Type of waste | Their origin |
Municipal waste | Households and buildings: sewage, garden trimmings, paper, plastic, food, appliances, glass |
Commercial waste | Businesses and factories: paper, glass, cans, construction, food, plastics |
Hazardous waste | Labs, hospitals and industries: sharps, blood, blood products, laboratory wastes, pathological wastes, isolation wastes, animal carcasses, toxic wastes |
Radioactive waste | Hospitals and nuclear plant: radium-226, radioactive nuclear medicine for treating cancer |
Waste classified according – normal disposal, disposal with special treatment, recyclable
Type (classification) | Normal disposal | Disposal with special treatment | Recyclable |
description | Can be disposed into normal rubbish chutes A mixture of household items that can be incinerated or land filled | May be toxic, bio- hazardous, bulky, non-incinerable e.g. lab waste, construction waste | Can be sorted and recycled into other products or still be reused in its original form |
Example | Floor sweeps, food waste and used cloths Reason: Because they can be disposed directly to landfill/incinerate then landfill or composting then used as soil conditioner | Used battery and used light tubes Reason: Because they contain toxic and hazardous metal and chemical such as Li, Cd, Hg, which is dangerous for environment | Cosmetic container (plastic) and used cloths Reason: Because they can be stored and recycled into other product or still be reused in its original form |
Waste classification diagram
- Incineration is able to reduce the volume of the waste by 90%; Waste are incinerable are incinerated before going into landfill, help to reduce the space it take up in the landfill.
- More suitable for waste with high calorific value ( the amount of energy released when object undergo combustion)
- Item such as glass, ferrous iron, which result cannot be incinerated (does not break down in elemental composition, remain as it is, after incineration)
- Waste with lower moisture content will be more likely to be incinerable(more energy released)
- Most waste can be incinerated and dispose into a landfill.
Important of deal with waste
¢ Collecting, processing and disposing waste in land-scarce Singapore is expensive and resource intensive
¢ We generate 4 kg/capita/day of waste. If not collected, it will accumulate and give out unpleasant smells, cause diseases, and Singapore will run out of space.
¢ Our only landfill available is the Semakau landfill. There’s no other available land area for dumping.