The development of a special (hazardous) waste management system is well under way in Alberta, Canada, and completion of an integrated treatment and disposal facility near Swan Hills is expected in 1988. The facility will handle both inorganic and organic waste streams in a physical/chemical treatment plant and high temperature incinerator. Treated liquid residues will be disposed of in a deep well, and treated solid residues in a secure landfill. The chosen treatment technology and the established hydrogeological conditions of the site ensure the maintenance of environmental quality. An intensive site selection and public participation program provided that only locations which were environmentally and socially suitable for this development were considered. Through awareness of the problems of waste and the solutions for its management, and full citizen involvement in the site selection process, the siting and public participation programs accomplished the difficult task of selecting a location for North America's first fully integrated special waste treatment and disposal facility.
The successful hazardous waste treatment facility siting program in the Province of Alberta, Canada, provides an impressive example of comprehensive planning and implementation. Near Swan Hills, 250 km northwest of Edmonton, North America's first integrated Province (or State)-wide treatment and disposal facility, sited by both environmental and social criteria, was officially opened in September of 1987. Alberta's program is unique in that the public was involved from the outset and played a major role in the decision-making process.The $CDN 50M facility receives organic and inorganic wastes from Alberta generators. Treatment by incineration, physical/chemical treatment and stabilization destroys approximately 15,000 tonnes of waste annually. Inert residues are landfilled and treated wastewaters disposed of down a deep well. The facility is fed directly from large industry and indirectly, from small industry and households, via a system of collection and transfer stations located throughout the province.
In recent years there has been an increasing tendency to use wastes in manufacturing construction material. Some of the studies were dedicated to recycling hazardous waste in a manner that is safe and protective of human health and the environment. The aim of this work is to study the possibility of using clinical waste as the aggregates for manufacturing construction materials. For that purpose, firstly a technology of initial sterilization with combustion of clinical waste was considered. Secondly as along as the clinical waste became sterile and environmentally safe, non-hazardous fractionated products of clinical waste combustion were proposed as aggregate for concretes. This study reports the results of the experiment when different concrete compositions with such aggregate were obtained, investigated and tested using samples (100 mm cubes). Physic-chemical properties of the material were described; its environmental impact was assessed. Thirdly, the potential of the big city in clinical waste generation and subsequent use of fractionated products of clinical waste combustion in construction materials manufacturing was evaluated. As a result of the use of ArcGIS ESRI geoinformation system, a visual representation of the information has been provided. The results of this study show the possibility of using non-hazardous clinical wastes combustion products in manufacturing construction materials and also in road construction.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.