Plastic in the environment of Nalaikh
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Date
2020-06-08
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German Mongolian Institute for Resouce and Technology
Abstract
Plastic is one of the most produced material in the world due to its flexibility and cheap cost to produce and plastic production has been growing since 1950 and expected to keep on growing.
Once plastic product is used and becomes waste plastic becomes problem to the environment.
First of all, shear amount of the plastic and plastic accumulation due to slow degradation of plastic and additionally plastic waste causes problems such as entanglement, ingestion, leaching. On top of negative environmental impacts plastic waste is a health hazard as well.
This thesis assesses impact of the plastic waste in Nalaikh by evaluating amount of landfilled plastic waste, recycled plastic waste, plastic waste directly disposed to the environment and impact of different methods to deal with plastic waste trough material flow analysis based on literatures and assumptions. Currently Nalaikh has population of 37608, where majority of the population is living in Ger area. Waste generation pattern is different by a season and during winter majority of the plastic waste is generated by households and during summer majority of the plastic waste is from households and illegal dumping, especially illegal dumping in Terelj national park. Currently it is estimated 610.29 tons of plastic waste is directly disposed to the environment.
Population of Nalaikh is expected to keep on growing and as the population grows amount of plastic waste generated is expected to keep on growing and amount of plastic waste disposed to the environment is expected to grow from 1.72tons/day to 2.55tons/day in 2050. To deal with this problem one measure by itself would not have enough impact and combination of multiple methods is required. If multiple methods are used together including recycling plant in Nalaikh amount of plastic waste disposed to the environment is expected to reduce from 1.72tons/day to 0.54tons/day in 2050 and there is potential to supply plastic recycling plant for next 60 years. With current limited knowledge on plastic waste of Nalaikh further research are highly recommended as Nalaikh is currently under a threat of plastic pollution.