18-Env-B5 Industrial & Hazardous Waste Management · May 2014
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
Reference texts: Nemerow & Dasgupta, Industrial and Hazardous Waste Treatment, 2nd ed.; Metcalf & Eddy, Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Resource Recovery, 5th ed.; Davis & Cornwell, Introduction to Environmental Engineering, 6th ed.; LaGrega, Buckingham & Evans, Hazardous Waste Management, 2nd ed.; CCME, Guidelines for the Management of Biomedical Waste in Canada (1992); Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 1999; provincial Environmental Protection / Hazardous Waste Regulations (e.g. BC's Hazardous Waste Regulation, O.Reg. 347 in Ontario).
All eighteen questions are compulsory on this paper and are answered in full below.
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.
Four representative types of facilities that generate biomedical waste are: (1) hospitals and other acute-care facilities (the largest and most diverse source — anatomical, sharps, blood/body-fluid and pharmaceutical waste from surgery, wards and emergency departments); (2) medical, dental and veterinary clinics (sharps, blood-contaminated dressings, extracted tissue); (3) medical, diagnostic and research laboratories, including university biotechnology labs (microbiological cultures, blood samples, contaminated glassware and pipette tips); and (4) blood banks and dialysis or long-term-care facilities (blood-product waste, used dialysis tubing and filters, and sharps from routine patient care). Funeral homes/mortuaries and animal research facilities are additional recognized generator categories under the CCME framework.
