Hazardous wastes materials are threat to the environment and ecosystem around us. The waste products released by various industries like paints, leather, textile, chemical industries etc. are harmful to all living beings and could disturb human health. The toxins mixed in environment are able to promote the diseases like poisoning, metabolic disorders, cancer, mutation, mental and physical disabilities in the kids.
Industries which produces hazardous wastes materials are classified as red industries.
Sources of hazardous waste :
The waste materials that are harmful for all are produced and dumped by industries and individuals both.
The main sources of hazardous waste materials are as follows :
(i) Automobile industry - The automobile production, engineering, repairs and servicing produces hazardous waste materials.
(ii) Paints industry - The chemical used in the production of paints, inks, varnish and glues results in the production of harmful waste materials.This can pollute land, ground water and air.
(iii) Chemical industries - During the production of pesticides, drugs, detergents, inorganic fertilizers, dyes etc a large amount of waste particles and gases are dumped into the environment are dangerous for the mother nature and human life.
* Bhopal Gas Tragedy occurred in Union Carbide Company at Bhopal in the night of December 3, 1984. There was a leakage of harmful Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas at the factory which killed around 3000 people living nearby in Bhopal and about 1000 people lost their eyesight partially or fully and got respiratory problems.
(iv) Leather industry - Processing of leather, tanning of leather dyes and production of leather made goods produce hazardous wastes which contaminate water and pollute land.
(v) Laboratories - During research and analysis of old chemical material and chemical reaction results in release of harmful gaseous waste particles.
(vi) Textile industry - Clothes production involves colouring, dyeing, bleaching and laundering processes which ultimately produce some harmful wastes that can pollute land, water and air.
(vii) Coal industry - Coal ash contains hazardous wastes of metals like copper, mercury, arsenic, thallium, cadmium, antimony, barium, selenium, nickel, chromium and zinc.
(viii) Metallurgical industry - Extraction of metals from their ores and mining process involves the production of solid waste particles that can adversely affect the environment.
(ix) Petroleum industry - During the extraction of petroleum products and natural gas liquid pollutants are produced which can harm the environment.
(x) Electroplating industry - During the manufacturing of mirrors and mettalic objects used in electronics products results in the release of harmful and hazardous wastes.
(xi) Biomedical waste released by various institutions like hospital, clinic, blood banks, nursing home, pathological laboratories, and dispensaries. It could be solid or liquid waste containing harmful microbiological bacteria and viruses. These are the most hazardous wastes that can infect human beings and other animals.
We should focus on minimising the quantity of hazardous waste products. Waste could be reduced by doing pretreatment of wastes before it's disposal.
Some of the pretreatment techniques are as follows -
Physical Treatment
The particulate pollutants could be separated by it. It involves phase separation activities like lagooning, sludge drying in beds, prolonged storage in tanks etc.
Some commonly used physical processes are listed below :
1. Filtration
2. Dialysis
3. Floatation
4. Screening and sedimentation
5. Centrifugation
6. Distillation
7. Electrodialysis
8. Reverse osmosis
9. Ultra-filtration
Chemical Treatment
This form of treating hazardous wastes involves the complete breakdown of waste particles through chemical reduction, oxidation, precipitation of heavy metals, neutralisation to reduce acidity and alkanity of the waste particles.
Incineration
It is the method of burning highly toxic and hazardous waste materials at very high temperature. All organic matter is mineralised into non toxic components in incinerator at 1200°C. Incinerator reduces toxic components as well as the volume of waste. Dioxins, furans are the toxic compounds released during burning process.
Wet heat sterilisation or Autoclaving waste
This process of managing waste is utilised to treat biomedical wastes. This is used to kill harmful microbes and germs before the disposal of waste materials.
Recycling of hazardous wastes
There are various environment friendly technique to treat wastes includes :
(i) Vaccum distillation with hydrotreating.
(ii) Vaccum distillation with clay treatment.
(iii) Evaporation process.
(iv) Solvent used in Oil refining process also helps in recycling the petroleum wastes.
E-waste or Electronic waste
The increased use of electronic products like computer screens, wires, cables, television, mobile phones, batteries, etc. has resulted in an increased generation of electronic wastes. The main constituents of E-waste are Cathode Ray Tube monitors which contains hazardous substances like chromium, mercury, bromine lead etc. The damaged circuit boards, wires and cables directly dumped in landfills which pollute the soil, water at ground level and make the land barren. There is no legislation for the disposal of E-waste is available in the most parts of the world.
Recycling of Electronic Wastes :
The E-waste could be sent to the specialists who can can recover and reuse the available parts. The waste materials of electronic devices like mobile phones, monitors, tablets, circuit boards, LCD screens etc will be sent to their respective manufacturer companies so that they can recycle them, and can make new products. The reusing and process of recycling the wastes could help in conservation of natural resources and the environment.
Hazardous waste materials and products should be recycled and disposal in such manner that may not harm our mother nature and human life. It is the duty of every human being and factory owners to discover new technologies to smartly dispose off the waste products and protect the environment from pollutants. Plant trees, safeguard the environment and protect the existence of life.
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