Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Residues

This text covers a broad spectrum of topics pertinent to the management of incinerator residues. Background information includes a history of incineration, and the influence of municipal waste composition, incinerator type air pollution control technologies on residue quality. Physical, chemical and leaching characteristics for the various ash streams are described, along with recommended sampling and evaluation methodologies. Residue handling and management options, including, treatment utilisation and disposal are also discussed in detail.

Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

The potential to use municipal waste incineration products in concrete has been examined over many years, both as a source of aggregates and as supplementary cementitious materials (SCM). With an understanding of the chemical evolution of these materials in the cement environment, both applications provide routes to the re-use of these materials in construction. Fly ashes and air pollution control residues must be washed to remove their considerable chloride content before use, after which, the remaining solids (largely aluminosilicates) may replace some fraction of the cementitious binder. Care must be taken when using these materials as SCMs, as volatile heavy metals present in the original waste may be concentrated in the fly ash. The bottom ashes from municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration also show sufficient pozzolanic reactivity when finely ground, to replace some cement in the binder phase. They may also serve directly as aggregate in concrete, although the irregular and angular particle shape may reduce its workability somewhat. Most MSW bottom ashes contain sufficient free aluminium to disrupt the setting reactions of the binder through hydrolysis reactions at high pH. Consequently, this must be removed or reacted by pre- treatment, prior to use in concrete and means of doing so are described here. Slower detrimental reactions are also known, such as alkali silca reaction, especially of container-glass fragments and these are considered here. Lastly, the use of MSW incineration products in manufactured aggregates is described, comparing sintering, melting and recrystallization, and plasma processing, with low temperature methods such as rapid carbonation technology.

Originally published in 1989, this report deals with issues surrounding ash residues produced by municipal waste combustors. Spurred by huge disagreements over the environmental risks that these ash residues posed; Managing Ash from Municipal Waste Incinerators attempts to shed light on the debates around the issue and move forward towards an appropriate solution. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies.

Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.