Industrial Waste

Nowadays, the waste management is the substantial environmental issue being faced all over the world. The main reasons for the accumulation of waste materials are industrialization and overpopulation. These waste materials may occur in solid, liquid, and gaseous states. The main categories are household, industrial, institutional, agricultural, and construction waste. They can cause serious environmental issues and detrimental effects on living organisms both flora and fauna. Based on the adversity to human health, waste may be hazardous and nonhazardous. They may be biodegradable or nonbiodegradable. Industrial wastewater from mines, hospital drainage, sewage, battery plants, electronic factories, etc. release enormous quantities of deadly harmful metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, cobalt, mercury, nickel, lead, tin, zinc, etc., leading to heavy metal poisoning. The quality of the waste can be determined from their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. The main physical characteristics of the waste include the chroma, smell, total solids, humidity, and turbidity. The factors such as chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, alkalinity, pH, and presence of heavy metals, salts, trace elements, priority pollutants, etc. are the main chemical parameters under consideration. The main biological pollutants to be highlighted are antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains with ARGs, viruses, protozoans, helminths, microbial toxins, etc. As this waste contributes serious problems to both living and nonliving entities, proper waste management is essential. Various types of disposal methods are used by industries based upon the characteristics of wastes and the most widely used methods are landfilling, incineration, and composting. This study explains the types, characteristics, and the methods for the proper disposal of industrial waste.