Waste Management Research

Waste Management & Research
http://wmr.sagepub.com Household hazardous waste: composition of paint waste

Lotte Fjelsted and Thomas H. Christensen Waste Manag Res 2007; 25; 502 DOI: 10.1177/0734242X07082956 The online version of this article can be found at: http://wmr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/6/502
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Household hazardous waste: composition of paint waste

Paint waste, a part of the household hazardous waste, amounting to approximately 5 tonnes was collected from recycling stations in two Danish cities. Sorting and analyses of the waste showed paint waste comprised approximately 65% of the mass, paint-like waste (cleaners, fillers, etc.) comprised 1525% and foreign items comprised 1020%.Waterbased paint was the dominant part of the paint waste. The chemical composition of the paint waste and the paint-like waste was characterized by an analysis of 27 substances in seven waste fractions. The content of critical substances was low and the paint waste was less contaminated with heavy metals than was the ordinary household waste. This may suggest that households no longer need to source-segregate their paint if the household waste is incinerated, since the presence of a small quantity of solvent-based paint will not be harmful when incinerated. Allowing household paint waste to be collected with ordinary household waste is expected to reduce the cost of handling household hazardous waste, since paint waste in Denmark comprises the major fraction of household hazardous waste.
Lotte Fjelsted Thomas H. Christensen

Institute of Environment & Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Building 115, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Keywords: paint waste, chemical composition, household hazardous waste, wmr 11881 Corresponding author: Thomas H. Christensen, Institute of Environment & Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Building 115, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark. Tel: +45 4525 1603; fax: +45 4593 2850; e-mail: thc@er.dtu.dk DOI: 10.1177/0734242X07082956 Accepted in revised form 8 May 2007 Figure 1 appears in color online: http://wmr.sagepub.com
Introduction
Household hazardous waste is often collected separately to reduce management problems and reduce emissions from the main waste streams from households. Depending on the definition of household hazardous waste, the quantities collected in the EU are typically 1.33.5 kg per inhabitant per year (Gendebien et al. 2002); in Denmark, the average is 5 kg (Waste Statistics 2006). Paint waste constitutes the greatest part of Denmarks household hazardous waste, typically 4060% of the mass collected separately (unpublished data). Although paint waste is collected under different schemes and services, it is all incinerated. The main water-based types of paint waste are often incinerated in traditional incinerators with advanced flue gas cleaning, whereas the remaining types are incinerated in hazardous waste incinerators at high temperatures. The cost of this practice has not been evaluated; however, the cost per tonne is expected to be high in comparison with the cost of managing the other household waste streams. Paint for retail has developed dramatically in recent years: the use of solvents and heavy metal-based pigments and stabilizers has been substantially reduced. Nevertheless, how this reflects in the paint waste collected from households is uncertain, as much of this paint was produced before the recent developments. Householders tend to store containers with significant amounts of leftover paint, supposedly for later use, but colour changes, frost damage, drying out and similar events lead to the paint being discarded. The purpose of this study was to determine the composition of household paint waste, collected under schemes for
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household hazardous waste collection, and compare it with the composition of non-hazardous household waste.
Material and methods

Household paint waste from two collection schemes was sorted into categories and each category was sampled and the chemical composition analyzed. Approximately 3.7 tonnes of household paint waste was obtained from the recycling centre in Farum, a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark (June 2006) and approximately 1.7 tonnes from three recycling centres in Aarhus, Denmark (November 2006). Householders take the paint waste to the recycling centre, where it is stored until transport to transfer stations and later to treatment facilities. The paint waste was hand-sorted into seven categories of paint waste and one category of other waste. Other waste included paint-like products such as detergents, fillers, car polish, etc. and foreign items such as non-identifiable bottles and containers. In the Aarhus case, the paint-like products were further sorted to gain more knowledge of what this category included. Sorting and sampling of the waste took 12 person-days for the two locations. Sorting of paint waste More than 95% of the paint containers could be sorted according to the paint code shown on the container. The seven groups of paint waste are described below and the four major categories of paint are shown in Figure 1. The MALcode number, which is a Danish system for classifying paint, is also shown (MAL-code). Paint, water-based (MAL-code 00 + 0): water-based paint, often white, primarily for indoor painting of walls and ceilings. The containers are typically plastic with a volume of 15 L or 10 L. Paint, solvent-based (MAL-code 1 + 2): solvent-based paint (typically ethanol) for both indoor and outdoor painting of wood and metal. The containers are typically metal with a volume of 15 L. Wood-protection, water-based (MAL-code 00 + 0): waterbased wood-protection for all outdoor wood constructions. The containers are typically metal with a volume of 15 L. Wood-protection, solvent-based (MAL-code 1 + 2): solvent-based wood-protection, with ethanol as the primary solvent, for all outdoor wood constructions. The containers are typically metal with a volume of 2.55 L. Lacquer, water-based (MAL-code 00 + 0): water-based lacquer primarily for floor and furniture treatment. The
containers are both metal and plastic with a typical volume of 15 L. Lacquer, solvent-based (MAL-code 1 + 2): solventbased lacquer, typically with ethanol as a solvent, primarily for floor and furniture treatment. The containers are typically metal with a volume of 1 L. Other paints, solvent-based (MAL-code 3, 4 + 5): paints, wood-protection and lacquer based on solvents such as paraffin oil, white spirit, xylene, acetone, trichlorethylene or cellulose lacquer diluents. Used for outdoor wood constructions, boats and the like. The containers are metal containers typically with a volume of 0.25 5 L. Sorting of paint-like waste Unexpectedly, a large fraction of household chemicals and products that were not paints, but often used in the context of repair and decoration, were found with the paint waste. In Aarhus, this waste was sorted into the following categories. Art colours: paint used for artistic painting and other hobby activities. Typically small containers up to 1 L, both plastic and metal. Filler, sand-based: typically used for repair of holes in walls and is found in 10 L plastic containers. Silicone fillers and sealants: typically used for repairing of joints in wet rooms, often found in plastic tubes. Glues: both paper glues for use by children and glues for wallpaper and similar materials. Wallpaper glues and the like are typically found in 1015 L plastic containers, whereas glues for childrens use are found in plastic containers of 0.11 L. Cleaning products: products used for cleaning items and walls before painting or used in cleaning the house, wooden decking, or vehicles. Typically found in plastic containers up to 1 L. Base-paints: specially penetrating paints or surface-coating paints used as primers. Personal-care products such as shampoo, nail polish, nail polish remover, etc. Other products, including ink for printers, containers with unknown substances, non-identifiable containers. Foreign items such as acids or bases, toxic products e.g. pesticides or fertilizers. Sampling After sorting into categories, all categories (incl. the paint containers) were weighed. Each category was sampled by randomly selecting 20 containers from each category, re-checking their code, register-

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L. Fjelsted, T.H. Christensen
Fig. 1: Photographs of the four main categories of paint waste and of other non-paint waste (Farum, Denmark) collected separately from households: (a) Water-based paint; (b) solvent-based paint; (c) water-based wood-impregnation; (d) solvent-based wood-impregnation; (e) other nonpaint waste.
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ing the volume and type (metal, plastic), weighing the container with its contents (< 1, 15, > 5 kg), assessing the amount of paint present (025, 2550, 5075, 75100%volume) and assessing the state of the paint with respect to sampling (liquid, dry or frost-damaged and hence not stirrable). The containers with liquid paint were stirred and sampled according to size (< 1 kg: 60 mL; 15 kg: 120 mL, > 5 kg: 180 mL) and mixed to obtain one representative sample for each category. Due to the number and sizes of the paint containers and the state of the paint in the containers, it was impractical to apply a more detailed sampling method. Analysis The samples were further stirred before sub-sampling in the laboratory. Samples were taken to determine dry matter content, heating value of wet samples and chemical composition of dry matter. The chemical composition and heating value were determined by Analytica, Lule, Sweden according to certified methods.
Results and discussion

Table 1 shows the mass distribution of the various paint waste categories. An unexpected finding was that about onethird of the collected waste was not paint waste but other household products and chemicals. Some of these products such as fillers, wood cleaners etc., were related to the use of paint, but others such as car wash and hair shampoo, were not. Foreign products and waste (total amount minus paint waste and paint-like waste) constituted about 1520% of all waste considered to be paint waste by the householder. Among the paints, water-based paint comprised about 90% of all paint collected, and paint for walls and ceilings, in particular white paint, was the dominant fraction.
Characteristics of paint waste The dry matter content was measured and found to be 40 55% of the wet weight of the sampled liquid paints. This suggests that a substantial part of the water or solvent had evaporated; it should be noted that the fully dried-out paint waste was not sampled. Although the dry paint was a minor fraction of all the paint sorted, this would suggest that the overall dry matter content of paint waste was slightly higher than that measured. The heating value of the water-based paint was moderately low (510 MJ kg1 wet waste); the solventbased paint had a somewhat higher heating value, depending on how much solvent had evaporated. A heating value of 3040 MJ kg1 of solvent-based paint appears reasonable, whereas a lower heating value is expected for paints with a mix of water and solvent. The chemical composition of the dry matter in paint is shown in Table 2 for 27 substances. The paints sampled in Farum and Aarhus, respectively, were close to identical in chemical composition. The most fundamental difference between the two samples was the copper concentration in the group of other paint. This category included bottom paint for boats and wood-protection paint. Some variation was observed in the case of Ba and F in solvent-based paint, Mo and Pb in water-based wood-protection paint, Zn in water-based lacquer, Mg and Zn in solvent-based lacquer and Zn in the group of other paints. Characteristics of paint-like waste The paint-like waste is characterized in Table 3. Fillers and glue comprised about 80% of the sampled paint-like waste. The total amount of these fractions sampled was approximately 250 kg, which may be too small to claim that the sample is representative of all paint-like waste. The chemical composition shows no major differences between paint waste and paint-like waste, except in a few cases: Cr and Pb in art colour, P in cleaning products and Cl
Table 1: Weight distribution (% wet weight), dry matter content (% of wet weight), and heating value (higher heating value, MJ/kg wet weight) of separately collected paint waste in two Danish cities. Paint Water-based Wet weight (%) Farum Aarhus Farum Aarhus Heating value (MJ kg Farum Aarhus
1
Wood impregnation Water-based Solvent-based
Lacquer Other paint Other non-paint Water-based Solvent-based
Solvent-based
38.8 44.4 55 55 wet waste) 4.3 5.4
4.8 4.2 63 54 27.6 10.8
3.5 4.1 47 46 6.9 9.5
6.1 5.5 43 44 38.9 38.3
0.7 0.3 44 39 8.7 8.5
1 1.5 49 43 26.3 35.1
2.3 3.0 40 43 35 31.3
42.7 37.1
Dry matter content (%)

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Table 2: Chemical composition of various waste paint categories in Farum and Aarhus, Denmark. Concentrations are in mg/kg dry matter except for Cl and F, which are in % of dry matter. Paint mg kg1 TS Aluminium (Al) Farum Aarhus Arsenic (As) Farum Aarhus Boron (B) Farum Aarhus Barium (Ba) Farum Aarhus Calcium (Ca) Farum Aarhus Cadmium (Cd) Farum Aarhus Cobolt (Co) Farum Aarhus Chromium (Cr) Farum Aarhus Copper (Cu) Farum Aarhus Iron (Fe) Farum Aarhus Potassium (K) Farum Aarhus Magnesium (Mg) Farum Aarhus Manganese (Mn) Farum Aarhus Molybdenum (Mo) Farum Aarhus Sodium (Na) Farum Aarhus 1055 1090 200 948 765 5410 91.8 101 990 588 111 48 69 233 0.1 0.069 0.14 < 0.05 < 0.07 66 < 0.07 0.9 < 0.05 < 0.05 0.072 0.83 0.14 0.42 23 16 29 63 35 11 14 9.4 7.8 < 0.5 14 5.0 16 6.5 9424 6550 3560 3100 1420 1940 362 467 1470 113 8170 25 1930 608 280 587 214 280 524 284 < 200 < 100 160 < 100 < 200 143 < 200 < 100 1194 922 1350 1420 1240 3680 4620 5190 430 54 1360 1520 1360 786 13 41 19 48 3.4 37 67 11 5.7 <1 35 8.9 <2 28500 23 35 6.7 4.3 5.9 13 1.7 4.1 2.6 18 7.4 2.6 3.0 4.4 2.7 12 193 105 269 120 239 314 0.28 11 92 297 115 191 < 0.09 < 0.06 < 0.09 0.19 < 0.09 < 0.06 < 0.09 0.38 < 0.07 < 0.06 < 0.09 0.37 0.13 0.88 46775 36800 24700 31500 5180 3870 2820 3030 5140 78 12200 885 4080 5960 1970 427 15 5270 3870 712 35 226 3.8 1.3 8.3 89 92 417 8.3 2.7 12 4.4 6.2 26 18 5.1 61 23 15 8.7 12 7.4 <1 <1 <1 < 0.9 <1 < 0.9 <1 <1 <1 < 0.9 <1 < 0.9 <1 < 0.9 3769 3110 3830 2890 2100 2750 1250 1340 1700 1320 15200 404 313 1250 Water-based Solvent-based Wood impregnation Water-based Solvent-based Lacquer Other paint Water-based Solvent-based
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Table 2: Chemical composition of various waste paint categories in Farum and Aarhus, Denmark. Concentrations are in mg/kg dry matter except for Cl and F, which are in % of dry matter. (Continued) Paint mg kg1 TS Nickel (Ni) Farum Aarhus Phosphorus (P) Farum Aarhus Lead (Pb) Farum Aarhus Sulphur (S) Farum Aarhus Silicon (Si) Farum Aarhus Strontium (Sr) Farum Aarhus Zinc (Zn) Farum Aarhus Tin (Sn) Farum Aarhus Antimony (Sb) Farum Aarhus Mercury (Hg) Farum Aarhus Chloride (Cl) Farum Aarhus Fluorine (F) Farum Aarhus 0.91 < 0.01 1 0.01 0.9 < 0.01 0.9 0.05 0.5 0.02 0.1 0.01 0.3 0.01 0.18 0.08 0.11 0.04 0.07 0.06 0.17 0.09 0.03 0.03 0.58 0.02 0.01 0.25 < 0.2 < 0.1 < 0.2 < 0.1 < 0.2 < 0.1 < 0.2 < 0.1 < 0.1 < 0.1 < 0.2 < 0.1 < 0.2 < 0.1 < 0.07 < 0.05 < 0.07 0.24 36 20 < 0.07 0.066 < 0.05 < 0.05 < 0.07 0.09 0.077 0.1 1.1 0.58 1.5 2.9 1.5 0.97 1.7 5.0 9.7 0.62 309 10 61 281 100 375 270 612 1530 148 424 202 <1 112 984 2.4 81 11900 77 38 79 184 77 18 5.1 6.9 3 1.1 5.0 31 3.6 12 849 768 902 571 825 624 649 297 670 401 900 555 1060 389 1015 566 1650 1660 1320 698 840 700 637 706 330 40 58 335 5.8 2.9 274 611 1.7 186 2.9 35 1.1 0.53 252 74 461 334 374 530 220 277 474 221 115 107 454 136 782 150 28 410 5.3 11 11 1.8 1.6 4.6 2.5 2.9 < 0.5 < 0.5 4.6 2.6 1.2 5.3 Water-based Solvent-based Wood impregnation Water-based Solvent-based Lacquer Other paint Water-based Solvent-based
in base paints were considerably higher than in the other groups of paint and paint-like waste. Assessment of household paint waste Table 4 shows the calculated composition of the collected household paint waste in Farum and Aarhus. The calculation is based on the weighted distribution of paint, but paintlike waste and foreign items, which amounted to 2535% of the total mass, were not included. Table 4 also shows the
content of many substances in household waste collected in Aarhus determined by incinerating 1200 tonnes of household waste (excluding some paper and glass collected separately) and measuring all the outputs from the incinerator during the test (Riber & Christensen, in preparation). Table 4 shows that the calculated composition of paint waste in Farum and Aarhus is very similar, except for Cu which, for unknown reasons, is much higher in Aarhus. Although the sample was re-analyzed, the value remained

507
Table 3: Weight distribution (% wet weight of all waste collected), dry matter content (% of wet weight), heating value (higher heating value, MJ kg1 wet weight) and chemical composition of paint-like waste found in collected paint waste from households in the Aarhus. All concentrations are in mg/kg dry matter except Cl and F, which are in % of dry matter. Art colours Weight (%) Dry matter (%) Heating value (MJ kg1) Al (mg kg1 TS) As (mg kg1 TS) B (mg kg1 TS) Ba (mg kg
1
Filler (sand) 8.4 90 0.5 3660 <1 12 21 141000 0.06 1.25 6.0 5.0 1660 < 0.1 1410 46300 284 0.15 958 3.4 181 3.5 271 0.07 490 0.27 47 16 0.02 < 0.01
Silicone products 0.2 97 11.8 489 2.50 107 458 143000 0.08 1.8 24 3.3 485 < 0.1 < 100 13100 16 < 0.04 71 12.7 77 0.58 60 0.44 6100 9.3 66 349 0.02 < 0.01
Glue 6.8 30 6.2 558 < 0.9 1.4 5.5 10400 < 0.05 0.3 3 1.1 378 < 0.1 615 5810 39 0.05 2340 3.3 134 < 0.4 359 0.23 719 0.57 2.8 15 0.07 < 0.01
Cleaners 1.9 14 12.0 54 < 0.9 4.1 0.9 242 < 0.05 0.23 < 0.3 1.2 28 < 0.1 2350 42 < 0.4 0.08 3880 < 0.4 5540 < 0.4 1030 0.07 3270 0.49 0.67 <2 0.06 < 0.01
Base paints 0.7 51 6.0 1670 < 0.9 3.3 105 54400 < 0.05 46 9.5 1.3 340 < 0.1 274 4280 38 < 0.04 1290 3.2 342 2.1 584 < 0.04 1740 < 0.2 29 50 6.2 < 0.01
0.4 40 17.8 676 <1 3.1 121 20200 0.41 112 454 182 365 < 0.1 < 100 125 62 14 1010 0.8 113 3800 567 0.06 517 69 106 338 0.05 < 0.01
TS)
Ca (mg kg1 TS) Cd (mg kg1 TS) Co (mg kg1 TS) Cr (mg kg1 TS) Cu (mg kg1 TS) Fe (mg kg1 TS) Hg (mg kg1 TS) K (mg kg1 TS) Mg (mg kg1 TS) Mn (mg kg1 TS) Mo (mg kg1 TS) Na (mg kg1 TS) Ni (mg kg1 TS) P (mg kg1 TS) Pb (mg kg1 TS) S (mg kg1 TS) Sb (mg kg1 TS) Si (mg kg1 TS) Sn (mg kg1 TS) Sr (mg kg1 TS) Zn (mg kg1 TS) Cl (%) F (%)
high. In comparison with the composition of the household waste incinerated in Aarhus, it is striking that the paint waste with respect to critical substances, such as Cd (90200 times), Cr (46 times), Ni (47 times), Hg (1320 times), and Pb (46 times), has a much lower content than that of the household waste from which it was segregated at source. The numbers in the parentheses show how many times more contaminated with these substances was the household waste than paint waste. Even the high Cu value for paint waste from Aarhus was only twice that found in ordinary household waste.
Conclusion
Careful sorting and analysis of approximately 5 tonnes of household paint waste collected in the town of Farum and
the city of Aarhus, Denmark provided important information about the composition of household paint waste. The collected paint waste also contained paint-like products (fillers, cleaners, etc.) associated with painting (1520%) as well as foreign products (15%). Water-based paint was the dominant part of the paint collected (4045%). The chemical composition of both the paint waste and the paint-like waste revealed low contents in the waste. For critical substances, such as Hg, Cd, Pb and other heavy metals, the content in the paint waste was substantially lower than the content in household waste in general. This investigation suggests that, since the predominant part of paint waste is water-based and is low in heavy metal content, households do not need to source-segregate their paint waste, if the household waste is incinerated. The very low contribution in terms of paint waste with solvents is eas-
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Table 4: Calculated composition of household paint waste (paint waste only) in Farum and Aarhus, Denmark as well as the composition of household waste incinerated in Aarhus (Riber et al. 2007). Collected paint waste Farum Al (mg kg B (mg kg
1
Aarhus 2.8 1.0 5.0 745 28900 0.14 67 26 1355 1515 0.10 470 5020 18 4.5 1210 9.0 440 75 640 1.3 680 14 42 885 0.08 0.01
Household waste Aarhus
TS)
3.2 1.0 10.1 1540 34644 0.08 64 17 17 1554 0.15 270 6900 22 0.1 800 4.9 320 46 1000 2.3 820 3.7 64 235 0.16 0.9
As (mg kg1 TS)

1
7.4
TS)
Ba (mg kg1 TS) Ca (mg kg1 TS) Cd (mg kg1 TS) Co (mg kg Cu (mg kg
1
5.7 109 698 2.0 * 3180 280 3.7 34 300 1360
TS) TS)
Cr (mg kg1 TS)

1
Fe (mg kg1 TS) Hg (mg kg1 TS) K (mg kg1 TS) Mg (mg kg1 TS) Mn (mg kg1 TS) Mo (mg kg
1
TS)
Na (mg kg1 TS) Ni (mg kg1 TS) P (mg kg1 TS) Pb (mg kg1 TS) S (mg kg1 TS) Sb (mg kg1 TS) Si (mg kg1 TS) Sn (mg kg1 TS) Sr (mg kg1 TS) Zn (mg kg1 TS) Cl (%) F (%)
58 1290 0.9
*Average of determinations in Copenhagen, Odense and Herning, Denmark.
ily distributed and burned with the ordinary waste. As paint waste is the dominant fraction of household hazardous waste, this is expected to significantly reduce the cost of handling household hazardous waste, without impacting the environment.
Acknowledgement
The city of Aarhus, Denmark and the Vestforbrnding waste treatment company, Glostrup, Denmark are thanked for providing the waste and the resources to sort and analyse the waste.
References
Gendebien A., Leavens A., Blackmore K., Godley A., Lewin K., Franke B. and Franke A. (2002) Study on Hazardous Household Waste (HHW) with Main Emphasis on Hazardous Household Chemicals (HHC), WRc Ref: CO 5089-2.Final Report. European Commission DirectorateGeneral Environment, Brussels. Riber C. & Christensen T.H. (2007) Chemical composition of household waste as measured by full-scale incineration tests. In preparation for Waste Management. MAL-code (2007) http://www.miljoeogsundhed.dk/default.aspx?node=3549 and http://www.damsonpaint.dk/Malkoder.htm , Accessed January 22, 2007 Waste Statistics (2006) Waste Statistics 2004. Environmental Review No. 1 2006. Danish Ministry of the Environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Copenhagen.

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Waste Management & Research

http://wmr.sagepub.com Household hazardous waste: composition of paint waste

International Solid Waste Association

Downloaded from http://wmr.sagepub.com by on March 21, 2010

Household hazardous waste: composition of paint waste

Lotte Fjelsted Thomas H. Christensen