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A2 Environmental Tech > Waste Management > Flashcards

Waste Management Flashcards

1
Q

When was the first waste management strategy for NI published?

A

The first waste management strategy for NI was published in April 2000 and was revised in March 2006 under the title ‘Towards Resource Management’. It was agreed that the 2006 strategy should be revised to cover all relevant EU Directive requirements

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2
Q

What did the latest NI C&I survey show?

A

The latest NI C&I survey published in 2011, which covered the year 2009, estimated that there was almost 1.3 million tonnes of C&I waste collected in NI, 0.8 million tonnes of which was from the industrial sector and 0.5 million tonnes from the commercial sector.

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3
Q

What did the 2011 CD&E waste survey show?

A

A CD&E waste survey published in 2011, which covered the financial year 2009/10, estimated that there was just over 3.5 million tonnes of CD&E waste arisings in NI.

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4
Q

Define Municipal Waste?

A

Means waste from households and other waste which is similar in nature to waste from a household. This includes C&I waste which is similar in nature to waste from a household.

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5
Q

Define Commercial and Industrial Waste (C&I Waste)?

A

Mostly means waste from premises used wholly or mainly for the purposes of a trade of business, sport, recreation or entertainment.

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6
Q

Define Construction, Demolition & Excavation Waste (CD&E Waste)?

A

Means waste from construction or demolition works, including waste from preparatory works

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7
Q

List all the waste types in the Northern Ireland Waste Management Strategy?

A 
Municipal Waste 
Commercial and Industrial Waste 
Construction, Demolition & Excavation Waste 
Hazardous Waste
Agricultural Waste
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8
Q

List the Priority Wastes under European Legislation?

A 
Packaging
Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
End of Life Vehicles
Tyres;
Batteries & Accumulators
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9
Q

How can they Reduce the Amount of Packaging Waste

A

Packaging waste is the most significant waste stream dealt with under PR legislation. The EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste sets a minimum recovery target of 60% and recycling targets of 55% as well as material targets for glass, paper, plastic, wood and metals in order to minimise the impact of packaging waste on the environment.
Of course local District Councils have begun in recent years to light these waste material homes in NI through the use of ‘Blue Bins’.
These requirements are implemented through the Producer responsibility Obligations regulations (NI) 2007 and only apply to;
 Businesses that handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging waste and have a turnover in excess of £2 million per annum.

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10
Q

How can they Reduce the Amount of Electrical & Electronic Equipment Waste?

A

The aims of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive (2002/96/EC) are to prevent WEEE arising, to encourage re-use and recycling and to improve the environmental performance of all operators involved in the life cycle of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE)
The directive sets targets for the recovery and recycling of different product categories of EEE and an overall collection of 4kg of WEEE per person per annum.
Targets include;

** A move to a collection rate of 45% of EEE placed on the market by 2016 increasing to 65% of EEE placed on the market by 2019.

** The potential to introduce a mandatory re-use target of 5%.

** An obligation of distributors to provide for the collection of small WEEE at certain retail shops.

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11
Q

How can they Reduce the Amount of End of Life Vehicles Waste?

A

The End of Life vehicles (ELV) Directive (2000/53/EC) aims to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles (cars and vans up to 3.5 tonnes).
The principal objectives of the Directive are an increase in the recycling of ELVs and their components and the improved environmental performance of all the economic operators involved in the life cycle of vehicles.
The End of Life Vehicles Directive sets an overall 85% re-use, recycling and recovery target from 2006, rising to 95% in 2015

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12
Q

How can they Reduce the Amount of Tyre Waste?

A

The EU Landfill Directive sets out criteria which control the types of waste accepted at landfill primarily to protect the environment and human health. As a result, certain wastes such as tyres, gypsum waste, liquid waste and infectious clinical wastes are not permitted in site.

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13
Q

How can they Reduce the Amount of Batteries & Accumulators Waste?

A

Under the Batteries and Accumulators and Waste Batteries and Accumulators Directive (2006/66/EC) producers of batteries are responsible for the safe environmental disposal of waste batteries.
Some of the key requirements of the Directive include;
A collection target for waste portable batteries of 45% of average annual sales in the UK by 2016.

A ban on the disposal of untreated automotive and industrial batteries in landfill or by incineration.

Restrictions on the use of cadmium and mercury in the design and manufacture of new batteries.
The EU directive is transposed through the UK wide Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2008, which places obligations on producers, distributors and treatment facilities to meet the requirements of the Directive.

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14
Q

Describe the European Context

A

The EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD) (2008/98/EC) requires the establishment of waste management strategies and plans.
The EU Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) aims to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment from the landfilling of waste.
The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (RE Roadmap) was published by the European Commission in September 2011 defines medium and long term objectives and the means for achieving them.

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15
Q

Describe the NI Context

A

Example 1 - The requirements of the revised WFD have been transposed into NI legislation through the Waste Regulations (NI) 2011.
Example 2 - NI Waste Management Strategies to date;
NI Waste Management Strategy (WMS) 2000 first published.
NI WMS 2006 – Reflects move away from simply managing the waste we produce in a more environmentally friendly manner to preventing waste and managing resources.
NI WMS 2013 – Retains the core principles of the 2006 strategy, and enshrines the new Waste Hierarchy laid down in Article 4 of the WFD 2008

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16
Q

What is the Waste Hierarchy?

A

The Waste Hierarchy is the cornerstone of the EU waste policy and legislation, and is a core principle of the NI WMS 2013.
The primary purpose of the hierarchy is to minimise adverse environmental effects from waste and to increase resource efficiency in waste management policy.
The WFD hierarchy was introduced into NI legislation through the Waste Regulations NI 2011

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17
Q

What is the Waste Hierarchy Purpose?

A

The primary purpose of the hierarchy is to minimise adverse environmental effects from waste and to increase resource efficiency in waste management and policy.

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18
Q

List the different stages of the Waste Hierarchy?

A 
Prevention
                              Preparing for Reuse 
                            Recycling 
                          Recovery
                       Disposal
19
Q

How does the Hierarchy work?

A

The hierarchy indicates the relative priority of different methods of managing waste, and informs the process of drafting waste management policy and planning initiatives on how to progress towards more sustainable waste management practices
The Waste Management Strategy promotes more sustainable waste management practices based on this hierarchy.
A sustainable approach to waste management requires greater emphasis on options at the top of the hierarchy and less reliance on waste disposal to landfill without recovery

20
Q

What is ‘Prevention’ and list some examples

A

Trying to reduce the creation of waste by;

    • Sourcing materials locally
    • Dealing with waste locally
    • Creating legislation
    • Producer responsibility schemes -
    • Generation of Environmental Management Systems;
    • Government initiatives
21
Q

What is ‘ Preparing for Reuse’ ?

A

The WFD defines this activity as ‘checking, cleaning or repairing products of components which have become waste so that they can be re-used for their original purpose without further pre-processing’.
Examples of preparing products or components for re-use include; electrical equipment, furniture and carpets, bikes, paint and clothing.
Reuse not only diverts waste from landfill but also contributes to significant carbon savings when compared with recycling.

22
Q

What is ‘Recycling’ ?

A

Recycling is defined in the WFD as ‘any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes’.
Closed loop recycling, where recycled materials are being used for the same purposes, is much better for the environment than open loop recycling, where the recycled material if ‘downgraded’
According to the most recent WMS 2013, the recycling materials which have the greatest potential to reduce carbon impact the most, such as food, paper / card, dense plastics, textiles and non-ferrous metals must be the priority.
Segregation - Blue & Brown Bins

23
Q

What is ‘Energy Recovery’ ?

A

This could of course be carried out through burning the waste – incineration, although in some cases, as with plastics, harmful gases are sometimes given off. This of course should be avoided.
Of course organic material such as Biomass can give of energy through the process of Anaerobic Digestion. Also energy from waste can be extracted through the process of gasification,

24
Q

What is ‘Disposal’ ?

A

It can be seen that the Waste Hierarchy, as an absolute last resort make the use of traditional landfill techniques.

25
Q

What are the different stages that take place in a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)

A

Stage 1 – Quality Inspection - To ensure that only those materials required for recycling are moved onto the next stage of the process. The waste material is pushed onto conveyors where it first enters a pre-sort cabin. Here personnel remove any unwanted items.
State 2 – Separation – A series of systems and technologies are used to separate the glass, cans and plastic bottles into single waste streams ready for recycling. This has a number of different stages;
 Over-band magnet separates out any steel cans.
 Glass bottles and jars are identified through a breaker screen and passed into a clean-up system for further refinement and separation by size.
 Eddy current separator can be used to remove aluminium foil and cans.
 The plastic bottles go into another separator until that has the capability to divide them into the following different types: HDPE, PET and unwanted mixed plastic.
Stage 3 – The separate streams of plastic are sent for quality control before handling to be punctured and squashed, ready for bailing.
3 - The MRF process can be highly efficient, 95% of the material that enters the MRF can be recycled, the remaining 5% of waste gets sent for energy recovery. It also of course generates jobs, in what some people call the new ‘green economy

26
Q

Define Dump

A

An open hole in the ground where waste is buried and that has various animals (rats, mice, birds) swarming around.

27
Q

Define Landfill

A

Landfill – Carefully designed structure built into or on top of the ground in which MSW is isolated from the surrounding environment (groundwater, air and rain). This isolation is accomplished with a bottom liner and a daily covering of soil.

28
Q

What is the Bottom liner system?

A

The bottom liner prevents the trash from coming into contact with the outside soil, particularly the groundwater. In MSW landfills, the liner is usually some type of durable, puncture resistant synthetic plastic (PE, HDPE or PVC). It is usually 30 to 100mm thick. This liner may also be surrounded on either side by a fabric mat (geotextile mat) that will help keep the plastic from tearing or puncturing from sharp rock or stones.

29
Q

What is the Leachate collection system

A

Leachate collection system – The leachate is allowed to filter down to the bottom liner system where perforated pipes (pipes with holes in them) drain the leachate to a sump (just a hole at low level, so fluid falls to this point). Then the leachate can be pumped to a collection pond. Some systems can use gravity of allow the leachate to flow to the collection pond.
The leachate in the ponds is then tested for various chemicals (biological and chemical oxygen demands, organic chemicals, pH, calcium, magnesium, iron, sulphate and chloride) and allowed to settle. After testing, the leachate must be treated like any other sewage / wastewater. This can sometimes occur onsite or off site. The capping layer (which will be discussed in more detail below) id designed to prevent rainwater from entering the landfill, but some will always pass down through adding to the volume of leachate.

30
Q

What is the Storm Water Drainage

A

It’s important to keep the landfill as dry as possible to reduce the amount of leachate. This can be achieved in two ways;
Option 1 – Exclude liquids from the solid waste. Solid waste must be tested for liquids before entering the landfill. This is done by passing samples of the waste through standard paint filters. If no liquid comes through the sample after 10 minutes, then the trash is accepted into the landfill.
Option 2 – Keep rainwater out of the landfill. To exclude rainwater, the landfill has a storm drainage system. Plastic drainage pipes and storm liners collect water from areas of the landfill and channel it to drainage ditches surrounding the landfills base.
The ditches are either concrete or gravel lined and carry water to collection ponds to the side of the landfill. In the collection ponds, suspended soil particles are allowed to settle and the water is tested for leachate chemicals. Once the steeling has occurred and the water has passed tests, it is then pumped or allowed to flow off site. The storm drainage system is designed to stop storm water from entering the waste, but it does not stop all water from entering.

31
Q

What is a Methane collection system

A

Bacteria in the landfill break down the trash in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic) because the landfill is airtight. A byproduct of this AD breakdown is LFG which as we have seen contains approx. 50% methane and 50% CO2, with small traces of nitrogen and oxygen.
Additionally the methane provides an additional hazard in that it can explode. So this LFG must be removed. To do this a series of pipes are embedded within the landfill to collect the gas. In some landfills, this gas is vented or burned.
This LFG can be collected and separated, after which the methane can be used as a fuel. The methane could be used for heating purposes, but as a landfills tend to be reasonable distances from mass populations, use for electricity tends to be the most frequent choice

32
Q

What is a ‘cell’

A

Cells (Old and New). Trash is compacted into cells. These cells only contain one days waste. Cells may be approx. 15m x 15m area x 4m in depth. It is seriously compressed to reduce the volume of the waste. This of course means that more material can be put into a specific landfill site. The compression is done by heavy equipment (tractors, bulldozers, rollers). At the end of the day when a cell is made, it is covered in approx. 6 inches of soil and compacted further. These cells are arranged in rows. Cells in the same row are called a lift. The compression of the waste is aided by the removal of certain waste types such as carpets, mattresses, foam and yard waste.

33
Q

What is a ‘covering’

A

Covering or cap. – a 6 inch layer of compacted soil added to cover a cell on a daily basis (in recent times tarps and spray coverings of paper or cement /paper emulsions are being utilised to reduce volume)

Each cell is covered daily with six inches of compacted soil. This covering seals the compacted waste from the air and prevents pests (birds, mice, flying insects) from getting to the waste. This soil takes up quite a bit of space and because space is a valuable commodity in a landfill in more recent times landfills have experimented with tarps or spray coverings of paper or cement / paper emulsions. These still cover the waste but take up only ¼ of an inch in comparison to the 6 inches of the soil layer

34
Q

What is a Cap

A

Cap – a 40mm plastic cover added to the top of the landfill when it is full. Covered in approx. 2ft to 3ft of compacted soil and grass / trees with shallow roots planted to retain the soils integrity.

35
Q

What is a Bioreactor Landfill

A

Bioreactor landfill can be defined as, ‘Any permitted landfill or landfill cell where liquid or air is injected in a controlled fashion into the waste mass in order to accelerate or enhance biostabilisation of the waste’.

36
Q

What does a Bioreactor do

A

A bioreactor landfill operates to rapidly transform and degrade organic waste. The increase in waste degradation and stabilisation is accomplished through the addition of liquid and air to enhance microbial processes

37
Q

Explain what an Aerobic Bioreactor Landfill

A

Aerobic – In an aerobic bioreactor landfill, leachate is removed from the bottom layer, piped to liquid storage tanks, and recirculated into the landfill in a controlled manner. Air is injected into the waste mass, using vertical or horizontal wells, to promote aerobic activity and accelerate stabilisation.

38
Q

Explain what an Anaerobic Bioreactor Landfill

A

In an anaerobic bioreactor landfill, moisture is added to the waste mass in the form of re-circulated leachate and other sources to obtain optimal moisture levels. Biodegradation occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and produces landfill gas. LFG primarily methane, can be captured to minimise greenhouse gas emissions and for energy recovery

39
Q

Explain what a Hybrid Bioreactor Landfill

A

Hybrid – (Aerobic & Anaerobic) – The hybrid bioreactor landfill accelerates waste degradation by employing a sequential aerobic-anaerobic treatment to rapidly degrade organics in the upper sections of the landfill and collect gas from he lower sections.

40
Q

What factors are needed to utilise a Bioreactor

A

Bioreactors often need other liquids such as storm water, wastewater and wastewater treatment plant sludges to supplement leachate to enhance the microbiological process. It does this by purposeful control of the moisture content and differs from a landfill that simply recirculates leachate for liquid management. Landfills that simply recirculate leachate may not necessarily operate as optimised bioreactors (they simply want to reduce the volume of leachate which needs to be transferred to be treated, thus saving money).
- Moisture content is the single most important factor that promotes the accelerated decomposition. The bioreactor technology relies on maintaining optimal moisture content (mc) which should be between 35-65% and liquids need to be added when required to maintain this % mc.
– The moisture content, combined with the biological action of naturally occurring microbes decomposes the waste. The microbes can be either aerobic or anaerobic depending upon the presence of oxygen.

41
Q

What are the Advantages of a Bioreactor

A
  • Decomposition and biological stabilisation in years vs. decades in a dry tomb.
  • Lower waste toxicity due to both anaerobic and aerobic conditions.
  • Reduced leachate disposal costs.
  • A 15 to 30% gain in landfill space due to an increase in density of waste mass (the waste mass can be compressed more).
  • In the initial years a significant increase in the generation of LFG that can be captured and used of energy use of resold.
  • Reduced post closure care.
42
Q

List the Four Stages of Decomposition

A

With a restriction on exposure to oxygen, decomposition takes place through 4 phases.
Phase 1 – Aerobic biodegradation takes place; oxygen is gradually removed and replaced by CO2
Phase 2 – Substances such as cellulose, proteins and fats decompose to produce substrates for further biodegradation that provide short fatty acids, CO2 and H2 . This process can take two weeks to become established. During this phase methane bacteria begin to establish themselves in the waste.
Phase 3 – Landfill gas begins to be produced in significant quantities. This phase takes three to four months to become established. The rate of gas production stabilises within two to three years.
Phase 4 – The site will produce gas over a long period of time.

43
Q

What is the difference between the two TAX categories

A

0 – 10% active waste > Qualifies at the lower rate of tax.
11 – 100% active waste > Standard rate.

A2 Environmental Tech (7 decks)

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