Environmental and economic impact assessment of construction and demolition waste disposal using system dynamics

Construction and demolition wastes (CDW) have increasingly serious problems in environmental, social, and economic realms. There is no coherent framework for utilization of these wastes which are disposed both legally and illegally. This harms the environment, contributes to the increase of energy consumption, and depletes finite landfills resources. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of two alternatives for the management of CDW, recycling and disposing. The evaluation is carried out through developing a dynamic model with aid STELLA software by conducting the following steps: (1) quantifying the total cost incurred to mitigate the impacts of CDW landfills and uncollected waste on the environment and human health; (2) quantifying the total avoided emissions and saved energy by recycling waste; (3) estimating total external cost saved by recycling waste and; (4) providing a decision support tool that helps in re-thinking about waste disposal. The proposed evaluation methodology allows activating the stringent regulations that restrict waste disposal and developing incentives to encourage constructors to recycle their wastes. The research findings show that recycling CDW leads to significant reductions in emissions, energy use, global warming potential (GWP), and conserves landfills space when compared to disposal of wastes in landfills. Furthermore, the cost of mitigating the impact of disposal is extremely high. Therefore, it is necessary to recycle construction and demolition wastes.     

Management of old landfills by utilizing forest and energy industry waste flows

The lack of landfill capacity, forthcoming EU waste disposal and landfill management legislation and the use of non-renewable and energy intensive natural resources for the end-treatment of old landfills increase pressures to develop new landfill management methods. This paper considers a method for the end-management of old landfills in Finland, which is based on the utilization of forest and paper industry waste flows, wastes from paper recycling (de-inking) and wastes from forest industry energy production. Fibre clay wastes from paper mills, de-inking sludges from de-inking of recovered waste paper and incineration ash from forest industry power plants serve to substitute the use of natural clay for the building of landfill structures for closed landfills. Arguably, this method is preferable to existing practices of natural clay use for landfill building, because it (1) substitutes non-renewable natural clay, (2) consumes less energy and generates less CO2 emissions than the use of natural clay, and (3) eliminates considerable amounts of wastes from paper production, paper consumption and from forest industry energy production. Some difficulties in the application of the method are considered and the waste flow utilization is incorporated into a local forest industry recycling network.     

山东省城市生活垃圾管理现状及对策

随着经济的发展,城市生活垃圾逐渐成为山东省面临的重大问题.系统分析了山东省城市生活垃圾的收运及处理现状,并对其对策进行了讨论,认为山东省应立足现实,完善城市生活垃圾管理体系;对城市生活垃圾分类收集,以源头控制为主,并逐步改进现有的较为单一的卫生填埋技术;尝试应用多种先进的综合处理新技术,改变传统的思维模式,加快城市生活垃圾处理市场化、产业化的步伐,走可持续发展之道路.     

工业固废处置与管理中信息采集与流动问题探析

工业固废的妥善处置是我国经济实现可持续健康发展不可回避的重要环境问题之一。要保证工业固废最优的资源化利用和规范处置,确保管理部门对此过程中各责任主体的有效监控,需要确保工业固废利用处置与管理中的各类相关信息及时准确的被掌握。本文明晰了工业固废处置管理过程中各责任主体在信息采集流动中的责任与义务,各类相关信息在信息系统中流动的情况,为构建一个理想的工业固废处置与管理信息系统提供了一些基础条件。     

浅析珠三角工业结构与环境污染物的灰色关联

根据2004—2009年珠三角地区各种工业结构、总产值以及工业“三废”排放量等数据,运用灰色关联分析研究了珠三角工业生产规模结构、轻重工业结构、行业结构、工业生产结构与不同环境污染物之间的关联程度。结果表明：珠三角3种生产规模的企业中与工业“三废”关联最大的是中型企业,其次是大型企业,小型企业最小;相对重工业,珠三角轻工业与工业“三废”的关联较大;珠三角工业主导行业与工业“三废”的关联度排序：采矿业〉制造业〉电力燃气及水的生产和供应;就产业结构来说,与污染物的灰色关联度依次是：第一产业、第二产业、第三产业。     

Effectiveness of novel and traditional methods to incorporate industrial wastes in cementitious materials—An overview

Sustainable development and eco-efficiency are urgent and imperative demands for the well-being of our planet, continued growth of a society, and human development. Traditional Portland cement production seems unsustainable due to consumption of huge natural resources and energy and significant CO₂ emissions. The volume of industrial wastes is increasing significantly, leading to a number of economical and ecological problems. Although industrial wastes can be incorporated in cementitious materials by various traditional methods, the substitution ratio of industrial wastes in cementitious materials is relatively low to avoid unacceptable performance loss. Novel methods, such as improving hydraulic activities of metallurgical slags by adding composition adjusting material at high temperature, improving surface cementitious properties of fly ashes by dehydration and rehydration treatment, and arranging cement clinker and industrial wastes in the particle size distribution of blended cements according to their hydraulic activities, are reviewed. These methods provide more effective approach to prepare high performance blended cements with larger amount of industrial wastes, leading to a very significant role in CO₂ emissions reducing, resources and energy conservation of the cement industry.     

生产者责任延伸制与电子废弃物管理——环境法规

日益增加的固体废弃物和工业废弃物已成为主要的社会问题。回收服务相对来说还很不足,导致很多废弃物只能进行简单的填埋、焚烧处理。这将导致严重的环境污染。借鉴国外一些发达国家废物管理领域的政策趋势,我国近年来出台了一系列关于电子废弃物管理的政策法规,但也暴露出正规的废物处理企业无法取得规模收益,入不敷出,电子废弃物处理基金的征收及补贴对象不明确等诸多问题。引入生产者责任延伸制将外部影响内部化,在理念和功能等方面适应了电子废弃物管理的需要。     

Industrial processes and waste characterization

Specific industrial processes and its waste characteristics should be known for proper management and control of the wastes produced from industries. Some industrial processes and waste characteristics are introduced to explain how to deal with the wastes for waste characterization. Evaluation methods of biodegradability of industrial wastewater were introduced in order for environmental engineers to be able to decide the proper treatment method of the industrial wastewaters. Industrial processes and characterization discussed in this section might be useful for the selection of suitable methods to prevent pollutant discharge from industrial processes.     

Global disposal strategies for waste cathode ray tubes

The collection and management of waste electrical and electronic appliances around the world, and the possible negative environmental consequences have been an issue of current debate. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) used as display screen for computer monitors and televisions contains large quantities of lead, estimated at between 0.5 and 4 kg, depending on the size of the CRT and has been identified as the most polluting of all electronic waste components. Having failed the tests used in the toxicity characterization of solid wastes, CRTs have been declared ‘hazardous’ and subsequently banned from landfills and incinerators in most developed countries. Presently, large quantities of CRTs are generated globally with only few developed countries having effective take back and sound management program. Meanwhile, large quantities of CRT-containing devices are being moved across frontiers into developing countries in the name of ‘reuse’ and ‘bridging the digital divide’. With near absence of recycling infrastructure for electronic wastes in most developing countries, waste CRTs are disposed of with MSW at open dumps and unsanitary landfills. This paper reviews the current practices in the management of CRTs around the world, with emphasis on the role of regulations, availability of recycling infrastructure, recycling/reuse routes, and export into developing countries. Inappropriate disposal of waste CRTs creates the opportunity for large-scale environmental contamination with heavy metals, especially lead. Appropriate disposal routes are required globally in the management of CRTs in order to mitigate environmental contamination and human exposure to toxins.     

Industrial symbiosis and waste recovery in an Indian industrial area

Recovery, reuse and recycling of industrial residuals, often dismissed as wastes, are common in India and other industrializing countries largely due to lower associated costs. Some wastes are reused within the facility where they are generated, others are reused directly by nearby industrial facilities, and some are recycled via the formal and informal recycling markets. Direct inter-firm reuse is the cornerstone of the phenomenon termed industrial symbiosis, where firms cooperate in the exchange of material and energy resources. This study applies material flow analysis to an economically diverse industrial area in South India to characterize the recovery, reuse and recycling of industrial residuals. It quantifies the generation of waste materials from 42 companies as well as the materials that are directly traded across facilities and those that are recycled or disposed. This study encompasses a business cluster in Mysore in the State of Karnataka, and is the first in India to thoroughly quantify material flows to identify existing symbiotic connections in an industrial area. Examined industries in this industrial area generate 897,210 metric tons of waste residuals annually, and recovered 99.5% of these, 81% with reused by the companies that generated them, with one company, a sugar refinery, processing most of this amount. Geographic data show that operations within 20 km of the industrial area receive over 90% of residuals exiting facility gates. Two-thirds of this amount goes directly to other economic actors for reuse. This study makes key contributions to the literature in distinguishing how particular types of materials are reused in different ways, the geographic extent of symbiotic activities and the important role of the informal sector in industrial waste management in industrializing regions.     

Hazardous Waste Generation and Disposal: Options for Developing Countries

The industrial harzardous waste problem is going to be explosive in developing countries as they industrialize further. This paper examines the hazardous waste problem, highlights some toxic waste types, and provides a list of industries that generate most of those wastes. Technological, economic and institutional measures that could be combined to mitigate the hazardous waste problem in developing countries are described, and recommendations for dealing with the problem are presented.     

强化发展工业固体废物资源

本文分析了贵州工业固体废物的现状和变化趋势,讨论了工业固体废物资源化的主要途径和发展方向;强调加快企业技术改造,发展无废少废闭路循环生产工艺;加强应用基础研究、开拓新的应用途径等问题的重要性;提出了我国开展固体废物资源化的主要对策和措施.     

Degradation of greenhouse twines derived from natural fibers and biodegradable polymer during composting

Commercial composting operations generally do not accept organic wastes with plastic twines from the greenhouse vegetable industry and the bulk of the waste materials ends up in landfills. The objectives of this paper are to identify environmentally compatible substitutes that could replace the current use of petrochemically derived plastic twines in greenhouse vegetable production, thus diverting them from landfills, and to assess the extent of their degradation via composting. Physical properties of the twines, including linear density, percent weight loss and tensile strength were monitored for the biodegradation tests. A pilot-scale composting trial was conducted in an in-vessel composting system. Results showed that the three biodegradable twine materials (cotton, jute and EcoPLA) could degrade readily in a composting environment within a reasonable time frame. Specifically, at the end of 105 days of composting, 85.3%, 84.8% and 81.1% of weight loss was observed for cotton, jute and EcoPLA, respectively. Furthermore, EcoPLA exhibited a slower decline in tensile strength with time, when compared to jute and cotton.     

Utilization of coal combustion by-products in sustainable construction materials

Solid waste management is gaining significant importance with the ever-increasing quantities of industrial by-products and wastes. With the environmental awareness and scarcity of space for landfilling, wastes/by-product utilization has become an attractive alternative to disposal. Several industrial by-products are produced from manufacturing processes, service industries and municipal solid wastes. Some of these industrial by-products/waste materials could possibility be used in cement-based materials.Coal combustion by-products (CCBs) represent incombustible materials left after combustion of coal in conventional and/or advanced clean-coal technology combustors. These include fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) by-products from advanced clean-coal technology combustors. This paper briefly describes various coal combustion products produced, as well as current best recycling use options for these materials. Materials, productions, properties, potential applications in manufacture of emerging materials for sustainable construction, as well as environmental impact are also briefly discussed.     

Waste in the Inner City: asset or assault?

In an unequal society, undesirable wastes often end up in the poorest and least powerful communities, becoming part of the economic and environmental milieu of the inner city. Two contradictory responses to waste reflect contrasting theoretical paradigms. Some wastes can become assets in local economic development, creating incomes through scavenging, industrial jobs in recycling plants or new businesses using locally available materials. Other wastes are an assault on the community that receives them; toxic wastes, polluting facilities and industrial by-products often create local health hazards rather than development. Waste as an asset is consistent with the free market model of economics. The inner city, 'endowed' with waste materials and low-wage labour, has a comparative advantage in labour-intensive processing of materials that the rest of society has discarded. Waste as an assault on the community is consistent with a different model of environmental risk. Some by-products of industry are so hazardous that they should not be produced, or should be tightly regulated. Each model has a realm of validity; the balance between the two depends on which wastes are hazardous, and which are just ugly resources waiting to be discovered.     

Critical review of industrial and medical waste practices in Dar es Salaam City

Industrial and medical wastes constitute a larger part on what is known as ‘hazardous wastes’. The production of these wastes is and will continue to be an on going phenomenon as long as human civilization persists. The health impacts of direct and indirect exposure to hazardous wastes include carcinogenic effects, reproductive system damage, respiratory effects, central nervous system effects, and many others. Today, many developed countries have legal provisions with regard to proper management of hazardous wastes. Tanzania, like many developing countries, has little emphasis on the proper handling and disposal of hazardous wastes. There is a serious inadequacy in handling industrial and medical solid wastes in the Dar es Salaam City. Improper waste deposition is increasingly becoming a potential public health risk and an environmental burden. Due to poor control of waste, industrialists and hospital owners are not well checked on how they handle and dispose of the wastes they produce with the result that many hazardous wastes reach the Vingunguti dumpsite without notice. Data on waste generation in Dar es Salaam is also inadequate, making it difficult to plan an efficient solid waste system. Promotion of public awareness, legislation and regulations enforcement and establishment of a proper sanitary landfill are considered to be principal remedial measures to ensure sound environmental maintenance. This paper summarizes the findings of the study on the practices of industrial and medical waste management in Dar es Salaam. The author aims to express the inadequacy in hazardous waste management and suggests possible measures to be applied in order to rectify the situation.     

固体废弃物的处理和再利用

本文介绍了作者关于有机固体废弃物的堆肥处理法的一些研究工作，并综述了目前国内外关于其它固体废弃物的处理与再利用的方法与经验。     

我国工业固体废物处理利用行业2013年发展综述

综述了我国工业固体废物处理利用行业2013年的发展环境形势和发展概况;介绍了2013年国内工业固体、危险废物及生活垃圾的产生量和处理情况;阐述并分析了目前国内固体废物处理技术和设施的现状;就行业发展存在的主要问题提出了建议.     

浅谈城市生活及工业固体废弃物处理技术

本文概述了国内外有关固体废弃物的处理技术,主要对城市生活及工业固体废弃物进行小结,并涉及危险固体废弃物的处理技术。     

Waste in the Inner City: Asset or assault?

In an unequal society, undesirable wastes often end up in the poorest and least powerful communities, becoming part of the economic and environmental milieu of the inner city. Two contradictory responses to waste reflect contrasting theoretical paradigms. Some wastes can become assets in local economic development, creating incomes through scavenging, industrial jobs in recycling plants or new businesses using locally available materials. Other wastes are an assault on the community that receives them; toxic wastes, polluting facilities and industrial by-products often create local health hazards rather than development. Waste as an asset is consistent with the free market model of economics. The inner city, 'endowed' with waste materials and low-wage labour, has a comparative advantage in labour-intensive processing of materials that the rest of society has discarded. Waste as an assault on the community is consistent with a different model of environmental risk. Some by-products of industry are so hazardous that they should not be produced, or should be tightly regulated. Each model has a realm of validity; the balance between the two depends on which wastes are hazardous, and which are just ugly resources waiting to be discovered.