Integrated centers for reuse, recovery and elimination of hazardous wastes

by Inês Costa, PhD researcher, Environmental Engineering (mail to: icosta@dem.ist.utl.pt)

More than 250 million tonnes of hazardous waste are generated annually in the pan-European region. In the EU-25 and EFTA countries alone, hazardous waste generation increased 20% between 1996 and 2004 (EEA, 2007) as well as gross value added, which grew by 10% (European Commission, 2005). In fact, it has been reported an increase in exports to countries with lower management costs; however, it also usually means an unsafe disposal.

Environment and human health issues involved in managing such wastes requires a stricter control regime in order to ensure a secure disposal – physical and chemical treatment, followed by incineration, with and without energy recovery, or landfill. However, this also leaves little room for reuse or recycling of materials other than those which are covered by particular legislation (e.g. waste oils).

In 2004, the Portuguese government issued a report on hazardous waste generation in 2002: from the 29 million tonnes of industrial waste, 254000 tonnes were of hazardous nature. Although there were considerable efforts made in strategies for the prevention and sustainable use of resources, the amount of wastes leading to disposal was still considerably high, and the country needed integrated and complementary infrastructure and technologies that focused in reuse and recycling, but that provided, simultaneously, an effective reuse, recovery and elimination of hazard materials – in line with the European directives. Therefore, the 3/2004 Portuguese law decree approved the figure of Integrated Centers for Reuse, Recovery and Elimination of Hazardous Wastes – CIRVER, and laid down the rules for the competition and construction of two of such facilities.

The CIRVER are industrial units that concentrate the best available technologies, supplying a “tailored treatment” in accordance to the type of waste received; this allows for process optimization, thus reducing costs for the producer. There are seven components in the process hierarchy of the CIRVERs, corresponding to seven units:

1) Waste classification (laboratory, sorting and transfer);
2) Stabilization;
3) Organic waste treatment;
4) Contaminated packaging recovery;
5) Soil decontamination;
6) Physical-Chemical treatment;
7) Landfill;

The technological scale, capacity and range present at both CIRVERs allows for an effective treatment of 80 to 85% of the hazardous wastes in the country, and also the “passive flows” – contaminated soils and waters in brownfield areas – which account for an added 300 000 tonnes.

In that spirit, the law decree that created the CIRVER also introduced the possibility to reuse the treated materials as raw materials in manufacturing processes – if the hazardous burden was proven to be removed – thus pursuing the objective of closing material loops.

This process is set to be tested within the project of Chamusca’s Eco Industrial Park[1], were both structures are constructed and operating: there are already projects being studied involving refurbishing and reuse of packages, solvent regeneration and water reuse between the CIRVER and companies that are being constructed or allocated within the area.

[1] To be addressed in further posts

Disclaimer: the contents of this post is for informational purposes only. For further references, please contact the author.

ISDRS Conference - Second and Final Call

ISDR Society Event "14th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference"

Management Development Institute, New Delhi, India. September 21-23, 2008

The deadline for the second and final call for papers is June 18, 2008.

Track 17: Government Policy, Corporate Strategy and Industrial Ecology/Symbiosis in ActionChaired by: Dr. Peter Strachan and Mr. Abhishek Agarwal , The Robert Gordon University, United Kingdom

For further information please contact:Mr. Abhishek Agarwal; Email: research@abhibiz.co.uk

Publication: Papers (accommodating the discussion at the conference) will be considered for publication in Business Strategy and the Environment. Dr. Peter Strachan and Mr Abhishek Agarwal will Guest Edit the special issue.

For more informationabout the conference or to submit an abstract please click here

Update on UK-NISP

Dear All

Just a quick update on NISP's achievements in the last 3 years. This also includes its present situation due to the funding cut however the news article displays great enthusiasm of NISP. In this news article NISP assures that a modest increase in funds could deliver in excess of 5% of the UK Government's commitment to the Kyoto Agreement by 2011. (What do you think?)

Between April 2005 and March 2008, NISP has:
• Diverted over 3.39 million tonnes of waste from landfill
• Reduced CO2 emissions by over 4.43 million tonnes
• Made over £89.2 million in cost savings for industry
• Generated £123.4 million in additional sales for industry
• Attracted over £110.0 million in private investment in reprocessing and recycling
• Avoided the use of 5.99 million tonnes of virgin materials
• Reduced the use of potable water by industry by over 9.22 million tonnes
• Eliminated 333,188 tonnes of hazardous waste
• Created and safeguarded 1870 others

NISP run by International Synergies Ltd of Birmingham - has had its Defra funding cut by about 40% for the next financial year. Due to this cut, a review of their operational structure is underway. This is perhaps resulting in a number of redundancies at NISP and their major sub-contractors. Some further details of this news are available in the article. . Budget cuts do not appear to be reflecting the past performance of NISP or any other BREW programmes. According to the government, strategic decisions have been made regarding allocation of funds and how they should be used to support businesses in the future. These cuts have appeared as a concern both to business and environment groups at a time when environmental agenda was gaining momentum among businesses in the UK. Business Groups claim that revenue collected from businesses through landfill tax should be returned to them through the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Programme, which has been the case in the past. Detailed news on the funding cuts is available on the greenbiz website. Regardless of the funding cuts, it is clear that government recognises NISP to be a great contributor to business resource efficiency and therefore continues to fund it.

On a brighter note, Peter Laybourn confirms that along with success in the UK in last 3 years, international work is being very successful. He comments "We have now launched in Mexico and China and we anticipate work will commence in Brazil later this year along with South Africa"

There may be several other changes that will take place in the strategy and operations of NISP but for now the programme appears to be successfully moving forward both nationally and internationally.

This is just a quick update about NISP. Please drop a note if you have any other updated information or insight. I and all others would look forward to any comments regarding this post and regarding NISP, funding cuts and the UK Government's strategy.

I will be back with other news and updates shortly. You can also look forward to an update on IS efforts in Portugal which will be posted shortly by a precious contributor on the blog. Please provide update on IS efforts in your country or any other IS projects that you have been involved with. This will ensure that we all are well informed of IS projects around the world; most information is available on this blog for anyone interested in IS; and most importantly we can keep in touch.

Regards

Abhi
http://www.abhibiz.co.uk