Foundry waste - Storage

Waste management regulations have undergone considerable revision in recent years to incorporate the principles of European Directive 2008/98/EC. This changes the framework for waste management in the European Union to encourage reuse and recycling. The notion of the circular economy influences awareness of the planet's limited resources and the need to conserve them, and should encourage the reuse of materials wherever possible. Waste prevention not only avoids the environmental impacts of waste treatment, but also, in many cases, avoids the environmental impacts of the upstream stages of a product's life cycle, which are as significant, if not more so, than those associated with waste management.

This article discusses the regulations governing the management of waste generated in foundries, such as sand, non-hazardous and hazardous waste, and suggests ways of reusing certain materials.

It will be increasingly difficult to store this waste in an internal landfill close to the foundry, as regulatory requirements are becoming more stringent. Not only must the foundry set up financial guarantees, the amount of which is high, but it must also monitor the waste through characterization analyses, as well as the groundwater beneath the landfill. All waste producers and holders are required to know the characteristics of their waste. This characterization, which is subject to specific rules, must enable the producer or holder to determine how hazardous the waste is, and to choose the appropriate management method.

The publication of a guide to the recovery of used foundry sand for road applications and the revision of the BREF (best available foundry technology reference document) should facilitate the local recovery of used sand.

Increasingly, foundrymen will have to develop practices to reduce the quantities of waste to be disposed of in internal and external engineered landfill sites, in order to cut disposal costs. For sands, for example, they will need to use resins and additives with low environmental impact, regenerate used sands for reuse in core manufacture, optimize the sand/part ratio to burn organic compounds, in order to obtain inert sands that they can dispose of at lower costs. This also implies that used sands should no longer be considered as waste in the strict sense of the term, but as secondary materials that can be recycled. Regulations now allow this, provided the waste has been fully characterized by analysis in accordance with current standards. What's more, recovery channels can only be local, given transport costs and the associated CO ₂ emissions.

At the end of the article, readers will find a glossary and a table of acronyms....