Solids Waste and Gases
Basic Olicognograph: Solid Waste Management
Waste what ?
Waste is: "any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges".
"The main purpose of waste management is to maintain a sanitary and comfortable living environment, through the restriction of waste discharge, appropriate sorting, storage, collection, transport, recycling, disposal, or the like of waste and conservation of a clean living environment”. The hard complex program of waste management human economics is preciselly between individual behaviors and care of commons. Just a business of waste-care solutions is not just business. There is unecessary abundance of waste, not scarcity. So if we see the cost effectivity with private solutions of prevention, at least of oneself behavior respect to own produced waste, we may understand that collectively it is not so easy to obtain perfectly clean environments. But the solution can be also a matter of social construction rather than only a scarcity of means for cleaning. Socially and fundamentally there could be a problem with the way people see their social ownership rights to be in this society and care to maintain it clean for themselves and for anyone".
Devices, processes and systems important in waste management are like: "1) Incinerators 2) Surveying 3 ) Hydrology Drainage Systems 4) Pavements 5) Provisions and Geometric Design for Roads, Streets, Walks 6) Open Storage Areas 7) Domestic Wastewater Control 8) Industrial and Oily Wastewater Control 9) Fencing, Gates, and Guard Systems 10) Hazardous Waste Storage and Transfer Facilities 11) Groundwater Pollution Control". So see the philosophical paradox: cleanlyness is just composed of plenty of dirty things.
Waste Collection and Transport
"Collected domestic waste is transported directly to an intermediate treatment facility, such as an incineration plant, or transported to a transfer facility and transferred to a larger vehicle when the distance to a treatment facility is great". Green solutions of selected collections of waste have emerged. The economics of their management face plenty of difficulties: dispersion of sources vs. need of huge scale for profitability of secondary uses or recycling. Small margins between profits and costs of adverse effects. May be theoretically it would be to work switching the concept of externalities. That is to say like using concepts of the time which remain, for example of the existence of native forms of raw material.
"Waste generated through biological means or mechanical operation is segregated into flammable and inflammable garbage, or according to different types of industrial waste. Thereafter, segregated waste is collected by the local authority or transported by the waste generator for appropriate treatment. Alternatively, its collection and transportation is consigned to a company that is qualified to collect and transport waste. These technologies are used for the efficient collection and transportation of waste without allowing it to become dispersed".
Diversity of transports types apply, even with similarities they can have some specification related to the waste. Discrimination of flows of waste can start very soon. In many facilities management almost always exist the differenciation between clean and dirty flows which should not cross. At the start of collection classification selection are often applied. Specific transports also exist. There is both logistic management to take into account, the type (and safety of the product transported and cost). Transport toxics products be it primary material or waste may not call for very different care but as to look to their value. Different specific vehicules have been created. Many are now part of urban equipments togather with urban furnitures. Availability, from one country to another can vary a lot. "Transports waste through a pipeline with compressed air, but makes with waste segregation". "In developing countries, waste is manually collected by humans in many areas".
Trace-ability is turning increasingly important, whatever the waste. "Technologies for making the waste flow transparent that accurately ascertains and manages the flow of waste and thus makes it transparent is effective for preventing illegal dumping. Management form (manifest sheet), in which the type and quantity of industrial waste, the name of the waste-generating business, the name of the collecting and transporting business and the name of the waste management business are recorded. It is handed over to the collecting and transporting business and the collecting and transporting business fills in the manifest sheet (with a receipt stamp of the collecting and transporting business, the confirmation of the completion of transport, a receipt stamp of the waste management business, the confirmation of the completion of disposal, etc.) and returns a copy of the manifest sheet to the waste-generating business".
Waste Treatment
"After being collected and transported, solidwaste is subjected to intermediate treatment, such as incineration, composting, shredding and compaction, so as to become suitable for final disposal, including landfilling, or reuse. There are 3 types of gasification and melting furnace: a kiln type, fluidized bed type and shaft furnace type".
For wastewaters: "purification tanks (combined-type private sewage treatment systems) have the advantages that they can treat wastewater in almost the same manner as other wastewater treatment facilities, that a system for an ordinary family can be installed in a space equivalent to that of one passenger car and that these can be employed efficiently in less heavily populated areas. Night soil collected from houses without flush toilets and sludge collected periodically from purification tanks are sanitarily treated in night soil treatment facilities, etc. The night soil treatment facility effectively removes not only organic substances but also nitrogen and phosphorus, which cause eutrophication, pathogenic microorganisms, etc.". There are often cultural differences in the traditional management of waste transposed to modernity. Some country have been used to a direct handling. Others shamingly specialized low inferior casts. Others care for collective disposal, sewers and find hard not to have them or made societies where care are home privy and pay less for their management or catch and keep the public subsidies for their rich suburbs.
"If waste contains a hazardous substance, or if a hazardous substance is unintentionally generated in the course of waste management, secondary pollution may result. Therefore, it is necessary to remove hazardous substances contained in waste during disposal and to prevent secondary pollution from occurring in the treatment process. Such measures against hazardous substances require various technologies, adapted to individual hazardous substances. That is explosive, toxic or infectious or that may be harmful to human health or the living environment is designated as waste under special control. Also, parts from home electric appliances that contain PCB, soot and dust generated in municipal waste incinerators and infectious waste generated in medical institutions are designated as general waste under special control. Examples of the sort: asbestos, mercury, radioactive waste, infectious hazard waste, dioxins, PCB (polychlorinated-biphenyls)".
Waste of Waste
"Waste residue, after intermediate treatment, is disposed of at a final disposal site. For industrial waste, final disposal sites are classified into 3 types, i.e. strictly controlled landfill site, inert controlled landfill site and controlled landfill site, according to the type of waste to be disposed of. Various technologies are used for stable, high-technology construction, to treat leachate, etc". Landfill disposal is all a professional skill managing different engineering aspects: site, landscaping (including forestry), soil properties, hydrogeology, drains and culverts, roads, services areas and so on.
"In controlled landfill sites, industrial waste that can be disposed of only in strictly controlled landfill sites, or industrial waste other than that which can be disposed of in inert controlled landfill sites, is disposed of. According to the decomposition of waste or the elution of metal, retained water (the water held in the waste disposed of or the surface water that permeates into the site) and gas are generated".
"In order to prevent retained water from contaminating groundwater, the landfill site is isolated from the outside by means of seepage control, such as a liner sheet. The retained water generated in the landfill site is collected in drain pipes to be treated in a treatment facility before being discharged. For the landfill disposal of general waste, where the residue of incinerated waste is mostly disposed of, in general, landfill sites equivalent to controlled landfill sites are constructed".
"In strictly controlled landfill sites, industrial waste that contains a hazardous substance, such as metal, which does not meet the criteria stipulated by the applicable law, is disposed of. In order to isolate hazardous substances from nature, strictly controlled landfill sites are enclosed in 35 cm or thicker reinforced concrete to completely isolate the waste contained in it from the environment. Least controlled landfill sites receive industrial waste that cannot be decomposed. this type of landfill site does not require seepage control work to isolate the site from the outside world or facilities for collecting, draining and treating seepage water".
"Provide a minimum buffer zone of 15 meters between the hazardous waste storage building and adjacent inhabited areas, facilities, and waterways. The buffer zone begins at the outer limit of the storage containers when outdoor storage is planned. Larger buffer zones are required for mission areas storing products such as petroleum, flammable or combustible liquids, and toxic materials".
"Evaluate the following factors when selecting a site for a Hazardous Waste storage facility: the quantity and type of hazardous material stored, storage retrieval system (e.g., racking, shelving, and stacking), automatic fire suppression systems, size of doors and windows and other openings on adjacent buildings, building construction materials (including fire walls and doors), the relative height of adjacent buildings, and other environmental conditions such as prevailing winds and topography. Determine variations in ground water elevation and the direction of ground water flow. The site shall be above, or protected from, flooding. The flood plains are the lowland and relatively flat areas adjoining inland and coastal waters, including, at a minimum, those areas subject to a 1% or greater chance of flooding in any given year. The base flood plain shall be used to designate the 100-year flood plain, the 1% flooding probability. Soil and geologic engineering characteristics of the soil shall be determined at the locations and the access roads".
Sustainability
"Ecological risk assessments (ERAs) could be improved by better use of ecological information. Landscape features that determine the quality of wildlife habitat can have a profound influence on the estimated exposure to stressors. Approaches to characterizing the quality of habitat for a given species approaches fall into 3 generalized categories: (1) entirely qualitative as in suitable or unsuitable, (2) semiquantitative as in formalized habitat suitability index models, or (3) highly quantitative site-specific characterization of population demographic data".
"To construct a sound material-cycle society, it is necessary to implement the 3Rs: reducing (controlling the production of wastes), reuse, and recycling. Specifically it is necessary to first limit as much as possible the production of waste and at the same time, reuse, recycle, and thermal-recycle wastes produced, as much as possible, in this order of priority. Sort of recycling driven by the economic value of amount (paper), load amounts for treatment (glass, iron), qualitative separation (cars, electronic parts) or usable issues like producing heat from waste or fertilizer from organic waste".
"Kyoto CO2 reduction target in Japan": 1) Ensure 6% reduction commitment, 2) Steady implementation of a continuous as well as long-term GHG emissions reduction on a global scale. Integration of the environment and the economy, 3) Promotion of technological innovation 4) Promotion of participation and collaboration by all the stakeholders, 5) Utilization of various policy measures. 6) Evaluation and review process. 7) Promote the use of blended cement - reduction of CO2 generated by waste incineration 8) Methane - Reduction of final disposal volume 9) N2O . Improvement of incineration - incineration facility for sewage sludge and municipal solid waste 10) Other GHGs (HFC,PFC,SF6): Promote systematic actions by industries - development and use of alternatives - Collect HFC filled in apparatus as refrigerant complying with regulation 11) Policies and measures on GHGs sinks: - Securing absorption - achieve the goals for Forestation - Promote urban greening. 12) Cross-sectoral measures: - accounting, reporting & announcement - Promotion of environment - conscious attitudes in business activities - Public awareness raising campaign - Initiative by public institutions - The daylight saving time - Policy mix (environment tax to be discussed.) 13) Basic measures: - Domestic system to account GHG emissions and absorption - Promotion of technology development and R&D - Promotion of international collaboration and cooperation - Promotion of overseas projects for emission reduction - Efforts to obtain GHG Credit".
