Waste Management
Trash to Cash
Garbage or trash is becoming into a significant issue in many Sri Lankan cities. Rapid urbanization, inefficient waste management practices, and insufficient infrastructure have had serious detrimental consequences on the environment and society.
One of the primary issues with waste management in urban areas is the lack of a sufficient infrastructure for rubbish disposal. In many Sri Lankan cities, there aren’t adequate composting, recycling, or trash sites. This suggests that waste commonly finds up in unpermitted dumpsites or is burnt outside, both of which have detrimental consequences on the environment and public health. Inhaling toxic chemicals and pollutants from open burning of trash can cause respiratory problems, especially in vulnerable populations like children and the elderly. Additionally, unregulated dump sites typically damage the soil, groundwater, and air quality, degrading the land and water and serving as a breeding ground for pests like insects and rodents that can transmit illness.
Due to a lack of public awareness and education on proper waste management practices, many are uninformed of the benefits of recycling and composting as well as the detrimental impacts of improper trash disposal. Because of this, a lot of individuals continue to leave rubbish sitting about or toss it as litter on the streets. This not only contributes to environmental degradation but also endangers the health of the neighboring population.
Along with negative environmental implications, poor waste management has major societal consequences. The most significant social effect is how it affects the health and wellbeing of urban residents. In locations where waste is permitted to accumulate in unsupervised dumpsites, inappropriate garbage disposal practices have been connected to malaria, dengue fever, and other vector-borne illnesses. Inadequate waste management may also have a negative impact on people’s quality of life and property values.
To solve these problems, sustainable waste recycling and composting methods are needed. It is crucial to support public awareness and education initiatives about the value of sustainable waste management practices and potential solutions.
The best solution is the bio gas system.
Many cities in Sri Lanka struggle with garbage management, which has an adverse impact on the environment and society. To solve this problem, we need bio gas units that encourage environmentally friendly waste management practices for each household and hotel / hospital or any waste generating point.
Anaerobic digestion provides answers to these urgent problems. The process of anaerobic digestion involves turning organic materials, which are often considered wastes, into useful products, such as biogas, renewable natural gas (RNG), valuable organic fertilizer, and compost. These biogas systems allow Sri Lankan homeowners, farms, food processing businesses, and wastewater treatment enterprises to transform a waste management problem into an income opportunity.
Anaerobic and biogas systems provide an opportunity to promote economic growth while molding waste management.
As organic wastes break down, huge volumes of methane are also produced. Stronger than carbon dioxide at absorbing heat in the atmosphere, methane is a greenhouse gas. Methane will absorb 86 times more heat in 20 years than carbon dioxide if methane and carbon dioxide concentrations are identical. Organic waste may be taken out and utilized to create biogas, a renewable form of energy, which can be used to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and the chance of streams being polluted. Biogas reduces emissions even more when replacing fossil fuels, occasionally leading to carbon-negative systems.
An anaerobic digester can be used to optimize, regulate, and confine anaerobic digestion, which already happens in nature, landfills, and some animal waste management systems. Methane makes up 50–70% of biogas, along with carbon dioxide (30–40%) and other gases in trace proportions. Digestate, a mixture of liquid and solid material that has undergone digestion, is routinely added to soil.
In a digester, some organic wastes are more challenging to decompose than others. The easiest organic wastes to decompose include food waste, fats, oils, and greases, but animal manure is sometimes the most challenging. Co-digestion, which involves combining different wastes in one digester, can boost biogas production. Wastes can also decompose more quickly in warmer digesters, which are normally maintained between 27 and 30 degrees Celsius.
After being caught, biogas may be used to power fuel cells, microturbines, and engines to generate heat and energy. In addition, biogas may be converted into biomethane, also known as renewable natural gas (RNG), and utilized as a fuel for vehicles.
