Recycling of Metals from Secondary Sources Treatment Options

Abstract

Metallurgical industries generate vast quantities of solid wastes such as slag, ash, sludge, dross, grindings, turnings, clippings, residues and secondaries. During the last two decades rapid industrialization has led to many fold declines in the quality of environment. Some of the solid wastes produced during the metal extraction are hazardous in nature, since they contaminate the surface and ground water through the leachate generated at the dump-sites putting the life of the living organism at a risk. But, the effects of pollution due to the toxic constituents of the above leachate, are usually noticed in long run. It is for this reason that the industries are not much concerned about the solid metallic wastes that are invariably thrown and dumped unsystematically during metal production. Therefore, there is a need of concerted efforts involving more research and development work in tandem with the production units so as to achieve the implementation of the cleaner technologies for metal production, waste processing, handling and recycling. In this paper, the kind of solid wastes generated by the Indian lead, zinc, copper and aluminium industries, their treatment and disposal procedures are discussed in a comp-rehensive manner.