Waste Management and Resource Recovery

Charles R. Rhyner, Leander J. Schwartz, Robert B. Wenger, Mary G. Kohrell

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780873715720
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351405317
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environment & Energy Policy
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book provides a basic understanding of waste management problems and issues faced by modern society. Scientific, technical, and environmental principles are emphasized to illustrate the processes of municipal and industrial solid wastes and liquid wastes, and the nature of impacts resulting from waste dispersal and disposal in the environment. Economic, social, legal, and political aspects of waste management are also addressed. Environmental issues and concerns receive thorough coverage in discussing waste reduction, resource recovery, and efficient and practical waste disposal systems. Other specific topics include recycling, physical and chemical processing, the biological treatment of waste solids, incineration, pyrolysis, and energy recover, hazardous wastes, and landfill management.The role of government and other institutions in waste management and resource recovery matters is also detailed. Discussion questions, worked examples, and end-of-chapter problems reinforce important concepts. Waste Management and Resource Recovery is particularly suitable as a text in waste management courses in environmental science or engineering programs. It also works well as a reference for practitioners in the waste management field.

CHAPTER 1

Waste Management and Resource Conservation

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Waste is material perceived to have little or no value by society’s producers or consumers. Nearly all human activities produce waste. Solid wastes are generated during the acquisition of raw materials, during refining and manufacturing processes, and when products are used by consumers. Large quantities result from agricultural and mining operations, and in the form of residues from wastewater treatment and electrical power generation. In some cases wastes are hazardous and require special handling or treatment in order to prevent serious harm to humans or ecosystems. In addition to solid waste, human activities generate liquid and gaseous by-products which often exceed the assimilative capacity of the natural environment. No matter what type of waste is being considered, individuals, organizations, and governmental bodies have a responsibility to find ways to minimize waste generation, control harmful waste emissions, recover material and energy resources from the waste stream, and dispose of waste in a manner which protects human health and minimizes environmental degradation.

This textbook focuses on a portion of the overall problem of managing society’s wastes by providing an integrated approach to the subjects of solid waste management and wastewater treatment. A unified approach which includes a study of all forms of waste—solid, liquid, and gaseous—is theoretically appealing but beyond the scope of this writing project. A practical justification for giving priority to solid waste management and wastewater treatment is that many other pollution problems tend to be reduced to one or both of these domains. Thus, for example, an electrostatic precipitator may be very successful in reducing the dispersal of airborne pollutants but this very success adds to the problem of solid waste management because of the accumulation of fly ash, a solid material which is often landfilled.

There is also a strong interplay between the fields of solid waste management and wastewater treatment. Wastewater treatment processes generate large quantities of sludge, a semisolid or solid material which is sometimes handled within solid waste management systems. Sanitary landfills often generate leachate which must be treated in wastewater treatment facilities. It is also to be noted that there are processes—composting and incineration are examples—which are utilized in both solid waste systems and wastewater treatment operations.

The study of solid waste management and wastewater treatment processes incorporates scientific, technical, and environmental principles. All are emphasized in this book along with economic, social, political, and legal aspects. Scientific concepts are needed in order to understand how waste management and treatment processes work and the nature of impacts resulting from waste disposal and dispersal in the environment. However, scientific and technical insights by themselves are insufficient because the establishment of effective and efficient waste management policies requires knowledge from the social sciences, including economics, political science, and law.

Waste management problems are high on the list of environmental concerns of the general public, particularly for people in the developed countries. In the United States there have been a number of incidents in recent years which have created a heightened public awareness of waste disposal problems and issues. One of the most famous is the Love Canal episode in Niagara Falls, New York, where several decades ago the Hooker Electrochemical Corporation dumped 19,800 tonnes of hazardous waste in a 6.5 hectare site. A school and a housing subdivision were later built on and adjacent to the site. In the late 1970s when hazardous wastes began seeping into basements of buildings constructed in the subdivision, over 900 families were evacuated from the area. Federal agencies incurred over $140 million in cleanup costs and the lives of many individuals were disrupted and threatened with real and potential health problems.

Other famous cases where industrial wastes have badly polluted groundwater or surface water (Blackman, 1993) include the Hardeman County, Tennessee, landfill where wells of 40 families were polluted with the chemicals endrin, dieldrin, aldrin, and heptachor; the LaBounty Dump near Charles City, Iowa, where arsenic and organic chemicals leached from the dump into the groundwater and the Cedar River; the Life Sciences Products operation in Hopewell, Virginia, which contaminated the sediments in the James River and Chesapeake Bay with kepone; and the Reilly Tar and Chemical Corporation discharges of contaminated wastewaters into wetlands. Industrial wastes are not the only problem, however. In Madison, Wisconsin, seepage of methane from a municipal landfill into basements in an adjoining residential area caused an explosion and destruction of a house in 1983 (O’Leary et al., 1988). Two tenants were burned in the explosion.

Most current discussions, however, do not focus on localized dramatic episodes of the type listed above, but upon the burgeoning amounts of waste arising from what is often referred to as the “throw-away” societies existing in the developed countries. Televised images of barges or railroad cars laden with garbage traveling circuitous routes over a period of many days in search of a disposal site dramatize this issue. Problems faced by cities and local communities in finding alternatives to landfills which have reached capacity, or are close to it, have forced citizens to confront waste management issues on a daily basis. Where once it was possible to throw all household wastes into a single container and carry it to curbside for pickup, now, in the interest of saving landfill space, residents are often required to segregate wastes into two or more containers for recycling. In addition, some materials—yard waste is an example—are banned from disposal and are not collected from households in many states.

Furthermore, costs of waste disposal have risen greatly in recent years. For example, local governments which only a few years ago may have paid $10 or $15 per tonne for the disposal of solid waste at a landfill, may now be paying as much as $75 or $100 per tonne. Other communities are making major financial commitments to cover the cost of new solid waste processing facilities. Collection costs have also increased due to the more complex and labor intensive systems required to collect an array of materials which are segregated from each other. Despite inconveniences and higher costs, citizens often willingly support recycling activities in the interest of conserving resources and improving environmental quality. This gives rise to the additional problem of finding and creating markets for products manufactured from recycled materials.

State governments and the federal government have responded to citizen concerns about waste management problems by assuming a regulatory role and providing financial assistance for the implementation of improved waste management and wastewater treatment systems. For example, since the beginning of the “Environmental Decade” in the 1970s the United States Government has enacted the Clean Water Act (CWA); the Clean Air Act (CAA); the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA); the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as “Superfund.” All have resulted in new regulations or, through financial incentives, stimulated improvements in waste management or wastewater treatment practices with the goal of achieving a cleaner environment.

Despite the fact that some gains have occurred in protecting or improving environmental quality, many challenges remain in the waste management field. Individuals, businesses, industries, and governmental bodies will be required to make strategic and difficult choices in order to maintain or, in many cases, restore ecosystem health. With a rapidly growing global population which many people predict will reach 8 to 10 billion by the year 2025, decisions leading to sound waste management practices and wise use of resources will be crucial.

1.2 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF WASTE MANAGEMENT

Problems of waste management have existed ever since humans made the transition from hunting and gathering societies to settled communities. In early references to problems associated with waste generated by humans, the primary concern seems to have been with the nuisance factor and its potential impact on health. Wastes close at hand were unsightly, filthy, and foul-smelling, thereby bringing discomfort and inconvenience. Technological innovations in the construction of houses designed to remove garbage and human wastes from the immediate presence of the household appeared to have occurred in India, Egypt, and China as early as the third and second centuries B.C. According to Melosi (1981), the first municipal dumps were established somewhat later in Athens, when about 500 B.C. “the Council of Athens began requiring scavengers to dispose of wastes no less than a mile from the city walls.” Throughout much of the medieval period an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to the problems of human waste were very much in evidence. For example, in about 1400 A.D. a regulation was enacted in Paris which stated that those who brought a cart of sand or gravel into the city were to leave with a load of mud or refuse (Melosi, 1981).

The Industrial Revolution, which brought with it the crowding of large numbers of people into cities, first in Europe and then somewhat later in the United States, gave rise to pollution problems on an unprecedented scale. Smoke from factory chimneys, the discharge of industrial wastes into rivers and streams, and the piling up of garbage and other types of solid waste in vacant lots, alleys, and street corners created an unsightly and filthy mess. But a deeper level of concern arose as people gradually became aware of the connection between communicable diseases and the wastes which were so prevalent in their environment.

One of the most significant advances in understanding the connection between wastes and diseases occurred as a result of a classic study conducted by John Snow, a London physician (Rosenberg, 1962). Dr. Snow’s theory was that the cause of the cholera epidemics which occurred in London in the mid-nineteenth century was a poison found in the excreta and vomitus of cholera patients. When a new epidemic arose in 1854 he was prepared to test his theory based on the sources of Londoners’ water supply. Water was supplied to the residents of London by two companies, the Lambeth and the Southwark and Vauxhall. The Southwark and Vauxhall company drew its water supply from the lower Thames after it had been contaminated with London sewage, while Lambeth’s came from the upper Thames. Snow was able to show that cholera occurred far more frequently among the users of the water supplied by the Southwark and Vauxhall company. Snow came to his remarkable conclusion before the germ theory of disease had been fully developed, and approximately 30 years before the bacterial organism which causes cholera was isolated and shown to be the specific cause of this food and waterborne disease. As the germ theory of disease came to be more fully understood it stimulated measures to improve public health.

Even the affluent were unable to escape the ravages of the underside of the Industrial Revolution. Since individuals could no longer take actions on their own to escape nuisances and disease, collective approaches were required and pressures mounted for the development of sanitation services. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed the appearance of several types of municipal sanitation services, including garbage collection, street cleaning, and wastewater collection and treatment.

However, even after the institution of garbage collection services, waste disposal methods remained rudimentary and consisted mainly of indiscriminate discharging of wastes in town dumps, on open land, and sometimes into watercourses. In a few cases solid waste was used as fill in roadbeds, or the organic portion was turned into fertilizer or animal feed. Similarly, the first sewerage systems were introduced as a means of collecting and transporting wastewater, but they lacked any form of treatment and the contents were discharged directly into the nearest watercourse. Vesilind and Peirce (1982) report that the first wastewater treatment process consisted of screening for the removal of floatables which were buried or incinerated. The first complete treatment systems were operational by the turn of the century and included land spraying of effluent.

As the inadequacies of waste disposal began to be recognized, interest developed in new forms of waste handling. Foremost was the attention given to the “cremation” or burning of waste. The first systematic “cremators” or incinerators of solid waste were developed in England in the 1870s (Melosi, 1981). Following the English init...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• CHAPTER 1. WASTE MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE CONSERVATION
• CHAPTER 2. WASTE GENERATION
• CHAPTER 3. COLLECTION AND TRANSPORTATION OF SOLID WASTE
• CHAPTER 4. SOLID WASTE SOURCE REDUCTION AND RECYCLING
• CHAPTER 5. PROCESSING SOLID WASTES AND RECYCLABLE MATERIALS
• CHAPTER 6. WASTEWATER TREATMENT
• CHAPTER 7. BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT OF WASTE SOLIDS
• CHAPTER 8. INCINERATION, PYROLYSIS, AND ENERGY RECOVERY
• CHAPTER 9. LANDFILLING OF WASTES
• CHAPTER 10. LANDFILL LEACHATE AND GAS MANAGEMENT
• CHAPTER 11. APPLICATION OF WASTEWATER AND BIOSOLIDS TO LAND
• CHAPTER 12. HAZARDOUS WASTE
• CHAPTER 13. COSTS AND MANAGEMENT OF WASTE FACILITIES AND SYSTEMS
• GLOSSARY
• Appendix A Factors for Conversion of Units
• Appendix B Typical Densities of Recyclable Materials
• Appendix C U.S. Federal Laws Related to Waste Management
• Appendix D Municipal Solid Waste Management: State-by-State
• Appendix E State Disposal Bans and Recycling Laws
• Appendix F Operating Biosolids Composting Facilities in the U.S
• Appendix G Operating Municipal Waste-to-Energy Facilities in the U.S.
• Appendix H Proximate and Elemental (Ultimate) Analyses and Heating Values of Refuse Components
• Appendix I  USEPA Analytical Methods for Chemical Parameters at Landfills
• Appendix J  Information Sources
• INDEX