Burden of industrial waste and potential for recycling: technological, economic and environmental aspects

Abstract

Many benefits resulting from the development of the heavy industry are, unfortunately, accompanied by many issues resulting from the process of generating the industrial waste. This manuscript is presenting the environmental consequences, resulting from long period of time of heavy industry production and exploring the possibilities to recycle some of the industrial waste generated during the period of more than one century of ore excavation and copper extraction in the region of Eastern Serbia, in the vicinity of city of Bor. First part of the manuscript is presenting the scope of environmental issues, resulting from the heavy industry in this region and the amounts and the structure of the industrial waste, generated in this area, as well as the influence of generated waste to the environment of the region. Second part of the manuscript is dealing with the potential to recycle and reuse some of this waste, analyzing technological, economic and environmental aspects at the same time. In the final segment of the paper, some practical examples will be addressed based on the research work conducted at both experimental and industrial level. Results presented in the manuscript are mostly collected during long term research of the project team from Technical faculty in Bor, University of Belgrade, in the field of environmental management. This way, this manuscript is based on review of the research papers authored or co-authored by the author of this work, dealing with water, soil and air pollution, published in leading international journals. Also, the manuscript is presenting the literature review of other international issues dealing with the environmental management issues in the vicinity of large industrial complexes. Parts of the research results, presented in this manuscript are financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development of Republic of Serbia, under the project TR34023.