Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T22:44:42.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Overview of Industrial Waste Generation and Management Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

David T. Allen
Get access

Extract

More than 12 billion tons of industrial waste are generated annually in the United States. This is equivalent to more than 40 tons of waste for every man, woman and child in the country. The sheer magnitude of these numbers is cause for concern and drives us to identify the characteristics of the wastes, the industrial operations that are generating the waste, the manner in which the wastes are being managed and the potential for reducing wastes. This article will provide a brief overview of the information available on waste generation and management. A more comprehensive examination of this topic is provided in a recent issue of the journal Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Materials devoted entirely to inventories of waste generation and management. This article will begin by examining the sources of industrial waste. From an analysis of the sources of industrial waste, we will move to an examination of management methods. Finally, we will note changes in rates of waste generation over the past decade and close by highlighting critical gaps in existing data.

Type
Materials and the Environment
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , March 1992 , pp. 30 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress: Solid Waste Disposal in the United States, Volume 1, EPA/530-SW-88-011 (1988).Google Scholar
2.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report to Congress: Solid Waste Disposal in the United States, Volume 2, EPA/530-SW-88-011B (1988).Google Scholar
3.Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Materials (entire issue) 9 (1) (1992).Google Scholar
4.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Survey of Hazardous Waste Generators and Treatment, Storage, Disposal and Recycling Facilities in 1986: Hazardous Waste Management in RCRA TSDR Units, EPA/530-SW-91-060, Washington, DC (1991).Google Scholar
5.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Toxics in the Community, EPA 560/4-90-017 (1990).Google Scholar
6.Baker, R.D., Warren, J.L., Behmanesh, N. and Allen, D.T., Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Materials 9 (1) (1992).Google Scholar
7.Chemical Manufacturers Association, Hazardous Waste Survey 1989, Washington, DC (1991).Google Scholar
8.American Petroleum Institute, The Generation and Management of Wastes and Secondary Materials in the Petroleum Refining Industry: 1987-1988, (API Publication 4530, American Petroleum Institute, Washington, DC, 1991).Google Scholar
9.Science Applications International Corporation, Summary of Data on Industrial Nonhazardous Waste Disposal Practices, Contract 68-01-7050, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (1985).Google Scholar