68,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Following on from the successful first edition of Waste Treatment & Disposal, this second edition has been completely updated, and provides comprehensive coverage of waste process engineering and disposal methodologies. Concentrating on the range of technologies available for household and commercial waste, it also presents readers with relevant legislative background material as boxed features.
NEW to this edition:
- Increased coverage of re-use and recycling
- Updating of the usage of different waste treatment technologies
- Increased coverage of new and emerging technologies for waste treatment and disposal
- A broader global perspective with a focus on comparative international material on waste treatment uptake and waste management policies
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 736
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
Ähnliche
Contents
Preface
1 Introduction
1.1 History of Waste Treatment and Disposal
1.2 European Union Waste Management Policy
1.3 Waste Strategy of the European Union
1.4 Policy Instruments
1.5 EU Waste Management Legislation
1.6 The Economics of Waste Management
1.7 Options for Waste Treatment and Disposal
2 Waste
2.1 Definitions of Waste
2.2 Waste Arisings
2.3 Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
2.4 Hazardous Waste
2.5 Sewage Sludge
2.6 Other Wastes
2.7 Waste Containers, Collection Systems and Transport
3 Waste Recycling
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Waste Recycling
3.3 Examples of Waste Recycling
3.4 Economic Considerations
3.5 Life Cycle Analysis of Materials Recycling
4 Waste Landfill
4.1 Introduction
4.2 EC Waste Landfill Directive
4.3 Site Selection and Assessment
4.4 Considerations for Landfills
4.5 Types of Waste Landfilled
4.6 Landfill Design and Engineering
4.7 Landfill Liner Materials
4.8 Landfill Liner Systems
4.9 Processes Operating in Waste Landfills
4.10 Other Landfill Design Types
4.11 Landfill Gas
4.12 Landfill Leachate
4.13 Landfill Capping
4.14 Landfill Site Completion and Restoration
4.15 Energy Recovery from Landfill Gas
4.16 Old Landfill Sites
5 Waste Incineration
5.1 Introduction
5.2 EC Waste Incineration Directive
5.3 Incineration Systems
6 Other Waste Treatment Technologies: Pyrolysis, Gasification, Combined Pyrolysis–Gasification, Composting, Anaerobic Digestion
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Pyrolysis
6.3 Gasification
6.4 Combined Pyrolysis–Gasification
6.5 Composting
6.6 Anaerobic Digestion
7 Integrated Waste Management
7.1 Integrated Waste Management
Index
Copyright © 2005
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England
Telephone (+44) 1243 779777
Email (for orders and customer service enquiries): [email protected]
Visit our Home Page on www.wileyeurope.com or www.wiley.com
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (+44) 1243 770620.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Other Wiley Editorial Offices
John Wiley & Sons Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741, USA
Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Boschstr. 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany
John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 33 Park Road, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia
John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, 2 Clementi Loop #02-01, Jin Xing Distripark, Singapore 129809
John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd, 22 Worcester Road, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9W 1L1
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Williams, Paul T.
Waste treatment and disposal/Paul T. Williams. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-470-84912-6
1. Refuse and refuse disposal—Great Britain. 2. Refuse and refuse disposal—Government policy—Great Britain. I. Title.
TD789.G7W54 2005
363.72′8′094—dc22
2004016990
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-470-84912-6 (HB)
ISBN 0-470-84913-4 (PB)
This book is dedicated with lots of love to Lesley, Christopher, Simon and Nicola
Preface
This second edition arises from the 1998 first edition (published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1998) which was largely based on the UK. This new book has been substantially revised and rewritten to cover waste treatment and disposal with particular emphasis on Europe. Increasingly in Europe the European Commission legislation has had a major influence on the management of solid waste and hence the need for a European focussed text. The book is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking courses in Environmental Science and Environmental, Civil, Chemical and Energy Engineering, with a component of waste treatment and disposal. It is also aimed at professional people in the waste management industry.
The first chapter is an historical introduction to waste treatment and disposal. The major legislative and regulatory measures emanating from the European Commission dealing with waste treatment and disposal are described.
Chapter 2 discusses the different definitions of waste. Estimates of waste arisings in Europe and the rest of the world are discussed as well as the methods used in their estimation. Various trends in waste generation and influences on them are also discussed. Several categories of waste are discussed in terms of arisings, and treatment and disposal options. The wastes described in detail are: municipal solid waste; hazardous waste; sewage sludge; clinical waste; agricultural waste; industrial and commercial waste. Other wastes described are: construction and demolition waste; mines and quarry waste; end-of-life vehicles and scrap tyres. The chapter ends with a discussion of the different types of waste containers, collection systems and waste transport.
Chapter 3 is concerned with waste reduction, re-use and recycling, with the emphasis on recycling. Municipal solid waste and industrial and commercial waste recycling are discussed in detail. Examples of recycling of particular types of waste, i.e., plastics, glass, paper, metals and tyres are discussed. Economic considerations of recycling are discussed.
Chapter 4 is concerned with waste landfill, the main waste disposal option in many countries throughout Europe. The EC Waste Landfill Directive is covered in detail. Landfill design and engineering, the various considerations for landfill design and operational practice, are described. The different main types of waste which are landfilled, i.e., hazardous, non-hazardous and inert wastes and the processes operating within and outside the landfill are discussed. The major different landfill design types are discussed in detail. The formation of landfill gas, landfill gas migration, management and monitoring of landfill gas are discussed, as is landfill leachate formation and leachate management and treatment. The final stages of landfilling of wastes, i.e., landfill capping, landfill site completion and restoration are described. The recovery of energy through landfill gas utilisation is discussed in detail. The problems of old landfill sites are highlighted.
Chapter 5 is concerned with incineration, the second major option for waste treatment and disposal in Europe. The EC Waste Incineration Directive is described in detail and the various incineration systems are discussed. Concentration is made on mass burn incineration of municipal solid waste, following the process through waste delivery, the bunker and feeding system, the furnace, and heat recovery systems. Emphasis on emissions formation and control is made with discussion of the formation and control of particulate matter, heavy metals, toxic and corrosive gases, products of incomplete combustion, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins and furans. The contaminated waste-water and contaminated bottom and flyash arising from waste incineration is discussed. Energy recovery via district heating and electricity generation are described. Other types of incineration including fluidised bed incinerators, starved air incinerators, rotary kiln incinerators, cement kilns, liquid and gaseous waste incinerators and the types of waste incinerated in each different type is discussed.
Chapter 6 discusses other options for waste treatment and disposal. Pyrolysis of waste, the types of product formed during pyrolysis and their utilisation as well as the different pyrolysis technologies, are discussed. Gasification of waste, gasification technologies and utilisation of the product gas, are described. Combined pyrolysis–gasification technologies are discussed. Composting of waste is described, including the composting process and the different types of composter. Anaerobic digestion of waste, the degradation process and operation and technology for anaerobic digestion are discussed. Examples of the different types of pyrolysis, gasification, combined pyrolysis–gasification, composting and anaerobic digestion systems are described throughout.
The concluding chapter discusses the integration of the various waste treatment and disposal options described in the previous chapters to introduce the concept of ‘integrated waste management’. The different approaches to integrated waste management are described.
1
Introduction
Summary
This chapter is an historical introduction to waste treatment and disposal. The development of waste management in the European Union through the use of various policy, strategy and legislative measures are discussed. The adoption of sustainable development by the EU through the various Environment Action Programmes is presented. The main EU Directives, Decisions and Regulations in relation to waste management are described. The Waste Strategy of the EU is presented and the policy initiatives related to its implementation are discussed. The economics of waste management across Europe are discussed. The main treatment and disposal routes for wastes in the European Union are briefly described.
1.1 History of Waste Treatment and Disposal
The need for adequate treatment and disposal of waste by man, arose as populations moved away from disperse geographical areas to congregate together in communities. The higher populations of towns and cities resulted in a concentration of generated waste, such that it became a nuisance problem. Waste became such a problem for the citizens of Athens in Greece that, around 500 BC, a law was issued banning the throwing of rubbish into the streets. It was required that the waste be transported by scavengers to an open dump one mile outside of the city. The first records that waste was being burned as a disposal route appear in the early years of the first millennium in Palestine. The Valley of Gehenna outside Jerusalem contained a waste dump site at a place called Sheol where waste was regularly dumped and burned. The site became synonymous with hell.
Throughout the Middle Ages, waste disposal continued to be a nuisance problem for city populations. Waste was often thrown onto the streets causing smells and encouraging vermin and disease. For example, in 1297 a law was passed in England requiring householders to keep the front of their houses clear of rubbish. More than a 100 years later, in 1408, Henry IV ruled that waste should be kept inside houses until a ‘raker’ came to cart away the waste to pits outside the city (Project Integra 2002). In 1400 in Paris, the huge piles of waste outside the city walls began to interfere with the city defences.
In Europe, the industrial revolution between 1750 and 1850 led to a further move of the population from rural areas to the cities and a massive expansion of the population living in towns and cities, with a consequent further increase in the volume of waste arising. The increase in production of domestic waste was matched by increases in industrial waste from the burgeoning new large-scale manufacturing processes. The waste generated contained a range of materials such as broken glass, rusty metal, food residue and human waste. Such waste was dangerous to human health and, in addition, attracted flies, rats and other vermin which, in turn, posed potential threats through the transfer of disease. This led to an increasing awareness of the link between public health and the environment.
To deal with this potential threat to human health, legislation was introduced on a local and national basis in many countries. For example, in the UK, throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, a series of Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Acts were introduced in the UK which empowered local authorities to set up teams of inspectors to deal with offensive trades and to control pollution within city limits. These Acts were reinforced by the Public Health Acts of 1875 and 1936, which covered a range of measures some of which were associated with the management and disposal of waste. The 1875 Act placed a duty on local authorities to arrange for the removal and disposal of waste. The 1936 Act introduced regulation to control the disposal of waste into water and defined the statutory nuisance associated with any trade, business, manufacture or process which might lead to degradation of health or of the neighbourhood (British Medical Association 1991; Reeds 1994; Clapp 1994). In the US, early legislation included the 1795 Law introduced by the Corporation of Georgetown, Washington DC, which prohibited waste disposal on the streets and required individuals to remove waste themselves or hire private contractors. By 1856, Washington had a city-wide waste collection system supported by taxes. In 1878, the Mayor of Memphis organised the collection of waste from homes and businesses and removal to sites outside the city. By 1915, 50% of all major US cities provided a waste collection system which had risen to 100% by 1930 (Neal and Schubel 1989; McBean et al 1995).
One of the main constituents in domestic dust bins in the late nineteenth century was cinders and ash from coal fires, which represented a useful source of energy. The waste also contained recyclable materials such as old crockery, paper, rags, glass, iron and brass and was often sorted by hand by private contractors or scavengers to remove the useful items. Much household waste would also be burnt in open fires in the living room and kitchen as a ‘free fuel’ supplement to the use of coal. The combustible content of the waste was recognised as a potential source of cheap energy for the community as a whole and the move away from private waste contractors to municipally organised waste collection, led to an increase in incineration. Purpose-built municipal waste incinerators were introduced in the UK in the late 1870s and, by 1912, there were over 300 waste incinerators in the UK, of which 76 had some form of power generation (Van Santen 1993). One of the first municipal incinerators introduced in the US was in 1885 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (Neal and Schubel 1989). By 1914, there were about 300 waste incinerators in the US. However, many of the waste incinerators were small-scale, hand-fed plants which were poorly designed and controlled and their operation was not cost-effective.
However, the growth of incineration was secondary to the main route to disposal, which was dumping, either legally or illegally. The ease of waste disposal to land and the move to centralised waste management through town or city authorities meant that this route increasingly became the preferred waste disposal option. Particularly as incineration plants were difficult and expensive to maintain. As these incineration plants reached the end of their operational lifetime they tended to become scrapped in favour of landfill. The waste dumps themselves however, were poorly managed, open tips, infested with vermin and often on fire. The environmental implications of merely dumping the waste in such open sites was recognised, and increasingly waste began to be buried. Burying the waste had the advantages of reducing odours and discouraging rats and other vermin and consequently the sites became less dangerous to health. Through the first half of the 20th century some improvements in landfill sites were seen, with improved site planning and site management. However, this did not apply to all areas and many municipal sites still had the minimum of engineering design and the open dump was still very common. When such sites were full, they were covered with a thin layer of soil and there was minimum regard to the effects of contaminated water leachate or landfill gas emissions from the disused site (McBean et al 1995).
The First and Second World Wars and the inter-war periods saw a rise in waste reclamation and recycling, and waste regulation and the environment became a less important issue. Following the Second World War, waste treatment and disposal was not seen as a priority environmental issue by the general public and legislature, and little was done to regulate the disposal of waste. However, a series of incidents in the late 1960s and 70s, highlighted waste as a potential major source of environmental pollution. A series of toxic chemical waste dumping incidents led to increasing awareness of the importance of waste management and the need for a more stringent legislative control of waste. Amongst the most notorious incidents were the discovery, in 1972, of drums of toxic cyanide waste dumped indiscriminately on a site used as a children’s playground near Nuneaton in the UK, the leaking of leachate and toxic vapours into a housing development at the Love Canal site, New York State in 1977, the dumping of 3000 tonnes of arsenic and cyanide waste into a lake in Germany in 1971, and the leak of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into rice oil in Japan in 1968, the ‘Yusho’ incident (Box 1.1, British Medical Association 1991).
The massive adverse publicity and public outcry led to pressure for the problem of waste disposal to be more strictly controlled by the legislature. In the UK, as a direct result of the Nuneaton cyanide dumping incident, emergency legislation was introduced in the form of The Deposit of Poisonous Waste Act, 1972. Further legislation on waste treatment and disposal followed in 1974 with the Control of Pollution Act, which controlled waste disposal on land through a new licensing and monitoring system for waste disposal facilities. The late 1980s and 1990s saw further development of waste management legislation in the UK and the increasing influence of European Community legislation. For example; the 1990 Environmental Protection Act; the 1995 Environment Act; the 1994 Waste Management Licensing Regulations; 1994 Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations; the 1996 Special Waste Regulations; the 2000 Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations and the Landfill Regulations 2002, which all contain measures in direct response to EC Directives.
In the US, in response to the increasing concerns of indiscriminate waste disposal, landmark legislation covering waste disposal was developed with the Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 1976, which initiated the separation and defining of hazardous and non-hazardous waste and the separate requirements for their disposal. The RCRA was an amendment to the 1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act which was the first Federal statutory measure to improve solid waste disposal activities. However, it was the RCRA which embodied the US approach to waste treatment and disposal, establishing a framework for national programs to achieve environmentally sound management of both hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. The Act has been amended several times since 1976, by such as the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984, the Federal Facilities Compliance Act of 1992 and the Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996.
1.2 European Union Waste Management Policy
The European Union had its origins in the European Economic Community (EEC) which was established by the Treaty of Rome in 1958. Since then a series of Acts and Treaties, including the Single European Act (1987), the Maastricht Treaty (1993) and the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) have resulted in the development of the organisation and governance of the European Union (Box 1.2). Included in these Acts and Treaties are the general objectives of protecting and improving the quality of the environment. Additionally, more detailed policy statements in relation to the environment are included in Environmental Action Programmes. These Action Programmes include EU policy development in relation to waste treatment and disposal. There have been six Environmental Action Programmes since 1973. The approach and strategy in terms of waste in the successive Environmental Action Programmes has been from one of pollution control to pollution prevention and latterly to a sustainable development approach (Gervais 2002(b)). The First Environmental Action Programme (1973–76) regarded waste as a remedial problem requiring control at Community level. The Second (1977–81) and Third (1982–86) Environmental Action Programmes emphasised the need for waste prevention, recycling, re-use and final disposal, via environmentally safe means. The need for action in regard to waste minimisation at the production process through the use of clean technologies was the policy of the Fourth Environmental Action Programme (1987–92). The Fourth Programme also emphasised the hierarchical approach to waste management of the first three Programmes. During the period of the Fourth Environmental Action Programme, a Community Strategy for Waste Management was drawn up by the EU which set out the hierarchical structure of waste management as a long-term strategy for the EU (Gervais 2002(b)). The Fifth (1993–2000) and Sixth (2001–2010) Environmental Action Programmes incorporate into the policies and strategies of the EU, the concepts of ‘sustainable development’ and the integration of environmental decision-making and policy formulation into all major policy areas of the EU. One of the main objectives of the Sixth Environment Action Programme focuses on the sustainable management of natural resources and waste. The Programme identifies the reduction of waste as a specific objective and sets a target of reducing the quantity of waste going to final disposal by 20% by 2010 and by 50% by 2050. The actions required to achieve these targets include:
the development of a strategy for the sustainable management of natural resources by laying down priorities and reducing consumption;
the taxation of natural resource use;
establishing a strategy for the recycling of waste;
the improvement of existing waste management schemes;
investment into waste prevention and integration of waste prevention into other EU policies and strategies.
The concept of ‘sustainable development’ has developed from the 1992 United Nations Rio Conference on Environment and Development, through to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002). The concept requires that society takes decisions with proper regard to their environmental impacts. The concept tries to strike a balance between two objectives, the continued economic development and achievement of higher standards of living both for today’s society and for future generations, but also to protect and enhance the environment. The economic development of society clearly has an impact on the environment since natural resources are used and by-product pollution and waste are produced in many processes. However, sustainable development promotes development by encouraging environmentally friendly economic activity and by discouraging environmentally damaging activities. Such activities include energy efficiency measures, improved technology and techniques of management, better product design and marketing, environmentally friendly farming practices, making better use of land and buildings and improved transport efficiency and waste minimisation (Sustainable Development 1994; This Common Inheritance 1996).
The Gothenburg European Council of 2001 resulted in the European Union Heads of Government adopting a Sustainable Development Strategy. The strategy is based on the principle that the economic, social and environmental effects of all policies should be examined in a co-ordinated way and taken into account in decision-making (Sustainable Development 2001). This includes the proposal that all major policy proposals should include a sustainability impact assessment.
The treatment and disposal of waste is one of the central themes of sustainable development. The approach of the European Union and its member states for the management of waste has developed via a series of Directives and Programmes into a strategy concerning the treatment of waste which has the key objectives of minimising the amount of waste that is produced and to minimise any risk of pollution of the environment.
1.3 Waste Strategy of the European Union
1.3.1 Community Strategy for Waste Management
The waste management policy of the European Union set out in the various Environment Action Programmes is implemented through the Waste Management Strategy and subsequent legislative measures such as Directives, Regulations and Decisions of the European Union on specific waste management issues.
The initial EU strategy document on waste, the Community Strategy for Waste Management (SEC (89) 934 Final), was drawn up in 1989 as part of the Fourth Environmental Action Programme (1987–92). It was presented as a ‘communication’ to the European Commission and to the Council of the European Parliament. The Strategy set out the principles of the hierarchy of waste management through the prevention of waste by clean and improved technologies, the re-use and recycling of waste, and optimisation of the final disposal. The proximity principle, whereby waste should be dealt with as near as possible to its source and also the goal of self-sufficiency in waste treatment and disposal, were emphasised. In 1996 the European Environment Ministers adopted by Resolution a revised Waste Strategy (COM (96) 399 Final 1996). This was a review of the 1989 document and re-emphasised the need for sustainable approaches to waste management in the EU with a high level of environmental protection. Waste prevention was therefore seen as the priority and waste recovery via re-use, recycling, composting and energy from waste were hierarchical objectives. The difficulties in harmonisation of the various terms used in defining ‘wastes’ across the EU and, consequently, implementation of EU-wide legislation was recognised as a problem. Therefore the strategy called for a review of the waste definitions and catalogue of wastes. The measure of the successful implementation of waste legislation, with the aim of moving waste treatment processes up the hierarchy of waste management, depends on accurate and reliable statistical data. The common use of waste terminology and the reliable collection of accurate data via the European Environment Agency, was therefore stressed. The use of quantitative targets to reduce waste production and to increase re-use recycling and the recovery of waste, were recommended for the Member States. The Strategy also called for the need for specific emission standards in the area of waste incineration and the control of waste landfills. Specific Directives were subsequently implemented via the 1999 Landfill of Waste Directive and the 2000 Incineration of Waste Directive. The strategy also set out recommendations in the area of transfrontier shipments of waste, waste management planning at local and regional level and encouraged the use of a broad range of instruments, including economic instruments, to achieve the policy objectives of the Strategy.
Through the measures of the Waste Framework Directive (1975) as amended in 1991 and 1996, the member states of the European Union are required to have a National Waste Strategy that sets out their policies in relation to the recovery and disposal of waste. In particular, the Strategy must identify the type, quantity and origin of waste to be recovered or disposed of, as well as the general technical requirements and any special arrangements for particular waste and suitable disposal sites or installations.
The objectives of the National Waste Strategy of Member States (Environment Act 1995; Lane and Peto 1995; Gervais 2002(b)) include:
ensuring that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment;
establishing an integrated and adequate network of waste disposal installations, taking account of the best available technology but not involving excessive costs;
ensuring self-sufficiency in waste disposal;
encouraging the prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness by the development of clean technologies;
encouraging the recovery of waste by means of recycling, re-use or reclamation, and the use of waste as a source of energy.
Underlying National Waste Strategies, is the ‘self-sufficiency principle’ which states that Member States shall take appropriate measures to establish an integrated and adequate network of disposal installations which enable the Union as a whole to become self-sufficient in waste disposal. A move towards individual member-state self-sufficiency, is also recommended. The development of a waste strategy should also reflect the ‘proximity principle’ under which waste should be disposed of (or otherwise managed) close to the point at which it is generated. This creates a more responsible approach to the generation of wastes, and also limits pollution from transport. It is therefore expected that each region should provide sufficient waste treatment and disposal facilities to treat or dispose of all the waste it produces.
The EU strategy on waste has developed into the concept of the ‘hierarchy of waste management’ (Sustainable Development 1994; Making Waste Work 1995; Waste Not Want Not 2002). The hierarchy was originally developed through the aims of the original 1975 Waste Framework Directive which encouraged, waste reduction, re-use and recovery with disposal as the least desirable option. The hierarchy was formally adopted in the 1989 EU Community Strategy for waste Management (Gervais 2002(b)). A more detailed version of the hierarchy has also been proposed (Figure 1.1, Waste Not Want Not 2002).
(i) Materials Recycling. The recovery of materials from waste and processing them to produce a marketable product, for example, the recycling of glass and aluminium cans is well established, with a net saving in energy costs of the recycled material compared with virgin production. The potential to recycle material from waste is high, but it may not be appropriate in all cases, for example, where the abundance of the raw material, energy consumption during collection and re-processing, or the emission of pollutants has a greater impact on the environment or is not cost-effective. Materials recycling also implies that there is a market for the recycled materials. The collection of materials from waste, where there is no end market for them, merely results in large surpluses of unwanted materials and also wastes additional energy with no overall environmental gain.
(ii) Composting. Decomposition of the organic, biodegradable fraction of waste to produce a stable product such as soil conditioners and growing material for plants. Composting of garden and food waste has been encouraged for home owners as a direct way of recycling. It has been extended to the larger scale for green waste from parks and gardens and also to municipal solid waste and to sewage sludge. The quality of compost produced from waste, compared with non-waste sources, has been an issue for waste composting, particularly in the area of contamination.
Figure 1.1 The hierarchy of waste management. Source: Waste Not Want Not, 2002.
The EU waste management strategy, encompassing sustainable development, requires that waste management practices move up the hierarchy such that waste is not merely disposed of, but should where possible be, recovered, reused or minimised. However, this may not be achievable in all cases and in some cases may not be desirable. For example, some wastes are best landfilled or incinerated since the environmental and economic cost of trying to sort and decontaminate the waste to produce a useable product outweighs the benefits. Consequently, the principle of Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) has been developed (Box 1.3).
1.4 Policy Instruments
The aims of the EU Strategy on sustainable waste management and the objective of moving waste management options up the waste hierarchy may be achieved by a range of policy instruments. These include, the use of regulatory measures, market-based instruments, waste management planning and statistical data policy instruments, all of which are available to the EU or Member States of the EU. For example:
The European Environment Agency was established in 1990 as a consultative body with the aims of supporting sustainable development and helping to achieve a significant and measurable improvement in Europe’s environment. This is achieved through the provision of targetted and reliable information which is made available to policy-making agents in the European institutions and in the Member States. To this end, the Agency aims to provide a Europe-wide environmental data gathering and processing network. All the statistical data provided by the Member States is transmitted to Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. The Agency is therefore also able to evaluate the effectiveness of legislation already passed (European Environment Agency 1999). A major section of the European Environment Agency concentrates on the Theme of Waste. It has been recognised for some time that, across Europe, the data in relation to waste generation statistics, treatment and disposal routes, is inconsistent and incomplete. Consequently, in the Waste Theme, the Agency provides an EU-wide data gathering system, specifically on waste. In addition, detailed reports based on trends of waste generation, the implementation of waste legislation and emissions data, are produced. These data feed into the various policy making and legislative bodies of the EU.
1.5 EU Waste Management Legislation
The strategy of the European Union regarding the management of waste throughout the Union has developed from the various Policy and Strategy documents of the EU. However, its direct applicability to the Member States of the Union is through the various Directives, Regulations and Decisions of the legislature. These include a number of key measures which apply to various waste sectors, waste streams and waste treatment and disposal processes (Box 1.4). The main EU legislation in the area of waste management is described below.
1.5.1 Waste Framework Directive
The most important EU Directive concerning waste was the main controlling Waste Framework Directive introduced in 1975 (75/442/EEC 1975), which established the general rules for waste management. The Directive has been subsequently amended several times, including 1991 (Council Directives 91/156/EEC and 91/692/EEC) and 1996 (Commission Decision 96/350/EC and Council Directive 96/59/EC). The 1975 Directive set out the key objective that waste should be recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment. In particular, without risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals, without causing nuisance through noise or odours and without adversely affecting the countryside or places of special interest (Murley 1999). Member States of the EU were required to take the necessary measures to prohibit the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled disposal of waste. Waste Management Plans were required to be drawn up by each of the Member States to set out how the objectives of the Directive could be met. These plans included the types and quantities of waste, general technical requirements and the identification of suitable disposal sites. These plans developed into the National Waste Strategies of each Member State. The Framework Directive set out the principle of the hierarchy of waste management, first to develop clean technologies which minimised the use of natural resources and minimised the production of waste, and second to recover secondary materials from waste by means of recycling, re-use or reclamation and the use of waste as a source of energy.
The Directive also defined what was meant by ‘waste’ but only in general terms as ‘any substance or object listed in the Directive, which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard’. The Directive also states that ‘the uncontrolled discarding, discharge and disposal of waste is prohibited’. Member States are required to promote the prevention, recycling and re-use of wastes and to use waste as a source of energy. Each of the Member States of the EU was also required to establish competent authorities to control waste management processes through a system of permits and authorisations (Murley 1999). The competent authorities would be the Environment Agencies or their equivalent in each Member State, such as the UK Environment Agency, the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, etc. The ‘polluter pays’ principle was also stressed, in that the producer of the waste should bear the cost of disposal. The Directive set out the need for each Member State to produce a waste management plan or strategy to implement the measures outlined in the Directive. In particular, the types, quantities and origins of the wastes to be treated, the general technical requirements and the appropriate locations and installations for waste treatment and disposal.
The Waste Framework Directive set out a list of categories of waste, and a list of waste disposal and–waste recovery operations which were covered by the provisions of the Directive (Tables 1.1–1.3). The limited category of wastes was later superseded by the European Waste Catalogue. Similarly, the regulations relating to individual waste disposal and recycling operations were covered in more detail by later Directives, daughter Directives, Regulations and Decisions of the EU.
Table 1.1 Categories of waste as set out in the 1975 Waste Framework Directive
Source: Waste Framework Directive 1975.
1. Production or consumption residues not otherwise specified below.
2. Off-specification products.
3. Products whose date for appropriate use has expired.
4. Materials spilled, lost or having undergone other mishap including any materials, equipment, etc., contaminated as a result of the mishap.
5. Materials contaminated or soiled as a result of planned actions (e.g., residues from cleaning operations, packing, materials, containers, etc.).
6. Unusable parts (e.g., reject batteries, exhausted catalysts, etc.).
7. Substances which no longer perform satisfactorily (e.g., contaminated acids, contaminated solvents, exhausted tempering salts, etc.).
8. Residues of industrial processes (e.g., slags, still bottoms, etc.).
9. Residues from pollution abatement processes (e.g., scrubber sludges, baghouse dusts, spent filters, etc.).
10. Machining or finishing residues (e.g., lathe turnings, mill scales etc.).
11. Residues from raw materials extraction and processing (e.g., mining residues, oil field slops, etc.).
12. Adulterated materials (e.g., oils contaminated with PCB’s etc.).
13. Any materials, substances or products whose use has been banned by law.
14. Products for which the holder has no further use (e.g., agricultural, household, office, commercial and shop discards, etc.).
15. Contaminated materials, substances or products resulting from remedial action with respect to land.
16. Any materials, substances or products which are not contained in the above categories.
Table 1.2 Disposal operations covered by the 1975 Waste Framework Directive
Source: Waste Framework Directive 1975.
1. Deposit into or onto land (e.g., landfill).
2. Land treatment (e.g., biodegradation of liquids or sludge wastes in soils, etc.).
3. Deep injection (e.g., injection of pumpable wastes into wells, salt domes, etc.).
4. Surface impoundment (e.g., placement of liquids or sludge wastes into pits, ponds or lagoons, etc.).
5. Specially engineered landfill (e.g., placement of waste into lined discrete cells which are capped and isolated from one another and the environment, etc.).
6. Release into a water body except seas/oceans.
7. Release into seas/oceans including sea bed insertion.
8. Biological treatment not specified elsewhere in the list which results in materials which are discarded using the disposal operations in the list.
9. Physico-chemical treatment not specified elsewhere in the list which results in materials which are discarded using the disposal operations in the list.
10. Incineration on land.
11. Incineration at sea.
12. Permanent storage (e.g., emplacement of containers in a mine, etc.).
13. Blending or mixing prior to disposal operations.
14. Repackaging prior to disposal operations.
15. Storage pending disposal operations (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced.
Table 1.3 Recovery operations covered by the 1975 Waste Framework Directive
Source: Waste Framework Directive 1975.
1. Waste used principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy.
2. Solvent reclamation/regeneration.
3. Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents (including composting and other transformation processes).
4. Recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds.
5. Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials.
6. Regeneration of acids or bases.
7. Recovery of components used for pollution abatement.
8. Recovery of components from catalysts.
9. Oil re-refining or other re-uses of oil.
10. Land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement.
11. Use of wastes obtained from the processes listed above.
12. Exchange of wastes for submission for the processes listed above.
13. Storage of wastes pending operations listed above (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced).
1.5.2 Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Directive
The first Directive on the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste (Council Directive 84/631/EEC 1984) in 1984 concerned hazardous waste only and was later amended in 1986 (Council Directive 86/279/EEC 1986). The Directive stipulated that pre-notification of transfrontier shipments of hazardous waste was required and the wastes could only be sent to designated facilities which could dispose of the waste without endangerment to the environment and human health. The earlier Directives were replaced in 1993 by Council Regulation 259/93/EEC on the Supervision and Control of Transfrontier Shipments of Waste (1993). Because the measure was a Regulation rather than a Directive, it was directly applicable to all Member States of the EU (Box 1.4). The 1993 Regulation covered all movements of waste whether hazardous or not, as defined in the general definition of waste outlined in the 1975 Waste Framework Directive. The movement of waste within and into or out of the EU was covered and also the movement of waste between countries outside the EU but which might pass through one of the EU Member States en route (Europa 2003). The Regulation includes detailed procedures for a compulsory pre-notification scheme, waste description, authorisation and consignment note system. The final treatment and disposal of the waste must be guaranteed by a certificate from the receiver of the waste that disposal has been safely dealt with in an environmentally acceptable way. This must be received within 180 days of shipment. A common compulsory notification and a standard consignment note system has been introduced across the EU. If the waste has not been treated or dealt with properly, the waste must be taken back to the originator of the waste. The waste must be covered by a financial guarantee in case it has to be returned or shipped elsewhere for treatment. The regulations draw the distinction between wastes for disposal, for example, via landfill or incineration, and wastes for recycling. Waste for recovery or recycling is categorised into three types designated as red, amber and green, according to how hazardous it is. Red is the most hazardous including, for example, toxic wastes such as asbestos, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Amber wastes include waste oils and gasoline sludges, and green wastes include non-hazardous wastes such as paper, plastics and glass, wastes from mining operations, textiles and rubber (Murley 1999). Underling the transfrontier shipment of waste is the EU principle of self-sufficiency in waste disposal, where waste should be dealt with closest to the point of generation. However, this may not always be economically viable, hence the need for regulation of the movement of waste.
