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Industrial waste

Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste (some types of which are toxic) or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters.[1] Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced annually, as of 2017.[2] Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.

This article is about solid or liquid waste generated by industrial facilities. For industrial air pollution, see Air pollution.

Waste in solid form, but some pollutants within are in liquid or fluid form, e.g. crockery industry or washing of minerals or coal

Waste in dissolved and the pollutant is in liquid form, e.g. the dairy industry.

Hazardous waste, chemical waste, industrial solid waste and municipal solid waste are classifications of wastes used by governments in different countries. Sewage treatment plants can treat some industrial wastes, i.e. those consisting of conventional pollutants such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Industrial wastes containing toxic pollutants or high concentrations of other pollutants (such as ammonia) require specialized treatment systems. (See Industrial wastewater treatment).[3]


Industrial wastes can be classified on the basis of their characteristics:

Eliminating —land disposal means placing waste on or in land (e.g. injection wells, landfills, etc.), and the Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) program (under HSWA) forbids untreated hazardous waste from land disposals, and requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set specific treatment standards that must be met before hazardous waste can be subject to land disposals. The LDR program also has a dilution prohibition, which asserts that hazardous waste cannot be diluted down by the handler as a means to avoid satisfying the treatment.[22][23]

land disposal

—the goal of waste minimization is to make sure that the amount of hazardous waste that is produced, and its toxicity levels, is as diminished as possible, and the EPA does this through source reduction and recycling. Source reduction (or pollution prevention (P2)) trims production of hazardous wastes right at its source, and is the EPA's first step in material management with recycling being second.[22][24][25]

Waste minimization

Amplifying the EPA's authority regarding —corrective action is when treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) must oblige with inquiring hazardous releases into ground and surface water, soil, and air, and clearing it up. Under the HSWA, the EPA can necessitate corrective action at permitted and non-permitted TSDFs.[22][26]

corrective action

Chemical waste

Environmental remediation

Environmental racism

Hazardous waste

List of solid waste treatment technologies

List of waste management companies

List of waste management topics

Recycling

Soil pollution

(mining waste)

Tailings