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In most developed and developing countries with increasing population, prosperity and urbanization, one of the major challenges for them is to collect, recycle, treat and dispose of increasing quantities of solid waste and wastewater. It is now well known that waste generation and management practices have increased several alarming issues on the socioeconomics, human health, aesthetics and amenity of many communities, states, and nations around the world (Meyers et al., 2006; Louis, 2004). Industrialized economies extract vast quantities of natural resources from the environment to provide modern amenities and commodities. On the other hand, pollutants associated with the production and consumption of commodities, as well as post-consuming commodities, go back into the environment as residues (Moriguchi, 1999). Although varying in degree and intensity, the solid waste problem around the world is exacerbated by limited space and dense populations (Melosi, 1981). The problem of collecting, handling and disposing of wastes is dealt with using different techniques and approaches in different regions. A waste management hierarchy based on the most environmentally sound criteria favors waste prevention/minimization, waste re-use, recycling, and composting. In many countries, a large percentage of waste cannot presently be re-used,re-cycled or composted and the main disposal methods are land filling and incineration. In addition, traditionally, managing domestic, industrial and commercial waste consisted of collection followed by disposal, usually away from urban activity, which could be waterways, Open ocean or surface areas demarcated for the purpose viz. landfills. With the increased volume and variety of hazards posed by new waste products, the situation has exceeded its saturation point at many localities (McCarthy, 2007). In 2006 the USA land filled 54% of solid wastes, incinerated 14%, and recovered, recycled or composted the remaining 32% (EPA, 2008). The percentage of solid waste disposed at landfills accounted for 3% in Japan (2003), 18% in Germany (2004), 36% in France (2005), 54% in Italy (2005) and the USA (2005), and 64% in the UK (2005). As legislation becomes more stringent and land filling becomes less cheap option. For example, there has been a significant reduction in the amount of wasteland filled in the UK and Italy. In 1995, Italy land filled 93% of solid waste, and the UK 83%. Recent studies have revealed that waste disposal processes have considerable impacts on climate change due to the |
