Waste generation, trends

Myers, P. 2003. Hazardous Waste Generation Trends in California 1997 - 2001. Permitting Division, Department of Toxic Substances Control. State of California, Sacramento. 

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. 

It may be possible to improve the operation of zinc cyanide process solutions and effect enormous reductions in waste generation.[12][13] After improving operations, it may be further possible to capture and return "escaped" process solution from the rinsing system. However, even if cyanide plating systems could be "close-looped" and the process solutions successfully maintained using standard purification techniques, the trend is definitely towards the substitutes. It may be necessary to operate... 

Use of a particular terminology usually is linked to the forum in which the debate is occurring and hence these terms have subtle differences, but share the major emphasis on prevention. That is, all of these descriptors refer to the intuitive perspective that it is advantageous to manage chemical losses or wastes generated from the top of a hierarchy for waste minimization. In addition, there is a certain trend to reinvent terms with new government initiatives. 

Projected emissions from the waste sector were based on levels of regional waste generation and on the implementation of Regional Waste Management Plans. The implementation of these plans has resulted in increased recycling rates and this trend is projected to continue. However due to the time lag in decomposition (CH4 emissions from landfills peak three to seven years after materials are deposited) the benefits of this recycling will not accrue immediately. The uncertainty regarding the diversion of waste from landfills to planned municipal waste incinerators also complicated projections in this sector. 

Fig. 1 Trends in municipal solid-waste generation and management in the United States, 1960-2010. (From Ref. l)...

This systems tracks and trends hazardous waste generation, management, and minimization. 

The SNL Compliance Metrics Department tabulates a set of Performance Indicators (Pis) for SNL/NM facilities and issues a quarterly report to track trends and provide data for analysis on these Pis. The Pis with particular applicability to HCF operations include personnel radiation exposures, low-level radioactive waste generation, reportable releases to the environment, DOE reportable occurrences, and Price Anderson Amendments Act violations. 

Yoshizawa, S., Tanaka, M. and Shekdar, A. V. (2004). Global trends in waste generation. In Gaballah, I., Mishar, B., Solozabal, R. and Tanaka, M. (eds) Recycling, waste treatment and clean technology. TMS Mineral, Metals and Materials Publishers, Madrid, Spain. 

FIG. 2 Trends in municipal solid waste generation from 1960 to 2000. (After U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ref. [7], 2000.)... 

The sources of wastewater generation in petroleum refineries have been discussed previously in this chapter. Table 5 presents a qualitative evaluation of wastewater flow and characteristics by fundamental refinery processes [5]. The trend of the industry has been to reduce wastewater production by improving the management of the wastewater systems. Table 6 shows waste-water loadings and volumes per unit fundamental process throughput in older, typical, and newer technologies [15]. Table 7 shows typical wastewater characteristics associated with several refinery processes [16]. 

The most common HPLC column diameter is 4.6 mm. There is a trend toward narrower columns (2 mm, 1 mm, and capillary columns down to 25 pm) for several reasons. Narrow columns are more compatible with mass spectrometers, which require low solvent flow. Narrow columns require less sample and produce less waste. Heat generated by friction of solvent flow inside the column is more easily dissipated from a narrow column to maintain isothermal conditions. Instruments must be specially designed to accommodate column diameters <2 mm or else band broadening outside the column becomes significant. 

In relation to future trends of the membrane treatments described in this chapter, they are expected to be applied for medical and research wastes of low-medium activity contaminated with Cs, or other radioisotopes with similar characteristics. Furthermore, membrane treatment has been proved as an efficient and quick treatment in an incident that generates low-medium radioactive wastes. 

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