Instructions: Please choose a business type that you are familiar with (such as
ID: 105645 • Letter: I
Question
Instructions: Please choose a business type that you are familiar with (such as your local espresso stand, a dry cleaning company, the local car-wash company, or your own employer if you are working), and breakdown the business activities to see where waste/garbage is being generated. Waste does not have to be in terms of garbage only, but could also include the waste of resources, such as water or energy.Then, please consider what changes could be made to reduce the waste/garbage generated, and what potential benefits or cost savings from reducing the waste stream could be realized.Please post your findings, and ideas about this topic to the discussion forum
Explanation / Answer
Water Use And Water Quality Issues In Professional Car Washes
The professional car wash industry uses water, cleaning solutions and finish products, to clean mobile vehicles.
On-site wastewater treatment is a prospective direction towards the reduction of pollution load to the municipal or
combined urban wastewater. One of such areas is automobile service station and car-washing. Some of the existing petrol pumps, fuel service stations are facilitated with car-washing.
Contaminants in wash wastewater include oil and grease, detergents, phosphates, hydrofluoric acid,ammonium bifluoride products (ABF) etc. Oil and grease and detergents, including biodegradable detergents can be poisonous to fish.
Phosphates, which are plant nutrients can cause excessive growth of nuisance plants in water bodies. Hydrofluoric acid, ammonium bifluoride products are harmful to living organisms
Soluble oil wastes are emulsion of oil in water and it just contains three components – the dispersed phase (oil), some emulsifying agents and the external phase. Emulsion may be broken by chemical, electrical or physical methods. Chemical methods are in widest use for treatment of oily wastewaters
Various treatment technologies such as dissolved air floatation (DAF),ultrafiltration (UF), biological filter even constructed wetlands were considered for treatment of such wastewater.
Out of all the technologies,ultrafiltration methodology was found to be most efficient.
Solid Waste
Car washes produce solid waste when the grit and associated sediments are pumped from the oil/water separator. The disposal of the grit and attendant materials is covered underthe Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. The company which pumps thetank is usually the company which will takea necessary sample, ensure that chain ofcustody is documented properly, and forward the sample to a licensed laboratory for testing. Most pretreatment sludge collectedfrom oil/water separatorsis non-hazardous asdetermined by the Toxicity Characteristic Rule under RCRA. The grit may not beproperly disposed of unless its moisture content has been reduced. Under RCRA no wastecan be a hazardous waste unlessit is a solid waste