Modeling and Prediction of Zone of Critical Concern: A Solid Waste Management Case of a Higher Education Institute in India Using Probit Regression

Introduction

Since the dawn of human settlements and residential living areas, solid waste has been a major concern. The practice of municipal waste management can be traced back to the People of Crete, Greece's largest island, in about 1500 BC. The citizens used to practice dumping the rubbish in large pits and covered it with dirt. One of the earliest laws concerning an organized form of municipal waste management may be seen in the history of Athens, Greece in about 500 BC. The law requires the dumping of trash at least a mile out of residential living area/town, and they were not allowed to dump on the streets. During the middle ages, the problem of solid waste was common across European cities, and the severity touched its maxima in 1349 with the Black Death/Bubonic plagues. The plague reduced half of Europe’s total population. Beyond health, in the 1400s, the mountain of garbage just outside the city of Paris in France interfered with the city's defense arrangements. Then in 1893, German used technology to manage the solid waste with its first solid waste incinerator. With time new technologies, laws, and regulatory policies were introduced to manage solid waste in cities and other parts of the country (Uriarte, 2008). The practice and concerns related to solid waste can even be seen in ancient Asian civilization like the current day Republic of India or the former Hindustan and various manuscripts like the ancient literature of Kautilya”s Arthshastra (The Maurya's period). In Arthshastra, it was stated that that maintaining sanitation of habitat was essential and inevitable for a good quality of life. The Hindu society was aware of the code of conduct or Dharma relevant to waste management in the residential areas/Kingdom, and cremation of dead human bodies was one of such practice (Sharma and Upadhyay, 2009; Gottlieb, 2003). Even an elaborate sanitary and drainage system was a characteristic of ancient Indus Valley Civilizations (Drains, 2019).

The wastes are generated from residential, industrial, commercial, institutional, and agricultural areas as also from construction sites, hospitals, and treatment plants. They comprise primarily of solid materials that have served their purpose and are therefore fit for disposal. In the present times, urban centers have become hubs of solid waste generation, inflating the probability of creation of polluted and unhygienic environments that facilitate the spread of vector-borne and other diseases. Dumping of wastes in the open will, for example, allow the biodegradable waste materials to decompose naturally, producing foul smells and multiplying disease-causing germs. Toxic wastes from industries can change the biological and chemical properties of soil while seeping into the ground to poison groundwater reserves. Burning of hazardous wastes along with scrap articles like paper can produce gases that are capable of causing severe diseases in humans and animals. These are all, therefore, improper methods of solid waste management. Solid waste management is a major challenge in urban areas throughout the world, and an effective and efficient waste management program is necessary to avoid health hazards and negative impact on the environment (Krishna, Manickam, Shah, and Davergave, 2017). A number of technologies and methods have been developed and applied for waste management in the past few years and there are volume of research addressing the cause (Hazardous Waste Management - an overview, 2019; Karmperis, Aravossis, Tatsiopoulos, and Sotirchos, 2013; Allesch and Brunner, 2014; Cobo, Dominguez-Ramos, and Irabien, 2018; Coban, Ertis, and Cavdaroglu, 2018).