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Posts Tagged ‘waste management’

We live in the Electronic Era. Our lives consist of wires and rays. Computers have revolutionalised the way we think, work and live. Everything is just a click away.  In the light of economic development, users and usage of computers is increasing. Life without TV or computer seems a nightmare. But this nightmare may become a reality if we continue ignoring our Environment.   Economic Development and Environment Conservation does not go hand in hand. Environment is seen as a hurdle for achieving economic success and so is often ignored. It’s only when the situation becomes out-of-control that the poor Environment gets some light. The e-scrap or e-waste of our e-world is not environment-friendly.

E-scrap refers to the discarded old and broken electronic devices. They are non bio-degradable. When they are not disposed properly, they harm the Environment as they contain toxic substances such as lead, cadmium, nickel, antimony etc.

E-scrap is imported to India illegally as the other countries don’t want to take the risk involved in recycling it. After China banned the import of e-scrap, India has emerged to be the World’s e-scrap dumping ground. In India, e-scrap is not handled properly. They are treated in informal and unorganised scrap yards. The workers are not trained. They don’t wear any mask and so are exposed to dangerous chemicals. It has adverse effects on their health. Nickel leads to skin damages and asthma. Antimony leads to heart and fertility problems. Breathing high levels of cadmium can lead to severe lung damages and can cause death. Lead affects the nervous system.

They try to retrieve metals from the equipments. They burn these equipments which then release dangerous gases into the atmosphere.

Land filling is another way of disposal. It’s not safe either. Chemicals present in e- scrap like, mercury, lead, cadmium or plastics are dumped on the ground. These chemicals then pollute soil and underground water. Landfills are generally unorganized. E-scrap is often dumped in open grounds.

E-scrap management is under the informal sector. But in recent years, Government has tried to improve things. It has instituted a number of regulations for management of e-scrap but they have been ineffective. There is only one Government-run e-scrap Recycling System in India. Fortunately, some private companies and various small scale industries are taking charge of managing the e-scrap. Manufacturers like Wipro, HCL, Nokia, Acer, and Motorola have initiated recycling of their products. Wipro has 17 collection centres, HCL has 500 and Nokia has 1,300 collection bins.
But e-scrap recycling in a proper manner is still meagre. The main sector handling it remains the ignorant scrap-dealers who have no technology to handle e-scrap. The Government should enforce a law that makes it compulsory for the manufacturers of the Electronic goods to take responsibility for their recycle. A Government official should visit scrap yards to make sure the working conditions are proper and that the workers are wearing masks. We, as individuals, can do our part by handing our e-scrap to authorised recycling systems. Dell is one company which can recycle e-scrap without charging any fee. Get the electronic device repaired if possible. Try not to dispose it. We can also donate it to someone who needs it. She/he can get it repaired. We should make efforts or one day we’ll suffocate in our own scrap.

The Problems with Land Fills (Landfills) - The Inside Structure of a Landfill

Nobody, or nobody, likes a land fill.  But, that does not alter the indisputable fact that Land fill is one of the most widely used techniques of waste disposal of civil solid waste ( MSW ) and commercial business and general commercial waste ( C&I Waste ) around the globe.  Even when a council recycles a lot there may still be a third of the waste going to a land fill.

As well as that more and more are being thrown up as society makes more trash.

After being land filled, the refuse decomposes through a sequence of combined physico-chemical and biological processes, which may take a period of more than a century and a half.

Some waste in these nations never even gets sent to landfills any more.  For instance, waste from electric and electronic hardware, white goods ( e.g, washing machines, fridges ) and hazardous waste ( e.g, batteries, drugs, fluorescent tube lighting ) mustn’t be thrown in the bin, but get left at the numerous civic amenity centres around the country for recycling and disposal. 

Land fill fires are not unusual on the poorly controlled landfills and yet more pollution happens when rubbish heap burning produces toxic smoke as they burn plastic materials.  Such fires are rare in the united states, Europe and other more wealthy countries.  Land fill desires miles better control in most developing states and it’s not dear control the land fills better, when compared with he disease and suffering caused by bad land fills.

Landfills are a bit like bathtubs.  Like bathtubs, they leak two ways : out the bottom or ott.  To avoid this the leachate must be removed before it builds up pressure.  So, leachate is removed from the bottom layer of the Land fill and put into storage tanks.

The leachate is then pumped back to the land fill, allowing it to flow over the waste continually.  It filters thru the land fill, picking up impurities as it travels.  The bottom layer of the dump rests upon a land fill liner.  The liner regularly has several layers.  The top, or primary, liner might be as an example, a composite section with 60-mil high-density polyethylene ( HDPE ) and a bentonite subliner. 

Leachate is produced by a mix of liquids from waste material, rainwater and other liquids that are produced during the decomposition of waste.  It may contain contaminates that would pollute water supplies if allowed to enter the underground water in the rocks below.

Depending on traits of the Land fill and the wastes it contains, the leachate may be relatively safe or very toxic. 

To make sure that a land fill doesn’t pollute the groundwater below it, groundwater monitoring wells are installed thru each site to ensure that Land fill operations are not badly effecting underground water quality. 

Usually, each one of the wells is sampled on a once a month basis, with the results sent to the Environmental Protection (EPA) and Water Resources Board.  Groundwater monitoring stations consistently test for land fill leakage, infrequently for as long as fifty years after Land fill closure.  That is needed since there’s little oxygen and moisture in Land fills, garbage does not break down extremely quickly.

Additionally, a Land fill gas system will be installed to gather gas through wells and treat the gas by burning in enclosed flame flares or by other licensed strategies such as converting the gas to electricity. 

Methane has twenty-one times the global warming potential of CO2, therefore in the short term and in the case of Controlled Landfill Sites, it is better to have CO2 going into the atmosphere than methane.  Land fill gases travel freely for great distances into the environment.  Methane burns really easily and regularly is used as natural gas for cooking and heating.  It is lighter than air and collects at the pinnacle of enclosed spaces.
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Landfill Problems - A Landfill Site Anatomy

This article applies to all typical RCRA Subtitle C Landfill Cap Systems, and is an educational guide only read the USEPA guides before taking any action.

Landfill caps can be used to:

* Minimize exposure on the surface of the trash facility.
* Prevent vertical penetration of water into wastes that would create polluted leachate.
* Confine waste at the same time as treatment is being applied.
* Control gas emissions from underlying garbage.
* Create a terrain surface so as to support plant life and/or be used for added purposes.

Landfill Capping is the most widespread manner of remediation as it is normally less pricey than other technologies and in effect manages the human and ecological risks connected with a remediation place.

The blueprint of landfill caps is site specific plus depends on the proposed functions of the scheme. Landfill Caps can range from a one-layer system of vegetated soil to a multifaceted multi-layer system of soils and geosynthetics. In general, less complicated systems are essential in waterless climates and more intricate systems are essential in wet climates. The material used within the construction of landfill caps comprise low-permeability and high-permeability soils and low-permeability geosynthetic products. The low-permeability materials reroute water and preclude its means of access into the rubbish. The high permeability materials convey water away that percolates into the cap. Added materials could be used to boost slope stability.

The most critical components of a landfill cap are the barrier layer and the drainage layer. The capping layer must comprise low-permeability soil (clay) and/or geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). A flexible geomembrane liner is positioned on top of the barrier layer. Geomembranes are generally supplied in large rolls and are available in a number of thickness (20 to 140 mil), widths (15 to 100 ft), and lengths (180 to 840 ft). The candidate list of polymers frequently used is extensive, which includes polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylenes of a range of densities, reinforced chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE-R), polypropylene, ethylene interpolymer alloy (EIA), and lots of newcomers. Soils used as barrier materials by and large are clays that are packed down to a hydraulic conductivity no greater than 1 x 10-6 cm/sec. Compacted soil barriers are commonly installed in 6-inch least possible lifts to realize a thickness of 2 feet or more. A composite barrier uses together soil and a geomembrane, taking benefit of the properties of each one. The geomembrane is really impermeable, but, if it develops a leak, the soil component prevents significant leakage into the underlying waste.

For services lying on putrescible wastes, the collection and control of methane and carbon dioxide, potent greenhouse gases, must be part of facility design and operation.

Asphalt/Concrete Cap

The most effective single-layer caps are composed of concrete or bituminous asphalt. It is used to form a surface barrier sandwiched between landfill and the environment. An asphalt concrete cap would lessen leaching through the landfill into an adjacent aquifer.

Subtitle C Capping

The RCRA C multilayered landfill cap is a baseline design that is suggested for use in RCRA hazardous waste applications. These caps generally consist of an upper vegetative (topsoil) layer, a drainage layer, and a low permeability layer which consists of a synthetic liner greater than 2 feet of compacted clay. The compacted clay liners are effective if they retain a certain dampness content but are susceptible to cracking if the clay substance is dried out. As a result alternate cap designs are usually considered meant for arid environments.

D Subtitle Cap – RCRA

RCRA Subtitle D requirements are for non-hazardous garbage landfills. The design of a landfill cover for a RCRA Subtitle D facility is normally a function of the underside liner system or native subsoils at hand. The cover must meet the following conditions:

* the material must possess a permeability no greater than 1 x 10-5 cm/s, or equal permeability of any bottom liner or natural subsoils at hand, whichever is less.
* The low permeability layer must contain at least 45 cm of sub-soil type material.
* The erosion control layer must be at least 15 cm of earthen material capable of sustaining native plant development.

Unorthodox design can be considered, but have got to be be of equal performance as the specifications outlined above. All covers must remain designed to avoid the “bathtub” effect. The bathtub effect occurs after a more permeable cover is placed above a less permeable bottom liner or natural subsoil. The landfill then fills up approximating a tub.

Most of us don’t think about recycling much past when the driver picks it up or we drop it off at the local recycling center.  Of course, the process of making new material from used items is important, but in the course of everyday life it just doesn’t make it through all of the other concerns in the day.You could schedule a visit to the closest recycling plant and see the recycling process for paper looks like up close and personal.  Most companies are more than willing to share the process and information behind taking scrap paper and making it usable again.The best way to really show people that their efforts matter.  However, it’s a little faster to learn about the recycling paper process by reading about it.

Nothing can happen in the recycling paper process without one very important element.  People willing to take the time and save their paper products are vital to the success of any recycling effort.  The entire process starts with you, the consumer, in other words.Whether you drop your stuff off at the recycling bin or have it picked up, the process can’t start until you become a part of it.

Once the paper makes it to the center, the first step is pulping.  In the recycling process for paper, this means that water is added to large amounts of used paper and agitated to produce pulp.After the paper is sufficiently broken down, the pulp is pushed through a series of screens to separate the larger pieces of contaminants from the useable paper pulp.The somewhat clean paper is then placed in a machine that uses centrifugal cleaning to spin more of the debris from the paper pulp.

The next step in the recycling process for paper is to remove the ink.The water and paper pulp mixture is brought to a flotation treatment.Surfactant is added to the mix and it forces the ink to release from the paper causing it to float to the surface for easy removal.The pulp is now ready to be kneaded and broken into fibers further.  The final washing is done with clean water to get rid of any contaminants or particles that is still hanging on.If the paper is intended to be white, a bleaching process is started by the workers.

The recycling process for paper is then completed with presses to form the new, recycled paper into its proper shape and size.  As you know, recycled paper and paper products usually bear the famous recycling logo so you can pick products that were made with environmentally safe techniques.