Preface

This book provides guidance on the management, recycling, and disposal of municipal solid wastes. It refers to those wastes classified as aggregation of unwanted materials generated from a range of human-related activities denominated from domestic to production. These wastes are originated by human transit from migrant to settler modes of living, which impose the need to modify or change the character of raw or primary materials available to support or sustain new modes of living and originating human activity. The development and application of approaches and technologies that provide economic and safe management is an essential issue in the treatment and disposal of municipal solid wastes.

The authors collaborating in this project have summarized their experience and present advances in different fields related to assessing the management of these materials. The book contains 11 chapters, organized in four sections, that cover important research aspects in municipal solid waste management technologies. The first section consists of an introduction aimed at presenting a brief background to the generation, composting, types, and management of municipal solid waste.

The second section presents the management and recycling of municipal solid waste. It comprises four chapters that deal with the recycling of biowaste: the case of Pontevedra, prepared by Mato and Villar; using composted municipal solid waste under the concept of a circular economy and as a source of plant nutrients and pollutants, presented by Almendro-Candel et al.; management of organic solid waste in meal production, submitted by Colares et al.; and municipal solid waste management and inland water bodies, produced by Sowunmi.

Section 3 presents intelligent techniques for controlling municipal solid waste, where Boguslaw presents life cycle inventory modeling of municipal solid waste management systems in Kosodrza, a community of Ostrów; Saldaña Durán et al. prepared an urban management model: municipal solid waste for city sustainability; Kyere et al. submit decentralization and solid waste management in urbanizing Ghana; and Muniyandi presents household willingness to pay for improved solid waste management services.

 The last section provides the topic of disposal of municipal solid waste with two chapters entitled: "Municipal solid waste disposal in mangrove forest: environmental implication and management strategies in the Niger Delta," submitted by Numbere, and "Improper disposal of household hazardous waste: landfill/municipal wastewater treatment plant," prepared by Elbeshbishy and Okoye.

The editor wishes to express his thanks to all participants in this book for their valuable contributions, and to Ms. Dajana Pemac for her assistance in finalizing the work. I also acknowledge all IntechOpen staff members responsible for the completion of this book and other publications for free visible knowledge.

> **Hosam El-Din Mostafa Saleh**  Atomic Energy Authority of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt

Section 1 Introduction

**3**

rial [3].

**Chapter 1**

Solid Waste

**1. Introduction**

amount of solid waste.

quantities of municipal solid waste [1].

and to protect the natural environment.

releases greenhouse gases as mentioned above [2].

*Hosam M. Saleh and Martin Koller*

Introductory Chapter: Municipal

Rapid growth of the global population, permanently increasing life standards, and vast technological advancement are continually increasing the variety and

The lion's share of municipal (mainly urban) solid waste consists of biodegradable matter, which plays a substantial role in greenhouse gas emissions in today's cities all around the globe. According to the present state of knowledge, integrated solid waste management is the strategy of choice to manage this issue; such strategies, however, require improvement in order to handle the growing organic fractions of municipal solid discards. If accomplished in a smart manner, this can on the one hand contribute to the aspired reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and, on the other hand, even potentially generate economic benefits. Hence, systems for sustainable management of municipal solid waste are auspicious and attractive objects of study to assess current consumption behavior in different global regions

Generally, municipal solid waste gets disposed of in dumps and landfills as the most simple, convenient, inexpensive, and technologically less advanced method. Organic fractions as the major component of municipal solid waste undergo biodegradation under the anaerobic conditions prevailing in landfills, which consequently

Reduction or complete abolition of environmental contamination becomes increasingly important, which intensifies the global efforts dedicated to develop novel strategies for gradually reducing the quantities of the biodegradable municipal solid wastes in landfills. The process toward reduction of organic pollution involves (i) source separated collection of organic fraction of municipal solid waste, which undergo compost production, (ii) organic waste incineration for energy production, and (iii) mechanical/biological processing to get a compostable mate-

This introduction chapter makes the reader familiar with the principles of municipal solid waste management, encompassing landfilling and recycling technologies; moreover, the composition of different types of municipal solid waste will be introduced. Based on this, the most feasible, promising, and realistic scenarios for municipal solid waste management are presented in order to provide

Generation of municipal solid waste, together with the high organic share present in solid waste and its often incorrect discarding, results in extensive ecological pollution, mainly based on the emission of gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, such as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Because of this environmental threat, municipal authorities are currently urged to implement techno-economic and political solutions of higher efficiency to manage the growing
