Reworld™ Bristol Biomedical Waste
Why is Reworld™ seeking this permit change?
As the waste markets have changed over the years, Waste-to-Energy facilities across the country have adapted to the changing market place by offering additional services to help individuals, companies and manufacturers deal with sustainability goals, zero waste-to-landfill policies and difficult to manage solid and liquid waste streams. This has included the processing of nonhazardous biomedical waste. Most states, including Connecticut, define certain categories of biomedical waste in statute as “must incinerate.” There are no biomedical waste incinerators in the Northeastern U.S. and Reworld™ Bristol is a safe, reliable, and economical alternative for Connecticut and for regional medical waste generators who have few and increasingly unreliable options for disposal of “must incinerate” biomedical waste.
In addition, a number of healthcare institutions have increasingly preferred not to autoclave and then landfill their non-hazardous biomedical waste in order to reduce potential liability. Waste-to-Energy facilities have proven to be a safe and environmentally responsible way to manage nonhazardous biomedical waste. This material must be combusted at a high temperature and the Reworld™ Bristol facility is perfectly equipped to provide this essential public service and ensure that this material is handled and treated properly.
Is it safe to process biomedical waste at a Waste-to-Energy facility?
Waste-to-Energy technology presents a safe and efficient solution to manage biomedical waste. We have over 30 years’ experience processing biomedical waste and have invested in substantial improvements, including employing a state-of-the-art automated waste handling and feed system. This, along with additional receiving, handling, and processing procedures ensure the safety and protection of employees and the public.
Isn’t Waste-to-Energy an old technology?
Reworld™ Waste-to-Energy facilities are not comparable to the incinerators of the previous decades. The Bristol facility uses inclined grate mass burn technology and operates with state-of-the-art emissions control systems provided by global vendors.
Inclined grate mass burn technology coupled with these emissions control systems is being deployed currently in hundreds of new Waste-to-Energy plants which are being permitted, built, and operated in Europe, Asia, and Australia. These state-of-the-art systems ensure our operations are fully protective of human health and the environment. The continuous and annual emissions monitoring we perform is fully compliant with strict US EPA and CT DEEP permit requirements, which were established to be protective of human health and the environment.
Moreover, since the 1990s, federal regulations have drastically changed the way Waste-to-Energy facilities work.
In fact, under the Clean Air Act, Waste-to-Energy facilities have reduced emissions up to 99%. Reworld™ has taken additional steps and leveraged technology to reduce dioxin, mercury, and NOx, further reducing emissions by up to 50% over the past 10 years.
While the stack may appear ominous, after passing through the emissions control system, 99.9+% of what comes out of the facility’s stack are normal components of air, including water vapor, nitrogen, oxygen and CO2.
The remaining constituents are well below allowable limits set by state and federal regulators that have demonstrated protection of human health and the environment.
Isn’t Reworld™ Bristol an aging facility at over 30 years old?
Waste-to -Energy facilities, like Reworld™ Bristol, can run for several decades with proper maintenance and facility upgrades. Reworld™ has developed and continues to improve upon our robust maintenance programs to ensure our facilities perform as well – if not better – than when they were first built.
How much biomedical waste will the facility process? Are you expanding the facility?
We will not be expanding the facility. We are requesting a change to the facility’s permit to be able to use no more than 8% of the facility’s existing waste processing capacity for nonhazardous biomedical waste. The facility would replace other commercial and light industrial special wastes that it currently processes with nonhazardous biomedical waste.
What exactly will you be processing?
Under the permit, we would process nonhazardous biomedical waste, which includes IV bags, tubes, sharps, vials, pharmaceutical residue as well as bedding, gowns and bandages, all of which is potentially infectious as a result of contact with blood or body fluids. It also includes pathological waste (i.e.: tissue samples from biopsies, organs from surgical procedures) and waste from research facilities.
What won’t you be processing?
Unacceptable biomedical waste includes:
- Human anatomical waste (e.g.: large body parts from surgery)
- Cadavers
- Fetuses
- Large animal carcasses
- EPA hazardous pharmaceutical waste
- Large amounts of free-flowing liquids
- Radioactive materials
- Bulk chemotherapeutic waste
- Formaldehyde, iodine, or other preservative agents.
How do you know you will not be processing unwanted types of biomedical waste?
Reworld™ has a robust quality control program to minimize risk and ensure that all shipments of biomedical waste from our customer sites meet our program specifications which are the most stringent in the industry. Our agreements with customers give us the right to inspect any upstream customer facility that receives, processes, or consolidates biomedical waste that would be delivered to Reworld™ Bristol. We inspect our customer sites prior to taking any of their waste into our facility and on an annual basis or more frequently if required. All biomedical waste loads are also inspected upon delivery.
Why is Waste-to-Energy a better method for destroying biomedical waste instead of autoclaving or putting it in a landfill?
Waste-to-Energy presents a safe and secure method to destroy biomedical waste.
After the waste is fed into our combustors, the very high temperatures and long residence time ensure that the pathogens are destroyed and pose no harm to the public. Most states, including Connecticut, define certain categories of biomedical waste in statute as “must incinerate.” There are no biomedical waste incinerators in the Northeastern U.S. and Reworld™ Bristol is a safe, reliable, and economical alternative for Connecticut and for regional medical waste generators who have few and increasingly unreliable options for disposal of “must incinerate” biomedical waste.
By regulation not all of the biomedical waste stream can be autoclaved. Autoclave technology is not effective in removing the risk associated with certain portions of the biomedical waste stream (i.e.: materials contaminated with chemotherapeutic and other non-hazardous pharmaceutical residue). For these reasons Connecticut and most other states require this material to be incinerated.
What’s more, after material is processed at an autoclave facility the waste from the autoclaving process still needs to go somewhere and typically end up in landfills, which are detrimental to our environment for their fugitive and unmonitored emissions, consumption of land, and production of leachate which may contaminate underlying soils and groundwater aquifers. Autoclaves also generate significant quantities of wastewater.
Federal and state government policy recognizes waste incineration with energy recovery as being preferential to landfilling. Medical waste disposed in a landfill is simply buried and left to degrade in the Earth, which means this material is never destroyed and instead is left in the ground to decompose over many years. Compared to highly regulated Waste-to-Energy facilities, landfills release over 170 different pollutants during their lifetime, yet are minimally regulated. These pollutants include methane, a greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent as a climate-warming gas than CO₂.
Will there be more trucks on local roads?
No, we do not anticipate any impact to local traffic as a result of this change. As mentioned, we are requesting a permit change for the type of waste that the facility may accept, not an increase in quantity of waste.
Will your employees have to handle this material? What safeguards are in place?
Reworld™ has developed Standard Operating Procedures for the acceptance and processing of nonhazardous biomedical waste that are based on years of experience from comparable facilities and that are the highest in the industry. We have installed automated systems that handle the material so that minimal interaction with employees is required. This is in addition to mandatory personal protective equipment and “no-touch” procedures followed at our facilities. Our Waste-to-Energy facilities in Lake County, Florida, Marion County, Oregon and in Huntsville, Alabama have been successfully processing this material for many years and we will apply best practices from these locations to the program at the Bristol facility.
Will this change increase emissions from the facility?
The Lake County, Florida, Marion County, Oregon and Huntsville, Alabama Waste-to-Energy facilities have been processing this type of waste for many years and there has been no discernable effect on emissions. In fact, stack testing at these facilities, conducted while combusting biomedical waste, has demonstrated that the emissions at the facilities have continued to be much lower than the permit limits.
Does Reworld™ Bristol only monitor emissions once a year?
No, this is false. A combination of continuous emissions monitoring, operating parameters and annual stack testing are important tools used to determine the facility’s compliance with the emission limits set forth in its operating permit, which is established in accordance with the Clean Air Act and state regulatory requirements.
The facility’s operating permit sets the limits on:
- the amount of waste processed,
- the emissions that are allowed, and
- how the air pollution control system is operated.
The stack test sets additional limits on how we operate. Certain operating parameters, like waste throughput and air pollution control operation, become requirements until our next stack test. In addition, there are monitors that operate continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 365 days a year to check that the combustion units are operating well, and the air pollution control systems are functioning properly.
The continuous emissions monitoring (CEM) equipment at the Bristol Waste-to-Energy facility monitors for opacity (a measure of particulate matter) and gaseous compounds such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides. The facility’s operators also continuously measure the amount of steam produced, as well as ensure the consistent high temperature (approximately 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit) required for full combustion is achieved by monitoring and maintaining proper oxygen and carbon monoxide levels.
The key to low emissions is good combustion. The facility is staffed with operators who have all necessary certifications to operate an MWC. Those personnel are always in the control room, 24/7/365 to ensure that operating parameters are consistent with standard operating procedures and that all units are in compliance with all limits. As an example, if CEM data shows alerts for CEM constituents (SO2, NOX, CO and Opacity) or other operating conditions such a steam rate or carbon feed rate, the facility staff checks and adjusts the necessary parameters.
How do Waste-to-Energy emissions standards compare to medical waste incinerators?
The emissions measurements from Waste-to-Energy facilities like Reworld™ Bristol demonstrate that these facilities comply with all federal limits for new or existing medical waste incinerators.
Is Reworld™ Bristol considered a critical facility for Eversource?
The permit Reworld™ Bristol is applying for does not classify it as a critical facility for Eversource or ISO New England.
