Present and Future Disposal Methods for Industrial Solid and Liquid Wastes

Some present and possibly future waste disposal methods involving substantial immediate volume reduction of waste processed. 'This paper discusses data on solid waste disposal methods used in the plastics industry as obtained in a recent questionnaire survey of the polymer produc­ tion and plastics fabrication sections of this industry. Regional facilities for collective'inCineration are described briefly. Facilities use� by a large chemical company in disposing of its plastic and other solid and liquid waste materials are also described. Open pit incinerators and their operation are discussed briefly. Mention is made of other commer­ cially-available industrial incinerators used to handle high Btu plastic wastes. Some future incineration techniques are discuss­ ed. Included here are: suspension burning; melting with auxiliary fuel ("slagging" or "total" incineration) and fluid bed combustion. Pyrolysis techniques are discuss­ ed in reasonable detail as a future method of volume reduction of industrial waste with built-in air pollution control. Several other methods of waste disposal under study now for probable future use are discussed brief­ ly. Included here are: the Black-Clawson "Hydropulp­ ing" process; the Hercules combination process of digestor-pyrolysis-residue separation as being designed for use by one of the counties in the State of Delaware; and the recently-publicized Aluminum Association pro­ posed process wherein refuse is subjected to shredding, fiber reclamation, magnetic separation, incineration or pyrolysis, noncombustible residue separation, screen and air-classification and waste-water treatment pro­ cedure. Air pollution controls on this process concept are also discussed very briefly. DATA ON SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL FOR THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY The entire plastics industry was considered to be 8-1/2 million tons in terms of U.S. consumption in 1969. The sales of the "big three" polymer types the olefins, PVC, and the styrenes represent about 5.36 million tons or 63% of the total industry . Our sample constituted 68% of the "big three" volume and the estimated total scrap produced by the manufacturers of these three materials, based on indi­ vidual scrap rates, is 52,500 tons per year. 'This repre­ sents 0.98% of the total U.S. production of olefins,