| Aspiring to become the world’s most competitive economy, Europe has recognised the
need for better, more complex and integrated resources management. In communal or consumption
waste management, utilisation must be improved because most of the waste stream still goes to
landfills or incinerators.
Industry was the first to see the potential of waste utilisation. This practice is positive
and economically sound when the by-products are free of harmful substances or when they are safely
conditioned to remain inert in the environment. Several concerns involved in the reutilisation
of waste have been highlighted in a recent study led by the REC. Although familiar to science
for more than three decades, the risks to the environment and public health have yet to be properly
addressed by policy makers, the study found.
The REC's Business and Environment Programme, in cooperation with the
Institute for Prospective Technology Studies of the EU's Joint
Research Centre and respected research institutes from Finland
and the Netherlands, has developed scenarios for communal and
industrial waste management in the new EU member states through
2020.
| Results of Hungary’s Ajka coal power plant fly ash
analysis |
| Element |
Concentration (µg/g) |
| |
COAL A |
COAL B |
| Calcium |
49,300 |
52,500 |
| Titanium |
566 |
639 |
| Vanadium |
135 |
188 |
| Chromium |
58.5 |
48.6 |
| Manganese |
111 |
122 |
| Iron |
9,690 |
12,000 |
| Nickel |
21.5 |
31.5 |
| Copper |
26.4 |
27.2 |
| Zinc |
21.4 |
19.6 |
| Arsenic |
13.9 |
14.1 |
| Selenium |
7.54 |
10.8 |
| Brome |
7.27 |
10.4 |
| Rubidium |
7.84 |
7.49 |
| Strontium |
571 |
603 |
| Lead |
<5.9 |
<5.9 |
| Uranium |
58 |
58 |
Source:
OSAN, J. (1996). Environmental cycle analysis of atmospheric solid particles and power plant
ashes. PhD thesis, Central Research Institute for Physics of Hungary (KFKI, AEKI) |
The study looked at the safety of utilisation regimes for various industrial processes. It examined
coal-fired power generation, and the reuse of coal-mining waste rock, ash, slag and flue gas treatment
residues. Next, it looked at iron and steel manufacturing and that industry's reuse of slag and
desulphurisation residues.
The risks posed by arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, uranium, vanadium,
and zinc in coal mining waste rocks and power-plant ashes have been pointed out in studies as
far back as 1975. Although toxic and potentially toxic elements are generally present in low concentrations
in coal, significant mobilisation occurs through leaching due to the very large quantities of
coal consumed and waste rocks used in road and railway construction. In the burning of coal, large
volumes of highly enriched metallic compounds remain in ashes, which are then incorporated into
cement and other building materials because of their bonding and self-hardening properties.
Most industrial researchers tend to focus on studies that benefit
the industries in which they work, while clinical health researchers
focus on highly specific cause-and-effect relationships. Thus
it is imperative that science put the mosaics together and show
how these reuse schemes can affect public health, regardless of
current economic trends and politics.
Relevant literature reviewed by the REC's team demonstrated strong evidence that these coal
industry process residues often contain radioactive elements as well, including uranium, strontium
and rubidium. These findings are based on studies reported by researchers all over the world,
including a recent one in Hungary using USEPA instrumentation and methodology. Remarkably, the
coal lobby has managed to keep this information largely out of the decision makers' view.
Another suspected risky utilisation that the REC's study shed light on is that of residues
containing heavy metals from the iron and steel industry. In some EU countries, such residues
are mixed into fertilisers, thus polluting the food chain. Since the efficient utilisation of
all resources — energy, materials, flora and fauna, and human — is imperative to sustainable
development, the utilisation regime of all process residues or wastes has to be carefully designed
and monitored in line with strengthening EU environmental and public health criteria. Therefore,
thousands of previously developed industrial standards need to be reviewed to satisfy these new
criteria.
Robert Nemeskeri is head of the Business
and Environment Programme at the REC
|
