Disposability

In establishing appropriate waste management life-cycle strategies, a range of strategic issues typically require to be considered. The needs to reduce hazards and protect the environment often provide drivers for early action. The availability of treatment approaches and storage space also needs to be taken into account. Decisions need to take into account longer-term drivers to ensure that the final product has an appropriate disposal route.

This means that the final product needs to be in a passively safe, containerised form that meets the Waste Acceptance requirements for the intended disposal facility, or are compliant with the expected requirements of a future facility yet to be implemented (e.g. the Letter of Compliance approach for wastes intended for deep geological disposal in the UK).

Quintessa has supported a wide range of projects that support disposability assessments or for which disposability is a key concern. We have supported both the derivation of disposability requirements (see also our Waste Acceptance Criteria page) and aspects of disposability assessments for a range of wastes in the UK and overseas. In addition, disposability has been a key driver recognised in many of the BAT studies for which we have provided a leading role.