Industrial-Hazardous Waste Management and Pollution Control (IHWM)

Waste was associated with human activities from prehistory to today and no doubt will continue for the future. Hazardous wastes can take the form of solids, liquids, sludges, or contained gases and they are generated primarily by chemical production, manufacturing and other industrial activities. Rapid trend of industry and high technological progress led to the accumulation of hazardous materials. Hazardous wastes are those that may contain toxic substances generated from industrial, hospital and some types of household wastes.  These wastes could be corrosive, inflammable, explosive, or react when exposed to other materials. Some hazardous wastes are highly toxic to environment including humans, animals, and plants.

This course aims to give students deeper understanding of different types and characteristics of industrial hazardous wastes, all elements and steps of industrial and hazardous waste management (collection, treatment, disposal, and incineration), risks related to hazardous wastes and approaches to hazardous waste minimization, remediation, treatment and disposal. Particular attention is given to prevention methods, so not only to the collection, treatment, incineration and disposal of hazardous waste material that, when improperly handled, can cause substantial harm to human health and safety or to the environment. The course main objective is to discuss the types of industrial processes and review the outcomes of them (hazardous waste production), emphasizing precaution principle. Different types of hazardous wastes may cause damage during inadequate storage, transportation, treatment or disposal operations. Improper hazardous-waste storage or disposal frequently contaminates surface and groundwater supplies. In these cases, the aim is that this course will provide proper, adequate, sophisticated knowledge about preventing and handling industrial emergencies and teach students how to perform clean-up of different contaminated sites.