ABSTRACT
Wastes from manufacturing, agriculture, mining, oil and gas production, and municipal sources (residential, commercial, and institutional) must be managed. The preferred manage ment technique, all other things being equal, is source reduction; however, wastes are inevitable in any activity. A waste management system is used to collect, transport, and manage the dis posal of waste. The management system may include any combination of disposal on land, in air, or in water, or utilization as fuel or material. In each case the economic, environmental, and energy issues must be considered in a life cycle analysis. Today, most people believe that the common method of waste management is by discard to the environment, usually to a land fill, although incineration (discard to the air) and discard to water are also practiced. Yet, his torically humans have used wastes for productive purposes. Cities are, in part, constructed from older structures. Even today estimates are that 50% of the primary metal used annually in the United States is produced from scrap and wastes. A limited database of information exists for evaluating the relative merits of these options, particularly as they relate to industrial wastes. The largest body of knowledge is for municipal solid waste (MSW).
