Identification and leaching characteristics of sludge generated from metal pickling and electroplating industries by Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure (TCLP)

One of India's major concerns is the increasing level of land pollution largely due to the uncontrolled disposal of industrialsolid and hazardous waste. With rapid industrialization, thegeneration of industrial solid and hazardous waste has increasedappreciably and the nature of waste generated has become complex.Their impacts on the ecological bodies are noticeable. The article describes the details of studies conducted using Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure, to estimate the toxicity effects of the metals viz., chromium, zinc, manganese,iron, nickel, cobalt and copper by the Zero Headspace Extractorfor the sludges generated from effluent treatment plant of steeltube, wire and plating industries on environment constituentslike groundwater, surface water and land. Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure determines the mobility of organic and inorganic analytes of liquid, solid or multiphase waste from hazardous solid wastes in the form of primary and secondary extracts. These extracts are mixed in equal volumeproportion and analyzed by Direct Reading 2000 spectrophotometer.The amount of heavy metals observed during the studies in theleachates were found and the results were compared with HazardousWaste categories as per Indian Standards, TCLP regulatory limitsgiven by United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) andGermany Leachate Quality Standards and it was observed that theywere on higher side, needing a proper preventive concept of sludge management including handling, treatment, recovery and disposal.