SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Outline
Introduction
Definition of Solid Waste
Categories of Solid Waste
Public Health Aspects
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Solid Waste Management (SWM)
Functional Elements
Guiding Principles
Integrated SWM
Brief History of Waste Management
Philippine Laws and Regulations Related to SWM
DEFINITION OF SOLID WASTE
J. Pichtel
A solid material possessing a negative economic value, which suggests that it is cheaper to
discard than to use.
Volume 40 of The US Code of Federation Regulations (40 CFR 240.101)
Garbage, refuse, sludges, and other discarded solid materials resulting from industrial and
commercial operations and from community activities. It does not include solids or dissolved material in
domestic sewage or other significant pollutants in water resources, such as silt, dissolved or suspended
solids in industrial wastewater effluents, dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or other common
water pollutants.
DEFINITION OF SOLID WASTE
RA 9003
shall refer to all discarded household, commercial waste, non-hazardous institutional, ports /
harbour and industrial waste, street sweepings, construction debris, agriculture waste, and other nonhazardous/non-toxic solid waste. Unless specifically noted otherwise, the term solid waste as used in
the Act shall not include:
a) waste identified or listed as hazardous waste of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous or
semisolid form which may cause or contribute to an increase in mortality or in serious
situations, incapacitate or cause irreversible bodily damage or acute/chronic effect on
the health of persons and other organisms;
b) infectious waste from hospitals such as equipment, instruments, utensils, and fomites of
a disposable nature from patients who are suspected to have or have been diagnosed as
having communicable diseases and must therefore be isolated as required by public
health agencies, laboratory wastes such as pathological specimens (i.e., all tissues,
specimens of blood elements, excreta, and secretions obtained from patients or
laboratory animals), and disposable fomites that may harbor or transmit pathogenic
organisms, and surgical operating room pathologic specimens and disposable fomites
attendant thereto, and similar disposable materials from outpatient areas and
emergency rooms; and
c) waste resulting from mining activities, including contaminated soil and debris.
CATEGORIES OF SW
Municipal solid waste
Hazardous waste
Industrial waste
Medical waste

Universal waste special waste

Construction and demolition debris
Radioactive waste
Mining waste
Agricultural waste
(J. Pichtel)
PUBLIC HEALTH ASPECTS
Solid wastes may contain:
Human pathogens diapers, handkerchiefs, contaminated food and surgical dressings
Animal pathogens waste from pets
Soil pathogens garden wastes
Who are at risk?
General public
SWM facility employees
For a person to be at risk from solid waste pathogens
An infectious dose of pathogens must be present.
There must be a transmission route of the pathogens to the person, i.e. aerosol, faecal-oral
route, hand to mouth, etc.
The person must have no immunity to the pathogen.
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW)
Domestic waste or household waste
Generated within a community from several sources, and not simply by the individual consumer
or a household.
Originates from residential, commercial, institutional, and municipal sources.
Highly heterogeneous and include durable goods (e.g. appliances), non-durable goods
(newspapers, office paper), packaging and containers, food wastes, yard wastes and
miscellaneous inorganic wastes.
(J. Pichtel)
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW)
Often divided into 2 categories:
Garbage results from growing, handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of
food; putrescible material, i.e. can decompose quickly through microbial reactions to
produce bad odors and harmful gases.
Rubbish nonputrescible; combustible and non-combustible such as cans, papers,
brush, glass, cardboard, wood, scrap, metals, beddings, yard clippings, crockery
(pottery)
MSW Generation as a Function of Source
Sources and Types of Solid Wastes
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Shall refer to the discipline associated with the control of generation, storage, collection,
transfer and transport, processing, and disposal of solid wastes in a manner that is in accord
with the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics, and
other environmental considerations, and that is also responsive to public attitudes. (RA 9003)
Functional Elements of SWM
Guiding Principles of SWM
Waste is a resource.
Overall concept: Everything must go somewhere.

 When waste is thrown away, it will not disappear or get destroyed. It will only end up
somewhere else, in one form or the other. There is really no such thing as throw
away material. When waste ends up where it is not supposed to be, it becomes
useless, causes pollution and poses health risks. When it is used and put in the right
place, it becomes a valuable resource.
Guiding Principles of SWM
Waste prevention is better than waste regulation control.
Waste management as end-of-pipe approach failed to significantly solve SWM
problems.
Waste prevention addresses waste problems prior to waste generation.
Waste avoidance
Reuse
Recycling
Waste recovery
Guiding Principles of SWM
There is no single management and technological approach to solid waste. An integrated SWM
system will best achieve SWM goals.
A communitys waste stream is made up of several components (i.e. reusable,
biodegradable, recyclable, toxic, hazardous, etc.) that can be managed and disposed
separately. Thus, an integrated SWM system using a combination of approaches (e.g.
source reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy technologies, volume
reduction, combustion and landfilling) may be used.
Guiding Principles of SWM
All elements of society are fundamentally responsible for solid waste management.
Those who generate waste must bear the cost of its management and disposal.
SWM should be approached within the context of resource conservation, environmental
protection and health, and sustainable development.
SWM programs should take into consideration the physical and socio-economic conditions of
the concerned communities and be designed according to their specific needs.
INTEGRATED SWM
defined as the selection and application of suitable techniques, technologies and management
programs to achieve specific waste management objectives.
3Es
Engineering
Education
Enterprise
Hierarchy of Integrated SWM
Planning for ISWM
Proper mix of alternatives and technologies
Flexibility in meeting future changes
Monitoring and evaluation
Management Issues
Setting workable but protective regulatory standards
Improving scientific methods for interpretation of data
Identification of hazardous and toxic consumer products requiring special waste management
units
Paying for improved waste management units
Designating land disposal units at or near large urban centers

 Establishing and maintaining more qualified managers to develop and operate waste
management units
Future Challenges and Opportunities
Changing consumption habits in society
Reducing the volume of waste at the source
Making landfills safer
Development of new technologies
BRIEF HISTORY OF
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Earliest Civilizations
Mesopotamia, Egypt
8000 to 9000 BCE
Dumps were established away from settlements probably located so that wild animals,
insects, and odors would not migrate to populated areas.
Minoans (3000 to 1000 BCE) placed their wastes, covered periodically with layers of
soil, into large pits, thus operating the first proto-sanitary landfill.
BRIEF HISTORY OF
WASTE MANAGEMENT
2100 BCE cities on the island of Crete had trunk sewers connecting homes to carry
away wastes.
Egyptian city of Heracleopolis wastes in the non-elite section were ignored, while in
the elite and religious sections efforts were made to collect and dispose of all wastes,
which usually ended up in Nile River.
At Kouloure in the ancient Crete capital of Knossos (ca. 1500 BCE) an effective
composting effort was established in pits.
BRIEF HISTORY OF
WASTE MANAGEMENT
800 BCE old Jerusalem established sewers and had installed a primitive water supply.
In Indus valley, city of Mohenjo-daro houses were equipped with waste chutes and
trash bins, and may have had waste collection systems.
Harappa, in Punjab region, now part of modern-day India installed toilets and drains in
the bathrooms.
Many Asian cities collected wastes in clay containers which were hauled away.
BRIEF HISTORY OF
WASTE MANAGEMENT
First recorded regulations for SWM were established during the Minoan civilization.
Around 2000 BCE Israel provided guidelines as to how to manage wastes, instructions
for the management of human waste are provided in the Bible (Deuteronomy 23:12-13).
By 200 BCE many cities in China employed sanitary police, who were responsible for
the enforcement of waste disposal laws.
BRIEF HISTORY OF
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Greece
5th century BCE Greek municipalities began to establish town dumps that were
maintained in a relatively orderly condition.
Garbage normally consisted of food waste, fecal matter, and abandoned babies
(e.g. malformed or illegitimate).

 In Athens, ca. 320 BCE each household were responsible for collecting and
transporting its wastes. Residents were required by law to sweep the streets daily, and
it was mandated that wastes be transported to site beyond the city walls.
BRIEF HISTORY OF
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Greek and Persian scholars among the first to suggest an association between
personal hygiene, contaminated water, spoiled food, and disease outbreaks and
epidemics.
Hippocrates (ca. 400 BCE) and Persian Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE) suggested a
relationship between waste and infectious disease.
LEGAL ASPECTS OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
US SWM started from Solid Waste Act of 1965, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) of 1976, up to California Assembly Bill 939 in 1993 aimed to promote solid waste
management and resource recovery and provide guidelines for collection, transport, separation,
recovery and disposal.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
Commonwealth Act No. 383
An Act to punish the dumping into any river of refuse matter or substances of any kind
whatsoever that may bring about the rise or filling in of river beds or cause artificial alluvial formation.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
PD 1152, Philippine Environment Code Comprehensive program on environment protection
and management by establishing specific environmental management policies and prescribing
environmental quality standards in the Philippine Environment Code.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
PD 984, Pollution Control Law
Provides the specific guidelines and implementing rules and regulations on liquid waste disposal
after physical or chemical treatment in accordance with existing rules and regulations.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
PD 825, Penalty for Improper Garbage Disposal
Providing penalty for the improper disposal of garbage and other forms of uncleanliness and for
other purposes.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
PD 856, Code of Sanitation
Provides the rules on disposal of refuse in food establishments, and for construction of markets
and abattoirs. Prescribes the sanitary facilities with potable water, sewage treatment systems, septic
tanks, and disposal of septic tank effluent drainage.
Provides for special precaution of human waste from hospitalized patients given high dose of
radioactive isotopes. However, the provision merely provides for separate facilities and flushing at least
3x after use. No special treatment and methods for disposal are provided for hospital wastes and it
remains a special problem.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
DENR Administrative Order 98-49 Technical Guidelines for the disposal of municipal solid waste and operates on the premise of
eventual phase-out of all open dumps in the country.
DENR Administrative Order 98-50
Procedure for the Identification of Sanitary Landfill sites in view of the imminent phase-out of
Open Dumps
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM

 RA 6957 amended by RA 7718 (Build-Operate-Transfer Law)

Providing that infrastructure and development projects normally financed and operated by the
public sector, that solid waste management may be wholly or partially implemented by the private
sector.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
RA 7160, Local Government Code
Devolving certain powers to the local government units, including that on enforcement of laws
on cleanliness and sanitation, preparation of their respective SWM programs, and other environmental
matters.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
PD 1586, Philippine EIS System
Carries out the policy of the State to attain and maintain a rational and orderly balance
between socio-economic growth and environmental protection.
DENR AO 2000-28 Implementing Guidelines on Engineering Geological and Geohazard
Assessment (EGGA) as additional requirement for ECC application covering subdivision, housing
and other land development and infrastructure projects.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
RA 8749 Philippine Clean Air Act
An Act providing for a comprehensive air pollution control policy and for other purposes
In order to promote the framework of sustainable development, this law aims to formulate a
holistic national program on air pollution management, encourage cooperation and awareness among
citizens and industry, focus on pollution prevention rather than control and enforce a system of
accountability of a certain project in causing adverse impact to the environment.
Section 20 Ban on incineration
Prohibited the use of incinerators for municipal, bio-medical and hazardous wastes.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
DENR AO 34 Revised Water Usage and Classification
DENR AO 35 Revised Effluent Regulations of 1990
RA 9275 Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004
An Act providing for comprehensive water quality management and for other purposes
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
RA 9003 Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000
An Act providing for environmentally-sound techniques of waste recovery, waste utilization,
processing and disposal.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
RA 9003 is a primary legislation on SWM providing a comprehensive, systematic and ecologically
viable program that would:
Ensure public health and protect the environment
Employ environmentally-sound methods to encourage resource conservation and
recovery and promote national research and development programs
Encourage greater private sector participation while retaining the primary enforcement
and responsibility of SWM with LGUs
Integrate the Ecological SWM and research conservation and recovery topics into the
academic curricula of formal and non-formal education.
PHILIPPINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATED TO SWM
DENR AO 01-34 IRR of RA 9003

With the enactment of RA 9003, all laws, decrees, issuances, rules and regulations or parts
thereof that are inconsistent with the provisions of the Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Agricultural waste shall refer to waste generated from planting or harvesting of crops,
trimming or pruning of plants and wastes or run-off materials from farms or fields.
Bulky wastes shall refer to waste materials which cannot be appropriately placed in separate
containers because of either its bulky size, shape or other physical attributes. These include
large worn-out or broken household, commercial, and industrial items such as furniture, lamps,
bookcases, filing cabinets, and other similar items.
Buy-back center shall refer to a recycling center that purchases or otherwise accepts
recyclable materials from the public for the purpose of recycling such materials.
Collection shall refer to the act of removing solid waste from the source or from a common
storage point.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Composting shall refer to the systematic decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, into a humus-like product.
Consumer electronics shall refer to special wastes that include worn-out, broken, and other
discarded items such as radios, stereos, and TV sets.
Controlled dump shall refer to a disposal site at which solid waste is deposited in accordance
with the minimum prescribed standards of dumpsite operation.
Disposal shall refer to the discharge, deposit, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any solid
waste into or in any land.
Disposal site shall refer to a site where solid waste is finally discharged and deposited.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Ecological solid waste management shall refer to the systematic administration of activities
which provide for segregation at source, segregated transportation, storage, transfer,
processing, treatment, and disposal of solid waste and all other waste management activities
which do not harm the environment.
Environmentally acceptable shall refer to the quality of being re-usable, biodegradable or
compostable, recyclable and not toxic or hazardous to the environment.
Environmentally preferable shall refer to products or services that have a lesser or reduced
effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or
services that serve the same purpose. This comparison may consider raw materials acquisition,
production, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, reuse, operation, maintenance or disposal
of the product or service.
Generation shall refer to the act or process of producing solid waste.
Generator shall refer to a person, natural or juridical, who last uses a material and makes it
available for disposal or recycling.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Hazardous waste shall refer to solid waste or combination of solid waste which because of its
quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may: cause, or
significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or
incapacitating reversible, illness; or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human
health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or
otherwise managed.
Leachate shall refer to the liquid produced when waste undergo decomposition, and when
water percolate through solid waste undergoing decomposition. It is a contaminated liquid that
contains dissolved and suspended materials.

 Life cycle assessment shall refer to the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and
the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.
Materials recovery facility shall include solid waste transfer station or sorting station, drop-off
center, a composting facility, and a recycling facility.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Municipal wastes shall refer to wastes produced from activities within local government units
which include a combination of domestic, commercial, institutional and industrial wastes and
street litters.
Non-environmentally acceptable products or packaging shall refer to products or packaging
that are unsafe in production, use, post-consumer use, or that produce or release harmful byproducts when discarded.
Open burning shall refer to the thermal destruction of wastes by means of direct exposure to
fire. Furthermore, this definition shall apply to traditional small-scale methods of community
sanitation siga.
Open dump shall refer to a disposal area wherein the solid wastes are indiscriminately thrown
or disposed of without due planning and consideration for environmental and health standards.
Opportunity to recycle shall refer to the act of providing a place for collecting sourceseparated recyclable material, located either at a disposal site or at another location more
convenient to the population being served, and collection at least once a month of sourceseparated recyclable material from collection service customers and to providing a public
education and promotion program that gives notice to each person of the opportunity to recycle
and encourage source separation of recyclable material.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Post-consumer material shall refer only to those materials or products generated by a
business or consumer which have served their intended end use, and which have been
separated or diverted from solid waste for the purpose of being collected, processed and used
as a raw material in the manufacturing of recycled product, excluding materials and by-products
generated from, and commonly used within an original manufacturing process, such as mill
scrap.
Receptacles shall refer to individual containers used for the source separation and the
collection of recyclable materials.
Recovered material shall refer to material and by-products that have been recovered or
diverted from solid waste for the purpose of being collected, processed and used as a raw
material in the manufacture of a recycled product.
Recyclable material shall refer to any waste material retrieved from the waste stream and free
from contamination that can still be converted into suitable beneficial use or for other purposes,
including, but not limited to, newspaper, ferrous scrap metal, non-ferrous scrap metal, used oil,
corrugated cardboard, aluminum, glass, office paper, tin cans, plastics and other materials as
may be determined by the Commission.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Recycled material shall refer to post-consumer material that has been recycled and returned
to the economy.
Recycling shall refer to the treating of used or waste materials through a process of making
them suitable for beneficial use and for other purposes, and includes any process by which solid
waste materials are transformed into new products in such a manner that the original products
may lose their identity, and which may be used as raw materials for the production of other
goods or services: Provided, that the collection, segregation and re-use of previously used
packaging material shall be deemed recycling under the Act.

 Resource conservation shall refer to the reduction of the amount of solid waste that are
generated or the reduction of overall resource consumption, and utilization of recovered
resources.
Resource recovery shall refer to the collection, extraction or recovery of recyclable materials
from the waste stream for the purpose of recycling, generating energy or producing a product
suitable for beneficial use: Provided, That, such resource recovery facilities exclude incineration.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Re-use shall refer to the process of recovering materials intended for the same or different
purpose without the alteration of physical and chemical characteristics.
Sanitary landfill shall refer to a waste disposal site designed, constructed, operated and
maintained in a manner that exerts engineering control over significant potential environmental
impacts arising from the development and operation of the facility.
Schedule of Compliance shall refer to an enforceable sequence of actions or operations to be
accomplished within a stipulated time frame leading to compliance with a limitation,
prohibition, or standard set forth in the Act or any rule or regulation issued pursuant thereto.
Segregation shall refer to sorting and segregation of different materials found in solid waste in
order to promote recycling and re-use of resources and to reduce the volume of waste for
collection and disposal.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Segregation at source shall refer to a solid waste management practice of separating, at the
point of origin, different materials found in solid waste in order to promote recycling and re-use
of resources and to reduce the volume of waste for collection and disposal.
Solid waste shall refer to all discarded household, commercial waste, non-hazardous
institutional, ports / harbour and industrial waste, street sweepings, construction debris,
agriculture waste, and other non-hazardous/non-toxic solid waste. Unless specifically noted
otherwise, the term solid waste as used in the Act shall not include:
waste identified or listed as hazardous waste of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous or
semisolid form which may cause or contribute to an increase in mortality or in serious
situations, incapacitate or cause irreversible bodily damage or acute/chronic effect on
the health of persons and other organisms;
infectious waste from hospitals such as equipment, instruments, utensils, and fomites of
a disposable nature from patients who are suspected to have or have been diagnosed as
having communicable diseases and must therefore be isolated as required by public
health agencies, laboratory wastes such as pathological specimens (i.e., all tissues,
specimens of blood elements, excreta, and secretions obtained from patients or
laboratory animals), and disposable fomites that may harbor or transmit pathogenic
organisms, and surgical operating room pathologic specimens and disposable fomites
attendant thereto, and similar disposable materials from outpatient areas and
emergency rooms; and
waste resulting from mining activities, including contaminated soil and debris.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Solid waste management shall refer to the discipline associated with the control of
generation, storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing, and disposal of solid wastes
in a manner that is in accord with the best principles of public health, economics, engineering,
conservation, aesthetics, and other environmental considerations, and that is also responsive to
public attitudes.
Solid waste management facility shall refer to any resource recovery system or component
thereof; any system, program, or facility for resource conservation; any facility for the collection,

source separation, storage, transportation, transfer, processing, treatment, or disposal of solid

waste.
Source reduction shall refer to the reduction of solid waste before it enters the solid waste
stream by methods such as product design, materials substitution, materials re-use and
packaging restrictions.
Source separation shall refer to the sorting of solid waste into some or all of its component
parts at the point of generation.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Special wastes shall refer to household hazardous wastes such as paints, thinners, household
batteries, lead-acid batteries, spray canisters and the like. These include wastes from residential
and commercial sources that comprise of bulky wastes, consumer electronics, white goods, yard
wastes that are collected separately, batteries, oil, and tires. These wastes are usually handled
separately from other residential and commercial wastes.
Storage shall refer to the interim containment of solid waste after generation and prior to
collection for ultimate recovery or disposal.
Transfer stations shall refer to those facilities utilized to receive solid wastes, temporarily
store, separate, convert, or otherwise process the materials in the solid wastes, or to transfer
the solid wastes directly from smaller to larger vehicles for transport. This term does not
include any of the following:
a facility whose principal function is to receive, store, separate, convert, or otherwise
process in accordance with national minimum standards;
a facility, whose principal function is to receive, store, convert, or otherwise process
wastes which have already been separated for re-use and are not intended for disposal;
and
the operations premises of a duly licensed solid waste handling operator who receives,
stores, transfers, or otherwise processes wastes as an activity incidental to the conduct
of a refuse collection and disposal business.
RA 9003 Definition of Terms
Waste diversion shall refer to activities which reduce or eliminate the amount of solid wastes
from waste disposal facilities.
White goods shall refer to large worn-out or broken household, commercial, and industrial
appliances such as stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes washers and dryers collected
separately. White goods are usually dismantled for the recovery of specific materials (e.g.,
copper, aluminum, etc.).
Yard waste shall refer to wood, small or chipped branches, leaves, grass clippings, garden
debris, vegetables residue that is recognizable as part of a plant or vegetable and other
materials identified by the Commission.