Literature Review

Discuss about the Environmental Impact of Solid Waste Management.

The disposals of the solid wastes have become a menace; the issue has become so severe that the human race is searching for better ways of waste management for reducing the impact of the wastes (Chandrappa and Brown 2012). The large amounts of wastes have resulted in spreading of diseases and environmental pollution. The existing techniques like land filling, incineration, etc. have not been very successful in managing the solid wastes. Hence a proper waste management is the need of the hour. In this report, the different mechanism for management of solid wastes have been having been deliberated, and the environmental impact of the scheme has been discussed. The technique of land filling may be very cheap but the environmental impact of the process is very acute and leads to contamination of the groundwater level and leads to production of harmful gases. Finally, in the later sections a single waste management principle will be selected and will be deliberated for successful management of wastes.

Improper disposal of wastes creates pollution which affects every organism of the environment whether they reside in air, water or the soil (Alam and Ahmade 2013). According to the authors, the indiscriminate disposal of the wastages into the environment contaminates the water on the ground and the underground reserves. The solid wastes are also responsible for the clogged drains and become a breeding ground for the infamous mosquitoes and insects responsible for spreading diseases. For understanding the impact of the solid wastes on the human life, a case study has been done by Sankoh Yan and Tran (2013). The case study has discussed the Granville Brook dumpsite located in free town, Sierra Leone. The paper deliberates the impact of the solid waste disposal at the site. For the survey, a questionnaire had been prepared, and three hundred and ninety-eight households residing near to the dumpsite has been questioned. According to the survey, the families who resided near to the dumpsite suffered from the variety of diseases which are stomach related diseases like diarrhea, cholera and other airborne diseases like chest pain and communicable diseases like malaria. The dumpsite location had a great impact in making people sick. Finally it had been suggested to move the dumpsite well far off the human reach to make a healthy environment for the residents.

According to the authors of the paper, ’solid waste management’, the disposal of waste had been present from the very beginning of the civilization but the lesser population had not made it look like an epidemic, but with the increasing population the waste disposal has become a menace (Kaushika Reddy and Kaushik 2016). The solid wastes are created as a result of various activities and can be classified into four major categories, which are: residential, construction or demolition, institutional and industrial (Alam and Ahmade 2013). According to Kaushika Reddy and Kaushik(2016) the wastes can be either solid or liquid and solid waste among the two is more menacing. There are three major types of pollutions which are air, water and soil and the solid wastes contribute heavily in the entire three sectors making it the most problematic. It has been aptly stated byAbarca-Guerrero Maas and Hogland(2015) that solid waste management has become a challenge to the cities, because of the ever-increasing amount of the solid wastes and the diversity of the solid wastes that are created at the various demographics. Hence in this paper, the stakeholders of the waste management have been deliberated in detail. According to the Alam and Ahmade(2013), the various types of the solid waste disposal techniques are composting, pyrolysis, gasification, compaction and incineration.

Research Questions, Aim and Sub-Goals

Incineration is the process of burning the waste that is mainly organic; since the incineration drastically reduces the volume of the solid wastes. Since the fumes that are created from the waste are pretty harmful, the process is being criticized recently are the pollution is spread throughout the world with the air. The air pollution leads to decreasing air quality, odors, global warming, etc. (Hashisho and El-Fadel 2014).The process of compaction involves reduction of the size of the wastes so that more of the wastes can be stored at the same place. The disposals of cars are done in the same way. The compaction is also used for landfilling and increases the life span of land fill (Singh et al. 2014). The other methods which have been stated in the above section are not used extensively but can be very effective the management of the wastes.

What are the ways of effectively managing the solid wastes?

Impact of the various management techniques on the environment?

How to solve the present risks for better solid management?

The aim of this report is to follow the hierarchy for the creation of effective waste management strategy.

Figure 1: Waste management strategy
(As created by author)

The first two stages are the part of waste disposal and the preliminary waste reduction technique. The subsequent two stages are used for maximum energy extraction of the generated wastes, and the final stage is meant for management of the resources (Niza et al..2014). Hence the objectives of the project are:

Minimization of the toxic material entering the cycle.

Maximization of the reuse and recycling.

Proving the leadership for successful waste disposal.

Building an environment compliant way for using the resources.

Finally disposing of the residue in the environment-friendly way.

For the sake of producing the desired output, the electronic waste disposal techniques have been presented in the following sections.

The industrial revolutions followed by the electronic revolution have resulted in the creation of electronic goods that are responsible for the present data communication and the information technology. The massive growths in the field of electronics have resulted in the creation of a new set of problems in the form of electronic wastes which is highly toxic and have a great environmental impact (Kiddee Naidu and Wong 2013). The electronic wastes are the discarded electronic products, namely, Fax machines, tape recorder, cell phones computers, etc. The E-wastes as it is popularly termed becomes toxic because of the presence of the certain hazardous components. Like toxic gasses, metal (mercury, rare earth metals, etc.), chlorinates, etc., since in the present decade the computers and the mobile phones have become a daily necessity, the need for proper disposal if the wastes become very critical (Zhang et al. 2014).

Theoretical Content/ Methodology

The disposal of the E-wastes as landfill had been seen as a viable option, but with the implementation, it was noted that the landfilled E-wastes created a variety of leachates that went into the ground water reserve and contaminated it. Hence landfilling became a major disaster in the area making the technique unsuitable for such wastes. Simultaneously other methods like melting of the computer chips were tried but disposing of such wastes made the ground extremely acidic making the ground unsuitable for cultivation (Laurent et al. 2014).The sites of the E-waste disposal are hence suffering the acute shortage of the natural drinking water due to the disposal of the acidic wastes into the water instead of soil. Incineration which is common to many countries also creates air pollution and releases toxic fumes into the air thus creating a plethora of air bore diseases. Thus to prevent such a drastic effect on the environment, the countries have come together to address the challenges that arise due to the E-wastes. The various toxic that are part of the electronic wastes are the lead obtained from PCBs (printed circuit board), glass panel and gaskets, Cadmium form the semiconductors, Mercury from the PCBs, relays and switches, Chromium from the Steels, Plastics from the cabinets and the cables, Bromine from the cabinets, Barium from CRTs (Cathode Rays Tubes) and beryllium from the mother board (Ladou and Lovegrove 2013). For the effective management of the waste production and management, Bessel Convention, was done in which various agreements were signed. The main aim of the Bessel Convention was to prevent the movement of the solid wastes across the border of the countries. For the management on the regional basis, various factors like the present economic structure, environmental condition, and regional power were considered (Hadi et al. 2015).  So Bessel convention seeks the growth of all without hurting the environment. In this paper, the recycling of the value able earth metals from the electronics wastes has been presented that will help in reduction of the disposal of the toxic metals in the earth.

The objective of this experiment is to extract eh rare earth metals from the electronic wastes. The rare earth metal are extremely important for the economy of the country and the generation of the rare earth metals will also reduce the amount of the toxic metal into the ecosystem that will not only help in revival of the environment but will also help the economy by reducing the dependency upon the natural resources (Jadhao et al. 2015).

Experimental Setup and Potential Limitations

The presence of the various metals in the components of the computer has already been presented, the main concentration of the important metal lies in the batter, PCBs, GPS, alloys, etc. The rare earth metals are used in a plethora of application like catalysts, computer equipment, etc. For the extraction of the metal of the computer parts, the process of leaching and chelating has been thought upon. Leaching is the process of extracting the metals with the help of dissolving liquid that dissolves the metal and then the metal is extracted from the solution using the proper reagent. Chelating too is similar to the process of the leaching but the leaching is done with the help of the acids and chelating is done with the help of more selective organic compounds namely EDTA (Hong and Valix 2014). The metals are natively reducing agents. Hence the organic compounds which are known for their bonding capacity are used for chelating. In this experiment, the metals will be extracted with the help of smectite clay that will be chemically modified to obtain the organic compound PEHA (PolyEtheleneHexAmine) by the process of intercalating. The metals will be extracted with the help of PEHA, and the presence of the metal in the solution will be calculated by calculating the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the solution.

The implementation of the process will not only reduce the dependency upon the mining and then extraction of the metals but will also increase the quality of life for the people. The metals and the toxic substances that are used in the process can be recycled that will reduce the acidification tendency the wastes thus making it more environment-friendly. The other competitive advantages that can be achieved with the help of this extraction technique and then disposal are (Chauhan Pant and Nigam 2015):

• Makes an economy self-reliant and reduces the dependence on the other economies.
• The cost of the extraction in the case of recycling is much lower compared to the process of mining and extraction.
• The other waste disposal techniques have high pollution rates due to air pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution, but in this process, the polluting agents are removed successfully thus reducing the impact (Huang et al. 2014).
• The extraction technique is cheaper compared to the existing costlier techniques.
• The process that has been discussed for implementation, leaching and chelating, is also less time consuming compared to the other techniques (Pant et al. 2012).

For the success of the project, it should be borne in mind that the project planning has been done properly and the manager who is responsible for the management pays proper heed to the resources that are used for the implementation of the project. It should also be taken into account that not following the time like will result in cost overrun and will adversely affect the project status (Kerzner 2013). For the management of the project the following structure has been created:

Figure 2: Project hierarchy
(As created by author)

The above hierarchy shows the reporting of the various stakeholders for the project implementation. The manager is responsible for interaction with the clients and the other stakeholders of the project (Schwalbe 2015). Hence is very important that the goals and the objectives of the project are well understood by the manager of the project. The Analyst or the business analyst is responsible for the successful estimation of the budget and the financial of the project. The analyst helps in understanding the financial contingencies and hence is an integral part of the project ecosystem. The industrial manager is responsible for the interaction between the project components and the project manager and makes sure that all the details are being followed according to the requirement. The hierarchy has been constructed in a way to reduce the contingencies that might arise due to mismanagement, some of them are:

• Cost overrun: A safe practice of including 15 percent more financial need is included for accommodating the various risks that may arise during implementation.
• Extra time: Time should be treated as the most vital resource and should be planned accordingly to avoid delayed implementation and cost overrun.
• Disputes: Should be treated at the very initial level to avoid litigation.

The timeline as has been stated is the most important resource; hence a Gantt chart has been prepared for the implementation that has been done till now:

Figure 3: Gantt chart for the implementation
(As created by author)

Conclusion

The report that has been deliberated contains all the necessary details that are needed for understanding the effect of the solid wastes that are created due to various human activities. The solid wastes are more disastrous as unlike the air and water pollutants these wastes pollute every this starting from air, water to soil and even the underground reserves. Hence the treatment towards the solid wastes too should be different. Hence in this report methods to reduce the solid wastes have been presented and it has also been tried to adopt a mechanism to reduce the harmful effects of the solid wastes. For mitigating the impact of the toxics of the electronic wastes that has become rampant these data, chelating and leaching has been suggested for extraction of the various rare earth metal and the toxic metal that are extensively used for the manufacturing of the electronic goods and the mechanism for the implementing the process has been discussed. The suggested process will not only reduce the impact of toxics on the environment but will also reduce the amount of wastes in the world.

References

Abarca-Guerrero, L., Maas, G. and Hogland, W., 2015. Solid waste management challenges for cities in developing countries. Revista Tecnología en Marcha, 28(2), pp.141-168.

Alam, P. and Ahmad, K., 2013. The impact of solid waste on health and the environment. Int J Sustain Develop Green Econ (Special Issue) V-2, pp.1-1.

Chandrappa, R. and Brown, J., 2012. Solid waste management: Principles and practice. Springer Science & Business Media.

Chauhan, G., Pant, K.K. and Nigam, K.D.P., 2015. Chelation technology: a promising green approach for resource management and waste minimization.Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 17(1), pp.12-40.

Hadi, Pejman, Meng Xu, Carol SK Lin, Chi-Wai Hui, and Gordon McKay. “Waste printed circuit board recycling techniques and product utilization.”Journal of hazardous materials 283 (2015): 234-243.

Hashisho, J. and El-Fadel, M., 2014. Determinants of Optimal Aerobic Bioreactor Landfilling for the Treatment of the Organic Fraction of Municipal Waste. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 44(16), pp.1865-1891.

Hong, Y. and Valix, M., 2014. Bioleaching of electronic waste using acidophilic sulfur oxidizing bacteria. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, pp.465-472.

Huang, J., Nkrumah, P.N., Anim, D.O. and Mensah, E., 2014. e-Waste disposal effects on the aquatic environment: Accra, Ghana. In Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology (pp. 19-34). Springer International Publishing.

Jadhav, P., Chauhan, G., Pant, K.K. and Nigam, K.D.P., 2015. Greener approach for the extraction of copper metal from electronic waste. Waste Management.

Kaushika, N.D., Reddy, K.S. and Kaushik, K., 2016. Solid Waste Management. In Sustainable Energy and the Environment: A Clean Technology Approach (pp. 197-209). Springer International Publishing.

Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Kiddee, P., Naidu, R. and Wong, M.H., 2013. Electronic waste management approaches An overview. Waste Management, 33(5), pp.1237-1250.

Lou, J., and Lovegrove, S., 2013. Export of electronics equipment waste.International Journal of occupational and environmental health.

Laurent, A., Clavreul, J., Branstad, A., Bakos, I., Niero, M., Gentil, E., Christensen, T.H. and Hauschild, M.Z., 2014. Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems–Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice. Waste Management, 34(3), pp.589-606.

Niza, S., Santos, E., Costa, I., Ribeiro, P. and Ferrão, P., 2014. Extended producer responsibility policy in Portugal: a strategy towards improving waste management performance. Journal of cleaner production, 64, pp.277-287.0

Pant, D., Joshi, D., Upreti, M.K. and Kotnala, R.K., 2012. Chemical and biological extraction of metals present in E-waste: a hybrid technology.Waste Management, 32(5), pp.979-990.

Sankoh, F.P., Yan, X. and Tran, Q., 2013. Environmental and Health Impact of Solid Waste Disposal in Developing Cities: A Case Study of Granville Brook Dumpsite, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013.

Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Singh, K., Kadambala, R., Jain, P., Xu, Q. and Townsend, T.G., 2014. Anisotropy estimation of compacted municipal solid waste using pressurized vertical well liquids injection. Waste Management & Research, 32(6), pp.482-491.

Zhang, Q., Ye, J., Chen, J., Xu, H., Wang, C. and Zhao, M., 2014. Risk assessment of polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals in soils of an abandoned e-waste site in China. Environmental Pollution, 185, pp.258-265.