Accelerate the utilization of solid waste in chemical and pharmaceutical fields

"The resource utilization of solid waste is an important entry point for green development and circular development. Under the premise of controllable environmental risks, the implementation of'point-to-point' directional utilization of hazardous waste will be the resource utilization of solid waste and help the construction of'waste-free city' Effective countermeasures." At the Fifth Chemical Hazardous Waste Source Reduction and Resource Utilization Seminar held recently, the participating experts proposed.

China is a country with a large population and a large country of solid waste production. According to data, my country's current production of various types of solid waste is more than 10 billion tons, and it is increasing year by year. Waste incineration fly ash treatment, chemical industry, medicine (including pesticides) and other industries will form a large amount of waste or by-product salt. Most of the industrial waste salt has complex composition, wide source and certain harmfulness. If not properly handled and utilized, it will cause a great waste of resources and cause serious pollution to the environment.

For the utilization of solid waste resources, the state has also introduced relevant incentive policies. On April 24, 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the list of "waste-free cities" during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Among them, the "Zhejiang Province's Global" Waste-Free City "Construction Implementation Plan (2022-2025)" pointed out that the main goals are reduction, resource utilization and harmlessness, and the ability of solid waste source management, comprehensive utilization and safe disposal is improved. We will deepen the pilot project of "point-to-point" utilization of hazardous waste in key areas and industries. Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua and Taizhou should speed up the construction of projects such as the comprehensive utilization of domestic waste incineration fly ash or industrial waste salt, explore the construction of centralized activated carbon regeneration centers, improve the comprehensive and coordinated treatment capacity of various pollutants, and broaden the channels for the resource utilization of industrial hazardous waste. Other provinces have also proposed corresponding solid waste recycling programs.

Li Wenfeng of Shandong Academy of Environmental Sciences Environmental Testing Co., Ltd. believes that resource utilization should be encouraged after certain conditions are met. Under the premise of controllable environmental risks, according to the plan determined by the provincial ecological environment department, the "point-to-point" targeted utilization of hazardous waste is implemented, that is, a kind of hazardous waste produced by one unit that can be comprehensively utilized can be used as another (or more) Alternative raw materials for legal and compliant industrial enterprises with governance capabilities for production and use.

In order to promote the comprehensive utilization of industrial solid waste resources, the state has formulated the Interim Measures for the Evaluation and Management of the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Solid Waste Resources. However, at present, many chemical by-product salts only implement the existing national, local or industry standards, and do not involve relevant pollutant control standards.

Taking waste potassium salt as an example, the current implementation standards for potassium salt as product management mainly include "Potassium Chloride" (GB6549-2011) and "Industrial Potassium Chloride" (GB/T 7118-2008). It is only applicable to potassium chloride made from seawater (including coastal underground brine), salt mined from lake salt or salt lake brine, rock salt or underground brine as raw materials, but it is not suitable for by-product waste salt and chemical waste salt (sodium salt, potassium salt, ammonium salt, phosphate, etc.) produced by the washing of waste incineration fly ash.

It is understood that the by-product waste salt and chemical waste salt produced by the domestic waste incineration fly ash washing treatment only stipulate the main content and a few pollutant indicators, and lack of indicator management system design for toxic and harmful substances. Once lead, arsenic, Dioxins toxic and harmful substances enter the fertilizer in excess, due to the irreversibility of heavy metals, they will enter the food chain with the soil, causing serious consequences.

Experts suggest that, first of all, the comprehensive utilization of industrial solid waste resources should formulate toxic and harmful substance content limits from the standard, implement the whole process control of production, transportation and use, and prohibit the use of fly ash water washing by-product waste salt and chemical waste salt in food, medicine, The use of aquaculture, aquatic products and fertilizers; secondly, a complete "point-to-point" utilization standard for purification, harmless and resource utilization should be established, support and encourage chlor-alkali, co-alkali, synthetic ammonia and other enterprises in production to support the construction of waste salt refining and impurity removal and other pretreatment facilities, collaborative use of waste salt to meet the requirements of use, to ensure that the waste salt resource utilization path is smooth, the process can be checked and controlled.

In addition, relevant market professionals suggest that waste incineration fly ash water washing waste salt and chemical, pharmaceutical (including pesticide) and other industries by-product waste salt (including waste salt after processing by-product salt) should be managed according to hazardous waste management requirements, so as to improve the standardization and transparency of waste salt resource utilization, so as to reduce environmental risks.

In a word, the harmlessness of hazardous waste is to benefit the waste producers, and the resource utilization is to benefit the market and the industry and industrial chain. The resource utilization of hazardous waste not only reduces carbon emissions, but also helps "carbon neutrality. However, in the process of implementation, it must be actively and steadily promoted step by step in order to achieve the unity of economic, environmental and social benefits.

Source:Sinochem New Network