AN ASSESSMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE TREATMENT AT SMALL

INDUSTRIAL ESTATE ABBOTTABAD

Synopsis for research

Presented to:
DR. EJAZ AHMED KHAN

Presenter:
DR. HAMMAD HABIB
Roll no. 07
MSPH - 2009
Industrial Waste Treatment

Dated: 07 / 05 / 09

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Table of contents

TOPIC / QUESTION:..........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION:...............................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW:..................................................................................................1
RATIONALE:......................................................................................................................4
AIM:......................................................................................................................................4
OBJECTIVE:.......................................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY:.............................................................................................................5
VARIABLES:.......................................................................................................................6
WORK PLAN:......................................................................................................................6
BUDGET:..............................................................................................................................7
EXPECTED RECOMMENDATIONS / POLICY IMPLICATIONS:...........................7
REFERENCES:....................................................................................................................7
Industrial Waste Treatment

TOPIC / QUESTION:
AN ASSESSMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE TREATMENT AT SMALL
INDUSTRIAL ESTATE ABBOTTABAD

INTRODUCTION:

Pakistan, like other developing countries, is facing similar threats of depletion of ozone
layer, global warming, natural resource degradation and environmental pollution.
Resources were augmented to develop numerous industrial estates in all corners of the
country and today the number of industrial estates has increased to 72. The industrial
estates are distributed in all provinces. Sindh contains the largest number of industrial
estates (24), Punjab has established 20 industrial estates followed by 15 in NWFP, 10 in
Baluchistan and 3 in Federal Capital Area, Islamabad.1
There are lots of types of pollutions faced by the people here but the main ones are the
municipal solid waste, industrial waste, hospital waste, earthquake waste and E – waste
(electronic waste). Industrial waste (which is composed of various toxic chemicals),
changes to the disposal process, and addition of chemicals should all be monitored and
controlled carefully in the industrial waste industry to reduce the health hazard to workers.
Small Industrial Estate Abbottabad is located in the Abbottabad city. It is on the left of
main Qarakuram highway to Mansehra city. Major industries here include the marble,
sugar and food, ceramics, shoes and chapel making, vegetable oil and ghee etc. It is
adjacent to Ayub medical complex hospital and in surroundings there are many schools as
well2.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Industrial waste is a type of waste produced by industrial activity, such as that of factories,
mills and mines. It has existed since the outset of the industrial revolution. Much industrial
waste is neither hazardous nor toxic, such as waste fiber produced by agriculture and
logging2.

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Industrial Waste Treatment

Toxic waste and chemical waste are two designations of industrial waste. Sewage
treatment can be used to clean water tainted with industrial waste2.
Industrial waste treatment requires the use of engineering and scientific principles to find
solutions to unique chemical, biological and environmental problems. The waste ranges
from rags from textile and garment factories to paper and other waste products. It is
common to find vacant open plots with pile and pile of garbage dumped on it. Children
play in it and breathe in its toxics on a daily basis. It is the poorer sections of society that are
most vulnerable to such forms of pollution.8
Solid waste management (SWM) is the process of collection, transportation, storage,
processing, monitoring, recycling and disposal of wastes. Waste management practices
differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential
and industrial producers. Management for non-hazardous residential and institutional
waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government authorities,
while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the
responsibility of the generator2.
There is no single means of managing industrial wastes because the nature of the wastes
varies widely from one industry to another. Various methods of solid waste management
include sanitary landfill, recycling, composting, waste to energy method, incinerators, etc.
The most common disposal methods, particularly in the UK, are landfill. Incineration is the
second largest waste disposal method in most countries. A less common but more
sustainable method of waste disposal is anaerobic digestion10.

Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying waste, and this remains a common
practice in most countries. Landfills were often established in abandoned or unused
quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly-designed and well-managed landfill can
be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials2.

Incineration is a disposal method that involves combustion of waste material. This and
other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal
treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam, and ash. Incineration
is carried out both on a small scale by individuals and on a large scale by industry. It is
used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste9.

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There is a large variety of composting and digestion methods and technologies varying in
complexity from simple home compost heaps, to industrial-scale enclosed-vessel digestion
of mixed domestic waste. Methods of biological decomposition are differentiated as being
aerobic or anaerobic methods. An important method of waste management is the
prevention of waste material being created, also known as waste reduction. Methods of
avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of buying
new, designing products to be refillable or reusable2.

Waste hierarchy - The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle,
which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms of
waste minimization. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical
benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste2.

Situation in Pakistan:
Total number of registered industries in Pakistan is estimated to be 6634 out of which 1278
are considered highly toxic3. Major industries of Pakistan include textile, pharmaceutical,
chemicals (organic and inorganic), sugar & food industries, ceramics, steel, paper & pulp,
oil mills and leather tanning which spread all over four provinces. In the race towards
industrialization, a number of industrial estates were established at Faisalabad, Gadoon
Amazai, Nooriabad, Sheikhupura, G.T. Road, etc. in Pakistan. However, little attention has
been given to proper disposal of industrial waste4. A big portion of the registered industries
in Pakistan are considered to be highly polluting. Heavy metals contaminated land is
increasingly becoming an environmental, health, economic, and planning issue in
Pakistan.3 Due to this the air, soil and water are increasingly becoming polluted by
industrial pollutants such as organic and inorganic chemicals and toxic metals. Industries
and factories dump their solid and liquid wastes in spaces adjacent to these sites, sewer,
nullahs, and streams, which are mixed with groundwater raising levels of heavy metals,
higher than the levels recommended by WHO and cross the limits of NEQS. The rapid
increase in population, together with unplanned industrial effluent discharge, has increased
the threat of soil pollution in Pakistan.3. Based on the source, wastewater/effluent may be a
potential source of heavy metals e.g., Cd, Cr, Cu, Li, Ni, Pb, and Zn contamination. The
groundwater quality has also been badly affected by mixing of domestic and industrial

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Industrial Waste Treatment

pollutants. Pollutants from these wastes create lot of problems for the aquatic life, crops,
animals and human beings. 5

In Pakistan, only 3 percent of the total industrial units treat their wastes while the rest
discharges untreated effluent into rivers, lakes and sea. Dumping of untreated industrial
wastes have caused contamination of surface and ground water resources and threatened
the aquatic life to the endangered level8.

RATIONALE:

Small industrial estate Abbottabad not only has got its importance due to its production but
is also very important with respect to its location. Ayub medical complex and the industrial
estate share same boundaries. The employees and medical professional staff, doctors,
students and local community are all exposed to the industrial pollution here. It’s
extremely important to ensure safe and proper industrial waste treatment. Some studies and
research work has been conducted on the industrial waste treatment issues in Pakistan
mostly at Karachi. No study has so far been conduced on the industrial waste treatment at
small industrial estate Abbottabad. So this study will be extremely helpful for future
betterment and improvements.

AIM:

To improve industrial waste treatment in different industries of Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE:

 To describe waste treatment practices at small industrial estate Abbottabad.

 To determine risks posed to the community by unsafe management of industrial
waste based at GIS mapping.

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METHODOLOGY:

Study design
Cross sectional descriptive study
Sample size & technique
Covenience sampling (Non-probability).
Locatin
Small industrial estate Abbottabad.
Duration
Three (03) months.
ETHICAL ISSUES;
 Written permission from Health Services Academy ethical committee and the
concerned authorities will be taken.
 A written informed consent will be prepared and explained to the participants in
details in national and the local languages.
 Secrecy, privacy and confidentiality of the participants will be fully ensured.
Inclusion criteria:
All the industries within the specified area will be included. Those who agree for
participation in the study will be included in the study. Participants should have been
working in the industries for at least one year.
Exclusion criteria:
Those who do not agree or refuse for participation in the study will be excluded from the
study & those who have worked lest than one year in the industry.
Materials:
♦ Written permission from the concerned authorities will be taken.
♦ Semi-structured questionnaire will be made.
♦ A checklist will be made for visiting the facility.
♦ Written informed consent from the person being interviewed will be taken.
♦ A team will be hired and trained for the collection of data.
♦ SPSS version 16 will be used for statistical analysis. Frequencies will be generated.

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Industrial Waste Treatment

♦ Chi square tests & other statistical tests will be applied where required.
♦ GIS (geographical information system) / health maper for maping of the location.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

♦ EPA checklist will be used for data collection (which is pre-tested).

VARIABLES:

 Demographic data like name, age, sex, service duration in months, factory name
etc.
 Specific terms like industrial waste treatment and waste management, treatment
purpose and rules etc.
 Terms related to waste like segregation, collection, transportation, storage &
disposal.

WORK PLAN:
 Plan is made for a total of three months.
 A team will be made for data collection from the local area. It will be consisting of
persons who are at least graduate. A total of four persons will be hired for a period
of one month and further divided into two subgroups.
 The team will then be trained to take data according to the designed questionnaire.
The training and then reassessment of the team will be done.
 All the industries will be selected for visit and each one will be visited by at least
two members at a same time. Three days will be given to take detailed data of each
of the factory. 1 day extra will be reserved if needed.
 All the time the team will be working under constant supervision & contact.
 The teams will have to submit the report on the last day of their factory visit.
 After collection of data, detailed analysis of the data will be done.

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 Future recommendations and suggestions will be made according to the findings.

 Division of the days will be like this:
S. No Detail of work No. of days required
1 Printing of questionnaire & consent forms 05
2 Selection or the research team 05
3 Training of the team & assessment 10
4 Data collection by the team 25
5 Data analysis 10
6 Result compilation & discussions etc 10
7 Formation of thesis including suggestions etc 05
8 Printing of thesis 15

BUDGET:

Details Salaries Transport Perdiems Stationary Printing Miscellaneous

Researcher 0 0 0 500 2000 10000
Data collection 20000 10000 5000 500 1000 0
team
Statistician 3000 0 0 500 500 0
Total 23000 10000 5000 1500 3500 10000
Grand total (Rs) 53000

EXPECTED RECOMMENDATIONS / POLICY IMPLICATIONS:

This study is expected to bring out some extremely important realities in respect of
different treatment strategies adapted and practiced in the small industrial estate. Policy
makers are expected to be benefited by this study and get some better concepts for future
planning. Industrial staff should practice the waste management as is prescribed legally.
Industries should be strictly planned and monitored for their waste management methods.
Only in this way, good results can be achieved.
REFERENCES:

1. http://www.apo-tokyo.org/gp/e_publi/penang_symp/Penang_Symp_P159-166.pdf

2. Wikepedia

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3. J Zhejiang Univ SCIENCE B 2006 7(12):974-980 doi:10.1631/jzus.2006.B0974

4. Mufti, S.A., Woods, C.A., Hasan, S.A., 1997. Biodiversity of Pakistan.

Pakistan Museum Natural History, Islamabad.

5. Government of Pakistan, 1991. The Pakistan National Conservation Strategy.

Environment and Urban Affair Division,Islamabad, Pakistan

6. Journal of Drainage and Water Management, Vol.6(2) July-December 2002

7. PNCS (1992). Pakistan National Conservation Strategy

8. Solid waste and pollution – Silent killers by. Sohail Raza Dodhy, Copyright 2007
Ptj.com.pk

9. Case Study: Dumping of Hazardous Industrial Waste In S.I.T.E. Adnan Millwala

and Erum Haider July 2006)

10. http://www.bookrags.com/research/industrial-waste-treatment-enve-01/

11. Abbas, S.T., 1991. Salt Toleration in Pakistan Rice Varieties through Tissue
Culture. Ph.D Thesis, MDS University, Ajmeer, India.

13. Ali, K., Javid, M.A., Javid, M., 1996. Pollution and Industrial Waste. 6th National
Congress Soil Sci., Lahore, p.122-131.

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