...Abstract This paper examines the occupational health and safety problems faced by the waste-pickers of Dhaka City. An extensive field survey and physical examinations of the waste-pickers have been used to collect the necessary primary data. The paper tracks down the health problems to their roots with the help of an impact-pathway based analysis. The study finds that the most prevalent types of occupational risks include: bites from insects and rats, cuts and bruises, skin disease, respiratory and gastro-intestinal tract problems, eye irritation, body aches, general weakness, and frequent fever. Keywords: solid waste, health impact, risk factor, confounding factor, prevalence rate, morbidity index. 1 Introduction Every day, some 4000-4500 tons of solid waste is generated in Dhaka City by its 10 million inhabitants. About half of this waste is collected by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and disposed at the central landfill site at Matuail. The rest are dumped in open fields, ditches and along street sides creating a major civic health problem. The situation is made worse by fact that the there is no separate system of collection and disposal for clinical and industrial waste in the city, all the hazardous clinical and industrial wastes are dumped in the same municipal bins used for household waste disposal; eventually most of the hazardous wastes also end up in the landfill site. In this backdrop, what is perhaps the most serious health concern is that there are a...
Words: 1446 - Pages: 6
...Professor Trish Ivey English 1101-40404 4 February 2015 Lars Eighner Dumpster Diving Experience Dumpster diving has been going on for decades all around the world. In Lars Eighner’s article, “Dumpster Diving,” he talks about his life struggles and what drove him to dumpster dive. The life he lived was not perfect, but he did everything he could survive. Sometimes life can be a struggle but not always. When life hands you lemons-make lemonade. The word dumpster is a proprietary word belonging to the Dampsey Dumpster Company. Dumpster diving is when a person is digging (searching) through a dumpster full of trash or other items. Eighner wasn’t dumpster diving his entire life; however, he started about a year before he became homeless. He called himself a scavenger rather than someone who picked any and everything out the dumpster. Lizbeth (Eighner’s dog) was tagging right along with him even when his savings ran out. Eighner began depending on dumpster for things including food, tissue, medicine, etc. . . . Some foods should be avoided while dumpster diving such as home-canned goods. “Why was this discarded?” was always a question to think about while dumpster diving. As stated in the article, “Perhaps everyone who has a kitchen and regular supply of groceries has, at one time or another, made a sandwich and eaten half not it before discovering mold on the bread or got a mouthful of milk before realizing the milk had turned.” Most foods are discarded for a reason, that’s...
Words: 632 - Pages: 3
...Dumpster Diving Lars Eighner is an experienced dumpster diver or as he prefers to call it “scavenging.” He writes “On Dumpster Diving” an essay about the three years he spent on the streets accompanied by his lone companion, dog Lizabeth. Born in Texas in 1948, Eighner began dumpster diving one year before he ended up homeless after being unable to pay for his rent. Diving through dumpsters to obtain life’s main necessities, Eighner becomes a veteran at realizing what foods are safe and what items can be useful if kept. One of the most important aspects of trying to persuade readers is to use the appropriate tone according to the situation. The calm tone that Eighner uses doesn’t strengthen his argument, but with his knowledge of dumpster diving, he ultimately persuade readers that people living in modernized parts of the world have wasteful habits. By reading the essay, I am convinced of his argument about wasteful people being very common. Eighner approaches the topic of dumpster diving with a very calm tone. The tone he uses does not allow the reader to connect with him and feel what he was feeling when he was homeless. If the essay had a more emotional tone it would leave the reader with amore sympathetic view regarding the topic of dumpster diving. For instance, he believes that the term dumpster diving is “a little too cute.”(p.147) Usually, when a person thinks of the term dumpster diving, they feel sympathy towards the individual who is led to scrounge through a dumpster...
Words: 767 - Pages: 4
...Matteo Kirunna 30/09/11 English Speaking: ‘Wasting our Food’ 1) The Problem with Wasting Food • Families are wasting £680 a year on throwing away foods we can still eat • We are throwing away 8.3 million tonnes of food from our homes every year • On average £50 of food is wasted per average family every month • All of the wasted foods are dumped in landfill sites • The rotting food releases methane & Co2 into the air • Half of the food wasted could have been eaten if only we followed the out-of-date on packaging 2) Why do we throw away so much food? • We are using too much food to make meals for families, food may still remain in pans or bowls for self-serving • Not keeping fruits in fridges, so they become more soft or gone off quicker • Not freezing foods which you are not going to eat for a while • Not following the ‘use by date’ • Putting new foods in front of older foods in the fridge or cupboard • Overestimating our shopping • Throwing away leftovers which can be used for something else 3) The Benefits of ‘Not Wasting Foods’ • If everyone stopped wasting food, it would have the same Carbon Impact as taking of 1 in 4 cars off the road in the UK • It will save you money 4) What are Groceries & Food brands doing about this? • Most of the major supermarket retailers in the UK welcome the campaign and have committed to work with WRAP to identify ways they can help us, their customers...
Words: 489 - Pages: 2
... Trash, written by Andy Mulligan is a novel set in an unnamed third world country. Three dumpsite boys discover a wallet containing a note, key, 11,00 pesos and an ID card in Behala Dump while trash picking. They soon find themselves running from the police, cracking codes, investigating clues, experiencing an interrogation and even shopping in the hope of righting a terrible wrong. Through an analysis of characterization, the point of view, reader positioning and setting we can see the main themes/ideas presented in “Trash” are; friendship, corruption, a disparity in wealth and poverty. poverty Poverty In the novel the author uses setting and characterisation to examine the idea/theme of poverty. On page Pg3 there is a brilliant quote from Raphael referring to Belhala, to support the theme. “Most people live in boxes stacked tall and high.” Using this quote we can infer that most residence of Belhala live in boxes, stacked up on top of each other. Therefore they mustn’t have enough funds or money to afford a suitable house to sojourn in. This is an excellent example of the theme of poverty. Using setting once again we can observe the idea of poverty in the text. Through another quote from Raphael on Pg4 the idea is portrayed celestially. “The mountains go right from the docks to the marshes, one whole world of steaming trash.” Using this quote we can identify that Belhala is not an established, well built or profitable city.Instead it is unfortunately, a city of steaming garbage...
Words: 967 - Pages: 4
...Case Study A (50%): Stan is thinking about starting a toxic waste disposal business. He plans to collect the waste from businesses that produce it and then dispose of it in a sanitary landfill. In order to start this business, Stan will need a substantial amount of money to buy and develop the landfill site and purchase five trucks capable of transporting toxic waste. What concerns would you have about operating this business as a sole proprietorship if you were Stan? What alternative form of business organization would you recommend and why? Case Study B (50%): In 2006, Sally opened a restaurant called Traders’ Place in rented premises in Ottawa’s booming financial district. She operated the restaurant as a sole proprietorship. By 2012, the business had grown and she determined that she needed experienced help to run the business. In November 2012, Sally approached Marty to see if he would become the manager of the Traders’ Place business. He agreed and the following were the terms of his agreement with Sally. Each month, Marty was paid $1000 plus 1 percent of the total restaurant revenues for that month. Total monthly revenues, on average, were about $100 000. At the end of each complete calendar year that Marty worked, if the restaurant had made a profit for the year equal to or exceeding $200 000, Marty was entitled to receive 10 percent of the profits. Marty was responsible for managing the restaurant, including opening and closing the restaurant, hiring...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
...Gini McKain, the author of “Sweeping up after Mardi Gras,” addressed an important event that happens after Mardi Gras festivities are over. She explained the importance of removing debris such as beads, doubloons, trinkets, etc. from the streets before they get washed away by nature causing unwanted pollution. Lafayette, Louisiana annually hosts dozens of parades during Carnival season for the 105,000 Louisianans which are sponsored by the Mystic Krewes of Mardi Gras. However, no Mardi Gras festivity is as important as the cleanup crew. Cleanup efforts by the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) involves several Pelican and Eagle sweepers, four tandem dump trucks, and 140 city and parish employees--all committed to cleaning up the streets...
Words: 401 - Pages: 2
...closed-loop recycling or getting the government involved. Closed-loop recycling requires companies to create their own markets for their own recycled trash. In other words, they must recycle waste to make other products. For example, cardboard boxes will be transformed into take-out bags. Another method involves the government. In which, the government may regulate a nationwide program and could serve as a “matchmaker” to bring creators and users of recycled products together. In other countries they had used the closed-loop approach, but would this guarantee a solution in the United States? Businesses and the public would see it as the government getting involved too much so no it won’t solve it completely. Overall, trash will not have much value in the near future. New York is trying all methods to cut waste. According to the Department of Sanitation, New York will be contributing zero waste to landfills by 2030.They encourage all residents to reuse as much waste as they can. Residents should opt out from receiving junk mail and even donate or sell their unused items. Starting on February 15, 2017, New York will pass a law that will charge customers five cents for each plastic, paper, or cloth bag provided from stores. The Department of sanitation believes this will reduce the amount of waste in landfills. Many bags end up being thrown away, caught on bushes or trees, littering beaches, and clogging storm drain. This method will encourage customers to use a reusable bag every time...
Words: 1010 - Pages: 5
...ending up in our landfills creating a staggering amount of paper waste. There was a time when paper was a rare and precious commodity. Now it fills out planet. It was initially invented as a tool for communication, but today, paper is used more for packaging. To produce paper takes twice the energy used to produce a plastic bag. (Wikipedia: Environmental Impact of Paper) Have the things listed below ever crossed your mind? If not, let us share with you these interesting paper waste facts. We are so used to seeing products in their completed form that we seldom think of how they are made and what happens after we dispose of them. • Recycling 1 ton of paper saves around 682.5 gallons of oil, 26,500 liters of water and 17 trees. (www.id2.ca/downloads/eco-design-paper-facts.pdf) • 324 liters of water is used to make 1 kilogram of paper. (www.id2.ca/downloads/eco-design-paper-facts.pdf) • Lessening of paper waste usage was predicted due to the electronic revolution. It didn’t happen. Demand for paper is expected to double before 2030. (http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts) • 93% of paper comes from trees. (http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts) • 50% of the waste of businesses is composed of paper. (http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts) • Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste and 33% of municipal waste. (http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts) So have you realized how important trees are and the paper...
Words: 708 - Pages: 3
...incinerators, making many disadvantages. These disadvantages are making waste disposal non-efficient as it isn’t cost effective, it’s hurting people and it’s hurting the environment. What’s preventing proper recycling is the economics. The economic incentive to recycle isn’t enough, making the value less than processing costs. This incentive runs how much we recycle correctly. Without the incentive, we are finding ways to throw things out in the cheapest ways possible which convert to landfills and incinerators (Szaky, 2016). Our motivation has...
Words: 1530 - Pages: 7
...Joe Yobbi Yobbi 1 J. McCallister Writing Skills Workshop 10/20/09 Blind to Wastefulness Our Society, today, seems to think that if something is broken then it should be thrown out. People become lazy and don’t feel the need to try and fix things when they are broken. They just throw whatever the object is in the trash and buy something new. Basically, our society takes many things for granted without even thinking before they act. People whom aren’t as fortunate as others would never just throw away something if it is “somewhat” broken, they would try and fix it. People, today, are becoming more and more wasteful every year without even realizing it. To eliminate wastefulness in our society today, people should recycle more, finish or save uneaten food, and donate clothes or toys that are no longer in use. It seems as if high class citizens are more wasteful then the citizens of the low class. This may be because of the wealth of the high class citizens and that they can just buy a new object instead of just fixing it. In contrast, low class citizens don’t have the wealth to just buy a new object, they have to fix it or they no longer can use it. People of high class don’t take concern to the environment as most people do because they usually are running companies or usually very busy. This then results in not recycling which can be very wasteful as well. Yobbi 2 People as a...
Words: 799 - Pages: 4
...MATERIALS AND METHODS Landfill Leachate Sampling and Analysis Landfill leachate was collected from Jhiri dumpsite, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India at regular intervals for the study. Presently, the corporation dumps waste generated by the city’s household at an 11 acre area in Jhiri village (23˚24’ N and 85˚15’ E). The landfill is in operation for last 15 years and it is an open one with no liners and no provision for leachate collection and storage. Leachate gets collected at the bottom of landfill in low lying areas of dumpsite. Prior landfill leachate collection for the experiments, plastic bags and other solid waste was removed from the surface layer of leachate. Landfill leachate was collected and stored in a HDPE container under cold conditions until use. Experimental Scheme The experimental scheme in this study is as mentioned: 1....
Words: 1517 - Pages: 7
...they share their environment with other people. Moreover, their businesses largely depend on the consumption, so it is essential for them to think about consumers. Adoption of eco friendly policy can be very beneficial for the businesses. It can enhance the general effectiveness of a business, so the companies can save more and invest in their future productions. Lessening pointless waste can decrease working expenses for the business. For instance, turning off lights in empty work places can reduce utility costs and increase the organization's net profit. Printing less will minimize paper utilization, and can bring down the cost of printing materials. Refilling ink cartridges instead of buying new ones, will not only reduce the cost, but also lessen the amount of plastic thrown away. Furthermore, working in a healthy environment can increase employee productivity so the businesses can get more out of their resources. A lot of well-known companies used this theory and succeed. For example, ‘’Dell’’ multinational computer technology company started a new program called “No computer should go to waste’’ which allows customers to return their used Dell-branded computer for recycling. Bank of America proves on its on example that business and eco-friendly operations can coexist. According to their corporate website, the company reduced paper use by 32% from 2000-2005, despite a 24% growth in their customer base. Another advantage of going green is the goodwill and the good reputation...
Words: 742 - Pages: 3
...Final Project Report Topic: - Feasibility of waste-to-energy projects in Industries Submitted by: - Sanchita Tiku Roll No. 13020243022 Submitted to :- Dr. Prakash Rao Contents Topics Page No. 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………1-9 2. Literature Review………………………………………………………………..10-13 3. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………14 4. Analysis & Interpretation…………………………………………………….15-17 5. Main Findings………………………………………………………………………17-21 6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..22 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Waste as described in Basel Convention: - Wastes are those materials which are supposed to be disposed or are intended to be disposed under the national law. Waste is any substance that is off no more use or that should be disposed off e.g. waste of leftover construction material, food waste, e-waste, hazardous waste, sludge from industries, packaging items, garden waste etc. There are numbers of ways available through which waste can be prevented, reduced, re-used and recycled. So, the leftover substance which cannot be treated should be land filled. Wastes are of following types:- 1. Municipal Solid waste: - Municipal solid waste is generated by households, commercial activities...
Words: 7570 - Pages: 31
...Megan McClain 5259404 HA250 Section 3 2/19/2016 Waste Land Assignment I think the program had really good intentions. I liked that the artist really got to know the people and their jobs before he made them into art work. I also really liked that he used the trash that these pickers lived and worked in to portray his art and the people. I thought it was really humble and noble of him to give the proceeds back to the pickers. I think that the pickers themselves have a really important job that most people, including myself, are unaware of. I never knew how much waste was produced daily and just from a single city. I also never knew that there were even people like the pickers that went out and tried to help better the environment and the status of their city and country. I think Programs and people like the pickers should have more recognition and be established in all countries and major cities. Because of the pickers and this movie, I learned that a lot of hat we throw away can be recycled and how important it is to recycle. I also learned different categories of things that can be recycled that I didn’t know before. My favorite character was Taio. He made a deep impression on me for several reasons. I think Taio was the most down to earth character. During the scene when they were all at the museum talking to reporters the girls were saying things like “I am a work of art,” and “talk to me,” and Taio was just explaining how much Vik and his artwork had impacted his life...
Words: 326 - Pages: 2
