Waste Management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal, managing and monitoring ¬¬-process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health and environment.

Depending on their sources solid wastes are classified into industrial waste as hazardous waste, house hold waste generally municipal, bio medical or hospital waste and electronics waste.

The proper disposal of solid wastes derived from any source is dependent on management practices, a management system must be developed and described that incorporates many diverse factors. Those factors considered may include economics, engineering, land use ordinances, environmental regulations, geography and sociology. After generation, solid wastes can be merely collected and transported to the disposal site. They might be collected and transported to a processing or recycling plant with the residual materials disposed. Depending on the economics and the availability of resources, solid wastes might be processed or recycled at the generation site. Onsite disposal might follow, or the residues may be trucked to municipal disposal facilities.

Collection and transportation operations involve several steps that are necessary for proper disposal of solid wastes. The wastes are first transferred to the collection vehicle with a loading operation. This loading could be manual or automatic depending on waste type and location. At this point the wastes are in transit storage and will be during the transportation operation.

The wastes are than hauled to the disposal facilities, or to a processing plant, or to a transfer point. The ultimate destination of these latter two operations is the final disposal site. At this site, the wastes are unloaded and the collection vehicles return to the generation site for refilling.
Hazardous waste
Hazardous waste is any unwanted material the disposal of which poses a threat to the environment, i.e. it is explosive, flammable, oxidising, poisonous, radioactive, corrosive and toxic. Detection of traces of toxic chemicals in drinking water supplies, in polar ice caps, groundwater sources etc.

The waste can be treated chemically (i.e. by neutralisation, oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, precipitation), physically (encapsulation, separation), biologically (using microorganisms) or thermally (incineration). Most treated waste is then deposited in landfills. To prevent landfills themselves being environmental hazards, conditions of resource consents granted under the Resource Management Act 1991 generally control the types of waste that can be deposited in them and the landfill design. The purpose of treating hazardous waste is to convert it into nonhazardous substances or to stabilise or encapsulate the waste so that it will not migrate and present a hazard when released into the environment. Stabilisation or encapsulating techniques are particularly necessary for inorganic wastes such as those containing toxic heavy metals.
Municipal solid waste
There has been a significant increase in the generation of MSW (Municipal Solid Wastes) in India over the last few decades. This is largely a result of rapid population growth in the country. Municipal solid waste consists of household waste, construction and demolition debris, sanitation residue, and waste from streets. Any municipal solid waste generated in a city or a town, shall be managed in a accordance with the following compliance and the procedure. Collection of municipal solid waste: littering of municipal solid waste shall be prohibited in a cities, towns, and urban areas notified by the government. To prohibit littering, following step shall be taken:
1 Organizing house to house collection of garbage through any of the methods, like containerized collection, community bin collection, house to house collection, collection at regular pre informed timing and scheduling by using bell ringing and musical vechicle.
2 Collection of waste from slums and squatter areas or localities including hotels, restaurants, office complexes and commercial areas shall be devised in consultation with municipal authority.
3 Wastes from slaughterhouse, fruits and vegetable market, which are biodegradable in nature shall be managed to make use of such wastes.
4 Bio medical waste and industrial waste shall not be mixed with municipal solid waste as per rules specified separately for the purpose.
5 Collected waste from residential and other areas shall be transferred to community bins.
6 Horticulture and construction or demolition wastes or debris shall be separately collected and disposed off following proper norm. Similarly, activities relating to dairies shall be regulated in accordance with state law.
7 Waste shall not be burnt.
8 Stray animals shall not be allowed to move around waste storage facilities or at any other place in a city or town and shall be managed as per sate laws.
Disposal of municipal solid waste: land filling shall be restricted to non bio degradable, inert waste and other waste that are not suitable either for recycling or for biological processing. Land filling shall also be carried out for residues of waste processing facilities as well as for pre processing rejects from waste processing facilities. Land filling of mixed waste shall be avoided unless it is found unsuitable for waste processing.
Bio medical waste
Hospital waste is generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities in these fields or in the production or testing of biologicals. It may include wastes like sharps, soiled waste, disposables, anatomical waste, cultures, discarded medicines, chemical wastes, etc. These are in the form of disposable syringes, swabs, bandages, body fluids, human excreta, etc. This waste is highly infectious and can be a serious threat to human health if not managed in a scientific and discriminate manner. Most biomedical waste generated from health care facilities are at present, collected without segregation into infectious and non-infectious categories and are disposed in municipal bins located either inside or outside the facility premises. Sanitary workers pick this waste from here along with MSW and transport and dispose it at municipal dumpsites. Since the infectious waste gets mixed with municipal solid waste, it has potential to make the whole lot infectious in adverse environmental conditions. Moreover, biomedical waste also contains sharp objects (scalpels, needles, broken glasses/ampoules, etc.,) the disposal of which poses a risk of injury and exposure to infection to sanitary workers and rag pickers working at these dumpsites. Since most of these dumpsites are unscientifically managed, the chances of pathogens contained in infectious waste becoming airborne and getting released to nearby water bodies or affecting the local resident population. Bio medical waste management are
Take immediate action for the segregation of the biomedical wastes at source.
To go for advanced alternate technology like autoclaving for the treatment of biomedical wastes at source
To incinerate the pathological waste alone
To go in for a common treatment and disposal facility for the biomedical wastes that must be located away from any habitation and water bodies.
E waste
Electronic waste or E-waste as it is popularly called is a collective terminology for the entire stream of electronic wastes such as used TV's, refrigerators, telephones, air conditioners, computers, mobile phones etc. computer waste is the most significant of all waste due to the gigantic amounts as well as the rate at which it is generated. In addition, its recycling is a complex process that involves many hazardous materials and poses significant environmental and health hazard. E-waste is of particular concern to India currently. India is setting a shining example not only in the IT sector, but unfortunately, also in importing e-waste. The primary source of computer waste in India is imports from developed countries though, recently, domestic waste also has shot up due to the astounding growth in the IT sector and its application in various new sectors, including governance.

E-waste contains over 1,000 different substances and chemicals, many of which are toxic and are likely to create serious problems for the environment and human health if not handled properly. However, classification of e-waste as hazardous, or otherwise, depends on the amount of hazardous constituents present in it. E-waste contains many toxics such as heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, mercury, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), etc, in some components.

The highly toxic chemicals found in the different components of computer parts can contaminate soil, groundwater and air, as well as affect the workers of the unit and the community living around it. Moreover, the workers in computer waste recycling operations may face dangerous working conditions where health and environmental conditions are compromised. Hence there is a clear reason to be concerned about the trade, the technology in practice and the existing poor disposal practices of computer waste in India. E waste are managed as per the rules of Hazardous waste management and Handling rules, 1989.

Various acts, rules and regulations have been enacted in india from time to time manage the solid waste. The municipal act is the first legislation in the post independence india which deals with environmental pollutions caused y municipal solid wastes. The delhi municipal corporations act, 1957 conains the following sections relevant to solid waste management in delhi.

Section 42(c) obligatory functions of the corporation- the scavenging removal and disposal of filth, rubbish and other obnoxious or pollute matters.
Section 350 provision for daily cleansing of streets and removal of rubbish or filth.
Section 352 provision or appointment of receptacles, depots and places of rubbish etc.
Section 353 duty of owners and occupiers to collect and deposit rubbish.
Section 358 commissioners power to get premises scavenged and cleaned.
The term refers to the collection, transport, processing, recycling and disposal of waste materials which are generally derived from human activities. This is an area of utmost importance to human health. The waste forms generally involve solid, liquid and gaseous substances.
A plastic trail
The menace of plastic is a real managerial dilemma obviously when it masks your lanes and chokes your ways. But here the good news.
BIO-MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT –burgeoning issue
The advent of waste of “disposable” in the hospitals has brought in its wake attendant ills, that is, inappropriate recycling, unauthorised and illegal reuse and increase in the quantum of waste.
Radioactive Waste Management
Cosmic radiation and radiations from natural radioactive elements present in the earth are the main sources of radiation that we generally exposed to. These are known as natural background sources. The artificial radiation exposure is almost totally medically related, with routine nuclear power activities contributing only a very small fraction of one percent to the daily exposure, an addition which can be best characterized as minor. Issues related to handling of radioactive wastes are presented in this report.
Solid Waste Management and Global Climate Change
There is a strong link between climate change and generation of waste. For example, methane gas, one of the greenhouse gases, produced at solid waste disposal sites contributes around 3-4 percent to the annual global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Global emissions from landfills are expected to increase from 340 Tg CO2 eq in 1990 to 1500 Tg CO2 eq by 2030 and 2900 Tg CO2 eq by 2050 in the Baseline scenario. More Details