Municipal Solid Waste and Climate Change

The objective of this chapter is to explore the current state of municipal solid waste management and its impact on climate change. Waste management is among the biggest challenges faced by the world today. With increasing urbanization and industrialization, the accumulation of waste in the environment is growing at an exponential rate, and this coupled with improper waste management practices and the lack of infrastructure and resources, contributes to climate change. Keeping in view the high rates of waste generation and accumulation in the environment, efforts need to be made to streamline the waste management process and reduce its impact on the Earth’s climate. This study provides an overview of municipal solid waste (MSW), its components, and the basic processes involved in waste management. The conventional waste management practices such as landfilling, composting, and incineration and the negative effects displayed by them on the environment, including contribution to air, water, and soil pollution have been briefly discussed. The relationship between solid waste management and climate change has been summarized. The emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from waste disposal sites adds to the deterioration of the quality of the environment, thereby causing global warming. This work also attempts to analyze the emission of GHGs at the various steps in the waste management process and the solutions to accomplish GHG mitigation. The principles of sustainable and integrated waste management, and the concept of waste hierarchy, and the 3R methodology have also been discussed in detail. The key challenges in municipal solid waste management (MSWM) to combat climate change, including rapid population growth and lack of public education, and sharing of responsibility between governments, industries, and communities have been outlined. These measures may certainly prove to be beneficial in order to protect public health and the environment against the hazards of waste accumulation and climate change. This work attempts to provide a state-of-the-art review of the concepts, developments, and challenges in the avenue of municipal solid waste management and its profound ramifications on climate change.