Introduction

The continued movement of people to metropolitan areas will limit alternatives for [biosolids] disposal. Transportation costs and the impacts of transporting [biosolids] favor on-site disposal of [biosolids] residue. This is particularly true for larger metropolitan areas. The choice for metropolitan areas would appear to be land disposal, composting, or [biosolids] combustion. When the disposal of biosolids was the industry mindset and common practice, several disposal options were available. For example, in the United States, up until 1992, before the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988, biosolids were dumped into oceans. Surface disposal in dedicated sites and monofills was also a disposal option, but this trend declined because landfill space became scarce. In the past, biosolids has been seen as a disposal problem rather than as a management for beneficial reuse option. Biosolids management entails several component parts.