Environmental Damages Due to Mismanagement of Municipal Solid Waste

Solid waste’s generation rate depends on any country’s urbanization and economic development. Among all types of SW processes, management and handling of municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the significant concerns. Generally, in developing countries, the discarded MSW is either being dumped in landfills or directly combusted in open air. This unscientific manner of treating solid wastes causes environmental pollution and global climate change besides posing a threat to human health. Moreover, it is projected that there would be an increase in population of ~3.4 billion tons by 2050, thereby adding to the new challenges in managing solid waste due to limited landfill space and lack of technologies in treating them. Thus, accordingly, this chapter provides an overview of various sources, environmental damages, and the potential solutions that can help address these environmental damages caused by MSW mismanagement. Sustainable management mainly includes waste reduction, composting, recycling, and energy recovery. The effective utilization of these technologies directly or indirectly depends on composition, geographical location, attributes, funding accessibility, and externalities associated with each method.