Solid waste materials disposal

Processing and Recovery The functional element of processing and recoveiy includes all the techniques, equipment, and facilities used both to improve the efficiency of the other functional elements and to recover usable materials, conversion products, or energy from solid wastes. Materials that can be recycled are exported to facilities equipped to do so. Residues go to disposal. 

The main objectives of this chapter are (1) to review the different toxic organic pollutants present in both liquid and solid (i.e., sediment, soil, suspended matter and biosolids as bacteria, plankton, etc.) phase environments as well as complex organic mixture (COM) leachates from solid waste materials of landfills and disposal sites (2) to summarize the most recent analyses of these MM pollutants and (3) to discuss the optimum instrumental analytical methods for organic pollutant characterization. 

Assessment, prediction, and management of the environmental impact of solid waste material (SWM) disposal in landfills and recycled wastes mixed with... 

Mettler et al. found that their original procedure was not very convenient for large-scale production of the malonate intermediate 16. Safety precautions required to handle excess solid potassium cyanide were both difficult and expensive. To compound the problem even further, a large amount of Ti02-pyridine complex was generated in the first step of this process. This solid waste material required special purification treatment before its final disposal. 

Monitoring is generally required both for disposal processes and for maintenance activities when workers can potentially be exposed, as well as for emissions and wastes transported off site. SOPCs may be agents or nonagents they may be found in the plant, in outdoor air, in liquid process or effluent streams, on surfaces in the plant, or in solid waste materials. Table 2-1 shows a number of examples of media that may require monitoring. 

Modern science and industry have provided a growing supply of material products. When they reach the end of their useful life, they become solid waste, and disposing of it has become a growing problem. Worst of all is over-packaging to stimulate sales, so discarded packaging is the major contributor to this solid waste. Plastics are not the major component of solid waste but because of their low density, bright colors, and relative weather-resistance, they are the most obvious component. It would be desirable to remove them from solid waste by recycling. 

The purchase, transport, storage, use, and disposal of pesticides must be done according to international standards or those standards in accordance with the EPA. Basic environmental efforts can be taken to reduce the risk of vector-borne disease, such as establishing adequate shelters and a clean water supply and disposal of human and animal excreta and solid waste materials to reduce flies. 

Solid waste is usually subjected to size reduction prior to any processing stage. Size reduction is a mechanical process that is used to reduce the solid materials size, either for direct use and/or storage, or to make the materials amenable to further separation processes. Additionally, it makes solid waste constitution more uniform, as it imparts a blending action. Size reduction can also be applied in cases where solid waste is disposed at a landfill, with the major benefit being that of reducing waste volume and increasing the life of the disposal place. 

Virtually everyone is aware, through television and newspapers, of the problems of solid waste (nonnuclear) disposal that our society faces. For the most part, this material will degrade in some reasonable amount of time. Still, we are disposing of trash and garbage at a rate that far exceeds nature s ability to recycle it. 

Remediation techniques on contaminated sediments generally are much more limited than for most other solid waste materials, except for mine wastes. The widely diverse contamination sources in larger catchment areas usually produces a mixture of pollutants, which is more difficult to treat than an industrial waste. For most sediments from maintenance dredging, there are more arguments in favor of disposal rather than treatmenf. Mechanical separation of less strongly contaminated fractions. 

Production of synthetic and processed materials is vital for the growth of modern societies. Such production results in the creation of large quantities of solid waste materials (SWMs). Many of these SWMs remain in the environment for long periods of time and cause waste disposal problems [1-3]. Existing landfills are reaching maximum capacity and new regulations have made the establishment of new landfills difficult. Disposal cost continues to increase while the number of accepted wastes at landfills continues to decrease [1]. 

Table 19 Recycling and disposal options for solid waste materials... 

Much less information is available on industrial practices in processing solid-waste material. Although it is generally suspected that most waste material is incinerated or disposed of through deep-well injection or dump sites, the practice varies widely and no current data base exists on individual practice. Such a data base, however, could be developed as a manifest system for hazardous materials and implemented under the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act. 

Dilution and dispersion of radioactive wastes in the air and water of the biosphere is today subject to strict regulatory control. In order to minimize potential risks, in the nuclear industry, and increasingly in the chemical industries, aqueous and gaseous streams are decontaminated to a high degree before dispersal. This means that more solid waste material has to be taken care of by the other disposal options. 

In the United States, solid waste materials are disposed off in landfills at a staggering annual rate of 200 million tons of municipal solid waste, 300 million scrap tires, and 15 million tons of plastic waste. Another major... 

Resource Recovery Act, 1970 The Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 was amended by Public Law 95-512, the Resources Recovery Ac4 of 1970. This act directed that the emphasis of the national solid-waste-management program should be shitted from disposal as its pri-maiy objective to that of recycling and reuse of recoverable materials in sohd wastes or the conversion of wastes to energy. 

Manual Component Separation The manual separation of solid-waste components can be accomplished at the source where solid wastes are generated, at a transfer station, at a centralized processing station, or at the disposal site. Manual sorting at the source of generation is the most positive way to achieve the recoveiy and reuse of materials. The number and types of components salvaged or sorted (e.g., cardboard and high-quality paper, metals, and wood) depend on the location, the opportunities for recycling, and the resale market. There has been an evolution in the solid waste indus-tiy to combine manual and automatic separation techniques to reduce overall costs and produce a cleaner product, especially for recyclable materials. 

Processing of Hazardous Wastes As with conventional solid wastes, the processing of hazardous wastes is undertaken for three purposes (1) to recover useful materials, (2) to reduce the amount of wastes that must be disposed in landfills, and (3) to prepare the wastes for ultimate disposal. 

The atmospheric movement of pollutants from sources to receptors is only one form of translocation. A second one involves our attempt to control air pollutants at the source. The control of parhculate matter by wet or dry scrubbing techniques 3delds large quantities of waste materials—often toxic—which are subsequently taken to landfills. If these wastes are not properly stored, they can be released to soil or water systems. The prime examples involve the disposal of toxic materials in dump sites or landfills. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and subsequent revisions are examples of legislation to ensure proper management of solid waste disposal and to minimize damage to areas near landfills (4). 

Economic evaluations of waste-reduction options should involve a comparison of operating costs to illustrate where cost savings would accrue. For example, a waste-reduction measure that reduces the amount of raw material lost down the drain during the process will reduce raw-material costs. Raw-material substitution or process changes may reduce the amount of solid waste that must be transported offsite, reducing the transport costs for waste disposal. 

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