Sistemas de disposición final en Colombia y su impacto ambiental y socio económico

Abstract

The Solid Waste (SW) generation is related directly, with the population increase, the individual’s consumption habits and the industrial development processes, therefore, the amount of SW tends to increase as time progresses. In developing countries such as Colombia, the largest fraction of Municipal SW corresponds to bio-waste. Due to the low rate of use of these, they are transported to final disposal sites, which in Colombia are classified as adequate (landfills, cells of contingency and transitory cells) and not suitable (open-air dumps, burial, burning, among others), with landfills being the most used method. The transformation processes suffered by the SW, especially bio-waste in these final disposal sites, generate a variety of impacts from environmental to social and economic, where the generation of leachate and Greenhouse Gases (GHG) are the most relevant impacts. Colombia has accepted international commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the link to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Which allows for progress in the SW sector. Finally, Environmental Education is an essential factor that allows the application of any strategy either in raising awareness about consumption habits or in the proper classification and presentation of SW.