Waste minimization practice

It would obviously be desirable to eliminate the generation of waste. Practical alternatives are to minimize it by reduction at source or to recycle it. Table 16.7 illustrates the hierarchy of waste minimization practices. Source reduction includes increased process efficiency economies in the use of energy are also relevant, e.g. it may result in a decrease in the consumption of fossil fuels ... 

Although waste minimization is not specifically addressed in the HAZ-WOPER standard, it does represent a management practice that supports worker and equipment decontamination. Waste minimization practices help to protect the environment and decrease project costs... 

Conway R.A., Warner, D.J., Wiles, C.C., and Duckett, E.J. Hazardous and Industrial Solid Waste Minimization Practices, ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA, 1989, pp. 209. 

The next paragraphs discuss the inadequacy of end-of-pipe pollution control approaches, waste management hierarchy, incentives gained from adopting waste minimization practices, barriers to effective waste minimization, and applications of waste minimization programs in drilling operations. The following is a summary. 

Drilling fluid systems It is important to design the drilling fluid system with specific waste minimization practices in place. These waste minimization techniques should be integrated into the drilling fluid system portion of the drilling plan [51,54,55,67-71]. 

Hazardous and Industrial Solid Waste Minimization Practices... 

The committee evaluated the technologies on the principle of green chemistry (Mulholland and Dyer, 1999). In other words, pollution prevention and waste minimization practices are implemented at the beginning of the process (pollution prevention) as opposed to after the fact (poUulion abatement). The following factors were considered ... 

Cheremisinoff, N. P. 2003. Handbook of Solid Waste Management and Waste Minimization Technologies. Boston, MA Butterworth-Heinemann. An essential tool for plant managers, process engineers, environmental consultants, and site remediation specialists that focuses on practices for handling a broad range of industrial solid waste problans and presents information on waste minimization practices. Included in the text are sidebar discussions, questions for consideration and discussion, recommended resources (print and Web) for the reader, and a comprehensive glossary. 

Fig. 2.3. Waste minimization practices in other countries. "Foreign Practices in Hazardous Waste Minimization/ Medford, MA Center for Environmental Management, Tufts University, 1986.)...

Various waste minimization practices used in other countries are shown in Fig. 2.3. 

Chemical processes will in the future need to be designed as part of a sustainable industrial development which retains the capacity of ecosystems to support industrial activity and life. This book therefore places a high emphasis on waste minimization and energy efficiency in the context of good economic performance and good health and safety practices. 

Reduced Emissions and Waste Minimization. Reducing harmful emissions and minimizing wastes within a process by inclusion of additional reaction and separation steps and catalyst modification may be substantially better than end-of-pipe cleanup or even simply improving maintenance, housekeeping, and process control practices. SO2 and NO reduction to their elemental products in fluid catalytic cracking units exemplifies the use of such a strategy (11). 

The main objectives of RCRA ate to protect pubHc health and the environment and to conserve natural resources. The act requires EPA to develop and adininistet the following programs soHd waste disposal practices providing acceptable protection levels for pubHc health and the environment transportation, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes practices that eliminate or minimize hazards to human health and the environment the use of resource conservation and recovery whenever technically and economically feasible and federal, state, and local programs to achieve these objectives. 

Waste minimization generally considers all of the methods in the EPA hierarchy (except for disposal) appropriate to reduce the volume or quantity of waste requiring dispos (i.e., source reduction). The definition oi source reduction as applied in the Pollution Prevention Act, however, is any practice that reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream... 

Table 16.7 Waste minimization in the hierarchy of waste management practices...

You should use the material balance information to identify the major sources of waste and pollution, to look for deviations from the norm in waste production, to identify areas of unexplained losses, and to pinpoint operations that contribute to flows that exceed national-, local-, or site-discharge regulations. Also, a good thing to remember is that, from a practical standpoint, process ciency is synonymous with waste minimization. 

Information provided in Part III. Section 8. of Form R is optional. In this section, you may identify waste minimization efforts relating to the reported toxic chemical. Waste minimization reduces the amount of the toxic chemicai in wastes by reducing waste generation or by recycling. This can be accomplished by equipment changes, process modifications, product reformulation, chemical substitutions, or other techniques. Waste minimization refers exclusively to practices which prevent the generation of wastes. Treatment or disposal does not minimize waste and should not be reported In this section. Recycling or reuse of a toxic chemical is considered waste minimization. Waste minimization applies to air emissions and wastewater, as well as to liquid or solid mate-... 

Sludge or solid waste is unavoidably produced in the treatment of water containing suspended solids. There are, however different technologies that we can select among that will indeed concentrate these solids, and thereby reduce the volumes that we ultimately must dispose of. In addition, some sludge can be stabilized and treated, which can impart a low, but none-the-less marketable value to this waste. These technologies and practices do indeed constitute pollution prevention and waste minimization programs within water treatment plant operations, and they can... 

This act completely reformed arrangements for controlling pollution at national and local levels and created a complete interlocking framework for pollution control. It introduced integrated pollution control (IPC), a new approach with waste minimization at its centre and a commitment to higher environmental standards via the concept of the best practical environmental option (BPEO). The reform of waste disposal is designed to minimize waste and maximize recycling. 

Anderson, N.G., 2000, Practical Process Research and Development , Academic Press. Atherton, J.H. and Jones, I.K., 1995, in Chemistry of Waste Minimization , Clark, J.H. (Ed.), Blackie Acad, and Professional, London, p. 417. 

The CAA compliance deadline may cause companies to install simple end-of-pipe emissions controls, instead of pollution prevention process changes. In order to limit this practice and encourage waste minimization, U.S. EPA allows owners and operators of combustion facilities to request a one-year extension to the compliance period in cases where additional time is needed to install pollution prevention and waste minimization measures that reduce the amount of hazardous waste entering combustion feedstreams.16 Requests for a one-year extension must reasonably document that the waste minimization measures could not be installed in time to meet the three-year compliance period. Decisions to grant the extensions will be made by U.S. EPA or authorized state programs. 

It is suggested that waste minimization, spill prevention, leakage prevention, volume reduction, waste recycle, energy conversion, and conservation be practiced by the industry as well as the community. Innovative technology must be developed, and good managerial methods must be established for this practice. With all these improvements, modern incinerators and landfill facilities may still be needed, but their numbers and sizes will be significantly reduced. 

This VIP is considered by some engineering contractors to have become standard practice. For those where it is not standard practice, the waste minimization VIP should be executed in a formal workshop with an experienced facilitator with project owner and engineering contractor representatives always involved. A cold eyes reviewer with extensive experience should also be included to add a nonbiased perspective. The waste minimization VIP should be implemented at the feasibility phase (FEL-2) when preliminary PFDs and heat and material balances are available. 

The WRAP Program, in an attempt to practice what we preach, is in the process of carrying out a waste minimization assessment at our own facility, the A. W. Briedenbach Environmental Research Center. The Center houses three major research laboratories as well as several administrative and support... 

Waste minimization including in-plant changes, use of more efficient rinsing practices and, wherever possible changing to more easily waste treatable process chemistries... 

Minimizing management s exposure to risks associated with waste disposal Offering economic incentives for practicing waste minimization. 

---