ISSUE 122 | OCT/NOV 2024
23 MobileMuster 34 Planning succession 42 Training
Bigger than bottles and cans
By Neville Rawlings
Image: Shutterstock AI Generator
PFAS and asbestos – what are the risks? By Inside Waste
in Sydney, a couple of seminars were held that addressed these issues.
PP: 100024538
ISSN 1837-5618
WE ALL KNOW they are hazardous, and maybe those in power worry that complacency is the enemy, but how dangerous are PFAS or asbestos? We know that asbestos comes in various forms, and there are different risk levels. When mixed with cement, it’s not as hazardous as that which has been sprayed onto surfaces or used as insulation. The tiny fibres from spray applications are more prone to be airborne and therefore get stuck in the lungs, which could eventually cause chronic lung diseases like asbestosis. PFAS is a different beast altogether. Also known as forever chemicals, they get that nom de guerre due to nothing other than almost being impossible to destroy under normal circumstances. Electrochemical oxidation can destroy most long-chain PFASs, but short-chain versions are a lot more challenging. At a recent NSW Waste Collection and Recycling Association (WCRA) event
PFAS and PFOS Andrew Mitchell from ADE Consulting spoke succinctly, and in layman’s terms, how PFAS chemicals worked. He said that in PFAS’s simplest form, carbon atoms get stuck together with fluorine atoms. He said fluorine is the most electronegative element that exists. “What that means is that it holds on tightly to the carbon, and doesn’t let go, and doesn’t allow any space for microbes and bugs to get in and cut that bond,” said Mitchell. “They don’t break down naturally in the environment very well. Due to their special properties, PFAS molecules are extraordinarily useful in all sorts of industrial and chemical applications.” He said that because they’re surfactants, they prefer to stay on edges and boundaries, it also means they don’t like water or oil, instead they like
the air/water interface, and they can travel extraordinarily long distances in water. They’re very bioaccumulative in ecosystems, and the human health and ecological guidelines are very low.” So where do they sit on the toxicity table compared to other elements that are known to harmful to humans the environment? Mitchell talked about lead. He said that the NSW waste CT 1 guideline for lead is 100 milligrams per kilogram. “So that is like the thickness of four sheets of paper stacked on each other compared to my height, which is nearly two metres, or, for a time analogy, it’s about one second in three hours,” he said. Mitchell said when looking at NSW landfill guidelines with perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS – a type of PFAS), then it was equivalent to about 1 second per week, or the thickness of 40 sheets of paper side by side along the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (Continued on page 10)
RECYCLERS OF South Australia Incorporated (RSA) has represented the operators of most collection points (known as depots) in the South Australian Container Deposit Scheme for more than four decades. In doing so, it is acutely aware of how the community feels about recycling. The community are our members’ customers, the participants in the scheme and who our members are speaking with every day, as they go about their business. Our members are leading in innovation and are regularly telling us that they want to invest further in their operations to provide more efficient services to customers, but they are being hampered by a regulatory environment that hasn’t kept up. Following the introduction of CDS in other jurisdictions, a review of the South Australian scheme was commenced in January 2019, with the scope of the review to consider: l O bjectives of the CDS. l S cope of containers included in the CDS. l S cheme approvals and container markings. l C DS container return rates, including deposit value and payment methods. l G overnance of the CDS. The review is now well into its sixth year, and industry and the community are still awaiting any clear findings and recommendations, while the landscape of recycling and circular economy has transformed drastically. If we get the outcomes of the review wrong, everything we have built over more than 45 years is at risk. (Continued on page 16)
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