Wastewater treatment plants are becoming more advanced and more common world wide.
In recent years, significant progress has been made in several countries to curb water pollution
from municipal wastewater. Almost the entire population of Denmark is now served by
wastewater treatment facilities and more than 90% of the population in Sweden, the Netherlands
and Luxembourg is served by treatment plants. A problem that needs to be considered
carefully is the efficient and environmentally sound management of the sludge generated by
these plants. When processing sludge it is critical not to fall into the trap of simply redirecting
the pollution that originally affected water, to other media, such as soil and air. This can
happen through the use of inappropriate technologies or by applying disposal approaches
unsuitable for the local conditions.
This report describes various methods of sludge treatment and disposal: it is intended for
those charged with the task of determining the fate of sludge, providing them with the
information necessary to select among action alternatives. The report has been developed
thanks to co-operation between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the International
Solid Waste Association (the Working Group on Sewage and Waterworks Sludge.) This
collaboration has allowed not only the analysis, condensation and assessment of the quality
of this information in an efficient and comprehensive manner but also the organisation of
this document in the structured presentation found here.
One of programmes of the EEA is to develop documents to address environmental issues
that may support more efficient implementation of environmental policies. This responds to
two main objectives: the pooling of existing information on different techniques without
promoting or supporting specific ones; and the dissemination of relevant facts and figures to
promote the wise management of natural resources. We believe that this publication – which
aims to give a balance between technical and practical information – is a significant step
towards meeting these objectives. The EEA is aware of the controversy raised by incineration,
which has to be considered very carefully, but to respect the original idea of the programme
we had to assure that the full range of techniques used today were covered. The final choice
is left to the users of this information.
The reader will find a discussion on sludge characterisation by physical, chemical and
biological parameters, described by Ludivico Spinosa, who also developed the work on
transportation and storage. Agricultural use of sludge was prepared by Alice Saabye, which is
followed by a section on composting of sludge by Isabelle Coulomb. Drying techniques are
illustrated in Chapter Seven by Ådne Ø. Utvik. A chapter on incineration including vitrification
and co-incineration was prepared by Isabelle Coulomb. A section on accumulation and
landfilling of sludge was prepared by Bela Deak. The report ends with a look at new technologies
and environmental impact assessments, also presenting a tree for sludge disposal.
Legislation related to sludge treatment and disposal is given in the Appendix.labels : sludge treatment and disposal pdf,sludge treatment, disposal of sludge,treatment process, waste management,energy management
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