VOC emissions from urban municipal solid waste dump sites

Abstract

Municipal solid waste management in India is becoming important in view of the fact that
increasing amount of solid waste generated in most cities is now being recognized as a major public
health problem. Poor management of solid waste leads to problems, which transcend traditional
environmental boundaries and contribute to air, waters and soil pollution,
The percentage of India's population living in cities and urban areas has doubled to 28.8% by 200 I
from 14% at the time of Independence, showing the rapid pace of urbanization. The progressively
improved standards of living and the wasteful consumer attitudes have resulted in increase of
quantities of municipal wastes to be handled.
The present system of solid waste management in India, like any other developing country, is
fraught with many inadequacies. Illegal dumping is a major problem that raises significant concerns
with regard to safety, property values, and quality of life in our communities. Poor collection or
disposal practices are the problem. Since most cities in India still lack properly engineered landfills
for safe disposal, waste here is mostly disposed in open dumps, which causes major environmental
havoc.
Apart from other environmental hazards from open dumping of municipal solid waste, one of the
major problems that rise are the uncontrolled emissions of VOCs or Volatile organic Compounds.
VOCs are well known to be hazardous to human health and are potent carcinogens,
The present paper deals with qualitative and quantitative identification of VOCs from a two
municipal waste dump site in Mumbai. Air at dump sites was sampled and analyzed on GC/MS in
accordance with USEPA TO-17 compendium method for analysis of toxic compounds. As many as
20 VOCs were qualitatively identified and some VOC's were quantified, Concentration of Benzene
was observed in the order of 0.6ppm, Some of the VOCs identified were Hazardous Air Pollutants
according to USEPA clean air act amendment of 1990,