Biodegradable municipal waste

All the treatments that preceded waste landfilling should reduce the quantity of municipal solid waste that is sent to landfills. The aforementioned Directive obligates EU members to minimize the amount of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill to the level corresponding to ... 

When antifreeze becomes unsuitable for use, either because of depletion of inhibitors, presence of corrosion products or corrosive ions, or degradation of the fluid, recycling and reuse of the antifreeze, rather than disposal, may be considered. Although ethylene glycol is readily biodegraded in typical municipal waste treatment faciHties, antifreeze disposal becomes problematic because the coolant may contain hazardous quantities of heavy metals picked up from the cooling system. Recycling may be economically preferred over coolant disposal and reduces the concern for environmental impact. 

Although plastic wastes in refuse are highly visible to the public, and thus have caused considerable consumer pressures on plastics manufacturers to take anti-pollution measures, disposal of plastics creates special problems in municipal incinerators because of the formation of some toxic gases, hi terms of dumpsite disposal, the absence of biodegradability results in long-term solids buildup. Actually, on a weight basis, however, plastics only comprise 7% of municipal wastes, as shown in Table 4. 

DEHP is a widely used chemical that enters the environment predominantly through disposal of industrial and municipal wastes in landfills and, to a much lesser extent, volatilization into air (from industrial and end uses of DEHP), carried in waste water from industrial sources of DEHP, and within effluent from municipal waste water treatment plants. It tends to sorb strongly to soils and sediments and to bioconcentrate in aquatic organisms. Biodegradation is expected to occur under aerobic conditions. Sorption, bioaccumulation, and biodegradation are likely to be competing processes, with the dominant fate being determined by local environmental conditions. When DEHP is present in the environment, it is usually at very low levels. It is very difficult to determine these low levels accurately since DEHP is a ubiquitous laboratory contaminant, and laboratory contamination may cause false positives to be reported in the literature. 

United States alone, 5 x 109 kg of plastic resins (typically used in packaging and transportation) are produced every year. Disposable goods and packing material represent about one-third of the total plastic production and have the largest environmental impact. More than 90% of the plastic material in municipal waste consists of polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polystyrene, which are all resistant to biodegradation (see Table 9.1). 

BCOD Biodegradable chemic oxygen demand MWC Municipal waste combustors... 

Over the last years food wastes have earned an increasing attention as feedstock for hydrogen production they include kitchen refuse, municipal wastes (a part of), food industry co-products (oil mill, cheese whey) and starch manufacturing wastes. Food wastes show high energy content (85—95% of volatile solids and 75—85% moisture) and high biodegradability, which favours microbial anaerobic development. 

Principle The test method determines the ultimate biodegradability and degree of disintegration of test material under conditions simulating an intensive aerobic composting process. The inoculum used consists of stabilized, mature compost derived, if possible, from composting the organic fraction of solid municipal waste. 

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