ABSTRACT
Waste is dened as any material that is not useful and does not represent any economic value to its owner, and the owner being the waste generator should be responsible for its management. Depending on the physical state of waste, wastes are categorized into solid, liquid, and gaseous. Solid wastes are categorized into municipal wastes, hazardous wastes, medical wastes, and radioactive wastes (Table 13.1). Managing solid waste generally involves planning, nancing, construction, and operation of facilities for the collection, transportation, and management strategies for nal settlement of the waste. Municipal solid-waste (MSW) generation is an issue of worldwide concern. It is dened as any waste generated by household, commercial, and/or institutional activities and is not hazardous. Depending upon the source, MSW is categorized into three types: residential or household waste, which arises from domestic areas from individual houses; commercial wastes and/or institutional wastes, which arise from individually larger sources of MSW like hotels, ofce buildings, and schools; and municipal services wastes, which arise from area sources like streets and parks. MSW usually contains food wastes, paper, cardboard, plastics, textiles, glass, metals, wood, street sweepings, landscape and tree trimmings, and general wastes from parks, beaches, and other recreational areas. Sometimes, other household wastes like batteries and consumer electronics also get mixed up with MSW due to the lack of separation practices at source. Hence, management of MSW is a complex task, which depends as much upon organization and cooperation between households, communities, private enterprises, and municipal authorities as it depends upon the
13.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 263 13.2 Classication, Composition, and Characteristics of MSW ..................................................265 13.3 Generation and Management of MSW Worldwide ..............................................................266
