Waste management reduction

Many of these techniques involve source reduction— the preferred option on the EPA s hierarchy of waste management (24). Others deal with on-and off-site recycling. The best way to determine how these general approaches can fit a particular company s needs is to conduct a waste minimization... 

The application of waste-management practices in the United States has recently moved toward securing a new pollution prevention ethic. The performance of pollution prevention assessments and their subsequent implementation will encourage increased activity into methods that 1 further aid in the reduction of hazardous wastes. One of the most important and propitious consequences of the pollution-prevention movement will be the development of life-cycle design and standardized hfe-cycle cost-accounting procedures. These two consequences are briefly discussed in the two paragraphs that follow. Additional information is provided in a later subsection. 

As discussed in the introduction, the hierarchy set forth by the USEPA in the Pollution Prevention Act establishes an order to which waste-management activities should be employed to reduce the quantity of waste generated. The preferred method is source reduction, as indicated in Fig. 25-1. This approach actually precedes traditional waste management by addressing the source of the problem prior to its occurrence. 

Managerial information environmental policies and procedures prioritization of waste-management concerns automated or computerized waste-management systems inventory and distribution procedures maintenance schediiling practices planned modifications or revisions to existing operations that would impact waste-generation activities and the basis of source reduction decisions and policies... 

Calculate the annual operating costs for the existing process that needs waste treatment, and estimate how these costs would be altered by the introduction of waste-reduction options. Tabulate and compare the process and waste-treatment operating costs for both the existing and proposed waste-management options. If there are any monetary benefits (such as recycled or reused materials or wastes), then these should be subtracted from the total process or waste-treatment costs as appropriate. The expanded cost-analysis scheme discussed in Chapter 8 is appropriate to include at this point in the process. 

Several definitions of pollution prevention can be found in the literature (e.g., El-Halwagi and Petrides, 1995 Freeman, 1995 Theodore et al, 1994 Noyes, 1993). These definitions vary in the scope of pollution prevention. Throughout this book, the term pollution prevention will be used to describe any activity that is aimed at reducing, to the extent feasible, the release of undesirable substances to the environment. Other terms such as waste minimization, reduction, and management will be used interchangeably as synonyms for pollution prevention. 

The various waste-management options namely, source reduction, recycle/reuse, treatment, and disposal. 

There are significant opportunities for industry to reduce or prevent pollution at tlie source tlirough cost-effective changes in production, operation and raw materials use.. . . The opportmiities for source reduction are often not realized because existing regulations, and tlie industrial resources tliey require for compliance, focus upon treatment and disposal, rather tliaii source reduction.. . . Source reduction is fundamentally different and more desirable tlian waste management and pollution control. 

Waste management is a field that involves tlie reduction, stabilization, and ultimate disposal of waste. Waste reduction is tlie practice of minimizing file amount of material tliat requires disposal. Some of the common ways in which waste reduction is accomplished are incineration, compaction, and dewatering. The object of waste disposal is to isolate tlie material from tlie biosphere, and in the case of radioactive wtiste, allow it time to decay to sufficiently safe levels. 

The Pollution Prevention Act of 199027 requires facilities to report information about the management of Toxic Relief Inventory (TRI) chemicals in waste and efforts made to eliminate or reduce those quantities. The data summarized in Table 3.38 cover a four-year period and is meant to provide a basic understanding of the quantities of waste handled by the industry, the methods typically used to manage this waste, and recent trends in these methods.1 TRI waste management data can be used to assess trends in source reduction within individual industries and facilities, and for specific TRI chemicals. This information could then be used as a tool in identifying opportunities for pollution prevention compliance assistance activities. 

Although the quantities reported for the first two years are estimates of quantities already managed, the quantities reported for the third and fourth years are projections only. U.S. EPA requires these projections to encourage facilities to consider future waste generation and source reduction of those quantities as well as movement up the waste management hierarchy. Future-year estimates are not commitments that facilities reporting under TRI are required to meet. 

Metal finishers are seeing their profits shrink as waste management costs increase. To control waste disposal costs, metal finishers must focus on developing and implementing a facility-wide waste reduction program. In other words, as discussed in Section 6.4, metal finishers must consciously seek out ways to decrease the volume of waste that they generate. 

Landfill methods are considered the most economical and environmentally acceptable way of disposing of solid wastes throughout the world. Even with the implementation of waste reduction, recycling, and transformation technologies, disposal of residual solid waste in landfill will still remain an important component of an integrated solid waste management strategy.4... 

The primary objective is to develop an appropriate range of waste management options to be analyzed more fully in the detailed analysis phase of the FS.12 Appropriate waste management ensures the protection of human health and the environment. It may involve, depending on site-specific circumstances, complete elimination or destruction of hazardous substances at the site, significant reduction of concentrations of hazardous substances to acceptable health-based levels, and prevention of exposure to hazardous substances via engineering or institutional controls, or some combination of the above. 

Oxidation/reduction (redox) reactions, in hazardous waste management,... 

Geizer, K. Source reduction quantity and toxicity. Part 6B. Toxicity reduction. In Handbook of Solid Waste Management, 2nd ed. Kreith, F., Tchobanoglous, G., Eds. McGraw-HiU NY, 2002 6.27-6.41. 

Bishop, G. A., D. H. Stedman, J. E. Peterson, T. J. Hosick, and P. L. Guenther, A Cost-Effectiveness Study of Carbon Monoxide Emissions Reduction Utilizing Remote Sensing, J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc., 43, 978-988 (1993). 

Kuklin, A., and J. H. Seinfeld, Emission Reductions Needed to Meet the Standard for Ozone in Southern California Effect of Boundary Conditions, J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc., 45, 899-901 (1995). 

Uchida, T., Itoh, I. Harada, K. 1996. Immobilization of heavy metals contained in incinerator fly ash by application of soluble phosphate - treatment and disposal cost reduction by combined use of high specific surface area lime . Waste Management, 16, 475-481. 

---