Guidelines for Effective Solid Waste Disposal - Questions

A lot of solid waste is generated at our manufacturing sites. Most of the items are listed below but there can be many more which I couldn't recall at the moment.

I haven't mentioned the wastes of hazardous nature as well as those solid wastes which we scientifically recycle or reuse in the manufacturing process (e.g. fly ash & bottom ash from the boilers, process dust etc.). Although disposal of any of the wastes listed has so far not been regulated (in our country) yet none of them is allowed to be landfilled.

How others are disposing the similar items. Does any one have a procedure / guidelines for their proper disposal.

I will highly appreciate the response.

• Plastic (PET) bottles (Water, chemicals & others)
• Broken glassware
• Used / torn poly bags,
• Left over food from the canteens, lunch boxes etc.
• Paper waste (from offices)
• Empty tin containers & steel barrels
• Automobile filters
• Rubber, wood, aluminium & steel scrap
• General packaging material consisting of card boards, plastics, ply wood, metallic strips, cotton string, PVC tape etc. (generated in warehouse)
• Cotton Waste (generated during machine maintenance)
• Dry leaves & grass (from lawns, gardens & trees)
• Empty printer Cartridges & electronic/ electric waste (such as pieces of cables, fuses, etc.)
• Refractory scrap
• Household & kitchen waste etc. etc.

Thanks

samsung said:

A lot of solid waste is generated at our manufacturing sites. Most of the items are listed below but there can be many more which I couldn't recall at the moment.

I haven't mentioned the wastes of hazardous nature as well as those solid wastes which we scientifically recycle or reuse in the manufacturing process (e.g. fly ash & bottom ash from the boilers, process dust etc.). Although disposal of any of the wastes listed has so far not been regulated (in our country) yet none of them is allowed to be landfilled.

How others are disposing the similar items. Does any one have a procedure / guidelines for their proper disposal.

I will highly appreciate the response.

• Plastic (PET) bottles (Water, chemicals & others)
• Broken glassware
• Used / torn poly bags,
• Left over food from the canteens, lunch boxes etc.
• Paper waste (from offices)
• Empty tin containers & steel barrels
• Automobile filters
• Rubber, wood, aluminium & steel scrap
• General packaging material consisting of card boards, plastics, ply wood, metallic strips, cotton string, PVC tape etc. (generated in warehouse)
• Cotton Waste (generated during machine maintenance)
• Dry leaves & grass (from lawns, gardens & trees)
• Empty printer Cartridges & electronic/ electric waste (such as pieces of cables, fuses, etc.)
• Refractory scrap
• Household & kitchen waste etc. etc.

Thanks

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Bump.

Can anyone help? Thank you very much!

Stijloor.

samsung said:

...How others are disposing the similar items. Does any one have a procedure / guidelines for their proper disposal...

Click to expand...

Hello, Samsung. I've attached an example of what we call a 'Waste Summary'. It outlines the disposal methods of different wastes we generate. Maybe something in it will spark an idea. I like it because it is easy to understand - just find your waste and see what should be done with it.

We primarily use third parties to help dispose of recyclables and hazardous wastes. We work closely with them to send it in a way that is easy for them to handle. For example, we bag waste paper and put it in with the cardboard. When it gets to their plant, they can easily sort. Some recyclables have value, some don't. We are a fairly small generator, so we approach this on a case by case basis. If we can get some money out of it, great. If not, we are still doing the right thing.

Kitchen scraps and yard clippings from grass/trees are the latest wastes for us to control. We are composting them onsite and using in local gardens. We have considered doing this with waste cardboard also, as it also composts well and helps retain moisture around crops. Haven't gotten to that point yet though. Kitchen scraps are collected in a gallon pail that is placed in the breakroom. The pail is designed for this purpose, so it has a filter and small biodegradable bags. Kitchen scraps can be great for animal feed also.

Thank you Neil for helping out!

Stijloor.

Neil V. said:

Hello, Samsung. I've attached an example of what we call a 'Waste Summary'. It outlines the disposal methods of different wastes we generate. Maybe something in it will spark an idea. I like it because it is easy to understand - just find your waste and see what should be done with it.

We primarily use third parties to help dispose of recyclables and hazardous wastes. We work closely with them to send it in a way that is easy for them to handle. For example, we bag waste paper and put it in with the cardboard. When it gets to their plant, they can easily sort. Some recyclables have value, some don't. We are a fairly small generator, so we approach this on a case by case basis. If we can get some money out of it, great. If not, we are still doing the right thing.

Kitchen scraps and yard clippings from grass/trees are the latest wastes for us to control. We are composting them onsite and using in local gardens. We have considered doing this with waste cardboard also, as it also composts well and helps retain moisture around crops. Haven't gotten to that point yet though. Kitchen scraps are collected in a gallon pail that is placed in the breakroom. The pail is designed for this purpose, so it has a filter and small biodegradable bags. Kitchen scraps can be great for animal feed also.

Click to expand...

Thanks Neil for your timely response & and a very good attachment from which I can learn many things. From the summary I find that the way you store and manage the waste at your site is quite impressive.

To give an idea, I like to share the practices currently in effect at our site:

1. Incinerable waste: All incinerable non-hazardous & non-plastic based waste items are collected and burnt in our cement kilns at about 1450 deg.C. But we find it very cumbersome since it's very difficult to feed the light weight items which tend to blow away with winds and thus cause a lot of rework.

2. Biodegradable waste: Kitchen waste (mostly vegetable waste & left over vegetarian food) and the waste collected from gardens is collectively dumped in earth pits and composted.

3. Hazardous waste Used oil & used grease (including cotton waste) is also incinerated in the kilns under controlled conditions (permit obtained).

4. Bio-medical waste: is disposed as per the requirements of the law.

5. Broken glassware is ground with raw materials & thus reused in the manufacturing process. (SiO2 content of glass adds value to the raw mix)

6. All other scrap items (steel, glass, wood, rubber, poly bags & bottles, e-waste, empty barrels etc.) are sold to different recyclers who never tell us for sure how they deal with these items. This is the main concern forcing us to find alternative ways to make sure that the wastes are disposed in an environmentally sound manner. Also, in view of the difficulties faced in feeding the paper / card board waste into the kilns, we want to discontinue this practice and try some easily manageable solutions.

So far we feel comfortable with item # 3, 4, 5 only. It's quite unwieldy & bulky when it comes to collecting the feather like dry leaves & grass and transporting it to the point of disposal. Can there be a better way to follow ?

I would appreciate if, based on the above description, one could suggest some better ways of disposing such wastes with less dependency on third parties.

Hello Samsung,

We use the same format as Neil kindly provided you, it works very well.

As far as plastics go, I suggest you buy a chipper, all plastic molding companies have them in order to grind and recycle their scrap plastic.

The same type of system, a paper shredder, is also used by large printers for shredding waste paper.

These systems are not expensive and only require that they be installed with sound safety procedures.

Regards,

Tamale

tamale said:

Hello Samsung,

We use the same format as Neil kindly provided you, it works very well.

As far as plastics go, I suggest you buy a chipper, all plastic molding companies have them in order to grind and recycle their scrap plastic.

The same type of system, a paper shredder, is also used by large printers for shredding waste paper.

These systems are not expensive and only require that they be installed with sound safety procedures.

Regards,

Tamale

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Paper shredding is a good idea. I can try to find some ways to make the shredded mass little denser by mixing it with other incinerable/ compatible mass so that it can be conveniently fed into the system and burnt out.

The problem lies with the plastic/ polythene recyclers. Since we can't recycle the plastics, we will ultimately have to hand over the shredded mass to these vendors who will probably recycle it to make new items. Sale or use of most recycled plastic items especially for handling of food items / eatables is also prohibited . I wonder, how the recycled waste is ultimately disposed !

I suppose burning of plastics in open or in incinerators is also banned in most (if not all) countries as it releases toxic gases in the atmosphere.

May be some regulatory guidelines available with someone.