Eco-utilization and Sustainable Management of Solid Wastes of Steel Industries

Today, huge quantities of solid waste of various kinds are produced globally; some of these are non-hazardous, but a major fraction of them are non-biodegradable and hazardous. The landfill dumping of these huge quantities of industrial solid waste is the cause of environmental degradation, specifically groundwater contamination through leaching, surface water contamination due to rain, and soil contamination, which is continuously increasing throughout the world. Hence, the eco-utilization and sustainable management of industrial wastes are highly essential to save our environment and biological community from drastic environmental contamination. Various kinds of solid wastes, such as fly ash, bottom ash, slags, concrete, bottom ash, toxic solvents, chemicals, scrap metal, masonry, etc., are released from integrated steel industries. Now the 7Rs cradle-to-cradle rule, such as regulation, recycling, reduction, rethinking, reuse, recovery, and renovation, is the best way to achieve sustainability in the management of solid wastes in the steel industry. Fly ash is one of the major solid wastes generated in the steel industry that can be reused eco-friendly in a variety of ways, including bricks, zeolite, road sub-base, cost-effective adsorbents for the removal of organic materials, mine backfill, controlling fire, and most recently in gardening by mixing with cow dung. Fly ash is the major raw material used to produce cement. Since the properties of the slag are comparable to those of natural stones, it can be used as civil engineering materials such as roadbed, asphalt track bed, coarse aggregate for concrete, and raw material fused for the manufacturing of cement. The huge quantities of mill scale obtained from steel industries can be eco-utilized for the manufacturing of mortars and some construction materials. SMS slag has been used successfully as pavement and road material, filling materials, soil conditioners, cement, brick manufacturing, and mine filling. The major aim of this chapter is to explore clear explanations regarding the eco-utilization and sustainable management of huge solid wastes generated from steel industries throughout the globe and the production of clean and green steel with zero waste generation. The future eco-utilization of huge solid wastes generated by steel industries is the development of an eco-industrial park.