Industrial waste defined as the waste left unproductive during a manufacturing process in factories, mills, or mining activities. Dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, and scrap lumber, comprise industrial waste.
What is the difference between industrial waste and hazardous waste?
| Industrial Waste | Hazardous Waste |
| Industrial waste comprises non-hazardous materials that are secondary to the production of goods and products. Industrial waste doesn’t contain material that can be dangerous or harmful to human health or the environment. | Solid waste is considered hazardous if it is specifically listed as a known hazardous waste or meets its characteristics. Hazardous waste is further classified into listed and characteristic wastes that exhibit one or more characteristic properties like ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity or toxicity. |
What are the common sources of Industrial Waste?
Chemical Manufacturers
The usage of various polymers and plastics in the chemical manufacturers industry generate waste in the form of organic-compound containing wastewater, reactive waste, acids and bases
Printing Industry
The printing industry produces promotional materials, magazines, newspapers, and books, which lead to the generation of solid and liquid waste, including sludges containing heavy metals, waste inks, and solvents.
Petroleum Industry
The petroleum industry covers every aspect of oil extraction, refining, and transport.
Apart from its impact on climate change, the petroleum industry also produces toxic wastewater containing hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene. Examples of non-hazardous industrial wastes from the industry include wastewater containing high amounts of sodium, magnesium, and iron.
Paper Industry
The paper industry produces waste during its harvesting and manufacturing processes. Common waste products include ash, pulp mill sludge, dregs, lime mud, organic waste, including scrap wood.
Metal Manufacturing Industry
Metal manufacturing industry involves mining operations to obtain raw metals to refineries producing the final commercial products. The process produces wastewater containing high quantities of metal hydroxides.
Leather product manufacturing industry
The tanning process used by the leather industry generates wastewater effluent containing chromium, carcinogenic heavy metal, solid waste as tanned and non-tanned hide.
Taking care of manufacturing and industrial waste can be a challenging task. Recykal has worked with clients from various industries to enable easy channeling of industrial waste – process waste, pre-consumer waste, hazardous waste and more. To know more about our services, reach out to us.
