Heavy metal content of combustible municipal solid waste in Denmark

Abstract

Data on the heavy metal composition of outlets from Danish incinerators was used to estimate the concentration of Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cd, As and Hg in combustible waste (wet as received) at 14 Danish incinerators, representing about 80% of the waste incinerated in Denmark. Zn (1020 mg kg^-1), Cu (620 mg kg^-1) and Pb (370 mg kg^-1) showed the highest concentration, whereas Hg (0.6 mg kg^-1) showed the lowest concentration. The variation among the incinerators was in most cases within a factor of two to three, except for Cr that in two cases showed unexplained high concentrations. The fact that the data represent many incinerators and, in several cases, observations from a period of 4 to 5 years provides a good statistical basis for evaluating the content of heavy metals in combustible Danish waste. Such data may be used for identifying incinerators receiving waste with high concentrations of heavy metals suggesting the introduction of source control, or, if repeated in time, the data must also be used for monitoring the impacts of national regulation controlling heavy metals. It is recommended that future investigations consider the use of sample digestion methods that ensure complete digestion in order to use the data for determining the total heavy metal content of waste.

Keywords

Waste characterization heavy metal content solid waste incineration wmr 772-3

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Belevi, H. (1998): Environmental Engineering of Municipal Solid Waste Incineration. Hochschuleverlag AG an der ETH, Zürich .

Bliksbjerg, P. (1994): APC on Danish Waste Incineration Plants. dk-TEKNIK, Søborg . (in Danish)

Chandler, A.J. , Eighmy, T.T. , Hartlén, J. , Hjelmar, O. , Kosson, D.S. , Sawell, S.E. , Van der Sloot, H.A. , & Vehlow, J. (1997): Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Residues, Studies in Environmental Science 67. Elsevier, Amsterdam .

CEC (2000): EU Parliament Directive 2000/76/EC on the incineration of waste, 4-12-2000, Official Journal, 0091-0111.

ISWA (1997): Energy from Waste State-of-the-Art Report, Statistics 1993- 1996. International Solid Waste Association, Copenhagen .

DEPA (1996): Danish Law, ‘Announcement on disposal, planning and register of waste’ BEK nr 581 af 24/06/1996 (Historisk). (in Danish)

DEPA (2003): Waste Statistics 2002 in Denmark. Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA), Copenhagen. (in Danish) or ww.mst.dk/default.asp?sub=/udgiv/publications/2004/87-7614-107-1/html/default_eng.htm (in English).

Morf, L.S. , Brunner, P.H. , & Spaun, S. (2000): Effect of operating conditions and input variations on the partitioning of metals in a municipal solid waste incinerator . Waste Management & Research 18, 4-15 .

Riber, C., Fredriksen, G.S., & Christensen, T.H. (2003): Data on the Århus Incinerator, Internal working paper, not published..

10.

Riemann, D.O. (2002): Content of Harmful Compounds in Residual Waste at MHKW Bamberg, Ersatzbrenstoffe 2. TK Verlag Karl Thromé-Kozmiensky, pp. 117-128, Neuruppin . (in German)

11.

Sabbas, T. , Polettini, A. , Pomi, R. , Astrup, T. , Hjelmar, O. , Mostbauer, P. , Cappai, G. , Magel, G. , Salhofer, S. , Speiser, C. , Heuss-Assbichler, S. , Klein, R. , & Lechner, P. (2003): Management of municipal solid waste incineration residues . Waste Management 23, 61-88 .

12.

Schachermayer, E. , Bauer, G. , Ritter, E. , & Brunner, P.H. (1995): Measurement of Material and Substance Balance at a Waste Incineration Plant, Monographien Bd. 56. Umweltsbundesamt, Wien . (in German)