**3. Industrial waste generation**

Industrial wastes are unavoidably produced during manufacturing process of commercial products by different industrial activities from agriculture to extraction of natural resources. The type of waste generated and its characteristic depend on the industry sector [15] and the inherent industrial process employed to produce finished products in such industry. Generally, according to Ref. [16] the world currently generates about 2.02 billion tons of solid waste annually; this figure is projected to be on steady increase (**Figure 4**) and may reach 3.40 billion tons by 2050.

#### **Figure 4.**

*Projected global waste generation by region (million tons/year) [16].*

The volume of waste generated in industries around the world has equally been on the rise over a long period of time. In the United States for instance, the amount of hazardous waste produced by industries has increased from about 4.6 million tons annually after World War II, to an estimated 57 million tons by 1975 [17]. By the 1990s, the volume of waste produced by American industries had increased to approximately 260 million tons [15]. **Table 2** shows the amount of waste in million tons generated in industries in different regions of the world in 2011.

Solid wastes from industries are generated by construction activities, cement and limestone production, mining and mineral extraction, steel and iron ore


**Table 2.**

*Volume of industrial wastes generated in different regions of the world in 2011 [18].*


#### **Table 3.**

*Industrial solid waste generated from typical industrial manufacturing processes [9].*

production, and solid chemical production as can be seen in **Table 3**, which shows industrial solid wastes produced from typical manufacturing processes [9]. From a global standpoint, plastic wastes account for the most type of solid waste generated

#### **Figure 5.** *Global composition of solid waste generated annually (percent) [16].*


#### **Table 4.**

*Industrial hazardous wastes associated with the production of certain commercial products [19].*

(**Figure 5**) by both industry and household annually [16]. Industrial hazardous wastes, on the other hand, can be generated by industries manufacturing pharmaceuticals and drugs, paint, textile, pesticides and agrochemicals, plastic and polymer, tannery, and petroleum and petrochemical industries [17]. In **Table 4**, typical hazardous wastes generated from the manufacture of commercial, finished products are presented.

Chemical wastes from industries are generated by industrial processes, which produce chemicals such as toluene, acetone, benzene, urea, potash, sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, utilized in different sectors such as agriculture, military, service

#### **Figure 6.**

*The different chemical industries that produce industrial chemical waste [19].*


**Table 5.**

*Industrial radioactive wastes produced from various sources and processes [21].*

industry, construction, consumer goods manufacture, and cosmetics [13]. Chemical wastes are also produced by paint industries and textile industries [20]. A block diagram of the general overview of the chemical industry is presented in **Figure 6** below.

Industrial radioactive waste is produced by such industries as nuclear power generation, mining, military and defense, medicine, and research institutes [14]. **Table 5** shows the various industrial radioactive wastes generated by different industrial operations.
