What's New
in Solid Waste
Management?
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FILMSCRIPTS ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
This script is one of a series published to help
lecturers, teachers, and group leaders prepare for viewing
and discussion of solid waste management films. It is
also intended for those in an audience who want
a permanent record of the data presented in a film.
It was written by Stuart Finley, Inc.,
the producer of the film, in close cooperation with staff of the
Federal solid waste management program.
Titles and publication numbers of scripts
for solid waste management films are shown below.
Ike Third Pollution SW-39c.l
Bum, Bury, or What? SW-39c.2
Recycling SW-39c.3
5000 Dumps SW-39c.4
In the Bag SW-39c.5
The Green Box SW-39c.6
The Stuff We Throw Away SW-39c.7
What's New in Solid Waste Management? SW-39c.8
Instructions for borrowing or purchasing these films are
given with each script and are summarized in the
brochure Films Tell the Story, available from the
Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C., 20402.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1972
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WHATS NEW IN SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
37-nrinute, 16-mm 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 demonstrations 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.
INTRODUCTION (Trench Incinerator)
Track drives up; man throws out
tins and wood; can of refuse is
removed; all is thrown into the
trench incinerator
Sometimes the Federal Government does the strangest tilings!
Here the ingredients are a few old tires ... some fire wood .
and a can full of refuse.
Technician sets fire; men climb
ladder to platform of trench incin-
erator; doseup of fire with Mack
smoke; stack with black smoke
Now we're ready to create some intentional air pollution. This
field laboratory in Cincinnati is being operated by the Bureau of
Solid Waste Management of the Department of Health, Edu-
cation, and Welfare! to study the technology of incineration. The
objective is to discover how to incinerate solid wastes as
completely as possible, economically, and yet minimize air
pollution ... both participate matter and gasses.
This experimental "trench incinerator" is designed to regulate
combustion rates and temperatures. As the air feed is adjusted,
combustion is improved.
•Borrow from: National Medical Audiovisual Center
Purchase from: Stuart Finfey, Inc.
3428 Mansfkid Road, Falls Church, Va. 22041
Area Code 703/802-7700
Prints-$300
Cleared for TV
t Now the Office of SoBd Waste Management Programs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Trench incinerator burning with
black smoke; oxygen is supplied
and smoke disappears; pan to top
of Mack to see black smoke disap-
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Operation of the trench incinerator
continues showing men with walk-
Ie4alkIe communlcaUoue, control
meanmeuenb In at acent building,
etc... . v-I--f . ing in another ex-
1 of a ip ecIion with smoke
de*inginstack
It works! Or, to be more accurate, a novice might think it’s
working by outward appearances. But the control of stack
emissions a tricky business. Tomorrow’s incinerators are going
to need new and improved technology if they are to conform to
increasingly 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 completed 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 prc Ject 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 siniplifymg
your evaluation of alternative techniques available today.
GENERAL PROBLETel (Fresno, California)
mrnlng dv p ne Freeno
Trssh moving aame k.df a;coi
— - trucks at I dI 1
Co&tho. truck — trnck
and aew colecting wastes at ho.-
Street alga in barj , field; men
— .pclodofeartbandbre.ks
it apart with hb bands
H ’ con rn rs 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 cods 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 sur-
rounding 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
combination 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 man-
agement systems were developed, as well as ways to measure their
relative effectiveness in terms of a better environment. The
completed study indicates that about one-third of the total waste
load expectàd by the year 2000 can be effectively m2naged 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
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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.
Suburban collection Meantime, conventional collection and disposal procedures must
be improved to handle the one-third of the total waste load that
can be effectively managed by existing methods Planned im-
provement includes 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.
COLLECTION — REFUSE SACKS (Barrington, R.I.)
Refuse collection in Barrington Some solid waste innovations in the field of collection.
with metal cans
The traditional metal garbage can is a part of the fundamental
collection problem, malcing the operation costly, dirty, noisy, and
hazardous. Gathering loose refuse or handling 55-gallon oil drums
is even more inefficicnt Any system that would improve working
conditions or streamline the collection process could save money
and improve service.
Collection truck rounds corner The stakes are high because most communities spend more for
collection than disposal. . . a national average of $5.39 per
person per year.
Refuse sack collection; transport to In Barrington, Rhode Island, a demonstration project has
landfill; landfill operation 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 instructions. 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 surveyed indicated approval, conunenting
on reduced noise and litter and neater container appearance.
Town officials now have fewer service complaints and note
improved employee morale. The bags cost about 9 t each, or 1 8ç
per household per week. Town officials estimate that the bag
system cut the man-minute-per-ton collection time in half. The
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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.
— — — knd
This is Barrington’s first landfill.. . almost ready to become a
Little League balifield.
COLLEC1ION - Container & Truck (Wichita Falls, Texas)
Contahwr train collection
Master tr pigs up container
Man In cab with data tananitter
Man at dee studying printout
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
appropriate 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.
The load is weighed umng 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 mutes and
equipment and personnel usage. The data is analyzed overnight,
providing information on operational patterns and costs, allowing
immediate response to changing operational 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
significanily to solid waste technology and sound management
planning for the future.
COLLECtION - RURAL CONTAINERS (Chilton County, Alabama)
( Iton Coasity rural cro oads
with costainer, another co—t —
with lady dmpoaitbi uveral con-
t t i n
We here In rural Alabama have quite a problem collecting our
solid waste. The homes are so widely scattered that it creates
quite a problem because we can’t . . . it’s not practical to have
house-to4iouae pickups. So, we place these containers in strategic
places for these people, and people traveling the road can place
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their waste in these containers. These containers 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 there--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. However, 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.
AI msdpr at de ; panton inep 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.
flu approaches container, emp- These routes cover about 700 square miles and serve 26,000
ties It, and departs 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
rural 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 d ata which have been
developed by the Project Director and his Engineering Con-
sultant. A descriptive film illustrates this project.
( 1ton County 6adfiH The county’s new central landfill serves both rural residents and
the city collection systems. It has been operated at $2.50 per ton
including operational costs and equipment depreciation.
Alexander at his de We believe that this collection system 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.
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DISPOSAL - LANDFILL TECHNIQUES
(Kenilworth-Oxon Cove, Washington, D.C.)
Oxon Cove -nk iy ødf ; wide Now some ideas on solid waste disposal.
pen of earth covered area
Today’s most economically acceptable disposal method is the
sanitary landfill. A film Burn, Bury, or løtht? describes the
difficulties the District of Columbia has had attempting to devise
a workable solid waste system.
Rolling eqwpn nt in wo. Mg area 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.
CU conuipietor re.dkig and corn- The District’s well-operated Oxon Cove Landfill was made
pscthig wsatms possible by experience gained in converting its notorious Kenil-
worth Dump Into a model sanitary landfill with the assistance of
a demonstration grant from the Bureau of Solid Waste Manage-
ment. The Kenllworth site, also owned by the National Park
- Service, is now being transfonned into parkiand, while (hon
Cove will become a public golf course. . . both community
aSsets. The creation of new recreational facilities is desirable, 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.
CU earth bang p ed warts; Good sanitary landfluing procedure continuously covers the
rncat rnnklag face and cowi - refuse with a layer of dean earth after consolidating it in the
rn llest 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
nnxlnium 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
Guld.elbres contains useful information for public works officials.
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DISPOSAL - ROUGH TERRAIN LANDFiLLS (Los Angeles County)
Traffic Los Angeles freeway; land- Los Angeles County, California, has seven million residents and
fill operation 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 controls. 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 ifim 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
landfllling. To demonstrate the feasibility of such an operation,
the State of Maryland, Allegheny County, and the Cities of
Frostburg and Cuniberland are participating in a federally-assisted
demonstration project, providing centralized disposal for the solid
wastes of sixty thousand people at three abandoned mine sites.
CU landfill operation; wider shot 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 landfilhing
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 LANDFILUNG (Sarpy County, Nebraska)
Gully landfill project sign, panning In Saipy County, Nebraska, a few miles outside Omaha, another
acroes road to tree-covered gully federally-assisted project has demonstrated the value of sanitary
landlIlling to reclaim gullied farm land made useless by years of
unchecked erosion.
Road at crest of hill panning to Standard landfill methods were used to dispose of wastes from
gully 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 ant of re” - f tmnt Here Is the reclaimed tract Gully Iandfilling requires a thorough
engineering study to design the dam and splllway 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 asslstaa e with
— ABOVE GRADE LANDFILL (Virginia Beach, Virginia)
M - Virginia. Beach bad no natural depressions suitable for a landfill
and thus accepted the an ed1on of the director of Virginia’s
solid waste ag ny to build an experimental elevated landfill. A
total of up to 800 tons a day Is being received Including Norfolk’s
wailet lbs deposit area was odgInally 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.
Las in for....d of mountain of Additional earth cover was excavated from a borrow pit which Is
- being left to IB1 with water, forming an artificial lake. Around the
lake, the land-building ope tlon Is forming $ bowl. It will
eventually rise to a height of about 70 feet above grade.
P u olboul This Is the Inner loop of the bowl. Soon It will be a ten-thousand
seat an h heater with the lake as a background. The other side
of the hit will serve as a raiup for soapbox derbies. Nearby picnic
grounds, tennis courts, and other recreational facilities will be
built.
Me. 1 se yun later Ch,e yw laer.. . and Mount Trashmore (as they’ve nicknMned
of y 70 feet it) is nearly seventy feet h i . an unusual attraction In. this flat
coastal region. Today’s wastes building tomorrow’s recreation
facilities. Virginia Beech’s demonstration may serve as the
Impetus for thnil r projects elsewhere.
DI OSAL - ThE MOLE (King County, Waalthigton)
of being eeip*Isd At the fill site of the King County, Washington, Department of
s ak bs par S n axy Opeàtlons, 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
‘ .1 nr of a Bureau of Solid Waste Management Demonstration
Ials of ok at Co.- Th ‘ u ’,’ ’ device is called “the mole” and It buries refuse...
taâ .1 pan dawn to processing up to 100 tom an hpur. It extrudes a continuous bale
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refuse trenching and compacting of densely compacted refuse. Auxiliary equipment digs, backfills,
and compacts the trenches. The concept is feasible and the
technique 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)
Shlppensburg incinerator, exterior Even a small community may find incineration feasible and
of building ai truck backs into economically attractive. The Shippensburg Pennsylvania Sanitaiy
unloading dock Authority is faced with disposing of the solid wastes of only
12,500 people, but has no suitable area available for a conven-
Waste hundilag Inside building tional sanitaiy landfill. With the assistance of a Federal demon-
stration grant, the Authority has built a pilot incinerator with a
Borough iv i’ i Smith opening uniquely designed rotary combustion chamber which has the
combustion chamber porthole configuration of an inclined bowL It consists of two units, each
capable of handling 36 tons of combustible solid wastes every 24
hours.
Fknsss through porthole 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.
Flaoms througb rotary grate The rotary combustion chamber, a stainless steel perforated
drum, revolves in a steady stream of air, facilitating combustion.
Flames within drum; residue
ikopplug into truck; truck pulls A well-designed incinerator, properly operated and maintained,
away from bilding should be able to handle about eighty percent of typical urban
solid wastes .. . reducing weight by as much as seventy percent or
more. This project has demonstrated that a sinailcommunity
incinerator can be economical and provide a high degree of
combustion, producing a residue with a very low percentage of
unburned material.
DISPOSAL - LARGE OBJECT INCINERATOR
(Stamford, Connecticut)
StasMerd Incinerator being charged; Many conununities which nonnally incinerate their refuse have
zoom back to show entire plant and difficulty with bulky wastes such as stwnps and volatile material
stack without visible emission which would be dangerous to handle in a conventional incin-
erator. 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 emissions are being analyzed
under various operating conditions. It is possible for even new
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incinerators to be forced out of service because of non-
conformance to increasingly strict air pollution regulations.
Fire chamber pennmg to precip- However, the attractiveness of incineration lies in its extensive
itator and stack volume reduction. A properly designed and operated incinerator
can reduce refuse to less than 10 percent of its original volume.
The Bureau’s publication Incinerator Guidelines contains detailed
technical infonnation.
DISPOSAL - MILL VOLUME REDUCTION (Madison, Wisconsin)
Plant exterior, truck approaches The City of Madison, Wisconsin, employs the landfill disposal
method but is using a hammernilil to reduce the volume of wastes
before disposal.
Wastes on conveyor The pilot plant has some deficiencies in design. A straight-line
feed to the mill would eliminate pile-ups experienced with this
Maled man climbs past n iH one; and dust and noise controls would improve working
conditions; but the two mills tested are simply constructed, easy
to operate, and reliable.
Man inspecting hammers 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.
Man inspecting large metal reject The mill rejects resilient objects ballistically, but may have
trouble with fibrous materials such as rugs or bundles of paper.
MIII behig stopped When a jam occu s, the mill can be stopped and opened in four
minutes or less, and there is very little “down time.”
Milled refuse coming out 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.
Milled refuse being unloaded at the Milling reduces the volume of the waste, effectively extending the
fill site; milled refuse being leveled life of the landfill. The milled product spreads and grades easily.
Project measurements indicate that when the milled refuse is
compacted to a depth of six feet, a density of nine-hundred to
elevenhundied pounds-per-cubic-yard can be obtained. This is
twice that of unmilled refuse handled in the same way.
Man walks acroas uncovered fill, Test cells of milled refuse have been left without earth cover for
stoops to inspect, breaks a handfull up to three years as an experiment and no sanitary or esthetic
of refuse apart problems were detected. The material is inert and non-odorous,
doesn’t harbor or attract rodents, and breeding of ifies has not
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been noted. Milled refuse provides a more uniform surface, is
more stable, and requires less cover.
Tractor-trailer driving across un- Based on data collected at this facility, the cost of grinding refuse
covered milled fill 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)
Exterior of Gainesville receiving At Gainesville, Florida, municipal solid wastes are milled, but for
building; truck crosses to compost a different reason. . . to prepare them to be converted into
pile compost.
Man 1ks to compost stockpile, The humus-like soil conditioner is stockpiled for use by the city,
picks up handfull, sniffs and shreds Alachua County, and the University of Florida... . all participants
it in this demonstration project. . . and for sale, largely in bulk to
the citrus industry.
Manned control panel and picking Incoming refuse first passes a picking table for removal of
table 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 treatment plant in one of two digestor
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.
Compost production line: mill, The primary crusher-disintegrator, which proved particularly
milled refuse, rejected metals, corn troublesome, was replaced with a different type; and a variety of
post dropping to conveyor 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
beneficially. Usually, they can be only equally small parts of a
comprehensive solid waste management program.
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RESEARCH PROJECFS
Men loading and operating fluidized Some current research!
bed incinerator
A new approach to handling solid wastes more effectively. . . a
new concept of incineration being studied at the University of
West Virginia. Refuse, already ground to a uniform consistency, is
fed into 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 being conducted
with Federal aid under programs of the Bureau of Solid Waste
Management of the Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare.
Demoistration tube of boling Thia is a simulation of the reaction inside the furnace. The
water; men drops red balls Ii fluidizing gas is air, moving up the column at controlled
velocities. The fluidized bed contains particles of inert sand raised
to the ignition temperature 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.
Close-up of red balls agitating in The fluidized bed incinerator is still expernuental, but it already
bolling water promises more complete and cleaner burning.
Two men exanáning residue Project personnel examine the residue which constitutes only a
small fraction of the original volume of the refuse. Stack
en ons from the fluidized bed furnace contain far less
particulate loading than conventional incinerators..
Attenãnta at hospital collect Another university research project is examining hospital wastes.
waste; men soparatos waate mete- Think how diverse they are. In addition to the ordinary
rink 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 proce-
dures. 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
Sc—.
Man ew—uig waste samples 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.
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Two n n remove molten glass from
kiln and pour into mold
Glass sample
Glass goes into coating apparatus;
coated sample
rime lapse; broken sample disinte-
grates beside unbroken sample
Man exi mining caged chickens; pan
down to waste trough; water
flushes through; filtration tank with
man taking sample
Teacher and students at strip mine
New York City str e
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
discarded bottles and jars.
They start with water-soluble glass, already in wide commercial
use, 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 production 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 engineers in this crucial area. . . recognition that spe-
cialized training, as well as imaginative research, is essential for
effective solid waste management and the total protection of the
environment.
Solid waste collection and disposal costs Americans 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 efficiently
and economically. The selection of solid waste system com-
ponents 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 unpleasant 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
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nvst be geared to rd 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.
14 * 759-397/134
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