This article describes hazardous waste as a substance; for the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal'' see Basel Convention.

Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one or more of these characteristics:

• ignitability
• corrosivity
• reactivity
• toxicity

Generally, toxicity is quantified through the use of the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure or TCLP test, as required by EPA.

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Waste Management & Research current issue

Editorial
Aage Hansen, J., Agamuthu, P. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000

Immobilization of copper flotation waste using red mud and clinoptilolite
Coruh, S. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
The flash smelting process has been used in the copper industry for a number of years and has replaced most of the reverberatory applications, known as conventional copper smelting processes. Copper smelters produce large amounts of copper slag or copper flotation waste and the dumping of these quantities of copper slag causes economic, environmental and space problems. The aim of this study was to perform a laboratory investigation to assess the feasibility of immobilizing the heavy metals contained in copper flotation waste. For this purpose, samples of copper flotation waste were immobilized with relatively small proportions of red mud and large proportions of clinoptilolite. The results of laboratory leaching demonstrate that addition of red mud and clinoptilolite to the copper flotation waste drastically reduced the heavy metal content in the effluent and the red mud performed better than clinoptilolite. This study also compared the leaching behaviour of metals in copper flotation waste by short-time extraction tests such as the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), deionized water (DI) and field leach test (FLT). The results of leach tests showed that the results of the FLT and DI methods were close and generally lower than those of the TCLP methods.
Sources and levels of potentially toxic elements in the biodegradable fraction of autoclaved non-segregated household waste and its compost/digestate
Papadimitriou, E.K., Barton, J.R., Stentiford, E.I. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Waste that reflected the average UK composition of household waste was treated by autoclaving at the three set pressure/temperature levels of 2.7 bar/130 °C, 6.2 bar/160 °C and 15.5 bar/200 °C. The biodegradable fraction of the autoclaved household waste (`floc') was manually separated by screening and underwent characterization for its Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Hg, Ni, and Zn content. Autoclaving did not guarantee the production of compost/digestate that met the UK specification for compost, BSi PAS100, without restrictions being made on the composition of the waste feedstock. Results indicate that the levels of Zn and Cd associated with floc materials alone could lead to compost limit values being exceeded. For all other potentially toxic elements (PTEs), the estimated excessive (i.e. above levels of compliance) PTEs levels for compost/digestate were mainly due to external (i.e. non-floc) materials, primarily electronic/electrical waste. Batteries may have also contributed to the high levels of Zn and Hg. In this study, for all PTEs examined, with the exception of Cd and Zn, autoclaving had a performance comparable to that of the most effective mechanical biological treatment systems.
Application of magnetic separation technology for the recovery of colemanite from plant tailings
Alp, I. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
In this study, colemanite was recovered from tailings produced by the Kestelek (Turkey) Processing Plant by magnetic separation. Magnetic susceptibility measurements revealed that colemanite is diamagnetic in character whereas gangue minerals are weakly paramagnetic, apparently due to the presence of the iron-bearing silicates such as smectite and, to a less extent, illite. Three-stage magnetic separation tests were performed on the size fractions coarser than 75 µm produced from the tailings (31.52% B2O3) using a high-intensity permanent magnetic separator. Under the test conditions a colemanite concentrate with a B2O3 content of 43.74% at 95.06% recovery was shown to be produced from the tailings. The mineralogical composition of the tailings appears to allow the removal of gangue minerals by magnetic separation and hence the production of a concentrate of commercial grade.
Site selection of sanitary landfills on the small island of Mauritius using the analytical hierarchy process multi-criteria method
Ramjeawon, T., Beerachee, B. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
This paper focuses on the application of a multi-criteria analysis methodology — the analytical hierarchy process — for the locating of a sanitary landfill on the small island of Mauritius. Four candidate sites were assessed using three main criteria (environmental, technical and socio-economic) and twenty-one sub-criteria. Scores were assigned to each criterion and sub-criterion by stakeholders in the solid waste sector, based on the impact assessment of each site so as to obtain their relative importance. The analytical hierarchy process was then applied, which involved the combination of the weights obtained at the different stages of pair-wise comparisons. The candidate sites were finally ranked to obtain the optimum site. Because of political factors, the second best ranked site was chosen by the authorities for the location of a new landfill on the island. This technique provides a realistic approach for use by small island developing states such as Mauritius for choosing and justifying to all stakeholders the best location for a sanitary landfill site or any other waste management site.
Slope failures in municipal solid waste dumps and landfills: a review
Blight, G. Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Between 1977 and 2005 six large-scale failures of municipal solid waste dumps and landfills have been recorded in the technical literature. The volumes of waste mobilized in the failures varied from 10—12 000 m3 in a failure that killed nearly 300 people to 1.5 million m3 in a failure that caused no deaths or injuries. Of the six failures, four occurred in dumps that, as far as is known, had not been subjected to any prior technical investigation of their shear stability. The remaining two failures occurred in engineer-designed landfills, one of which practised leachate recirculation, and the other co-disposed of liquid waste along with solid waste. The paper reviews, describes and analyses the failures and summarizes their causes.

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