WHAT'S NEW
IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT?
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
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WHAT'S NEW
IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT?
This script for the 3?-minute} 16 mm motion picture
written and produced for the
Solid Waste Management Office by
STUART FINLEY, INC.
under Contract No. CPE 69-111, is reproduced here
as an Office of Information open-file report (SW-32c.of)
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Solid Waste Management Office
1971
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WHAT'S NEW IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
57-Minute, 16-mrn Motion Picture
Sound, color. Order No. M-2049-X.*
WHAT'S NEW IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT shows a variety
of new and improved solid waste management techniques,
featuring specially developed equipment, in actual
operation. These projects are part of the demonstra-
tions and investigations conducted under provisions of
the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The film is designed
for technical audiences and is particularly intended
to assist public works directors and elected officials
who must evaluate alternative systems and equipment,
including costs, capacities, and other data.
Truck drives up;
man throws out
tires and wood;
can of refuse is
removed; all is
thrown into the
trench incinerator
INTRODUCTION (Trench Incinerator)
Sometimes the Federal Government does the strangest
things!
Here the ingredients are a few old tires...
some fire wood...
and a can full of refuse.
Now we're ready to create some intentional air pollu-
Technician sets
fire; men climb
ladder to platform tion. This field laboratory in Cincinnati is being
of trench incinera-
tor; closeup of
fire with black
smoke; stack with
black smoke
the technology of incineration. The objective is to
operated by the Bureau of Solid Waste Management of the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to study
discover how to incinerate solid wastes as completely
as possible, economically, and yet minimize air pollu-
tion...both particulate matter and gasses.
*May be borrowed from the National Medical Audiovisual Center (Annex),
Station K, Atlanta, Georgia 30324
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Trench incinerator
burning with black
smoke; oxygen is
supplied and smoke
disappears; pan
to top of stack
to see black smoke
disappearing
Operation of the
trench incinerator
continues showing
men with walkie-
talkie communica-
tions, control
measurements in
adjacent building,
etc...culminating
in another example
of air injection
with smoke clear-
ing in stack
This experimental "trench incinerator" is designed to
regulate combustion rates and temperatures. As the
air feed is adjusted, combustion is improved.
It works! Or, to be more accurate, a novice might
think it's working by outward appearances. But the
control of stack emissions is a tricky business.
Tomorrow's incinerators are going to need new and
improved technology if they are to conform to in-
creasingly strict air pollution standards. But, what
about the Director of Public Works of a typical city
or county? Should he wait until this research is com-
pleted before he builds needed new facilities? Or
should he risk wasting huge sums of money constructing
facilities which might soon be obsolete? This film
is intended for the Directors of Public Works of
America and the elected officials who depend on them
for technical guidance. It illustrates some recent
developments and innovations. This film and individual
demonstration project reports along with personal
consultation with your regional office of the Bureau
of Solid Waste Management can eliminate expensive
time-consuming travel to demonstration projects all
over the country, thus simplifying your evaluation of
alternative techniques available today.
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Burning dump
near Fresno
Truck moving
across landfill;
compactor and
trucks at landfill
Collection truck
downtown;
truck and crew
collecting wastes
at hospital
GENERAL PROBLEM (Fresno, California)
If consumers really consumed, this problem wouldn't
exist. But mostly, consumers use and throw away.
Every day...ten pounds per person. America discards a
million tons of residential, commercial, and industrial
solid waste a day. Collection and disposal costs about
$4.5 billion a year.
At Fresno, California, sanitary landfills are replacing
open burning dumps. The Fresno Region includes the
central city and smaller nearby centers, all rapidly
urbanizing, and the surrounding central area of the
County, part of the San Joaquin Valley, devoted to
high-yield crops and livestock and poultry production.
The Region, like countless others, generates a combina-
tion of municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastes;
and followed, until recently, a variety of uncoordinated
and largely inadequate collection and disposal
practices.
Then, State and local agencies, aided by a Federal
demonstration grant, undertook a unique study of the
Region's solid waste problems and management needs.
Using computerized systems-analysis techniques, a
number of alternative integrated management systems
were developed, as well as ways to measure their
relative effectiveness in terms of a better
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Collection truck
(continued)
Street sign in
hardpan field;
man spades up
clod of earth
and breaks it
apart with his
hands
Suburban
collection
environment. The completed study indicates that about
one-third of the total waste load expected by the year
2000 can be effectively managed by improving existing
methods but new techniques will be required to dispose
of the other two-thirds. For example, it is proposed
that organic matter including sewage sludge, manures,
and agricultural and food processing wastes be composted,
thus making constructive use of a portion of the region's
solid wastes. The local people call this unusable
saline land "hardpan." By the year 2000, a million
tons of compost a year from the Fresno region can be
made available to reclaim its usefulness.
Meantime, conventional collection and disposal pro-
cedures must be improved to handle the one-third of
the total waste load that can be effectively managed
by existing methods. Planned improvement include a
semi-automated collection system, closed transport,
and disposal in sanitary landfills, with only hospital
and other specialized wastes being incinerated. This
proposed plan is tailored for the Fresno Region, but
the basic procedures can be applied by any community.
Literature is available on this and other general
systems analysis demonstration grant projects from the
Bureau of Solid Waste Management to guide local
officials undertaking comparable studies.
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COLLECTION - REFUSE SACKS (Barrington. R.I.)
Refuse collection
in Harrington with
metal cans
Collection truck
rounds corner
Refuse sack
collection;
transport to
landfill;
landfill
operation
Some solid waste innovations in the field of
collection.
The traditional metal garbage can is a part of the
fundamental collection problem, making the operation
costly, dirty, noisy, and hazardous. Gathering loose
refuse or handling 55-gallon oil drums is even more
inefficient. Any system that would improve working
conditions or streamline the collection process could
save money and improve service.
The stakes are high because most communities spend
more for collection than disposal...a national average
of $5.39 per person per year.
In Harrington, Rhode Island, a demonstration project
has evaluated large-size paper refuse sacks. Each
householder received a lidded, stand-type holder, two
strong kraft paper bags a week, and a set of instruc-
tions. Garbage, wrapped separately, and rubbish went
into the same bag together. Odor and spilled refuse
problems were solved by instructions on bag closure
and a limited leash ordinance for dogs. Town officials
and residents of Barrington are pleased with the new
bag system. Eighty-eight percent of the residents sur-
veyed indicated approval, commenting on reduced noise
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Refuse sack
collection
(continued)
Completed grassed
sanitary landfill
Container train
collection
and litter and neater container appearance. Town
officials now have fewer service complaints and note
improved employee morale. The bags cost about 9c each,
or 18c per household per week. Town officials esti-
mate that the bag system cut the man-minute-per-ton
collection time in half. The resultant savings offset
about two-thirds of the expense of the sacks. The
total collection cost with the bag system for twice-a-
week collection (two bags a week per household) was
$18.38 per house per year. A complete description of
paper refuse sack collection systems is shown in the
film In the Bag made by the National Refuse Sack
Council.
This is Harrington's first landfill...almost ready to
become a Little League ballfield.
COLLECTION - Container & Truck (Whichita Falls, Texas)
Another attempt to reduce collection costs and improve
service! Wichita Falls, Texas, is demonstrating a
systems analysis study of the container train method
of collection. Wheeled container trains collect
residential refuse....a technique which is most appro-
priate on relatively flat terrain and in low traffic
areas. The container train system conserves expensive
packer truck time and functions well where a packer
truck can't go.
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Master truck
picks up
container
Man in cab with
data transmitter
Computer center
Master truck
completes pickup
Man at desk
studying printout
The load is weighed using a novel strain gauge as it
is transferred to the master truck.
The cab operator transmits weight data to a processing
center where it is fed
into a computer along with data on routes and equipment
and personnel usage. The data is analyzed overnight,
providing information on operational patterns and
costs, allowing immediate response to changing opera-
tional needs and correlating the type and volume of
waste generation with land-use and population density.
This information will permit development of a complete
management model, simulating the container-train
collection and disposal system.
Planners can then rely on the model to project optimum
configuration and expansion of the system, including
selection of suitable additional landfill sites, as
population grows and land-use patterns change. Thus,
computer technology can contribute significantly to
solid waste technology and sound management planning
for the future.
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Chilton County
rural crossroads
with container;
another container
with lady
depositing; several
containers in
Alexander at desk;
panton map
COLLECTION - RURAL CONTAINERS (Chilton County. Alabama)
We here in rural Alabama have quite a problem
collecting our solid waste. The home are so widely
scattered that it creates quite a problem because we
can't .. it's not practical to have house-to-house
pickups. So, we place these containers in strategic
places for these people, and people traveling the road
can place their waste in these containers. These con-
tainers are mostly for housewives. It works for us 24
hours a day. We keep them there 7 days a week, and
they're there at all times. People know they're there
at all times. They're — 2 o'clock in the morning, if
they have something they want to get rid of, they carry
it to the container. Now, we're in a dry county. How-
ever, we collect quite a few beer cans which would
otherwise go out on the side of the road, and spoil
the looks of the countryside, which they were doing
until we placed the containers there.
I'm Bob Alexander, County Engineer for Chilton County
at Clanton, Alabama. We have a rural waste collection
in Chilton County that we believe is second to none.
We have containers scattered throughout the county for
the people to deposit their waste in, that we pick up
completely 3 times a week. We have two routes in this
system — an upper route and a lower route.
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Truck approaches These routes cover about 700 square miles and serve
container, empties
it, and departs 26,000 people. Of these, 9,000 live in municipalities
and have house-to-house collection. The 17,000 rural
residents who are served by the containers bring their
refuse an average of 1.6 miles to a container. The
90 containers have replaced all of the small, random,
rat-infested dumps. Now all of them have been cleaned
up and the rats have been exterminated. The container
collection system uses one truck and employs one man.
Containers are emptied every other day. During the
first eighteen months of operation, 25-hundred tons of
refuse has been collected from the rual containers at
a cost of $9.79 per ton including operating costs and
equipment depreciation. Other rural counties have
already adopted this system. One nearby county
improved the container design by reducing its height
and providing a sure-close lid. A report on this
project provides cost data which have been developed
by the Project Director and his Engineering Consultant.
A descriptive film illustrates this project.
Chilton County The county's new central landfill serves both rural
landfill
residents and the city collection systems. It has been
operated at $2.50 per ton including operational costs
and equipment depreciation.
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Alexander at
his desk
Oxon Cove sanitary
landfill; wide pan
of earth covered
area
Rolling equipment
in working area
CU compactor
spreading and
compacting wastes
We believe that this collection system that we have is
one of the best things that ever happened to the county.
Prior to this collection system, we had garbage and
waste scattered throughout the county. At this time,
we have one central landfill that we're bringing this
waste to...the people are just delighted.
DISPOSAL - LANDFILL TECHNIQUES (Kenilworth-Oxon Cove,
Washington, D. C.)
Now some ideas on solid waste disposal.
Today's most economically acceptable disposal method
is the sanitary landfill. A film Burn, Bury, or What?
describes the difficulties the District of Columbia has
had attempting to devise a workable solid waste system.
This is a new fill operated by the District of Columbia
on a site straddling the District-Prince George's
County, Maryland, line, on land owned by the National
Park Service. The site was selected because of its
proximity to the city and the need for fill material
in preparation for park development.
The District's well-operated Oxon Cove Landfill was
made possible by experience gained in converting its
notorious Kenilworth Dump into a model sanitary land-
fill with the assistance of a demonstration grant from
the Bureau of Solid Waste Management. The Kenilworth
site, also owned by the National Park Service, is now
10
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CU compactor
(continued)
CU earth being
pushed over waste;
equipment working
face and covering
being transformed into parkland, while Oxon Cove will
become a public golf course....both community assets.
The creation of new recreational facilities is desir-
able, but residents and landowners usually react with
strong disfavor to a proposal for a sanitary landfill
nearby. Thus, directors of public works are often
inhibited in site selection and may face protracted
negotiations to resolve objections.
Good sanitary landfilling procedure continuously covers
the refuse with a layer of clean earth after consoli-
dating it in the smallest practical area and volume.
The working face is kept as narrow as possible to
minimize equipment, personnel, and cover required. On
flat terrain, the face may be as high as 8 to 10 feet
on a three-to-one slope so the heavy compactors can
apply maximum pressure. Almost any solid waste can be
disposed of in a sanitary landfill, and often unusable
land can be reclaimed. An operating cost of three
dollars to three-fifty per ton is common in urban
areas but high volume operations or rural landfills
frequently cost less. The Bureau's publication
Sanitary Landfill Guidelines contains useful informa-
tion for public works officials.
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DISPOSAL - ROUGH TERRAIN LANDFILLS (Los Angeles County)
Traffic Los Angeles Los Angeles County, California, has seven million
freeway; landfill
operation residents and generates three-quarters of a million
tons of solid wastes every month. It also has
mountainous areas where deep cuts, canyons, and
ravines provide large natural sites for large capacity
refuse disposal operations. Working faces are often
quite steep, requiring adherence to rigid safety con-
trols. The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
operate the fills and charge a disposal fee of only
$1.75 a ton. These are some of the largest and best
landfills in the world. The County is conducting a
demonstration project to develop operating standards
for both public and private fills. A technical film
has been produced illustrating techniques.
DISPOSAL - STRIP MINE LANDFILLING (Allegheny County,
Maryland)
Long pan of
abandoned strip
mine
This is rough terrain, too, but there's nothing
natural about an abandoned strip mine. It's a man-
made scar on the landscape, offering a special
opportunity for rehabilitation through sanitary land-
filling. To demonstrate the feasibility of such an
operation, the State of Maryland, Allegheny County,
and the Cities of Frostburg and Cumberland are partici-
pating in a federally-assisted demonstration project,
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Long pan
(continued)
CU landfill
operation;
wider shot
Gully landfill
project sign,
panning across
road to tree-
covered gully
Road at crest
of hill panning
to gully
providing centralized disposal for the solid wastes of
sixty thousand people at three abandoned mine sites.
The County operates the fills at a disposal cost of
slightly over a dollar-a-year per person served.
Municipalities have closed their dumps, and deliver
collections to the sites. Strip mine landfilling is
practical and could provide disposal sites for urban
areas. The refuse could be transported by truck,
railroad, or barge ... but the longer the haul, the
higher the cost. However, the major problem is that
local folks often resist receiving someone else's
refuse.
DISPOSAL - GULLY LANDFILLING (Sarpy County, Nebraska)
In Sarpy County, Nebraska, a few miles outside Omaha,
another federally-assisted project has demonstrated the
value of sanitary landfilling to reclaim gullied farm
land made useless by years of unchecked erosion.
Standard landfill methods were used to dispose of
wastes from surrounding communities. A gully like
this was cleared, an earthen dam constructed at its
mouth to establish a stable grade, and refuse deposited
behind the dam.
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Wide shot of
reclaimed tract
Refuse trucks
bring in wastes
Lake in foreground
of mountain of
trash
Here is the reclaimed tract. Gully landfilling re-
quires a thorough engineering study to design the dam
and spillway and prevent drainage and erosion problems
and water pollution from leaching. This project was
sponsored by Sarpy County and operated by the Sarpy
Soil and Water Conservation District. Your local soil
and water conservation district can provide technical
assistance with similar projects.
DISPOSAL - ABOVE GRADE LANDFILL (Virginia Beach.
Virginia)
Virginia Beach had no natural depressions suitable for
a landfill and thus accepted the suggestion of the
director of Virginia's solid waste agency to build an
experimental elevated landfill. A total of up to 800
tons a day is being received including Norfolk's
wastes. The deposit area was originally excavated to
a depth of four feet, somewhat above the water table,
to provide an initial supply of earth cover; and wells
have been sunk to monitor any effects on ground water.
Additional earth cover was excavated from a borrow pit
which is being left to fill with water, forming an
artificial lake. Around the lake, the land-building
operation is forming a bowl. It will eventually rise
to a height of about 70 feet above grade.
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Pan of bowl
Mount Trashmore
one year later
with height of
nearly 70 feet
Container of waste
being emptied into
mole hopper
Interior of mole
cab; man at con-
trols; exterior
of cab; pan down
to refuse
trenching and
compacting
This is the inner loop of the bowl. Soon it will be a
ten-thousand seat amphitheater with the lake as a back-
ground. The other side of the hill will serve as a ramp
for soapbox derbies. Nearby picnic grounds, tennis
courts, and other recreational facilities will be built.
One year later....and Mount Trashmore (as they've
nicknamed it) is nearly seventy feet high, an unusual
attraction in this flat coastal region.
Today's wastes building tomorrow's recreation
facilities. Virginia Beach's demonstration may serve
as the impetus for similar projects elsewhere.
DISPOSAL - THE MOLE (King County, Washington)
At the fill site of the King County, Washington,
Department of Sanitary Operations, a hydraulic unloader
lifts a 42-cubic-yard container of refuse arriving
from a transfer station and empties it into the hopper
of a prototype machine, constructed with the assistance
of a Bureau of Solid Waste Management Demonstration
grant.
This unusual device is called "the mole" and it buries
refuse...processing up to 100 tons an hour. It ex-
trudes a continuous bale of densely compacted refuse.
Auxiliary equipment digs, backfills, and compacts the
trenches. The concept is feasible and the technique
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Interior of mole
(continued)
Shippensburg
incinerator,
exterior of
building as
truck backs into
unloading dock
Waste handling
inside building
Borough manager
Smith opening
combustion
chamber porthole
Flames through
porthole
may prove economically attractive where conventional
sanitary landfill methods cannot be employed. The
film Waste Away, which is available from the Bureau,
shows operational details for the Seattle-King County
solid waste system.
DISPOSAL - INCINERATION (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania)
Even a small community may find incineration feasible
and economically attractive. The Shippensburg
Pennsylvania Sanitary Authority is faced with disposing
of the solid wastes of only 12,500 people, but has no
suitable area available for a conventional sanitary
landfill. With the assistance of a Federal demonstra-
tion grant, the Authority has built a pilot incinerator
with a uniquely designed rotary combusion chamber
which has the configuration of an inclined bowl. It
consists of two units, each capable of handling
36 tons of combustible solid wastes every 24 hours.
The facility is designed to meet air pollution control
standards and eliminate environmental health hazards,
while achieving maximum incineration and reducing the
refuse to the smallest possible volume.
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Flames through
rotary grate
Flames within
drum; residue
dropping into
truck; truck
pulls away from
building
Stamford
incinerator being
charged; zoom
back to show
entire plant and
stack without
visible emission
The rotary combustion chamber, a stainless steel
perforated drum,
revolves in a steady stream of air, facilitating com-
bustion.
A well-designed incinerator, properly operated and
maintained, should be able to handle about eighty per-
cent of typical urban solid wastes.... reducing weight
by as much as seventy percent or more. This project
has demonstrated that a small-community incinerator
can be economical and provide a high degree of com-
bustion, producing a residue with a very low
percentage of unburned material.
DISPOSAL - LARGE OBJECT INCINERATOR (Stamford,
Connecticut)
Many communities which normally incinerate their
refuse have difficulty with bulky wastes such as
stumps and volatile material which would be dangerous
to handle in a conventional incinerator. For this
reason, the City of Stamford, Connecticut, applied for
a demonstration grant to build this unique front-
charged incinerator equipped with an electrostatic
precipitator for air pollution control. Stack emis-
sions are being analyzed under various operating
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Stamford
incinerator
(continued)
Fire chamber
panning to
precipitator
and stack
Plant exterior,
truck approaches
Wastes on
conveyor
Masked man
climbs past mill
Man inspecting
hammers
conditions. It is possible for even new incinerators
to be forced out of service because of nonconformance
to increasingly strict air pollution regulations.
However, the attractiveness of incineration lies in
its extensive volume reduction. A properly designed
and operated incinerator can reduce refuse to less
than 10 percent of ics original volume. The Bureau's
publication Incinerator Guidelines contains detailed
technical information.
DISPOSAL - MILL VOLUME REDUCTION (Madison, Wisconsin)
The City of Madison, Wisconsin, employs the landfill
disposal method but is using a hammermill to reduce
the volume of wastes before disposal.
The pilot plant ahs some deficiencies in design. A
straight-line feed to the mill would eliminate pile-
ups experienced with this one;
and dust and noise controls would improve working con-
ditions; but the two mills tested are simply constructed,
easy to operate, and reliable.
Modifications have made hammers easier and quicker to
reach and change; and control problems, which initially
caused frequent stops due to overloading, have been
corrected.
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Man inspecting
large metal
reject
Mill being
stopped
Milled refuse
coining out
Milled refuse
being unloaded at
the fill site;
milled refuse
being leveled
Man walks across
uncovered fill,
stoops to inspect,
breaks a handfull
of refuse apart
The mill rejects resilient objects ballistically, but
may have trouble with fibrous materials such as rugs
or bundles of paper.
When a jam occurs, the mill can be stopped and opened
in four minutes or less, and there is very little
"down time."
This is the milled product....about 15 percent garbage
and with a moisture content varying between 30 and 50
percent. Milling garbage alone has not proved
practical, but either rubbish alone or combined
refuse mills quite satisfactorily.
Milling reduces the volume of the waste, effectively
extending the life of the landfill. The milled
product spreads and grades easily. Project measure-
ments indicate that when the milled refuse is compacted
to a depth of six feet, a density of nine-hundred to
eleven-hundred pounds-per-cubic-yard can be obtained.
This is twice that of unmilled refuse handled in the
same way.
Test cells of milled refuse have been left without
earth cover for up to three years as an experiment
and no sanitary or esthetic problems were detected.
The material is inert and non-odorous, doesn't harbor
or attract rodents, and breeding of flies has not been
noted. Milled refuse provides a more uniform surface,
is more stable, and requires less cover.
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Tractor-trailer
driving across
uncovered milled
fill
Exterior of
Gainesville
receiving
building;
truck crosses
to compost pile
Man walks to
compost stock-
pile, picks up
handfull, sniffs
and shreds it
Manned control
panel and picking
table
Based on data collected at this facility, the cost of
grinding refuse at an optimally designed installation
was estimated to be between two-dollars-and-forty-five-
cents and four dollars a ton, depending on the capacity
of the plant-
DISPOSAL - COMPOSTING (Gainesville, Florida)
At Gainesville, Rlorida, municipal solid wastes are
milled, but for a different reason....to prepare them
to be converted into compost.
The humus-like soil conditioner is stockpiled for use
by the city, Alachua County, and the University of
Florida....all participants in this demonstration
project...and for sale, largely in bulk to the citrus
industry.
Incoming refuse first passes a picking table for
removal of salvageable or large non-compostable items.
Ready markets for baled cardboard, paper, and rags
have been found....but none for glass, cans, and other
metals. These are disposed of, along with other non-
compostables and trash, at a land disposal site.
Beyond the picking table, the high-rate mechanical
composting system performs a series of preparatory
operations before depositing a moist mixture of ground
refuse and sewage sludge from the adjacent sewage
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Control panel and
picking table
(continued)
Compost pro-
duction line:
mill, milled
refuse, rejected
metals, compost
dropping to
conveyor
Men loading
and operating
fluidized bed
incinerator
treatment plant in one of two digester tanks. During
the six-to-eight-day digestion period, the mixture is
aerated periodically to speed biological degradation.
The resulting relatively stable compost receives a
final grinding on its way to the stockpile.
The primary crusher-disintegrator, which proved
particularly troublesome, was replaced with a
different type; and a variety of other mechanical and
operating problems are being systematically solved.
Methods are also being developed for evaluation of the
system's performance and public health aspects.
Compost can be useful in some situations, but neither
composting nor the salvage associated with it are
presently profit-making ventures. They are methods
of handling small parts of the total waste load bene-
ficially. Usually, they can be only equally small
parts of a comprehensive solid waste management
program.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Some current research!
A new approach to handling solid wastes more effective
effectively....a new concept of incineration being
studied at the University of West Virginia. Refuse,
already ground to a uniform consistency, is fed into
21
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Fluidized bed
incinerator
(continued)
Demonstration
tube of boiling
water; man drops
red balls in
Close up of red
balls agitating
in boiling water
Two men examining
residue
a fluidized bed reactor, equipment commonly used by
the chemical industry to obtain controlled reactions
between gases and solids. Here, the modified pilot
reactor becomes a furnace in one of many varied
research projects beingconducted with Federal aid under
programs of the Bureau of Solid Waste Management of the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
This is a simulation of the reaction inside the furnace.
The fluidizing gas is air, moving up the column at
controlled velocities. The fluidized bed contains
particles of inert sand raised to the ignition tempera-
ture of the material to be burned. When the air and
the suspended sand reach the fluidized state resembling
a boiling liquid, the particles of ground waste are
added, and combustion occurs.
The fluidized bed incinerator is still experimental,
but it already promises more complete and cleaner
burning.
Project personnel examine the residue which constitutes
only a small fraction of the original volume of the
refuse. Stack emissions from the fluidized bed furnace
contain far less particulate loading than conventional
incinerators.
22
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Attendants at
hospital collect
waste; man
separates waste
materials
Man examining
waste samples
Two men remove
molten glass
from kiln and
pour into mold
Glass sample
Another university research project is examining
hospital wastes. Think how diverse they are. In
addition to the ordinary ones....garbage, paper, and
other dry combustibles, and non-combustibles such as
bottles and cans...hospitals generate unusual wastes
related to medical treatment and surgical procedures.
Hospital wastes require special handling since they
may contain pathogenic material. In order to develop
data on the nature and volume of the various waste
materials, and to devise better management methods,
they are identified and carefully separated.
Analysis of the different materials and their
processing may even point to desirable changes in the
design of hospital service areas and waste handling
equipment.
Glass has few equals as a container. Being chemically
inert, it won't react with any other substance. But,
after use, neither will it oxidize and degrade....nor
burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures. These
Clemson University scientists are seeking a solution
to the solid waste problem posed by millions of dis-
carded bottles and jars.
They start with water-soluble glass, already in wide
commercial use,
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Glass goes into
coating apparatus;
coated sample
Time lapse;
broken sample
disintegrates
beside unbroken
sample
Man examining
caged chickens;
pan down to
waste trough;
water flushes
through;
filtration tank
with man taking
sample
Teacher and
students at
strip mine
and through a chemical vapor deposition process, coat
it with a very thin overlay of inert material. A
container made in the same way would hold anything.
But break the film, and the glass slowly dissolves.
It works in the lab, but commercial production may be
some years away.
Chickens and other animals concentrated in commercial
cages and feed lots contribute increasingly to the
solid waste load. In this University of California
experimental closed hydraulic system, water flushes
the manure to a high-rate oxidation pond. There its
nutrients are reclaimed photosynthetically in the pro-
duction of algae. The digested sludge can be used as
fertilizer, and the dried algae as supplemental food
for ruminant animals. Resources from waste through
research.
These students, inspecting an abandoned strip mine,
are a new breed. Their graduate studies emphasize
environmental control. Several universities are
expanding their curricula to provide qualified engi-
neers in this crucial area....recognition that
specialized training, as well as imaginative research,
is essential for effective solid waste management and
the total protection of the environment.
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New York City Solid waste collection and disposal costs American
strike
over four and a half billion dollars a year. Your
community may have a budget in the thousands, hundreds
of thousands, or millions. Every dollar of this should
be spent wisely to provide good service effeciently
and economically. The selection of solid waste system
components is of primary importance. The equipment
and methods must match your local requirements and
limitations. However, certain general principles seem
to apply to all communities today. Labor costs are
rising....particularly when working conditions are un-
pleasant or dangerous. A disruptive situation, such
as the noteworthy New York City garbage strike, can
reflect on staff officials and elected officials alike.
Environmental enhancement is becoming more important
and solid waste management practices must be geared
toward protecting air, water, and land and eliminating
unsightly litter.
Summaries of all projects and up-to-date information
are available from your regional office or the Office
of Information of the Bureau of Solid Waste Management.
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