• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.291-297
• /
• 2019

Phosphorus is a vital resource for sustaining agriculture and nutrition, but a limited non-renewable resource. Thus, the recovery of phosphorus from waste activated sludge(WAS) was attempted by microwave heating and magnesium ammonium phosphorus(MAP) crystallization. Polyphosphate-accumulating organisms(PAOs) in WAS release phosphate from the cell when they are exposed to high temperature environments. Microwave heating caused phosphorus and ammonia to release from WAS. The amount was increased with increasing temperature, showing that 88.5% of polyphosphate present in the cells were released in the form of phosphate at $80^{\circ}C$. A similar result was also observed in the release of ammonia. On the other hand, both phosphorus and ammonia were crystallized with magnesium, and then was harvested as MAP. Phosphorus recovery rate reached almost 97.8%, but the ammonia was about 13.4%. These results cleary indicate that phosphorus could be recovered from WAS using a physiological trait of PAOs. Heavy metal analyses also show that the MAP crystal is useful and safe as a phosphorus fertilizer.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.74-81
• /
• 2019

Upcycling generally refers to the conversion of waste materials to something useful or valuable and is a useful concept that can be applied not only to the waste design industry but also to waste recycling and resource circulation. Our study highlights upcycling as the key concept for improving the value of waste by redefining the concept as "the recycling of waste materials and discarded products in ways that enhance their value." Four upcycling strategies are linked to material flow analyses conducted on waste electronic and electrical equipment, specifically waste refrigerators and waste computers, to examine the technologies available for implementation and suggest guidelines for the promotion of upcycling. The amount of waste refrigerators collected by the formal sector was 121,642 tons/y and the informal sector, 63,823 tons/y. The current recycling ratio of waste refrigerators was estimated as 88.53%. A total of 7,585 tons/y of waste computers were collected by the formal sector and 3,807 tons/y by the informal sector after discharge. Meanwhile, the current recycling ratio of waste computers was estimated as 77.43%. We found that it is possible to introduce 28 upcycling technologies in the case of refrigerators, and 15 technologies are available to promote upcycling in the case of computers. By refining the broad concept of upcycling and looking at the stages of material flow, our approach presents universally applicable directions for incorporating upcycling in resource recovery and recirculation plans.

• Journal of Korea Society of Waste Management
• /
• v.35 no.8
• /
• pp.785-798
• /
• 2018

Since the Framework Act on Resource Circulation was enacted in 2018, the government should establish a National Resource Circulation Master Plan every 10 years, which defines mid- to long-term policy goals and directions on the efficient use of resources, prevention of waste generation and recycling of waste. In addition, we must set mid- to long-term and stepwise targets for the final disposal rate, recycling rate (based on sorted recyclable materials and recycled products), and energy recovery rate of wastes, and relevant measures should be taken to achieve these targets. However, the current industrial waste (IW) statistics have limitations in setting these targets because the final disposal rate and recycling rate are calculated as the ratio of the recycling facility input to the IW generation. In this study, the material flow from the collection stage to the final disposal of industrial waste was analyzed based on the generation of 2016, and the actual recycling amount, actual incineration amount, final disposal amount and their rates were calculated. The effect on the recycling, incineration and final disposal rates was examined by changing the treatment method of nonhazardous wastes from the factory and construction and demolition wastes, which were put in landfills in 2016. In addition, the variation of the waste treatment charge was investigated according to the change of treatment methods. The results of this study are expected to be effectively used to establish the National Resource Circulation Master Plan and industrial waste management policy in the future in South Korea.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.89-123
• /
• 2004

Using materials recovered from the waste stream instead of virgin resources as a raw material in manufacturing has great environmental and economic benefits. However, there is lack of public interest in needs for integrated waste management and its relevant facilities, because of NIMBY syndrome, This article has proposed a system dynamics model for the study of the potential and systemic consequences of resource circulation management system(RCMS) policy for a Sudokwon landfill site in Korea. The results of the study indicate that the effects of RCMS are seen continuously to increase in term with both the community welfare level and the resource and energy level. Moreover the effects of RCMS appear sharply in the first half of the simulation period.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.14-21
• /
• 2018

The rapid increase in the consumption of products that contain rare metals has highlighted the importance of recycling and recovering resources from these products when they enter the waste stream. Among various metal resources that can be recovered, this study analyzes the waste streams of cobalt and palladium to determine how their waste resource circulation can be improved at each stage of the waste stream. The findings of this study point to improvements and strategies that can be made at individual stages. First, at the discharge/import stage, the implementation of tariff quotas for specific recycled metal resources is suggested to allow the systemic categorization of waste metals as resources. At the collection/discarding stage, a major problem is the instability in the supply of scrap metals, which may be better managed by changing the bidding process for the scrap metals. At the pretreatment stage, possible areas for improvement are uncovered concerning technical areas, such as technological development and improving the efficiency of material recycling, as well as policy-wise, for instance, expanding the regulation for manufacturers to produce products that are designed to facilitate resource recovery, increasing incentive for closed recycling, and refining the guidelines and standards for recycling. At the resource recovery stage, as the waste metal recycling industry consists of businesses that vary in size, policies to promote cooperation and coexistence between large and smaller enterprises will benefit the industry in the long-run. Lastly, at the product production/export stage, a tariff on exporting waste resources that contain cobalt and palladium will help control the amount of waste metals that are shipped abroad.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
• /
• 2023.05a
• /
• pp.37-38
• /
• 2023

As one of the resource recovery projects, this study aims to select natural fibers and synthetic fibers that can be used for concrete mixing among waste fibers and reuse them for the base concrete mixture. Using waste fiber, we seek a solution to the problem of reduced fluidity and hardening time of fiber-reinforced concrete and find the optimal mix of the ground concrete mixed with waste fiber.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.76-88
• /
• 2012

In this study, the treatment flow of the recyclables(paper, plastic, metal, etc.) collected and separated from MSW was investigated throughout entire phase from separation and collection to final disposal. Based on the site survey, most recyclables came into six material recovery facilities were comparatively managed well. However, some of recyclables showed irrelatively transportation flow. Because the main income source of the recyclables transportation companies is profit margin between treatment and transportation cost based on economics only therefore, it occurs an unnecessary route and long distance transportation while going to final destination. This unreasonable system should be a serious problem relating establishment of the resource recycling system. As a result of this study, in order to establish the reasonably resource recycling system, recycling center including material recovery facility has to manage the recyclables generated in close range preferentially. Also integrated its treatment system over a wide area will need to be considered as a basic step for the reasonable reasonably resource recycling system.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 2018

As many local governments have faced increasing conflicts on landfill use and the time of end use, it is difficult to provide an alternative landfill or conclude a consensus of lifespan extension for the existing landfill site. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute improving of the landfill capacity by calculating the resource recovery potentials of landfilled waste previously and in the future by landfill mining. For this, rate of volume increase, weight ratio, and apparent density were adopted as major parameters and their values were calculated through previous cases. The rate of volume increase was calculated to 1.42 by averaging previous cases of three areas. The average weight ratio of soil matter was 45.6% by calculating for the three areas. For the combustible waste and incombustible waste, statistical data can be used. The apparent densities were divided by combustible waste, incombustible waste, and soil matter using an average of two areas value, i.e., $0.35ton/m^3$, $1.40ton/m^3$ and $1.58ton/m^3$. We analyzed the resource recovery potential of Cheongju landfill by using the estimated parameters. The additional landfill capacity was 45% of the existing landfill capacity by recovering landfilled waste by landfill mining. In addition, it is analyzed that the lifespan is extended to 20 years, if the combustible waste of new inputting waste is sorted and combusted for energy recovery and incineration ash, incombustible waste, and soil matter are only reclaimed into the existing Cheongju landfill. It is expected that the methodology and parameters of this study will be used as basic data when resource recovery potential is analyzed for another case study of landfill mining.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.73-82
• /
• 2022

Waste paint, one of the specified wastes in Korea, is currently treated entirely by incineration treatment method, and is hardly recycled compared to other wastes. Incineration treatment method also causes environmental problems such as air pollution. Thus, this study breaks away from the existing incineration treatment method of waste paint and switch to a method of pretreatment operation through evaporation, condensation, and thermal decomposition by temperature control. and then proposes a sustainable waste paint treatment process that can be recycled as an alternative energy heat source. If a new method of disposing of waste paint and technology for recycling are developed and disseminated, it is expected that the effect will be large from an economic and environmental point of view.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.57-65
• /
• 2010

Recently, we have investigated the recovery of resources from the waste material of manufacturing printed circuit board. As printed circuit board or chip has become light, small, high reliability, it is necessary to reuse and recover resources from them. Especially, the printed circuit board that has been used for important mobile electronic pans are plated with min.0.03 ${\mu}m$ to max.50 ${\mu}m$. As increasing the cost of gold, raw material, chemicals, payments and waste material, it has been accelerated the competition for reuse and recovery. But, it is insufficiency of technician and equipments for the recovery of effective resource. In this paper, as analyzing the technical trend of gold recovery and waste back board from the manufacturing process of printed circuit board, it may be effective of recycling, further more it may be contributed to develop the valuable resources.