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18-Env-A6 Solid Waste Engineering and Management · May 2013

Question 8 of 17: Integrated Waste Management

Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)

Notes on this paper

National Examination, May 2013 — 04-Env-A6 / 18-Env-A6, Solid Waste Engineering and Management. 3 hours duration, closed book, one letter-sized aid sheet permitted. All 17 questions constitute a complete paper (100 marks total).

Reference texts: Tchobanoglous, Theisen & Vigil, Integrated Solid Waste Management: Engineering Principles and Management Issues; Vesilind, Worrell & Reinhart, Solid Waste Engineering; Davis & Cornwell, Introduction to Environmental Engineering (6th ed.); CCME, Guidance Document on Landfill Gas Management.

Check: several questions on this paper (Q1, Q13, Q14, Q17) supply an incomplete data set and explicitly invite the candidate to "make and state" assumptions. Every assumed value below is called out where it is introduced and is chosen from standard solid-waste-engineering practice; the governing METHOD, not the specific assumed number, is what the exam is testing.

Question 8: Integrated Waste Management (3 marks)

Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.

Integrated waste management is the coordinated use of a complementary set of waste-management practices — source reduction, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfilling — selected and combined according to local waste composition, quantities, economics, and environmental constraints, rather than relying on a single technology. It follows a management hierarchy that prioritizes waste avoidance and material recovery ahead of disposal, and treats landfilling as the necessary sink for residuals that cannot be reduced, reused, recycled or combusted for energy. The "integrated" aspect specifically means that these components are planned together as one system — diversion targets are set with disposal capacity in mind, and disposal capacity is sized knowing how much diversion will occur — rather than each being designed in isolation.