Hazardous Waste, Essay Example

Introduction

The hazardous waste is type of the waste that holds potential or significant threats to the health of the public or the entire environment. The type of waste can be reactive, toxic, corrosive and flammable (Alcalay, 1999). But according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, based in the United States of America, states that the hazardous waste is sometimes known as the solid waste that has the ability to:

• Increase the death rate or a waste that can lead in a serious illness that is irreversible.
• A waste that contains a substantial danger to the health of a human or the environment when it is not disposed, properly treated, transported or stored in good condition.

The waste may be in form of a gas, a solid or a liquid. Additionally, the waste can be regarded as a special kind of waste since it cannot be disposed using any other common means just like other our everyday lives by-products. The treatment of the waste might be available depending on the physical of the waste. But in other cases there is nothing much that can be done to prevent the harm caused by the waste.

The Characteristics of the Hazardous Waste

The hazardous waste is ignitable or flammable. This is a type of waste that is capable of catching fire at any given time. The examples of such waste are the waste oil and any used solvent. The wastes mostly have a boiling point of less than 60^o Celsius (Backer, 2000). To identify that the waste is flammable, we can therefore try it with a test method known as the Seta flash Closed-cup Method for Determining the Ignitability.

The hazardous waste is corrosive. This means that it can be either a base or an acid. When the Ph of a waste is less than or equals to 2, then it is an acid and when the pH is greater than or equals to 12.5 that that is automatic a base (Alcalay, 1999). These types of waste have the capability of causing corrosion on the metal containers, which includes the barrels, storage tanks and the drums. To identify this, we can use the test of Corrosivity Towards Steel.

The hazardous waste is reactive or a waste that is not stable under the normal conditions. Therefore they can lead to explosions, dangerous gases, the fumes that are toxic or vapor when compression or heating has taken place. The examples of such wastes include the explosives and lithium-sulfur batteries and explosives.

The hazardous waste is toxic. This is a kind of waste that is concentrated with some dangerous substances that is more than the regulatory threshold that are considered to result into cases of illness or injury to the health a human as well as the environment (Alcalay, 1999).

Where Do Hazardous Waste Come From?

Some of the waste comes from the household and they are known as the Household Hazardous Waste. These are the hazardous waste that comes from our residential places or houses. These kinds of wastes may include the paints, oil from the motor vehicles, insecticides, electronics, the propane cylinders and among others like the cleaning agents and the radioactive waste. Other waste comes from our companies and big industries. Such waste may include some of the dangerous and toxic chemicals. The plastic bags are also some of the waste that comes as a result of industrial waste (Glassman, 2002).

The Disposal of the Hazardous Waste

The waste can be recycled and transformed into new products that are safe to the environment as well as the human nature. For instance the heavy metals from the lead-acid batteries can be recovered and used in the new products. Another good example is the ash that comes from the coal-fired plants. They come out as fly and bottom ash. The fly ash is usually removed by the pollution control devices because of its low density. As a result, the bottom ash remains at the bottom of the combustion chambers (Rogers, 2007). Later the ash is used as pavement fillings after it has undergone through a proper treatment. Such action reduces the level of harmful chemicals, while recycling the safe p-products which are friendly to the environment.

The cement based stabilization and solidification is frequently used for the treatment of the hazardous waste. Cement is capable of treating a range of the hazardous wastes by lowering the toxicity and as well as the contaminants transmission. By this chance, it therefore improves the physical characteristics (Rogers, 2007).

Some of the hazardous waste can be neutralized so that the elimination of the hazardous component of the waste can take place. The example might include the neutralization of a corrosive acid together with a basic substance so that i9t is not corrosive any more.

The hazardous waste can be destroyed through incinerating it to a high temperature or burning the flammable waste to produce energy. We should note that the incineration treatments generate energy throughout the process of released gases besides reducing the amount of the hazardous waste.

Other hazardous waste can be eliminated by using pyrolisis within the high temperature electrical arc which may be in inert conditions that avoids combustion. The type of treatment may be advantageous to the high temperature incineration within some situations like the destruction of the organic waste that are concentrated. These may include the pesticides and any other organic pollutants (Rogers, 2007).

References

Alcalay, R. (1999). The Characteristics of the Hazardous Waste. Public Health Reports 108(3):354-362.

Backer, T. (2000). Designing Health Communication Campaigns. What Works? Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Glassman, A. (2002). The Household Hazardous Waste. Tarzana, CA: California State University

Rogers, E. (2007). The disposal of the Hazardous Waste. 3rd ed. New York: The Free Press.