Solid Waste Management - A Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning

This Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) on the broad subject of Solid Waste Management is being carried out by Indian Institute of Technology’s and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner. The broad group of Solid Waste Management is structured into modules on the following topics:

Municipal Solid Waste Management

This course by IISc Bangalore deals with efficient management of solid wastes that arise from human and animal activities and place an enormous strain on natural resources and undermine efficient and sustainable development. The processes involved in the management of solid wastes from waste generation to final disposal are discussed. It describes solid wastes, its classification and the functional elements, such as waste generation, storage, collection, transport, processing, recovery and disposal, and the management of solid wastes. These are explained with the support of case studies for each of these functional elements. The treatment of solid wastes by incineration, energy recovery from the incineration process and the treatment and management of hazardous (biomedical) wastes are discussed. Finally, the concept of integrated waste management is discussed. The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here

Solid and Hazardous Waste Management

This course by IIT Madras provides an in-depth understanding of solid & hazardous waste characteristics and management. The basics of radioactive waste characterization and handling are provided. The topics covered include solid waste analysis & characterization, hazardous waste characterization, environmental legislation for solid & hazardous waste disposal, transport risk assessment, waste minimization, resource recovery, waste stabilization techniques, chemical/physical/biological treatment, landfill design for sanitary & hazardous wastes and incineration. The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here

This course by IIT Delhi on solid and hazardous waste management covers the management of municipal solid waste, biomedical waste, hazardous industrial wastes and radioactive waste. This includes the generation, collection, transportation, recovery, recycle, treatment and final disposal of these wastes and an understanding of the governing rules and regulations in India. Treatment options like incineration, gasification, composting and vermi-composting are discussed in depth. Many existing case studies of waste transformation (waste-to-fuel), waste treatment (waste-to-energy and waste-to-manure) and final disposal (land-dumps and landfills) are elaborated and evaluated. Numerical examples are solved for better understanding of the concepts. The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here