FEB 621 TERM PAPER ON VOLUME REDUCTION TECHNOLOGIES IN WASTE MANAGEMENT

University of Nairobi School of Engineering Department of Environmental and Biosystems Engineering Post Office Box 30197-00100 Nairobi - Kenya

Student: Stephen Nyangau Nyakondo Registration Number: F56/75492/09 E-mail: stefnya@yahoo.com

Instructor Dr. A. Ali Lecturer, Water and Waste Water treatment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................................. i 1 2 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1 LITERATURE REVEIW ................................................................................................................... 1 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.2 2.3 2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4 2.3.5 2.3.6 2.3.7 3 4 Management of Wastes from Industries ..................................................................................... 1 Solid Waste ............................................................................................................................. 1 Industrial or Special Wastes.................................................................................................... 2 Hazardous Waste .................................................................................................................... 2 Industrial waste disposal ............................................................................................................. 4 Volume Reduction Technologies in Waste Management........................................................... 5 Recycling ................................................................................................................................ 5 Compaction ............................................................................................................................. 5 Incineration ............................................................................................................................. 6 Composting ............................................................................................................................. 6 Gas scrubbing.......................................................................................................................... 7 Flaring ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Adsorption............................................................................................................................... 7

CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................... 8 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 8

INTRODUCTION

The growing awareness of the existence of waste generated by human activities and its environmental impact is one of the critical events of the late twentieth century. Wastes from industries are customarily classified as liquid wastes, solid wastes, or air pollutants,and often the three are managed separately. The three separate categories are regulated by separate and distinct laws and regulations, and historically, public and governmental emphasis has moved from one category to another from one time period to another. The fact is, however, that the three categories of wastes are closely interrelated, both as they impact on the environment and as they are generated and managed by individual industrial facilities. Waste treatment processes can also transfer substances from one of the three waste categories to one or both of the others. On still a third level, waste treatment or disposal systems themselves can directly impact on the quality of air, water, or ground.

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2.1

LITERATURE REVEIW
Management of Wastes from Industries

Industrial wastes that are discharged to neither air nor water are classified as solid, industrial, or hazardous waste. At the national level, these wastes are regulated primarily by the Environmental Management Co-ordination Act (EMCA, 99), which contains specific design and management standards for both hazardous wastes and municipal solidwastes. 2.1.1 Solid Waste Solid waste (i.e., trash) includes such routine wastes as office trash, unreusable packaging, lunchroom wastes, and manufacturing or processing wastes that are not otherwise classifiedas hazardous under EMCA, 99. These wastes are normally deposited in trash cans and dumpsters and collected by a local trash hauler for disposal in a municipal landfill or treatment at a municipal incinerator. Although EMCA, 99 contains standards for municipal waste management facilities, these facilities are normally governed primarily by distinct laws and regulations. General solid waste management has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years because of a recognition of the relatively high proportion of hazardous compounds that solid waste contains. As a result, technical design standards for solid waste landfills are now approaching those for industrial and hazardous waste landfills. In addition, a reduction in the amount of available landfill space nationwide has caused a steady increase in tipping fees (the 1

fees charged for using municipal landfills) and has prompted energetic recycling efforts by many industries and communities. 2.1.2 Industrial or Special Wastes Industrial or special wastes are nonhazardous manufacturing wastes that are barred from municipal waste treatment or disposal facilities,but do not meet the regulatory definition of hazardous waste. Examples of these wastes include tannery leather scraps, feathers and other wastes from poultry processing, nonhazardous sludge, and asbestos. These materialsare normally disposed of in an industrial landfill, which is generally more strictly regulated,more highly designed, and more closely monitored than municipal landfills. Prior waste testing and approval are necessary before an industry can ship waste to the site. Industrial wastes are normally regulated, and most facilities are licensed to accept only certain kinds of waste.Special state approval is often necessary for unusual waste streams. 2.1.3 Hazardous Waste Hazardous waste is a type of waste that meets specific characteristics of toxicity, ignitability, reactivity, or corrosivity, or is specifically listed as a hazardous waste in EMCA, 99 regulations. Examples of wastes that are said toexhibit a hazardous characteristic are sludges Management of Industrial Wastes: Solids, Liquids, and Gases containing heavy metals that can be solubilized by certain weak acids (toxic), waste gasoline(ignitable), elemental alkali metals such as sodium or potassium (reactive), and acid wastes (corrosive). Listed hazardous wastes include waste commercial products, wastes from specific industrial processes, and wastes (e.g., spent solvents) from non-specific sources. Hazardous waste management is arguably among the most complex and comprehensive arenas of environmental regulation. EMCA, 99 regulations contain detailed requirements for storing, handling, transporting, treating, and disposing of hazardous wastes, and mandates a cradle-to-gravewaste tracking system to ensure that wastes are transported and disposed of only by properly licensed firms. Hazardous waste generators are required by the harzadous waste regulation, 07, to determine the concentrations of certain constituents in their hazardous wastes. Depending on the constituents present and their concentrations, specific treatment standards, expressed as specified technologies, may be required before the wastes can be land disposed. Residues resulting from treatment of the waste are subject to the same requirements and restrictions.The distinctions between each of the waste categories (municipal, industrial, and hazardous) as described are not always clear, and the onus is on the individual industry, or 2

appropriate facility, to make the correct determination.The so-called mixture rule illustrates the importance of keeping waste streams separate to minimize the volume of hazardous waste for disposal. In addition to these wastes, most industries produce by-products, scraps, or spent materials that can be reused, reclaimed, or recycled foruse on or off site. Depending on their characteristics, these materials may be regulated as hazardous wastes even during the recycling process, or they may become wastes if the demand for them decreases to the point where re-processing becomes unprofitable. A good working knowledge of the solid waste management laws, or the advice of a reputable consultant, is imperative to avoid violations of EMCA regulations. Waste management and disposal often represent significant and constantly increasing costs for industry. In order to minimize these costs and reduce the likelihood of enforcement actions by regulators, environmental managers must ensure that a sound program is in place and that all personnel, from laborers to top managers, are vigilant in carrying it out. The following guidelines are often helpful: Know the facility waste streams. Like industrial waste waters, these are seldom the same for different plants. As a first step, facilities must know how much of each type of solid waste they are producing. Facilities must ensure that hazardous wastes are not put in the trash dumpster, that listed hazardous wastes are not mixed with other non hazardous materials, and generally that wastes are handled as theyre supposed to be. Choose waste disposal firms carefully. Because facilities can be held responsible for clean-up costs of the waste facilities they use, waste transporters and facilities should be chosen carefully. This report describes some pollution prevention technologies that includes reduction of the quantity or toxicity of materials used in production. Industrywide, a great deal of money is wasted on testing and disposing of unknown materials or in investigating areas with insufficient historical data. Industrial Waste management consists of waste prevention, reuse, material recycling, composting, energy recovery and final disposal. Today, unlike in previous historical periods, this covers a very wide variety of materials, activities, industrial sectors and actors. A typical feature of the current reality is too often the lack of involvement and feeling of responsibility of the generator of waste for its fate. For example, in the Nairobi Industrial area, too few companies are concerned about their wastes beyond the end of their production processes. It is therefore essential, for an efficient waste management system, to develop and maintain a

sense of responsibility and a good common understanding of the materials and operations involved over the whole range of actors concerned. 2.2 Industrial waste disposal

Solid wastes from industries include all wastes that are discharged to places or facilities other than to the air or to the water, plus the residuals from air and water pollution control systems.They are classified as either industrial wastes, solid wastes, or hazardous wastes, depending on their characteristics. Disposal methods include; Landfills Incinerators Composting.

In some cases it is advantageous to subject certain of these wastes to treatment before disposal by one of these methods. The problem of soil and groundwater pollution greatly accelerated with the development of synthetic organics New synthetics that are being developed and produced in great quantity included chlorinated solvents, synthetic rubber, several pesticides and herbicides, polychlorinated bi-phenyls (PCBs), and plastics such as polyethylene, polyurethane, and a host of others. Many of these substances are classified as hazardous because of toxicity, flammability, reactivity, or corrosivity. Toxicity, of course, has always been synonymous with hazardous. In order to select an appropriate volume reduction technology for industrial its imperative that each significant waste stream should undergo characterization in order to determine the following: Opportunities for waste reduction Rate of waste generation Whether or not the waste is hazardous Suitability of the waste for landfilling Physical properties as they relate to suitability for landfilling Chemical properties as they relate to suitability for landfilling Estimation of leachate characteristics Suitability of the waste for incineration Estimated characteristics of stack emissions Estimated requirement for auxiliary fuel 4

Estimated characteristics of ash Suitability of the waste for composting

The most important aspect of waste management is to identify any and all opportunities for reducing the volume, strength, and hazardous nature of wastes, always with the goal of elimination. For this reason, the focus will be on waste volume reduction techniques. 2.3 Volume Reduction Technologies in Waste Management

This is one of the many technologies enlisted for pollution control in industrial waste management. Solid waste volume reduction can take place at several points in the waste management process. It can take the form of precycling or reuse behavior on the part of consumers. This behavior reduces solid waste at the source and prevents materials from ever entering the waste stream. Precycling on the part of consumers is the best initial activity to reduce the volume of solid waste. Reuse is also a measure that prevents or delays the migration of materials to the landfill. Once the decision is made that a product is no longer useful and needs to be discarded, there are several management techniques that can be used. 2.3.1 Recycling This waste reduction technology that diverts large volumes of materials from the waste stream to a manufacturing process. Glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, and other clean, sourceseparated materials are well-suited for use in the manufacture of new products. As markets become more readily available, the volume of materials that end up in landfills will be reduced even more. Such troublesome wastes as tires, appliances and construction debris are targets of serious recycling efforts because they are large-volume items, take up a lot of space in landfills, and do not provide good fuel for waste-to-energy facilities in their discarded state. Once recyclables have been separated from the waste stream, solid waste can be further reduced in volume through several methods. 2.3.2 Compaction Compaction of waste materials after source separation is useful for two reasons. Compaction prepares waste for efficient transport by truck, boat or rail car to landfills or other waste disposal facilities. Compacted waste takes up less space in a landfill, thereby extending the life of the landfill. In some cases, compacted waste can be stored for later disposal. It must be understood that the compaction of waste should only be done after all recyclables have been 5

removed since this process contaminates post-consumer materials and makes it almost impossible to recover them for a manufacturing process. 2.3.3 Incineration This is the burning of solid waste that can reduce its volume by upto 95%. In the early 1920s, incineration was used to reduce waste materials to what was thought of as a harmless ash. We now know that contaminants can become concentrated in the ash, qualifying it as a hazardous waste. It wasn't until the mid-1970s that waste-to-energy facilities using incineration were considered a viable option, as a consequence of the added benefit of energy supply. Poor plant design and operating standards resulted in lack of control over combustion conditions, giving rise to emissions of smoke, odors and high levels of residual organic matter in the ash. Incinerators were identified as major urban sources of heavy metals, dust, acid gases and NOx, and products of incomplete combustion, such as dioxins and other toxic organic micro-pollutants. Nevertheless, incineration remains a highly contentious waste management option, not least because of remaining concerns over emissions, especially of dioxins. Most urban places in the developing world have yet to experience the decline of traditional recovery of recyclables and the corresponding increase in postconsumer wastes, which, together with scarcity of dump space, have led many affluent cities to sponsor materials recovery. 2.3.4 Composting Composting is another volume reduction technique that can divert large volumes of waste material from the waste stream. It is the process of aerobic biological decomposition of organic materials under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity and pH so that the result is a soil conditioner that can be used in landscaping, agriculture and horticultural projects. Considering the high proportion of organic matter in the waste generated in third world cities (typically over 30%),composting can be an option to reduce the amount of wastes that are land filled, thus extending their lifespan. Firms like Hotels should be encouraged to create recycling and composting programs, and to institute source separation activities into inorganic and organic wastes. In this way, all organic materials could be composted. Hotels would also benefit from a greener image, which they could use in their marketing campaigns. Hotels would publicize their commitment and efforts in environmental protection.

Since organic matter usually contains a high moisture content, evaporation and decomposition can reduce the weight of the material by about 50%.Composting also prevents pollution and extends the life of landfills. It is socially desirable to divert as much organic matter from the landfills as possible, if it can be done at a low cost with some profit functions to the firms that practice it. Leaves, grass clippings and tree prunings can be reduced in volume through an active composting process both in the backyard and in municipal composting yards. Individual homeowners can compost in their back yards by using simple rounds of wire fencing placed in a shady, cool corner. The composting materials need to be managed through the addition of moisture, temperature monitoring, and frequent turning, until they become a rich soil for the garden. These solid waste volume reduction techniques for organics in the waste stream are simple and low cost and can be very effective. 2.3.5 Gas scrubbing This another volume reduction technology that vtransfers contaminants from the gas phase to a liquid phase. The selection of absorbewnt liquid is based on the chemical characteritics of the contaminats. This technology can be used on gaseous waste streams containing a wide variety of organic or inorganic contaminats, but is best suited for volatile organic compounds. the system is applicable for use with source processes that generate a contaminated gaseous exhaust, such as air stripping of groundwater or leachate, soil aeration, or exhaust from driers or incinerators. 2.3.6 Flaring Combustion is achemical reactiopn that thermally oxidizes a substance into products tha generally include ash, gases, water vapor, and heat. Flaring is aspecial category of combustion where wastes are exposewd to an open flame and no special features are employed to control temperatures or time of combustion. Suppllementary fuels may be needed to sustain continous combustion. Flares are commonly used in the oil and gas industry to dispose of waste gases at refineries; at sewage treatment plants to dispose of digester gas. Although flares provide sufficient destruction of contamints for conventional applications, exceptions are may be gaseous waste streams consisting of relatively simple hydrocarbons. 2.3.7 Adsorption This is the adherence of one substance to the suurface of another by physical and chemical processes. Treatment of ewaste streams by adsorption is eswsentially a process of transfering and concetrating contaminats from one medium (liquid or gas) to another (the absorbent). The most commonly used adsorbent is activated carbon; generally the granular form is used to treat gaseous watses. Carbon 7

adsorption is generally accep[ted for use in controlling volatile hydrocarbons; organic-related emmissions; certyain sulfur related emmissions such as hydrogen sulfide; mercury vinyl chloride etc. Adsorptions technoques are well established for removal of organic copmpouds and some inorganic compounds from gaseous streams.

CONCLUSION

Businesses that contribute to the reduction of solid waste are those that have been set up to take back, repair, and reuse products and materials that would otherwise end up in the waste stream.. All of these volume reduction techniques have a significant effect on how we live and how we do business. The goal of solid waste volume reduction is to view the waste stream as a resource to be "mined," leaving only those items behind that have truly outlived their usefulness.

REFERENCES
1. Blumberg, L., and R. Gottlieb. War on Waste: Can America Win Its Battle With Garbage? Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1989. 2. Kharbanda, O. P., and E. A. Stallworthy. Waste Management: Toward a Sustainable Society. Westport, CT: Auburn House/Greenwood, 1990. 3. Noyes, R., ed. Pollution Prevention Technology Handbook. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1993. 4. Porter, J. W., and J. Z. Cannon. "Waste Minimization: Challenge for American Industry." Business Horizons 35 (March-April 1992): 469. 5. Robinson, W. D., ed. The Solid Waste Handbook. New York: Wiley, 1986. 6. Franklin, W. E., and M. A. Franklin. "Recycling." The EPA Journal (July-August 1992): 7.Other 7. Solid Waste Recycling: The Complete Resource Guide. Washington, DC: Bureau of National Affairs, 1990. 8. Waste Technology Management Proffessor K. K. Karthick Thirumullai voyal, Chennai 9. http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/prospectivehealth/customcf/biowaste/Incinerat.pdf 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management 11. http://www.waste-technology.in/comparewastetechnologyinindia/ 12. Industrial Waste Treatment Handbook Frank Woodard, Ph.D., P.E., President Woodwards & curran. Copyright 2001 by ButterworthHeinemann