Introduction

Municipal solid waste includes nonhazardous waste generated in households, institutions, and commercial as well as agricultural wastes. The management of solid waste at all stages of handling is inadequate. Many obstacles are restricting the proper management of solid waste, among them are the political restrictions, financial and technical difficulties and the absence of environmental authorities.

Solid waste management is considered a major problem facing the residents and local authorities in the West bank. The poor or the absence of a collection system, in some areas of the West Bank had lead to open burning of garbage in inhabited areas as well as uncontrolled dumping sites. There is uncertainty with respect to the generated quantities in the Ramallah District, as most wastes are not weighed, especially for the industrial waste. As for the domestic waste, it is estimated that the daily generated solid waste is approximately 0.9-1 kg/person. With a population of 176,154 in the Ramallah District, it is estimated that 165.6 tons of household waste is generated daily.

The current management of solid waste has not yet created any severe environmental problems either to the groundwater, the soil or the air. But, the awareness of the rapidly increasing population and the expected development in the industrial and agricultural sectors calls for immediate attention to avoid the hazardous situation.

Municipal Solid Waste Management

Ramallah District is presently experiencing the same problems facing other districts in the West Bank. Solid waste collection and disposal generated from households and commercial centers are the most important among other problems. The solid waste management system, is inadequate throughout the district. It's responsibility is divided between either the municipalities in the urban areas, village councils, and associations in the rural area, or the UNRWA in the refugee camps. Table 9.1 shows the distribution of responsibilities for domestic waste collection and disposal. Table 9.2 shows the solid waste management in he Ramallah District

Collection

Only 58 % of the population in the Ramallah District privileged with solid waste collection services. Among these are all the urban areas, the refugee camps and some villages. Table 9.2 shows the localities in the Ramallah district that have a managed solid waste collection system. Collection containers that are currently used in the municipalities, village councils, and refugee camps vary in number and size. There are approximately 800 containers of which close to 16% have a capacity of 0.4-0.9 CM, 53% are 1.0-4.9 CM and 31% hold 5.0-6.0 CM. Most of the present containers are old and no longer useful. The location and volume of these containers are chosen roughly without any considerations to the quantities produced and frequency of collection, resulting in solid waste accumulation near the containers. If not emptied soon, the piles will be burned where often the waste inside the containers also burned.

Many villages in the district lack any collection system and solid waste is left in nearby fields, abandoned plots and streets, creating bad smells and various types of insects, mosquitoes and rats especially in the summer time. Around forty villages and hamlets in the Ramallah District lack any solid waste collection services.

Photo 6:Solid waste piles beside a container in the Ramallah city.

The collection vehicles available at the different Palestinian built-up areas in the Ramallah District include hand carts, agricultural tractors and trucks of various types and capacities. Modern methods for collection have been adopted in the major cities where compacting vehicles and hydraulic lift containers have replaced open trucks. There are 4 hand carts, 8 agricultural tractors and 19 trucks throughout the district (Table 9.2) (ARIJ, 1995). It is worth mentioning that there is a union of village councils (Turmus A'yya, Sinjil, A'arura, A'tara, Jifna, Al-Taybeh and Rammun) who formed association for the purpose of joint garbage collection and are using the same vehicle for solid waste collection. These people are receiving collection services once a week. Table 9.3 shows the frequency of collection among the population.

Photo 7: Dumping site of Al-Bireh city.

The number of available collection vehicles is far below what is required to handle the generated waste. Furthermore, many of these vehicles are old and frequently out of service resulting in an irregular and infrequent collection schedule in addition to the solid waste accumulation at the ground near the containers.

Disposal

Municipal solid waste in the West Bank is usually dumped in open and uncontrolled areas. They are usually located few kilometers away, either near another town or village or in an agreed­upon open area. The choice of the landfill site is done arbitrary without any consideration to the soil characteristics, topography, climate, or future planning. Open dumping and uncontrolled landfills are the main disposal method. The dumping site of Ramallah city falls within the south western part of the city where the western wind carries the smell and the fumes toward the city. Moreover, the dumping site is located near the city forming environmental and hygienic problems to the inhabitants.

None of the dumping sites in Palestine are designed as sanitary landfills. None are internally isolated or have a leachate collection system, thereby allowing leachate to percolate through the soil and endanger the groundwater. Also, dumping sites are not fenced or guarded and scavengers, especially children, walk through the solid waste piles in search of usable items. They collect aluminum cans to be sold to Israel for recycling or glass bottles to be recycled in the glass factories. Recycling is preferable to reduce the generated waste, but it is a risky way to collect recycled materials. Figure 9.1 shows the location of the scattered solid waste dumping sites throughout the district.

Ramallah District is facing a serious problem with the disposal of old equipment such as old refrigerators, washing machines, vehicles...etc. These items can be found disposed in open areas and on road sides causing a serious danger to the environment and reducing the aesthetic quality of the area (Photo 8). Collection and recycling of these items would reduce the environmental risks and create badly needed job opportunities in the Ramallah area. Small scale metal industries could expanded and created, or crushed metals could be exported for recycling in other countries. Both of these would add to the economy of the West Bank.

Photo 8: Old vehicles dumped near the residential area in the Ramallah city.

Solid Waste Quantities and Composition

The quantity of the solid waste generated in the Ramallah District is estimated at more than 300 tons/day. Approximately 200 tons/day of this are generated in the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh. The large quantity of the solid waste is generated in the two cities as 25 % of the population lives in these areas and most of the commercial establishments and industrial activities are there.

There are no accurate figures regarding the composition of the generated solid waste. However, the municipality of Ramallah has conducted under the Peace Urbs Project a solid waste hand sorting in order to estimate the composition of the domestic, commercial and industrial waste. The preliminary results are given in Table 9.4.

Industrial Waste

Ramallah District incorporate two industrial zones located close to Ramallah and Al-Bireh cities. Based on the analysis of approximately 70% of the industries in the district, industrial facilities in the Ramallah District are largely located in these two industrial zones. This is not the case in other districts in the West Bank. Table 9.5 shows the distribution of the surveyed industrial facilities within the district. Major industrial activities include food processing mainly sweets and snack industries, pharmaceutical industries and a range of manufacturing industries. These are located in the industrial areas of Ramallah and Al-Bireh. Outside the industrial areas are the stone cutting facilities located around Kafr Malik, Al-Bireh and Al-Mazra'a Ash-Sharqiya. Figure 9.1 shows the location of the industrial zones and quarries in the Ramallah District. Units for tile production, concrete blocks and other construction materials and the fabrication of many workshop products are found in several other locations of the district. Most of these industries are dependent on raw materials imported primarily from Israel except for stones which are available locally.

Figure 9.1 location of dumping sites at Ramallah district

The waste is usually generated when the materials are in production or at the packaging stages. Quarries, stone cutting facilities and olive oil mills are the major contributors to solid waste in the district. Excluding these industries, the total quantity of the generated

solid waste from the surveyed facilities is close to 1,200 tons/yr. It is estimated that the construction industries contribute approximately 400 tons/yr, the food and beverage industries contribute close to 275 tons/yr, metallic industries contribute close to 246 tons/yr and the wood industries contribute close to 110 tons/yr. Table 9.6 shows the distribution of quantities of industrial waste generated excluding the quarries, and olive oil mills. It is also worth mentioning that packaging materials, whether of raw or produced materials, constitute a considerable amount of the total generated waste. These packaging materials include paper and carton, metal, plastic, wood and jute.

Quarries and stone cutting facilities produce the largest quantity of solid waste and are the major contributor to environmental degradation and pollution. According to the survey conducted by ARIJ which covered 35 stone cutting and quarries facilities in the district, these facilities generate approximately 24,000 tons of solid waste, 20 times the amount of solid waste generated by other industries. These amounts of solid waste is usually reused in the construction and sometimes left on road sides and open areas. The slurry generated is approximately 8,000 tons of solid waste mixed with large amounts of water. The slurry is always collected and settled in ponds, the clear water is reused for many times and the settled solid is always disposed of in nearby areas or wadis.

Olive oil mills also produce large amount of solid waste. Out of the 7,525 tons of olive produced in the 1993/94 growing season in the Ramallah district, approximately 4,700 tons of olive pulp was produced. This quantity is based on pressing 90% of olive and 70% of the pressed olive is discarded as olive pulp. The generated solid waste is usually used for soap manufacturing or as fuel and sometimes discarded adjacent to the press.

Based on the field survey of industries, the largest percentage of industrial solid waste is disposed of in municipal collection containers, the rest is dumped on the road-side, burned on site or reused. Disposal method of generated solid waste from different industries is shown in Table 9.7. Of the total generated solid waste, approximately 12.6 % is reused. Reuse practices can be observed in many of the metallic industries where the generated solid waste is melted and reused, also, at wood workshops where the generated solid waste is reused in poultry, or for heating purposes. Some of the used plastics in the plastic factories is also crushed and reused.

Medical Hazardous Waste

Medical waste is defined as all wastes generated from health care or health-related facilities. It is characteristically heterogeneous, consisting of objects of many different sizes and composed of many different materials. It can be classified into two categories: general waste and special waste. The general waste consists of all waste materials that are not defined as hazardous. It comprises a heterogeneous mixture of paper, cartons, plastics, food scraps, glass ware and metals. These wastes can be handled with the municipal solid waste streams. The special wastes, including the biological, contagious and sharp objects wastes, are hazardous and are generated either in solid or liquid forms. Special wastes require special handling, treatment and disposal methods to protect the people from potential health, safety or environmental hazards.

The generated hazardous medical wastes are considered a major threat to human health. ARIJ survey has covered three hospitals, three medical centers and nine laboratories in the Ramallah District. Findings from field investigations show that approximately 36% of the medical centers are located in residential areas and 64% were located in commercial areas. Lab technicians in laboratories, hospitals, clinics and medical centers do not use any kind of safety equipment such as gloves or masks.

Most of the medical waste in the district is disposed of in the municipal garbage containers. There are no special management policies for these wastes. Approximately all biological medical wastes are directly dumped and mixed with the municipal garbage with no previous treatment to guarantee the absence of any microbial or viral contamination. Most of the blood samples, urine samples, stool samples and operational wastes are disposed of in the municipal garbage.

Sharp objects, including glass tubes, syringes needles and lancets, are not treated before being disposed of in the garbage. One of the protective method is to hold such sharp objects into special containers or to break the pointed edge of these objects so as not to harm people dealing with them.

Petri dishes, used for bacterial culture, is the only item which is properly treated in some of the health institutions. More than 20% of the surveyed medical centers autoclave the petri dishes, 15% burn them near the medical center and 8% use septic solution for sterilization while the rest dispose the petri dishes into the municipal waste. Limited treatment of petri dishes thrive from the increasing awareness about controlling disease from disposed petri dishes and protecting scavengers especially children who are attracted by the colorful dishes.

Proper disposal of hazardous waste is one of today's major environmental issues . Of all the available treatment technologies, properly designed incineration systems are capable of achieving the highest degree of destruction and control for the hazardous waste.

Recommendations

• Collection and disposal services should be provided to the villages and hamlets that do not have this service yet.
• Compacting vehicles and hydraulic lift containers have to replace the open trucks and agricultural tractors.
• A proper landfill should be constructed that can serve the Ramallah District. The landfill has to be lined and provided with a leachate monitoring to insure the protection of the groundwater.
• The use of transfer stations is recommended.
• The quantities of the generated domestic solid waste can be reduced through starting recycling and composting programs. The composition of the domestic solid waste in the Palestinian houses, is known to contain not less than 65 % of organic waste. Separation and composting at source are recommended.
• Proper elimination and disposal of hazardous waste generated by hospitals and clinics is needed. This can be accomplished through provision of an incinerator that could serve the whole medical institutions in the Ramallah District.
• Packaging of raw materials constitute a major source of solid waste in the industry. Using degradable and re-usable packaging materials should be encouraged.
• Collection and recycling of old vehicles and electrical appliances would reduce the environmental risks and create badly needed job opportunities in the Ramallah area. Small scale metal industries could expanded and created, or crushed metals could be exported for recycling in other countries. Both of these would add to the economy of the West Bank.