Solid waste management system- a case study of guwahati municipal corporation

Abstract

Waste are substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of the law. Municipal Solid wastes include household garbage, rubbish, construction & demolition debris, sanitation residues, packaging materials, trade refuges etc. are managed by any municipality. Solid Waste Management refers to a systematic process that comprises of waste segregation and storage at source, primary collection, secondary storage, transportation, secondary segregation, resource recovery, processing, treatment, and final disposal of solid waste. The aim of this study is to improve the solid waste management (SWM) system of Guwahati city. Guwahati being the gateway of north east is one of the growing cities, and a major institutional, medical and transportation hub. With the present infrastructure for solid waste management of the city its not possible to cater the existing population, and with the projected population along with the high floating population a serious attention is needed to manage the solid waste of the city. The study is done to understand the existing condition of the city, tools and techniques, theories, standards etc related to solid waste management. The study addresses the existing issues related to solid waste management, and finding the existing gap in collection, transportation and disposal system for solid waste. Proposals and analysis are based on the study done by primary and secondary data collected from the study area. This study tries to provide suitable solution and recommendation regarding Door to Door collection, Secondary collection, transportation and a solid waste management system for the Guwahati municipal area.