Concentration of novel brominated flame retardants and HBCD in leachates and sediments from selected municipal solid waste landfill sites in Gauteng Province, South Africa

The Management of Hazardous Waste in Developing Countries

“…A few countries such as South Africa have hazardous landfill disposal facilities [16]. However, in many developing countries there are considerable challenges to develop hazardous waste landfills, including social acceptance, regulatory, technically skilled manpower, financial resources, limited technology or provision of such infrastructure.…”

“…However, due to the accelerated development of economies, mass manufacturing and processing industries and less strict standards on environmental quality assessment, the quantities of industrial hazardous waste (IHW) will continuously increase. Meanwhile, in developing countries it has been confirmed that an important fraction of hazardous waste is still mixed with non-hazardous wastes, mainly through landfilling, and producing serious environmental impacts regarding heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants content in landfill leachate [16]. Scientific research has observed that wastes are not separated in origin into hazardous and non-hazardous materials.…”

“…Presently, in developing countries, there is no statistical data on medical waste. However, in most cases, the estimated quantities of medical waste are extrapolated using bed occupancy and number of beds in health institutions [16]. For instance, in Bangladesh, Dhaka City, it is reported that 37±5 tonnes of medical waste is generated from hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities [21].…”

“…It is proven that radioactive waste will continue to be a priority in order to achieve greater resource efficiency [27]. For this reason, an integrated approach should be adopted to design programs, and agencies to lead and coordinate a wide range of prevention initiatives to reduce the potential environmental and public health impacts [16]. These should include development of programs focusing on a number of strategic objectives in order to achieve the goal of prevention which will include the prevention of radioactive and hazardous wastes.…”

“…• Treatment with or without heat recovery. For instance, in Chile, used oil and spend solvents are used as raw materials for alternative fuels production [16].…”