Municipal refuse disposal

At the Taylor Road landfill (originally intended for the disposal of municipal refuse only), unknown quantities of hazardous wastes from industrial and residential sources were deposited. During the period when the landfill was active, soil and groundwater samples collected at the site were found to contain concentrations of volatile organic compounds and metals above acceptable safe drinking water standards. Analysis of samples collected from private drinking water wells indicated that contamination... 

Chemical compatibility tests using U.S. EPA Method 909040 should always be performed for hazardous waste sites, but some municipal waste sites also contain hazardous, nondegradable materials. U.S. EPA conducted a 5-year study of the impact of municipal refuse on commercially available liner materials and found no evidence of deterioration within that period. However, in a current study of leachate quality in municipal landfills, the Agency has discovered some organic chemical constituents normally found in hazardous waste landfill facilities. Apparently, small quantities of household hazardous waste enter municipal sites or are disposed of as small quantity generator wastes. As a result of these findings, U.S. EPA developed a position on the need for chemical compatibility tests for thousands of municipal waste disposal sites. 

Origin / Industry Sources/Uses Prepared by the chlorination of biphenyl used in the electrical industry in capacitors and transformers used in the formulation of lubricating and cutting oils pesticides adhesives plastics inks paints sealants. Exposure Routes Inhalation of fume or vapor percutaneous adsorption of liquid ingestion eye and skin contact landfills containing PCB waste materials and products incineration of municipal refuse and sewage sludge waste transformer fluid disposal to open areas. 

Jones, J.L., "The Costs for Processing Municipal Refuse and Sludge," paper presented at the Fifth National Conference on Acceptable Sludge Disposal Techniques, Orlando, FL, January 31, 1978. 

Basis for Plant Design. The composition of municipal refuse is assumed as shown in Table III. The municipal refuse has the lower calorific value of ca. 1,500 Kcal/Kg. Plant size of 600 T/D is assumed. The capital investment costs, utilities, etc. were calculated using contacts with equipment vendors. Cost for repairs are assumed to be two percent of the plant construction cost per year. Unit costs of utilities and unit prices of recovered energy and material are assumed, based on the actual prices in 1979. Ash and other residues disposal cost is assumed to be 2,450 Yen/T, taking note of the representative cost data of large cities in Japan, The grant available to a municipality is assumed to pay up to fifty percent of the capital investment. The remaining investment cost must be amortized in fifteen years with the interest rate of six percent. 

As this option includes no material recovery process, the residual ash which amounts to about 25 percent of the raw municipal refuse in weight has to be disposed of. The generated electricity amounts to 117 MWH/D, and the plant operation needs 45 MWH/D of electricity. The outcome of this is that 72 MWH/D of electricity can be delivered,... 

The plant has been operated successfully for about 7000 hours since April 1976, disposing sludge from the pulp and paper mill, municipal refuse, waste plastic and blocks of spent tires. 

The first commercial plant of the dual fluidized bed pyrolysis process with a capacity of 450 ton/day (150 ton/day x 3 series) is now under construction and is scheduled to commence operation in October 1980 for disposal of municipal refuse in Funabashi City, near Tokyo, The outline of this plant is as follows. 

Co-disposal of Scrap Tire and Refuse. The experiment was carried out with shreded tires mixed with municipal refuse. The composition of the samples of produced gases from pyrolysis furnace are as shown in Table VI. 

For pyrolytic disposal of municipal refuse in Japan, therefore, preference may be given to the pyrolysis-incineration system, which, with its low-pollution feature, allows on-the-spot conversion of the produced gas into thermal energy — this system is preferred until there should be a radical improvement in the quality of municipal refuse in our country. 

In this paper, I have tried to acquaint you with our newly developed pyrolysis-incineration system for the disposal of municipal refuse in Japan. 

It is now obvious that atmospheric transport of persistent toxic organic substances is the major pathway between ecosystems. For dioxin, volatilization of residues from contaminated soils was first noted as a concern at Seveso, Italy (4). The National Research Council of Canada reported that atmospheric emissions were the major source of chlorinated dioxins in the Canadian environment (5). A recent Ontario report estimates that from 8 10 kg of 2,3,7,8 -TCDD equivalents enter the Ontario environment annually from combustion of municipal refuse and sewage sludge and that all other combustion sources contribute from 20 -50 kg annually (6). The only other major source considered was from the use and disposal of chlorinated phenols. 

Within waste disposed to landfill, vegetable matter, paper and cardboard and to some extent, textiles are all biodegradable. Although, as shown in Table 6, the composition of municipal refuse varies from country to country and will vary from season to season. In the developed world it typically contains about... 

Hering, R. (1898). Dilution process of sewage disposal. Engineering Magazine 15(7) 575-583. Hering, R., Greeley, S.A. (1921). Collection and disposal of municipal refuse. McGraw-Hill New York. 

Although there is a social desire to recycle, the current price of landfill space in some areas has not yet offset the cost of curbside collecdon of recyclables. Recycling in Illinois is generally paid for on a per household basis. The cost of recycling may be expected to add 10-25% to the cost of existing refuse disposal. This translates into an additional cost of l- 2.50 per month per household, either paid by a municipality throu. general/taxpayer funds or directly included on homeowner bills. 

The geosphere receives many kinds and large amounts of wastes. Its ability to cope with such wastes with minimal damage is one of its most important characteristics and is dependent upon the kinds of wastes disposed on it. A variety of wastes, ranging from large quantities of relatively innocuous municipal refuse to much smaller quantities of potentially lethal radioactive wastes, are deposited on land or in landfills. These are addressed briefly in this section. 

Although municipal refuse is much less dangerous than hazardous chemical waste, it still poses some hazards. Despite prohibitions against the disposal of cleaners, solvents, lead storage batteries, and other potentially hazardous materials in landfills, materials that pose some environmental hazards do find their way into landfills and can contaminate their surroundings. 

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