Lecture 1- introduction Flashcards
Why are lots of definitions of waste a bad thing?
Overlap causes problems
Different wastes need different disposal routes
Different waste streams react differently in the environment
Who are the International Solid Waste Association?
To promote and develop sustainable and Professional Waste Management Worldwide.
- promotes resource efficiency through sustainable production and consumption
- support to developing and emerging economies
- advancement of waste management through education and training
- promoting appropriate and best available technologies and practises
- professionalism through its programme on professional qualifications
ISWA’s vision is an Earth where no waste exists
What are the objectives and implementation of the ISWA?
ISWA works to protect human health and the environment as well as to ensure sustainable resource management and provided the following scientific, economic and social instrument:
- International network, to share knowledge and experience in sustainable waste management and climate change mitigation
- Expert working groups to advance knowledge and expertise
- All kinds of professional events for the dissemination of information
- Education and training courses tailored to the trainees needs including a qualification and certification programme
- Professional publications including high quality research journals and magazines, up to date studies and developments from all over the world
- Cooperation with all stakeholders in waste management, particularly the National Members of ISWA as well as with International Organisations and Institutions
- Projects in developing economies to establish sustainable waste management practices
- Raising the level of international awareness of the global waste emergency and finding funding instruments to combat this especially in developing economies
- Ensuring international fora recognise the importance of good waste management for health, economic, social and overall environmental progress towards a more sustainable society
Define:
Bioreactor landfill
Sanitary landfill
Incineration
Bioreactor landfill
- A bioreactor landfill is an MSW landfill that utilizes enhanced microbial processes under anaerobic (and possibly even aerobic) conditions to accelerate the degradation of refuse.
Sanitary landfill
- Sanitary landfills are sites where waste is isolated from the environment until it is safe. It is considered when it has completely degraded biologically, chemically and physically.
what is the UN stastical division definition of waste?
Wastes are materials that are not prime products for which the generator has no further use for purposes of production, transformation or consumption and he/she wants to dispose. Wastes may be generated during the extraction of raw materials, the processing of raw materials into intermediate and final products, the consumption of final products and other human activities. Residuals recycled or reused at the place of generation are excluded
What is the Basel convention?
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste. The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.
The Convention was opened for signature on 22 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May 1992.
What is the Basel convention’s definition of waste?
Substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of the aw.
Disposal means ‘any operation which may lead to resource recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct-re-use or alternative uses
Definition of waste: 75/442 Waste Framework Directive- article 1
- Waste means any substance or object which the holder disposes of ir is required to dispose of pursuant to the provisions of national law in force.
- the emphasise is on the intention of the original owner to discard
- Disposal means: ‘the collection, sorting, transport and treatment of wastes as well as its storage and tipping above or underground- the transformation operations necessary for its re-use, recovery or recycling.
Definition of waste: 75/442 WFD- article 4
- Member states: take the necessary measures to ensure that waste is disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment, and in particular without risk to:
- water, air, soil and plants and animals
- causing a nuisance through noise or odours
- Adversely affecting the countryside/places of special interest
23500 UK landfills
Down to 580
- predicted to get < 300
What is the WFD?
amended by 2008/98/EC
Qualitative waste prevention
- Use less toxic waste resources
- Produce less toxic wastes
Quantitative waste prevention
- Use less resources
- More efficient production
- Produce less waste
Overtime
- 1975 focus on disposal
- 1991 includes recovery + definition of waste
- 2006/7 environment + health, 5-stage hierarchy, recovery
- Life Cycle Thinking, wastes as resources, standards (Minimum ?)
- Hierarchy a priority not guidance, waste prevention plans (not targets), targets for collection and recycling, efficiency equation for recovery
The aim of the WFD was to lay the basis to turn the EU into a recycling society.
What are the different approaches to defining and categorising wastes?
Origins: what human activities generate wastes?
- e.g. household
- e.g. agriculture/ nuclear/ medical etc
Composition: what is the waste made of?
- solid, liquid, gas
- Bio or non-degradable
- E-waste
- Packaging, plastics, Metals
- Wood, Dirt, Ashes, Garden
Toxicity: How dangerous is it for human health and biosphere?
- hazardous vs non-hazardous
- Infectious
- Radioactive
- flammable, explosive, corrosive
- poisonous
Management; how is it handled? who is in charge?
- Collected, sorted (kerbside)
- Reused; recycles
- Composted; digested
- incinerated
- disposed
What is the EA/ WRAP waste protocols project?
Quality protocol: identifying at point at which waste, having been fully recovered, may be recovered, may be regarded as a non-waste product that can be reused by business/ industry, or supplied into other markets for VM controls
and/ or
- To produce a statement that confirms to business community what VM controls must comply with:
e. g. Compost quality protocol
What are by-products?
On Imperative, communication on waste and by-products, in eu waste law, materials are simply waste or not waste
- production residues as deliberate may/may not be a waste
> further use a certainty and not a mere possibility
> Without any further processing prior to use
> As part of a continuing production process
> = a cumulative test, and use must be lawful
What are some examples of by-products?
> blast furnace slag but not desulphurisation slag (accepted in the UK in 2007 and no QP)
animal feed from food and drink industry (if guareenteed market- shouldn’t matter what shape the carrot is.
Flue gas and desulphirsation from combustion
Excess materials from primary production: rubber compound, cork shavings, plastic scrap and similar materials
sawdust, wood chips and offcuts of untreated wood from sawmills and manufacture of furniture, pallets, packaging (e,g, oil spills).
