The systems approach to waste management

RADWASS has been organized in a hierarchical structure of four levels of safety documents. The top-level publication is a document of safety fundamentals which provides the basic safety objectives and fundamental principles to be followed in national waste management programmes. The lower levels include safety standards, safety guides, and safety practice documents. The series has been structured in a logical and clear manner to reflect the systems approach to waste management. 

Similar considerations apply to the discussions of approaches to risk management in Section 3.3. Readers who are knowledgeable about principles of radiation protection may not be familiar with the different approach to health protection used for hazardous chemicals, and vice versa, and an understanding and resolution of the different approaches to risk management is important in developing a comprehensive and risk-based waste classification system. 

Such incongruities only serve to confuse the public (Wiltshire and Dow, 1995), and this confusion leads to mistrust that is manifest in unwarranted obstruction of the facilities and activities required to manage hazardous wastes. A straightforward, consistent system based on a few simple principles would serve to make waste classification and approaches to waste management more transparent and understandable. 

NCRP reiterates that the risk-based waste classification system developed in this Report does not, and cannot, obviate the need to establish waste acceptance criteria at each hazardous waste disposal site based on the characteristics of the site, the particular disposal technology, and characteristics of the wastes that are intended for disposal at the site. NCRP expects that most waste that would be assigned to a particular class will be acceptable for disposal using the associated type of disposal technology indicated in Figure 6.1. However, the disposal capabilities of particular sites and engineered systems can vary substantially and can depend on the waste characteristics. The primary function of any waste classification system is to facilitate development of cost-effective approaches to waste management and disposal and effective communication on waste matters (see Section 2.1.2). 

Management and disposal of the wide variety of hazardous wastes has been aided by the development of waste classification systems. The term waste classification refers to broadly defined waste categories related, for example, to properties of waste materials, potential risks to human health that arise from waste management or disposal, or the source of the waste. Ideally, hazardous wastes in the same class should pose similar risks to human health and, thus, require similar approaches to safe management and disposal. 

This Section discusses approaches to risk management that are used in protecting the public from exposure to radionuclides and chemicals that cause stochastic responses in the environment. Different approaches to management of stochastic risks are used for radionuclides and chemicals. An understanding of the two approaches, including their differences and ways in which these differences can be reconciled, is important in developing a comprehensive and risk-based hazardous waste classification system. 

An essential consideration in developing a risk-based waste classification system is the levels of acceptable risk that should be assumed in classifying waste. Therefore, an important concern in developing a comprehensive waste classification system is the different approaches to management of stochastic risks that have been used for radionuclides and hazardous chemicals. 

There are two possible alternatives to using risk directly as the basis for waste classification non-risk-based systems and surrogate systems. Non-risk-based systems could use any conceivable attribute of hazardous waste as a basis for classification, including its source (see Sections 4.1 and 4.2 for examples) or the date it was produced. These bases are at best somewhat related to risk and at worst are totally unrelated. Because of this variable relationship, the use of non-risk-based approaches to waste classification could result in an unacceptable risk if the waste is managed in a way that does not provide adequate long-term protection, or an inappropriate allocation of resources if relatively innocuous wastes are managed in the same way as much more hazardous wastes. 

Fig. 6. An iategrated approach to the management of municipal soHd waste (MSW), advocated by the U.S. EPA, that links source segregation, recycling, waste-to-energy (WTE), and landfilling ia a single system. Source segregation refers to the separation of compostable and recyclable components from the balance of the trash at the poiat where MSW is collected. In source reduction (not shown), another action to reduce waste to landfills, changes are made ia...

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