ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of municipal solid waste (MSW) problems, storage, collection, resource recovery, and disposal methods. In the United States over 180 million tons of MSW was generated in 1988. MSW includes wastes such as durable goods, nondurable goods, containers and packaging, food wastes, yard wastes, and miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial sources. Large quantities of solid wastes are also generated from many sources other than MSW. These solid waste sources are industrial, agricultural, mining and animal wastes. Hazardous wastes include explosive, flammable, volatile, radioactive, toxic, and pathological wastes. In 1992, the US Environmental Protection Agency published a complete revised list, categorization, and specific definition of hazardous wastes. Solid waste collection and transport involves storage at the generation and pick-up points pick up by the crew, trucks driving around the neighborhood, and truck transport to a transfer station or disposal point.
