Abstract
Municipal solid waste management in India is becoming important in view of the fact thatincreasing amount of solid waste generated in most cities is now being recognized as a major publichealth problem. Poor management of solid waste leads to problems, which transcend traditionalenvironmental boundaries and contribute to air, waters and soil pollution,The percentage of India's population living in cities and urban areas has doubled to 28.8% by 200 Ifrom 14% at the time of Independence, showing the rapid pace of urbanization. The progressivelyimproved standards of living and the wasteful consumer attitudes have resulted in increase ofquantities of municipal wastes to be handled.The present system of solid waste management in India, like any other developing country, isfraught with many inadequacies. Illegal dumping is a major problem that raises significant concernswith regard to safety, property values, and quality of life in our communities. Poor collection ordisposal practices are the problem. Since most cities in India still lack properly engineered landfillsfor safe disposal, waste here is mostly disposed in open dumps, which causes major environmentalhavoc.Apart from other environmental hazards from open dumping of municipal solid waste, one of themajor problems that rise are the uncontrolled emissions of VOCs or Volatile organic Compounds.VOCs are well known to be hazardous to human health and are potent carcinogens,The present paper deals with qualitative and quantitative identification of VOCs from a twomunicipal waste dump site in Mumbai. Air at dump sites was sampled and analyzed on GC/MS inaccordance with USEPA TO-17 compendium method for analysis of toxic compounds. As many as20 VOCs were qualitatively identified and some VOC's were quantified, Concentration of Benzenewas observed in the order of 0.6ppm, Some of the VOCs identified were Hazardous Air Pollutantsaccording to USEPA clean air act amendment of 1990,
Highlights
In India per capita municipal waste generation in major cities ranges from 0.2 Kg to 0.6 Kg, Out of the total municipal waste collected, on an average 94% is dumped on land and 5% is composted
The mismanagement of solid waste in urban areas poses a grave threat to public health and the quality of life of people living in those areas
Twenty VOCs have been identified in the emissions from dump sites
Summary
In India per capita municipal waste generation in major cities ranges from 0.2 Kg to 0.6 Kg, Out of the total municipal waste collected, on an average 94% is dumped on land and 5% is composted. During the year 2000, MSW generated in greater Mumbai area was estimated as 6256 MT/day. This waste is dumped at Deonar dump site and Malad dump site. Deonar dump site is located in the eastern suburb of Mumbai and is spread over an area of I 32 ha. It receives approximately 4200 MT of solid waste per day excluding construction and demolition waste. Malad Chincholi Sunder dump site is in western suburb of Mumbai
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