Solid waste Management in Flats of a Residential Campus in Panchli Khurd, Meerut

Abstract

Solid waste refers to any discardable and left over material. Generation of solid waste is a natural phenomenon. Even ancient human population depending upon food available with nature must have generated some quantity of different types of wastes like wood charcoal, ashes or bones of animals hunted for food. Excretion of solid waste after digestion is a common process in all living being. Increased population has increased the amount of wastes. There are other factors like advancement in technology, electronic goods and use and throw practice which has also increased the amount of wastes to greater extent .Management of such a large amount of waste would pose serious problem. In the present study waste generated by different family size was randomly collected from different residential flats of an area Panchli, Meerut on all days of the week. A total data of ten days showed that amount of waste generated depends upon number of factors like size of family monthly income, age of family members. Family having more income spends more as compare to the family having lesser income. They consume more and therefore more waste was found to be generated by such family. About 90% of the house hold wastes are non hazardous and 75% of total wastes are renewable But still disposal site availability is a major concern. Characterization and knowledge of composition of these wastes is important so that disposal should be environment friendly. Reuse and recycling will promote the employment and economy too. Segregation of wastes is an important task for person involved. During the observation it was found that people are not paying proper attention to the types of wastes and way of disposal. Sometimes dry and wet left over of kitchen and dining and broken glass items or used plastics are in the same packet. This is dangerous for people working on segregation of these materials. This can be managed. by use of a specific dustbin having compartmentalization for dry, wet, broken glasses