18-Env-B5 Industrial & Hazardous Waste Management · December 2015
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; Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes (1989); provincial hazardous waste regulations (e.g. BC's Environmental Management Act and Hazardous Waste Regulation).
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.
The biggest challenge is proper segregation at the point of generation. Once biomedical (infectious) waste is mixed with general facility waste, the entire mixed batch must legally and practically be managed as infectious biomedical waste, driving up the volume, cost and handling burden far beyond what the truly infectious fraction alone would require — and reliably achieving consistent segregation across many individual staff, at every point of care, in a busy healthcare facility, is a persistent operational and training challenge.
