Solid Waste Management In The Philippines

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION

1.0 GENERAL

Solid wastes have been produced since our ancient times in all over the world. The materials which were included solid wastes at those times were simple and biodegradable. With rapid urbanization, population explosion, advancement in science and technology the quantity of waste produced by society has increased immensely. However, the composition of the waste is changing day by day and quantity of waste generated is not within the assimilative capacity for earth. Hence the problems due to solid waste are becoming more severe. Today, the overall world poses a threat from the excessive generation of solid wastes. Non-availability of land for solid waste management too accelerated

The quantity and characteristic municipal solid wastes vary greatly in different municipalities and time of the year. Numerous factors influence the characteristics of municipal solid wastes, the important among them being degree of urbanization and industrialization, social customs, per capita income and other factors like geology, geography, climate etc. Municipal solid wastes or urban solid wastes are generally composed of a spectrum of refuse categories like food wastes, rubbish containing packing materials, demolition and construction wastes, street sweepings, garden wastes, abandoned parts of vehicles and appliances and residues from small scale industries. Large quantity of municipal solid waste requires an integrated solid waste management. Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) is a comprehensive waste prevention, recycling, composting, and disposal in properly designed landfills. Each of these activities requires careful planning, financing, collection, and

Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it controls many chemical processes that take place. The level of soil acidity in cropping systems has a fundamental effect on plant growth and nutrient availability. The rate of hydrolysis is a function of factors such as pH, temperature, composition and particle size of the substrate, and high concentrations of intermediate products (Veeken and Hamelers, 2000). The hydrolysis rate constant of organic solid waste was pH dependent (Adrie et al.,2000). Olaniya et al. (1992) reported that refuse containing humic and fulvic acid formed complexes with metals and leached out. The pH of the soil is one of the important parameters to be accounted for mobility of metals (Olaniya et al., 1998) and found that the repeated application of fresh municipal solid waste resulted in accumulation of toxic heavy metals in the soil. They also reported that the mobility of metals depends on the depth, contact time