and collaborating with many
involved stakeholders as well as the general
public.

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The tendency for MSWM decisions made

without sufficient planning:
•Take into account only some aspects of a
situation
•Based on a short-term view of the situation,
or
•Influenced by the interests of political elites.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Challenges in Solid Waste Management

•Inadequate service coverage and
operational inefficiencies of services,
•Limited utilization of recycling activities,
•Inadequate landfill disposal, and
•Inadequate management of hazardous
and healthcare waste.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1-Service Coverage for Waste Collection

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1-Service Coverage for Waste Collection

•Serve only a limited part of the urban

population
•Low-income population remaining without
waste collection services
•Lack of financial resources
•Increasing amount of generated waste
produced by the rapid growing cities

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1-Service Coverage for Waste

Continue

Collection
•Inadequate fees charged and insufficient
funds from a central municipal budget
•Inefficient organizational and poor
management capacity
•Use of inappropriate technologies, Vehicle,
involving private sector,

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

2-Resource Recovery and Recycling:

Some key factors that affect the potential for
resource recovery are:
•High cost of the separated material, its
purity, its quantity and its location
•Economic potential for resource recovery

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Reuse of organic waste material, is still limited

but often has great recovery potential:
•Reduces costs of the disposal facilities,
•Prolongs the sites life span,
•Reduces the environmental impact of
disposal sites, polluting leachate and
methane problems

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

3-Disposal
Dumping MSW on land in more or less
uncontrolled manner has the following impacts:
Make uneconomical use of the available
space,
Allow free access to waste pickers,
Animals and flies and often produce
unpleasant and
Hazardous smoke from slow-burning fires.
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Continue 3-Disposal
Financial and institutional constraints are the
main reasons for inadequate disposal
People are not concerned with SW disposal,
“out of sight – out of mind”

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Continue 3-Disposal
Rapid urbanization settlements and housing
encircle the existing dumps
Sitting landfills at greater distances to the
central collection areas implies higher transfer
costs, additional investments in the infrastructure
of roads

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Continue 3-Disposal
Inappropriate guidelines for sitting, design and
operation of new landfills
 Missing recommendations for possible
upgrading options of existing open dumps
Well trained personnel and sufficient financial
and physical resources

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Continue 3-Disposal
Absence of a sanitary landfill (a site where
solid wastes are disposed at a carefully selected
location constructed and maintained by means of
engineering techniques that minimize pollution
of air, water and soil, and other risks to man and
animals)

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

4-Healthcare Wastes from Hospitals and

Hazardous Wastes:
Some health-care wastes coming from hospital or
health institution are similar in nature to domestic
solid wastes, and called “general health-care
wastes”. The remaining wastes pose serious health
hazards because of their physical, chemical or
biological nature, and known as “hazardous
healthcare wastes".

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

•Hazardous healthcare wastes incinerators

or other treatment technologies has several
weaknesses as often the hospitals and
healthcare facilities are not able to afford
the operating costs of the plant.
•Plants are left unused or not repaired
when they break down.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

•Many risks occur before the waste gets to

final stage, and not reduced by the provision
of treatment equipment.
•Lack of methods of segregate /storage and
limited trained staff to adopt safer working
practices of hazardous healthcare wastes
from general healthcare wastes.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

•Management of hazardous chemicals is

not only a matter of technology and
legislation, but also of enforcement, funding
and financial instruments.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1.3 Factors Influencing Solid Waste

Management in Developing
Countries
1. Waste amount and composition
2. Awareness and attitudes
3. Institutions and legislation

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1- Waste amount and composition

•Quality of domestic waste in industrialized countries
has low density and in developing countries wastes
has high density - high weight per unit volume,
(contain large amounts of sand, ash, dust and stones
and high moisture levels).

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1- Waste amount and composition

•Consequences of this high density, vehicles and
systems that operate well with low-density wastes are
not suitable or reliable when the wastes are heavy.

•Wastes with high proportion of moisture or sand is

not suitable for incineration,

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

2-Awareness and attitudes:

•Public awareness and attitudes to waste
can affect the whole solid waste
management system
•Willingness to pay for waste management
services, the opposition to the sitting of
waste treatment and disposal facilities, all
depend on public awareness and
participation.
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3-Institutions and legislation:

Standards and restrictions may limit the technology options
that can be considered.

•Policy of government regarding the role of the private

sector (formal and informal) should also be taken into
account.

•The strength and concerns of trade unions can also have

an important influence on what can be done.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

1.4 Integrated Solid Waste Management

Integrated solid waste management (ISWM)
is defined as the selection and application
of appropriate techniques, technologies,
and management programs to achieve
specific waste management objectives and
goals.

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

General waste hierarchy accepted by

industrialized countries is comprised of the
following order:
• Reduce Reduce

• Reuse Reuse
Recycle
• Recycle
Materials Recovery
• Recover processes
Energy Recovery
(composting, incineration,..)
Landfill
• Land-filling

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Common to all countries is:

•Increasing awareness about the linkages
between waste generation and resource
consumption
•Greater involvement in recycling
business
•Increasing awareness of source
separation and compost.
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Continue Common to all countries is

•High costs of Incineration continue to
inhibit its use.
•Sitting for landfills is difficult, Land
Requirement

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 1- Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Comparison of typical solid waste

management practices activity for low
income, middle income and high income is
given table bellow.

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