Biodegradable or non-biodegradable - cont'd

Food waste disposal was never a problem until the last 5o years.

In ancient time, food waste was used for various purposes such as animal feed, soil fertilizer, etc.
Everything was back to the nature.

Until in the 1960s onward, with the rapid development and urbanization, and the surging of human population; the solid waste disposal had became an issue. Thus, solid waste disposal had to be a "management". Then, we were moving to an integrated solid waste management in the 1990s.

Because of urbanization, our waste, especially food waste can't go back to the ground (soil) in a immediate manner. We need a collection and transportation process to bring the waste to a waste disposal area; commonly known as landfill. In landfill, the food waste, which is a biodegradable waste, decompose. However, due to the anaerobic condition in the landfill (or lack of oxygen); the decomposition of food waste produces landfill gases like methane gas, carbon dioxide gas, etc.

These gases will be produced even in aerobic condition; but in anaerobic condition, the production is much higher. These gases are the greenhouse gases which are contribute to the global warming (climate change). Especially methane gas, which is known to has 21 times the warming effect if compared with carbon dioxide gas.

Besides, food waste is the "wet waste" that is very high in moisture content. It is the waste that contribute to the generation of leachate in a landfill (beside the "rain"). Leachate is highly polluting, especially if contaminated with hazardous waste like battery and paint. It has a very high BOD and COD (~15000 - 20000 ppm).

Talk about landfill. For a sanitary engineered landfill, the landfill gases will be captured as a fuel for power generation; while the leachate will be collected to undergo proper treatment. However, in our country, out of the ~170 landfills, there are only 6-7 level 4 sanitary landfills. Most of our landfills are level 0 and level 1 "open dump" kinds of landfills.

The river and groundwater pollution problem in our country is partly caused by landfill leachate. Furthermore, landfill can lead to land issue. It is like a "cemetery" problem. When human die, we are either landfilled or incinerated. But the landfilled or cemetery type always cause land issue, especially in small country like Singapore. This is same with solid waste. But we must understand, solid waste is not human!! (I am trying to make a "comparison" here, and that "land" is a very important environmental component)

Therefore, human has to be smart enough to think, think and think. Is our solid waste should goes to our land 0r somewhere else??

Back to the degradable topic, because the current waste disposal situation is different from the past; we have to understand that biodegradable doesn't necessary is a good thing. It is instead, and in fact, a bad thing for the current situation.

Therefore, VeeCYCLE is currently embarking in an Organic Waste Diversion Project in UM campus. We hope that it can be a first step toward a "zero landfilling" (idealistic) concept.

To be con't...