Solid Waste Generation

Plastics waste arises from everyday activities of human existence in residential areas or commercial and industrial centres. The entire generation of plastics waste is subject to value judgment, i.e., when industry or consumers decide to dispose of a plastic item. The critical factors to consider in making projections of future plastics waste quantities are  

The solid waste management process involves collection, transportation, processing and disposal, and each step of the operation requires expertise and equipment. 

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Sohd wastes, as noted previously, include all sohd or semisolid materials that are no longer considered of sufficient value to be retained in a given setting. The types and sources of solid wastes, the physical and chemical composition of sohd wastes, and typical solid-waste generation rates are considered in this subsection. 

Conventional Wastes Sources and types of industrial solid wastes generated by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) group classification are reported in Table 25-49. The expected specific wastes in the table are those that are most readily identifiable. 

TABLE 25-54 Unit Solid-Waste-Generation Rates for Selected Industrial Sources... 

Can they provide a list of solid wastes generated from operations within the past year ... 

Environmental factors include (a) the impact of control technology on ambient air quality (b) the contribution of the pollution control system to the volume and characteristics of wastewater and solid waste generation and (c) maximum allowable emissions requirements. 

A ferrite waste treatment process is being investigated to determine if it can more effectively remove actinides from waste solution with less solid waste generation than the flocculant precipitation method presently used (18). 

Agricultural waste. To prevent overregulation of farms and promote waste recycling, solid wastes generated by crop or animal farming are excluded from the definition of hazardous waste provided that the wastes are returned to the ground as fertilizers or soil conditioners. Examples of such wastes are crop residues and manures. 

If an incinerator burns a listed hazardous waste, the ash is also considered a listed waste. The derived-from rule states that any solid waste generated from the treatment, storage, or disposal of a listed hazardous waste, including any sludge, spill residue, ash, emission control dust, or leachate, remains a hazardous waste unless and until it is delisted. The owner/operator must also determine whether the ash exhibits any of the characteristics of a hazardous waste. 

Trends in solid waste generation have changed in some important ways over the past four decades. As the table on pages 136-137 shows, the contribution to the total solid waste volume for most constituents stayed about the same between 1960 and 2000 (the last year for which data are available). The two exceptions are metals, whose share of the MSW had dropped from about 12 percent in 1960 to less than 6 percent in 2000, and plastics, which made up only 0.4 percent of all MSW in 1960 and now constitute nearly 11 percent of all such wastes. 

The solid wastes produced by industrial operations pose a problem similar to that of municipal solid wastes simply the volume of waste produced annually. The volume of industrial solid wastes generated in the United States is roughly twice that of MSW, about 570 million short tons (518 million metric tons) in 2000. But industrial solid wastes also pose a very different kind of problem in that they also contain a number of chemical elements and compounds that are hazardous to the health of humans, other animals, and plants. These elements and compounds are classified as hazardous wastes. Hazardous wastes pose a variety of technological, economic, and... 

Municipal Solid Waste in the United States 2000 Facts and Figures. The EPA s annual report on municipal solid waste generation and disposal in the United States. A hard copy of this report can be obtained by calling the EPA s National Service Center for Environmental Publications at 1-800-490-9198 and asking for publication EPA530-R-02-001. http //www.epa. gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/report-OO/report-OO.pdf. Accessed on September 1, 2006. 

Solid waste generation" 0.0012 ftVft 0.0026 ftVft 0.007 ftVft ... 

Solid-waste generation including off-spec product, scrap material, packaging, trash, etc. 

Fly ash Fly ash is an industrial solid waste generated in thermal power plants. Fly ash can be easily solidified after the heavy metals have been adsorbed. 

Each vehicle generates 500—800 pounds of residue. The annual U.S. total is about 3.5 million tons or about 1.3% of the municipal solid waste generated annually (3). The mixture is too complex to separate and recycle. Depending on the amount of glass, water, metal, and dirt present, the residue... 

Subtitle D of RCRA covers nonhazardous solid waste generators, transporters, treatment facilities, storage facilities, and disposal sites. Extensive rules governing municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLs) have been developed, including how to design, construct, operate, monitor, and close a landfill, as well as leachate systems and caps. The nonhazardous waste regulation is left for the states. 

The minimization of waste is an important issue. Recycling is a good option but should only be considered if reuse is not possible. For a sustainable future, it is necessary to recycle as much as possible. The amount of waste varies from country to country, with the United States leading the list with 0.88 ton per person per year, followed by Australia (0.74 ton per person per year), and Canada (0.5 ton per person per year) [35,36]. Only 27% of the municipal solid waste generated in the United States in 1995 was recycled. Materials typically recycled included paper, plastic, wood, steel, aluminum, and glass. 

Other environmental impacts include solid waste (slag, dust, etc.) and water. The facility recycles all solid wastes generated as described below. 

Figure 8.1 The old and the new manufacturing processes for p-dihydroxy benzene. Route (a) is the old process, which involves stoichiometric oxidation, while route (b) involves catalytic oxidation. The amount of solid waste generated in (a) is an environmental hazard.

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