Abstract
Management of wastes is significant in production to achieve sustainability. The cement manufacturing industry has embraced the concept of environmental sustainability through incineration and use of wastes to provide energy for production. Despite incineration and burning of wastes being effective ways to control waste pollution, they produce other wastes which are harmful to the environment. Policy makers should analyze the potential harm that these methods can cause to the environment and develop regulatory measures. The cement manufacturing industry aims to achieve sustainable production by encouraging the useful exploitation of waste products to produce energy for cement production and burn the wastes to generate strengthening additives to improve the quality of cement.
Introduction
Sustainable development is the major aim of the global industries. Many manufacturing and processing industries seek to attain sustainable ways of production to mitigate the implications of climate change. The cement industry is one of the manufacturing sectors that have over time thrived on the desire to reduce waste pollution. Currently, the cement manufacturing industry uses incinerated waste to produce cement. Additionally, cement production requires extensive energy consumption. Therefore, the cement industry uses municipal waste and sewage sludge as energy sources and input during the production of cement.
State of the Art in Using Cement Production as a Solution to the Growing Waste Pollution
Environmental pollution as a result of waste materials causes alarming effects on the global ecosystem. Many organizations, individuals, and governments emphasize on the art of sustainable growth and production. State of the art in reducing waste pollution lies in incineration and the moving grate technology (Liu, Apel & Bindiganavile, 2014).
Moving Grate Technology
The conversion of municipal waste products into useful energy remains to be a sustainable method of environmental conservation by modern day industries. For instance, in the cement industry, municipal waste is converted into productive energy for cement production using the Moving Grate technology (Liu, Apel & Bindiganavile, 2014). Arguably, both the sewage sludge and municipal wastes are burnt in the cement manufacturing industry to produce alternative energy to other sources of energy.
Furthermore, the moving grate technology burns the waste materials to produce energy for cement manufacturing. This minimizes the costs of exploitation and use of natural and fossil fuels in cement production. Arguably, burning the waste materials reduces the emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere and dumping of such wastes which cause environmental pollution (Rahimi et al., 2016).
Incineration
The cement industry strives to achieve sustainable productivity by encouraging incineration in cement manufacturing. Through incineration, the cement industry produces useful additives to cement from waste materials. This improves the quality of cement (Rahimi et al., 2016). Arguably, the use of incineration promotes the re-use and recycling of waste materials to produce industrial substances that improve the quality of products. Incineration helps to prevent the relative disposal of waste materials from the industries and sewages into the environment. The burning of the wastes reduces the emission of carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses into the environment. In turn, incineration helps to prevent the overuse of fossil fuels and petroleum products whose exploitation causes environmental degradation. Furthermore, the use of fossil fuels increases the emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere. The incineration of waste products promotes environmental conservation (Yu, Ou & Zhou, 2010).
Cost Benefit Analysis
Sustainable production is the key target of major economies and productive economic sectors. The cement manufacturing industry aims to achieve sustainable production by encouraging the useful exploitation of waste products to produce energy for cement production and burn the wastes to generate strengthening additives to improve the quality of cement. The employment of this method of environmental sustainability poses both challenges and benefits to organizations in the cement manufacturing sector (Yu, Ou & Zhou, 2010).
First, the recycling, re-use, and reduction of both municipal and sewage wastes reduce gaseous emissions from greenhouses. The recycling of the waste materials provides an alternative source of raw materials for cement manufacturing (Vosoughi et al., 2015). Therefore, the companies minimize the cost of expenses on raw materials. Additionally, burning waste products provides energy. The energy is used in the manufacture of cement. This provides and alternative energy source thus minimizes the energy cost for the industries. Arguably, the use of municipal waste and sewage waste to provide energy for the manufacture of cement minimizes the impact of waste pollution as the wastes are recycled and re-used within the industries and save capital for the firms that may be used to purchase raw materials and energy (Haoxin et al., 2016).
Tacitly, the process of recycling the waste materials requires careful implementation to prevent incomplete combustion of the wastes, which might be harmful. Incomplete burning of some wastes produces harmful substances that cause pollution. As a result, industries need to implement advanced technologies to contain the process of burning the wastes (Haoxin et al., 2016). Such technologies can incur additional expenses to the firms. Furthermore, burning some wastes might result in accidents and spillage. This spillages cause harmful effects to the environment and the people in general. Specific clothing and protection are required. Further, incineration produces other wastes that may be dumped into the environment. Therefore, this wastes cause greater damage than the initial wastes to the environment (Coelho & de Brito, 2013). Despite the prestigious impact of re-using wastes as a means to reduce pollution, the notion of other wastes that result from the burning of sewage and municipal waste cannot be undermined. The process of incineration in cement production produces other wastes and emissions that have potential damage to the environment (Coelho & de Brito, 2013). Therefore, policy makers should consider the necessary options available to combat dangerous emissions that result from incineration.
Conclusion
The cement manufacturing industry strives to achieve sustainable production and conserve the environment by implementing waste management techniques. Wastes from the industries, the municipal and sewages cause pollution of the environment. The cement producing industry tries to mitigate the implications of waste materials on the environment by using wastes as sources of energy and raw materials in cement production. This helps to prevent the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere and dumping of the wastes that causes pollution and related illnesses. Through incineration, cement manufacture utilizes wastes from sewages and municipals to generate energy for cement production. This saves capital for the firms and reduces the use and exploitation of natural and fossil fuels to produce energy.
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