Vitrification of toxic wastes: a brief review

Whilst the vitrification of waste materials is a well established technology, hitherto it has not been economically viable on any substantial scale when applied to non-radioactive wastes. However new UK and European legislation may affect this situation. The present paper briefly reviews published work pertaining to waste vitrification in terms of legislation, waste compositions, energy, emissions and economic assessments. The focus is on vitrification of ashes arising from the incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW) and sewage sludge in terms of their composition, glass melting and reuse potential. The conclusion is that the high compositional variability of these and other wastes tends to preclude their use in many applications. However, the use of modern sorting and separation technology coupled with better control of waste treatment procedures may help to improve the range of potential uses for these wastes.