POSTING 3: Waste treatment options

Now, after the implementation of our renovation plan, our supervisor asks us to investigate the treatment options for each waste found by our team on site.

T-shirt:

First, according to our risk assessment, it is not contaminated. When the cotton t-shirt is recovering, it can have 2 issues: either it is in good condition and can be placed in a recovery centre, or it is in poor condition and must be placed in a landfill or incinerator. It can also be bought by a shop that recycles cotton, but this is very rare. When checking the delivery, the amount of waste in the truck must be known. If the t-shirt had been contaminated, it would have had to be labelled, but since it is not, there is no requirement to label it. The requirement is necessary for dangerous waste or contaminated waste, but in our case, the t-shirt is not contaminated, so a label is not required.

This waste can have several issues. If it is in good condition, it can be recycled or even reused. In our case, the t-shirt is in poor condition. It will be placed in a landfill or an incinerator. Thus, nothing is required because whether it goes to a landfill, it doesn’t need pre-treatment. The other outcome is that it will be burned in an incinerator, so it’s the same as the previous one. It doesn’t need pre-treatment.

Yes, we can put a t-shirt the textile in a landfill because according to the standard, textiles is allowed in a landfill area. However, the textile (our t-shirt) need to be not contaminated because if it is, it can be considered as dangerous waste. In this case, we cannot put it in a landfill. It will be treated or go to a special centre for dangerous waste.

According to the BBC, in the US, 13 million tons of textiles in 2017 were either landfilled or burned. They estimate that one American throws away 37kg of clothing, each year and only 13.6% of these clothes end up being recycled.

In Europe, the average of textile throws away 26kg and only 15% of clothes used by consumers are recycled.

In France, 33.5% of discarded textiles are processed for recycling.

According to the BBC, globally, the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Textiles are an essential part of our daily lives. However, the production and consumption of textiles cause damage to the environment. It requires a lot of resources such as water, land and chemicals that emit greenhouse gases and pollutants which contribute to global warming.

This is why some European targets are being set to replace this linear economy with a circular economy with the recycling of textiles at the end of their life. Certain objective put in place are:

- Collect textiles separately by 2025.

- Ensure that waste collected separately is not incinerated or landfilled.

Policymakers are encouraging the establishment of collection, repair and reuse systems for textiles to avoid landfill or incineration.

The end-of-life status of the t-shirt can only be obtained if it is contaminated, which may be the case in illegal dumps. Nevertheless, European and global policy shows that the objectives for the textile category are to avoid landfill and to recycle them in order to give them a second life. In addition, it has been shown that this waste is energy-intensive, which suggests that action should be taken quickly.

Oil Based paint:

The information of waste shall include hazardous waste and shall take into account the origin and composition of the waste and, where necessary, the limit values of concentration of hazardous substances.

The waste is delivered to the reception, which is established for hazardous waste at metsa-sairila. The waste management company will have its own station for receiving the waste. Information must be given on where the waste comes from, the amount and specific information on the type of paint. This is so that the waste can be traced back and kept separately from other kinds of waste as well as properly handled with and disposed of. The labelling also contains information on corrosivity, flammability, toxicity, carcinogenetic ability, and other characteristics. These are all different categories of hazardous waste which are treated differently, meaning the mixing of them could lead to more treatment needed.

The separation of hazardous wastes is done to prevent lowering the recycling quality of other materials by not contaminating them and will ensure the most optimal environmental outcome. During the transportation of the waste, there must be an identification document that comes with the waste

Hazardous waste can be treated, incinerated or disposed of in hazardous waste landfills. Oil-based paints are highly flammable and therefore suitable for incineration. They may be stabilised and treated to remove the toxicity and then solidified to be disposed of.

In Europe hazardous waste is a big problem and this could be improved with stricter record-keeping and traceability by using electronic registers and simplifying the process for companies.

In Finland, 1.3 tonnes of hazardous waste is produced annually, and 55% of this goes to landfill for hazardous waste in one of the 17 Finnish sites. In 2016, this number was 76%, showing a great improvement. Activities in Finland by SYKE and MOTIVA aim at improving hazardous waste recovery. Industrial facilities usually have their own processes for treating a lot of their own hazardous waste, which is most likely the result of the extended producer responsibility. Another reason for the reduction of hazardous waste to landfill could be due to the EU waste framework directive, which states that minimal amounts of hazardous substances should be used within industries, and alternatives must be considered.

End of waste can only be obtained if the paint is able to be reused. For example, if the paint is recycled to be repurposed somewhere else as paint, it may adopt an end of waste status. Doing this would increase the life cycle of the product. This could be done by giving the paint to an organisation, charity or theatre department that might be in need of using paint. However, as the time of disposal is not know, the paint may have already expired, especially as left exposed to the elements. Therefore, incineration is the most viable option in this case.

Metal cans:

In our previous posting about the risk assessment, we saw that metal cans are not considered hazardous waste. They can be recycled infinitely. Indeed metals never lose their properties.

In the recycling of metal cans, no pretreatment is needed, even if before throwing them in the bin, it’s sometimes recommended to quickly rinse them. Then they will be transported to the treatment centre, where information on the quality and the quantity of metals cans will be asked. And depending on this information, the price will be fixed. Then they will be sorted out by magnet and sensors. And I think it’s because they are sorted out by mechanical means that any pretreatment is required. There is no risk if there are still some fluids.

Metals cans are almost never sent to landfills because they have a higher value than common waste. Each year in France, more than 77% of metals cans are recycled, and in Finland, aluminium can have recycle rates of 96% which is far better than any other European country. In Europe, recycling of steel packaging reaches a rate of 82,5%.

In the world, more than 35% of crude steel was made of secondary raw materials like metals cans.

The recycling of metals cans has a positive impact on the environment because the recycling of just one aluminium cans can save enough energy to power light of 100 Watt for 4 hours.

And I think it’s because metals cans have a high value that they are recycled.

There is no special target for the treatment of this waste. Indeed it’s already widely done. But there is one expectation from the EU for all the waste, by the end of 2024, the producer responsibility must be weel established for all packaging.

Infected sharps:

Collection :

Medical waste has to be separated from other waste. They are special waste. It is the responsibility of the waste holder to separate them and place them in appropriate containers.

The world health organization recommend collecting all the sharps, contaminated or not, in the same container. The container must have a cover, be puncture-proof, rigid, impermeable and sealed. It is most of the time made with dense plastic or metal, but sometimes, we can find dense cardboard boxes specialized for transporting sharps. A label must be put on the container with the international infectious substance symbol.

Collapsible cardboard sharps containers

International infectious substance symbol

Then the containers should be placed together in a yellow bag labelled the same way and dated. These bags have to be collected every day from the site to avoid accumulating.

Storage:

It is possible to store the infected sharps at a certain time and with certain environmental conditions. These are the recommendations from the WHO considering the storage of medical waste:

In our case, it would be difficult and expensive to find a place to store the sharps correctly according to the recommendations. We should treat them as soon as possible.

The time limit for storing medical waste in the Mikkeli area is 72 hours in winter and 48 hours in summer.

Transportation:

Transportation has to be done carefully. It must be done with special trucks, not used for other purposes, and cleaned after each transportation. The truck's load and unload have to be done easily, with wheeled trolleys, for example. It is important to check before and after transportation that all the bags are intact.

We will write a document summarizing the whole journey of the waste to monitor the transportation. It will be complete by the transportation company and the treatment facility.

Consignment note for carriage of hazardous waste

Dangerous goods form

Note:

There are special labels for infectious waste in Finland defined by the Committee of Contagious Diseases (Tartuntatautien neuvottelukunta) but only in Finnish, so we’ll use international labelling.

Medical waste labels if Finland

Treatment of waste:

According to the Government decree on Landfills (331/2013; amendments up to 960/2016 included), medical waste is not accepted at landfills.

Sharps cannot be recycled nor reused because of the infectious risk for human health and the environment. They have to be transported to the destruction facility or incinerator in order to kill viruses and bacteria that they may contain.

Wooden table:

There was a piece of furniture found on site, which is a dining table made of wood. Since it doesn’t pose any threat to the environment or human health, it doesn’t require any special labels before being disposed of.

There are three ways to go about this type of waste: upcycling and keeping it, donating it to second-hand shops or charities, or taking it to a recycling centre.

The first way is the easiest route to take. Depending on the table's condition, it can be cleaned, painted over and used as a table, or it can be broken up to create something new, maybe an art/decoration piece.

If our client doesn’t want to keep it, we can take the table to second-hand shops or charities. In Finland, there are a lot of shops, small and big, dedicated to promoting a circular economy. One of them is Kierrätyskesku. They have several locations all around Finland, and what is special about them, in our case is that they accept bulky donations, their only requirement being that all donations must be intact, clean and usable. I can drop off the table there free of charge, or I can order a pick-up from €9.90 upwards. It is also allowed to order a pick-up service together with a neighbour at no extra cost, which promotes circular economy even further.

If the table has reached its end-of-life cycle, then the last thing to do is to take it to the recycling centre/waste management facility. There is very little info about furniture recycling in the EU or globally. One of the main reasons being that furniture consists of many different parts that cannot be recycled together. Having to disassemble and separate all the parts is, of course, an enormous task, considering all the different types of raw materials used in furniture making. According to reports, 90% of furniture waste in the EU goes to incineration or landfills. As with the textiles recycling picking up speed in recent years, attention is also turning to furniture recycling with IKEA announcing in October 2020 a “buy back” scheme through which they intend to cut on furniture waste by picking up your old pieces when you buy new furniture or giving out 50% off vouchers for your next purchase. It is said that anything that cannot be resold will be recycled.

The life cycle of a landfill:

Before a landfill is set up:

Before creating a landfill, it is important to list what is allowed on. Hazardous waste like oil paint is harmful to the environment and is not accepted in regular landfills. It has to be treated first or disposed of in a specialized landfill. Medical waste with a high infectious risk can’t be landfilled either at the regular landfill. Usually, sharps are destroyed at high temperature to prevent infection risks. Therefore we need to ensure to have the right permits to landfill our waste.

Functioning of a landfill:

Every municipal waste that is not sent to municipal facilities treatment are sent to a landfill, it can be every type of municipal waste like paper, glass, food waste, plastic, … in a landfill the aim is to prevent biodegradation or decomposition of waste or make it happen very slowly. That’s why in a landfill, plastic can take 10 to 100 years to degrade. Also, Glass can take more than 1 million years. On the other hand, hazardous waste like medical products or paints are not accepted in a standard landfill, but there are some special landfills that accept these type of wastes.

In the landfill, we need to collect a few things to prevent pollution. Water that manages to percolate through the landfill is collected because it’s contaminated by the waste. This leachate is then tested for contamination and treated to finally be released in nature. Also, the waste degradation can create gas which’s why there is a methane collection system. Indeed, a landfill is an anaerobic place, where the degradation of wastes by bacteria create gas, which is for 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide. Methane is a hazardous gas that can burn or explode. That’s why it’s necessary to remove this gas. But new technologies aim to use this methane produce by landfill to create electricity.

Every day when waste is brought to the landfills, it is disposed of in a cell. It's the area dedicated to all the waste of the day. Then the daily waste is compressed by heavy equipment like bulldozers and tractors. This aims to extend the life span of the landfill. Indeed, the life span of a landfill depends on the quantity of waste that can be stored.

There are some rules to test before accepting waste to landfill, the wastes must be dry in order to prevent liquid in the landfills.

When a truck full of waste arrived at the site, it is weighed, and the customers are charged a tipping fee depending on the ton.

End of life of a landfill:

Used stuff at the end-of-life cycle can either be reused, recycled, composted or end up in a landfill, which is the least preferred method of end-of-life cycle management.

When biowaste goes to landfill, decomposition produces methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas over twenty times more harmful than carbon dioxide. This is the reason why landfilling of biowaste is banned in most European countries. In the United States, however, it is not banned, and many landfills collect gas to generate electricity or use it as fuel for equipment.

There are three types of landfills: inert, non-hazardous and hazardous. Depending on the type of landfills, there are different monitoring requirements for each one. Landfilling any waste poses a potential long-term risk for the environment. Therefore, most countries require that landfills are monitored during their operation as well as after closing for surface water, groundwater, air, soil pollution, odour, noise and leachate.

Frequency of the monitoring depends on many factors such as the age of the site, location, whether any of the surface or groundwater close to the landfill is used for drinking, and if there are new sites and buildings are being built near the landfill.

Monitoring should continue until either:

a) the maximum concentration of methane from the landfill remains less than 1% by volume (20% LEL) and the concentration of carbon dioxide from the landfill remains less than 1.5% by volume measured at all monitoring points within the wastes over a 24 month period taken on at least four separate occasions, including two occasions when atmospheric pressure was falling and was below 1,000 mb; or

b) an examination of the waste using an appropriate sampling method provides a 95% level of confidence that the biodegradation process has ceased.

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POSTING 3: Waste treatment options

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