Disposal of packaging wastes

For some excipients, the global acceptability of some packaging materials varies from country to country. This can often stem from environmental concerns and the negative impact from the need to dispose of packaging waste. For example, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used widely to manufacture bottles and blisters for pharmaceutical products, but there is a growing concern about its safe use and disposal in some countries (Hansen 1999). Incineration is the preferred method of disposal for PVC, with the downside that it emits toxic gases. Materials that are readily biodegradable, or that can be recycled, are preferred. This is not always possible with some types of synthetic materials. 

Environmental protection and safety, thorough degradation, and eHminating the problem of disposal of packaging wastes by producing carbon dioxide and water as the final degradative products. 

With reference to the latest UK government s attempts to tackle the problem of the disposal and/or recycling of packaging waste, comments are reported from Cameron McLatchie, chief executive of British Polythene Industries. He calls for a landfill levy and increased use of incineration with energy recovery. According to recent studies, the capacity for mechanical recycling is presently insufficient. Statistics relating to waste production are included and the case for incineration in the UK is propounded. 

Package Lots. Package securely, label, and send for burial in a site approved for disposal of poisonous wastes. 

Plastics have become the material of choice in the modem world and their applications in the industrial field are continually increasing. Presently plastics are manufactured for various uses such as consumer packaging, wires, pipes, containers, bottles, appliances, electrical/electronic parts, compnters and automotive parts. Most post-consumer plastic products are discarded and end up as mixed plastic municipal waste. The disposal of this waste has become a major social concern. 

Prior to the above-related revelations about former Soviet disposals of radioactive wastes in the marine environment, more than 98% of packaged low-level radioactive material disposed of in the oceans was believed to be dumped at deep sites in the North Atlantic Ocean. 92% of the total activity was dumped in the eastern basin. While, in general, 98% of the total radioactivity disposed of comprised beta-gamma emitters, small quantities of alpha-emitting nuclides were also included. At the two main sites in... 

It is unlikely that the sludges and waste resins from the exchangers will require having any of their chemical components removed before disposal and the treatment envisaged is therefore a direct incorporation of the waste into a cement or bitumen matrix followed by packaging for disposal. These techniques, now often referred to as waste solidification, have been developed specially in the nuclear industry to aid in the disposal of radioactive wastes. 

Alder, J. C. 1989. Preliminary studies of packaging and disposal of decommissioning waste in Switzerland. AmcZ. Technol. 86(2) 197-206. Bostic, W. D., J. L. Shoemaker, P. E. Osborne, and B. Evans-Brown. 1989. Treatment and disposal options for a heavy metals waste containing soluble technetium-99. ACS Symp. Ser., Volume Date 1989, 422 345-67 cited in Chem. Abstr. CA 113(20) 179992b. 

What are the various options for reducing the amount of plastics in municipal solid waste The first solution increases the life cycle of plastic by multiple use (refill) rather than disposal of packages. This is practiced with glass... 

It is estimated that approximately two-fifths of the total plastics is used in packaging and about 50% of that is used in food industry as a packaging material. Since large volume of the inert materials is disposed of as waste-land fillers, therefore, people all over the world are trying to use the biodegradable packaging materials so as to reduce the volume of waste materials. 

Canada has adopted a National Packaging Protocol, with a requirement to reduce the amount of packaging waste reaching disposal to 50% of 1988 levels by 2000. To the surprise of many, this target was... 

The directive provides for measures aimed at hmiting the production of packaging waste and promoting recycling, re-use and other forms of waste recovery. Their final disposal should be considered as a last resort solution. The directive covers all packaging placed on the European market and all packaging waste, whether it is used or released at industrial, commercial, office, shop, service, household or any other level, regardless of the material used. 

---