The advent of industrialization brought along with it a vast range of new industries such as mining, milling, and manufacturing, and global market changes continue to affect industrial marketing programs. Each manufacturing and production unit requires raw materials to produce or manufacture their final product, and modern industrial activities produce a significant amount of waste; including waste paint, metal, ash, slag, and even radioactive waste.
The term “industrial waste” can be defined as any liquid, solid, or gaseous residual matter stemming from industrial activity and, regardless of whether the certain waste is classified as domestic or industrial, without proper, established disposal plans, any form of waste can lead to employee health hazards.
Since a wide variety of wastes can technically be categorized as industrial waste, it’s important that you determine the different types of raw materials your business uses, as this can help you to find out what type of waste they generate and lets you know whether such materials and their by-products can be reused or recycled. Such information can also help you decide how to best manage and reduce you facility waste.
The following are a few explanations of the different types of industrial waste:
Liquid Waste
Liquid waste is produced both domestically and industrially. Large amounts of water are needed in most industrial processes, which may come into contact with harmful substances like radioactive materials, dirty water, organic liquids, rinse water, waste detergents, and even rainwater.
Owing to a large number of pollutants, industrial liquid waste that flows into oceans, rivers, or lakes, poses several environmental risks. Businesses and factories are required to install wastewater treatment facilities to stop the polluted water from flowing into large bodies of water, since if it flows in untreated, it could harm the surrounding environment and, in severe cases, even the surrounding population.
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Industrial Solid Waste
Industrial solid waste includes different kinds of materials like paper, plastic, wood, cardboard, packaging materials, scrap metal, and every other solid waste that can no longer fulfill its intended purpose. However, what may be considered waste in one industry can be used as raw materials in another, and some industrial waste is sent to recycling plants to be recycled for reuse.
By recycling as much industrial waste as you can, you can significantly reduce waste clearance costs, and having proper waste disposal programs in place helps ensure your waste management and waste treatment solutions are as eco-friendly and as profitable as possible.
Read More: How to Reduce Business Waste and Become a Green Business
Chemical Waste
Most industrial activities also produce a certain amount of chemical waste, which includes all types of inflammable, corrosive, toxic and explosive waste. The disposal of chemical waste should be handled by specialists since it typically contains harmful chemical residue hazardous to human, animal, and plant life.
With growing environmental protection concerns, industries and businesses across the globe are now required to adhere to industrial waste disposal and waste treatment management guidelines and standards, such as those published by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the disposal of such waste should be handled by specialists.
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Toxic Industrial Waste
Most chemical waste generated by industries, including laboratories, hospitals (savings on hospital waste bills case study), chemical plants, and garages, is toxic and hazardous. If not properly treated or disposed of, toxic waste can lead to serious health and environmental risks, which is why standards dictate that it is to be handled only by government authorized and specialized facilities.
Industrial Waste Disposal Tips
In conclusion, it’s essential that every company, manufacturing unit, plant, and factory adhere to published industry and government guidelines for waste disposal, regardless of the type of industrial waste.
Industry standard waste treatment practices can ensure that the amount of pollutants released to the surrounding environment is kept to the bare minimum, and it’s for this reason that each and every individual and organization should act with society’s best interests in mind, and do their part to help combat global pollution.
If you, or your company, is having issues with the handling of any of these types of waste, or is seeing increased costs associated with the handling of this waste, contact us at Waste Control and take advantage of our FREE WASTE AUDIT that will not only ensure proper disposal methods, but could also save your business money!
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