A New Life for Waste: Sludge Treatment and More

Once untreated, wastewater that is produced by various industries can be highly hazardous for nature, contaminating water sources and the earth.

According to UNESCO's report, about 80% of the world's wastewater is not treated. Access to safe water is a rising issue, as UNESCO shows that 4.5 billion people in the world lacked safely managed sanitation facilities in 2015, which is an ongoing problem for many regions of the world as we have 784 million people who live without basic access to clean water. 

The Middle East has its share of clean water problems too. The countries of the region such as Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran face a severe desertification problem, while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain have desalination plants that overuse the water, which is already scarce in the region. Considering that agriculture uses 85 percent of the water in the Middle East, treating wastewater is a crucially important measure to be taken in the region. 

The numbers are disquieting, yet recent technologies and techniques that transform wastewater into resources are promising. Established in 1992, Ecology Services is one of the companies that can serve as an example of how to provide recycling, treatment, and disposal services for hazardous and industrial waste. 

Using a guideline that is based on the European 4R waste treatment principle: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover, Ecology Services is based in Kiryat gat, Israel, providing a wide range of industrial and hazardous waste treatment technologies, specializing in recycling empty containers using advanced technology, neutralizing and processing Industrial waste, which is a hot topic for Israel thanks to the country’s growing industry, one of the main sources for growth in Israel’s economy. 

 The company also provides logistic services for waste transporting, interim storage, chemical analysis, hazardous materials storage.

Wastewater's Journey: Sludge Treatment 

One of the primary services provided by Ecology Services is a practice called Sludge Treatment, where wastewater gets transformed into raw materials and fuel.

Sludge is a byproduct of wastewater treatment processes in various industries. It is gathered during the process of treating industrial waste, containing hazardous substances in the form of metals, pathogens (disease-causing elements), synthetic and organic (containing paint, oil, or any organic solvent) materials. 

Once gathered, sludge is thoroughly separated from fluids, then it gets dried for the next phase. During this process, the weight and volume of the sludge get reduced by up to 90%, which eases the later treatment, transportation and storage uses, saving a lot of money for customers and other parties, as well as saving the environment. 

The end treatment facilities treat the dried sludge further, recovering all the useful materials and creating primarily bio-fuel, thus transforming the sludge into energy. 

Expired, Yet Exists 

The vast majority of stuff we buy from markets or the internet expires. Once expired, we throw them into a trash can but that does not mean these expired wastes cease to exist. Enter the process called the destruction of expired products.

The process includes operations such as grinding, shredding, and compressing for expired materials. Once shredded, grinders pulverize materials by applying abrasion and compression. These operations are performed by advanced technological means and the whole process is supervised to prevent the possibility of the product eventually returning either to the market and/or to the wrong hands. 

Growth in Waste is a Global Problem

As the population increases, so do mass production and eventually, waste. For example, Europe alone saw 5.2 tonnes of waste generated per European inhabitant in 2018. According to OECD data, the United States has an increasing rate of municipal waste.

And Israel also has a fair share of waste accordingly, as Ecology Services point out there is a significant growth in Israel's waste amount due to the increasing living standards of the country. This growth is mainly caused by industries, factories, and major corporations. Ecology Services estimates the growing waste amount %5 more for each year in Israel. 

Established in 1992, Ecology Services contributes a lot to Israel's industrial waste management, regarding the Collection and Disposal of Waste for Recycling Law that came into effect in 1993. The law set forth regulations and orders of the Ministry of Environmental Protection as well as objectives for the recycling of industrial waste. 

Plastic: A Persistent Waste 

According to World Animal Protection an estimated 15 to 51 trillion microplastic particles were floating in the world’s oceans, weighing between 93,000 and 236,000 tonnes. Up to 18% of plastic ends up in our environment, and recent research found an estimated 22,000 tons of microplastics are being deposited across the US each year, which not only pollutes the earth but also the air so that microplastics are floating in the air that we breathe.

The study also shows that plastic can stay airborne for up to six and a half days, polluting our atmosphere. The fact that Americans eat and inhale over 7,000 plastic particles each year is worrisome enough, but the problem is not limited to the United States, as the world’s populated areas similarly produce plastic waste, and it is apparent that the right facilities are crucially important in handling the plastic waste in the right way to protect the lives of both people and other living inhabitants of our world. 

Being a material that loses quality each time it's heated, plastic is a hard material to recycle. Therefore, reducing its volume is the main principle to treat plastic waste in authorized treatment facilities like Ecology Services. Therefore, awareness should arise among every industry on taking care of plastic waste and cooperating with the right facilities in this matter. 

The regulations for the export of hazardous materials are being done according to the Basel Convention on which 133 countries from around the world are signed, including Israel. 

According to the convention, a country may export hazardous waste only to another country signed on the treaty, provided that it has designated facilities capable of treating hazardous materials.

Under the law in Israel, neither a private person nor a corporation may deal in hazardous materials, unless a special permit is given by the commissioner in the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Therefore, exports are being made only to the countries with suitable facilities. It is estimated that each year about 20 thousand tons of hazardous waste are exported from Israel.

Licensed to Protect the Environment

With this awareness and expertise, Ecology Services operate in Israel according to these standards with all the necessary permits from the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection that includes: transfer station for treatment and transfer of hazardous materials containers leaching of organic–inorganic sludge and recycling plastics, metals, and glass, hazardous materials emergency, crunching prematurity powder drug effect, perforation, and compression of aerosol containers, treating fluorescent lamps, package washing, and shredding, organic and inorganic sludge drying.

Furthermore, Ecology Services have permits for the horizontal phases of the process, including business management, transport, and waste management licenses. 

Total Waste Management

Industrial waste management is a comprehensive application that includes transportation, disposal, and recycling of your industrial waste. Its environmental benefit aside, total waste management is also a process that saves a lot of money for companies as the waste management process gets optimized with every phase being handled by professionals from a broad network of professional waste management service providers.

Plus, you can set realistic goals with a professional waste management company that uses professional tracking tools and has experts in the field supervising each phase of the process. Therefore, unique solutions for problems that are specific to the industry or company could be solved, efficiency increased, money saved, and waste managed in the best way possible.