Overview

In an industrial facility, solid waste is generated in a number of ways. For example, if a manufacturing process generates scrap that cannot be reused, it may be treated as solid waste. Think of a shoemaking facility; it is easy to imagine scraps of leather, rejected from the cutting equipment, that cannot be reused. As another example, a facility might purchase components of the manufacturing process from a third party; those components may be received in boxes. The boxes may in turn be treated as solid waste. The ways a facility can generate solid waste are virtually limitless.

Another contribution to the solid waste that a facility generates is derived from the wastewater and air treatment processes. For many of these processes, sludges are generated that can be a large percentage of the waste a facility generates. It is important to recognize that a sludge generated by a wastewater treatment process, for example, may not represent the end of the treatment train. Thickening and dewatering techniques are available to further reduce the volume of sludge that will eventually be disposed. Those treatment technologies will not be discussed here, as there are texts devoted solely to that subject. The Bibliography provides recommended reading resources.

Likewise, in Chapter 4, the principles of waste minimization are discussed. The easiest way to treat and ultimately dispose of solid waste is by not generating it in the first place. However, when there are no further means of waste treatment and no options for waste...