Municipal Solid Waste Characterization and Analysis in Tri city

Abstract

Unscientific disposal of waste has been found to be related with numerous environmental concerns like air, water and soil pollution. This requires immediate attention for minimalizing the impacts of solid waste on environment and health. Generation of waste is directly influenced by economic development. Most of the municipal authorities in developing countries are facing challenge to manage it in an effective and efficient manner. Solid waste generation and its composition are influenced by a number of factors like geographic condition, seasons, life style, eating habits, population growth and social status. Therefore, it has become important to take into consideration all these factor and ascertain composition and quantity of waste before selecting and implementing waste management strategies for a particular area. Waste treatment option suitable for a particular area may not be necessarily effective for another area. Therefore, selection of treatment options for particular locality should be made keeping in view various factors like waste generation trends, variation in waste composition and population growth rate. newlineConsidering the current environmental as well as public health issues the present study aims to investigate the current waste management practices in Tricity- Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula and to know the environmental repercussions due to the generation of leachate from the open dumping sites and to explore the life cycle assessment methodology to determine the impact of municipal solid waste management under different scenarios. The evaluation of the waste management in Tricity was determined using the wasteaware benchmark indicators and remedial measures were suggested. The wasteaware benchmark indicators for Mohali and Panchkula indicated very poor performance in environmentally controlled waste treatment, disposal method of waste and the 3R methodology in comparison to Chandigarh. newline