Municipal Solid Waste Management

• Municipal Solid Waste Management: An Introduction.
• MSWM In India: Issues and approaches
• Generation and Characteristics of Waste.
• Waste Collection, Storage and Transport.
• Waste Disposal.
• Waste Processing Techniques.
• Source Reduction, Product Recovery and Recycling.
• Recovery of Biological Conversion Products: Compost and Biogas.
• Incineration and Energy Recovery.
• Hazardous Waste: Management and Treatment.
• Integrated Waste Management (IWM).
• Basics of Data base Management System (DBMS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing
• Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing data in planning and management of MSW.

Due to rapid increase in the production and consumption processes, societies generate as well as reject solid materials regularly from various sectors – agricultural, commercial, domestic, industrial and institutional. The considerable volume of wastes thus generated and rejected is called solid wastes. In other words, solid wastes are the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally solid and are discarded as useless or unwanted. This inevitably places an enormous strain on natural resources and seriously undermines efficient and sustainable development. One of the ways to salvage the situation is through efficient management of solid wastes, and this is the focus of this Course, Management of Municipal Solid Waste. In the 10 Units that constitute this Course, we will discuss the processes involved in the management of solid wastes – from waste generation to final disposal.

In Unit 1, we will describe solid wastes and introduce you to the classification of solid wastes and the functional elements, such as waste generation, storage, collection, transport, processing, recovery and disposal, in the management of solid wastes. In Units 2 to 7, we will explain with the support of case studies each of these functional elements. In Unit 8, we will explain the treatment of solid wastes by incineration and energy recovery from the incineration process. Subsequently, in Unit 9, we will deal with the treatment and management of hazardous (biomedical) wastes. Finally, in Unit 10, we will discuss the concept of integrated waste management.

•  Classroom briefing and introductory sessions at the beginning of the course (3 days 26th Aug - 28th Aug 2006).

•  Interactive session through Web and Email for two months.

•  Mid-term contact session (3 consecutive days) & Mid-term Exam.

•  Project work after the Mid-term contact session.

•  Final contact session (3 days) and Final exam at the End of the Course.

This Course is open to all graduates. Participants are expected to take part in all activities that form part of course in addition the participants should work on individual projects. During the course, participants should compulsorily attend interactive chat sessions, for which some grading will be given. Participants should actively participate in the sessions for best results. A certificate along with grades will be given to all the successful participants.

Evaluation will be done at two levels, namely concept level and module level. At the concept level, after student goes through each concept, he/she is evaluated online by randomly displaying multiple-choice questions. Each question carries some weight or marks. Based on his/her test performance, the system checks the number of questions correct answers and the performance is evaluated. At the module level, after the students complete all the concepts, they are given final exam, which will be held at the Centre for Continuing Education (L10) or at Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES). The concept level evaluation marks will also be considered for grading. Completion of a project is a partial requirement for the course.