Refuse Treatment and Recycling

Waste treatment refers to the activities required to ensure that waste has
the least practicable impact on the environment. In many countries various
forms of waste treatment are required by law.
Incineration is one of the most common waste treatments. Gasification
and pyrolysis are two similar methods both of which organic matters.
- Solid waste treatment
- Waste – water treatment
- Radioactive waste treatment
Industrial waste: waste produced by industrial activities which includes any
material that is useless during a manufacturing process such as that of
factories, mills, and mining operations.
Types of industrial waste includes:
- Dirt and gravel scrap lumber
- Concrete, and masonry scrap metals
- Oil vegetables from
- Solvent restaurants
- Chemicals
Industrial waste may be solid, semi solid or liquid form and could be
hazardous in nature. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or
adjacent water bodies, can also contaminate ground water, lakes, streams,
rivers, coastal water. Industrial waste is often mixed municipal waste,
making accurate assessments difficult.
Classification of Industrial was and its Treatment.
a. Chemical waste which is hazardous
b. Industrial solid waste
c. Municipal solid waste. These are classification of wastes used by
 government in different countries

Sewage Treatment plants can be used to treat some industrial wastes

a. liquid waste those consisting of conventional pollutants i.e.
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
b. Industrial waste containing toxic pollutants or high concentration of
other pollutants such as ammonia required special treatment systems.
Incineration is one of the most common waste treatment approach
involves the combustion of waste material in the presence of oxygen.
Thermal Treatment: This approach use heat to treat waste materials. This
Thermal treatment method is commonly used as a means of recovery
energy for electricity or heating. This method has many advantages.
a. Quickly reduces waste volume
b. Lessens transportation costs and
c. Decrease harmful greenhouse gas emissions
Gasification and pyrolysis are similar method of which decompose organic
waste materials by exposing waste to low amounts of oxygen and very high
temperature. Gasification allows low amount of oxygen in the process
while pyrolysis uses absolutely no oxygen. Gasification is more
advantageous as it allows burning process to recover energy without
causing air pollution.
Items that can be recycled
- Cellophane
- Plastics
- Iron
Method of treating liquid waste and waste water is its discharge into
sewage systems and subsequent treatment in sewage treatment plants.
SS plants method eliminates a large pollutants from waste water. This can
then be discharge into rivers, lakes or the sea. Sorting and treating waste
allows it to be further processed into reusable materials thereby
maximising the savings of primary resources and energy.