Sludge - Hazardous Waste

Hazardous Waste

Sewage treatment plants receive all types of hazardous waste from hospitals, nursing homes, industry and households. Every household in the United States is authorized to discharge up to 220 pounds of hazardous waste per month to the sewage treatment plant legally without reporting it. This is the equivalent to a household disposing 2 gallons of mercury down the drain, per month. At the waste water treatment plant, most of this metal would be separated from the water and concentrated into sludge. Mercury is well documented to have profound detrimental effect to human health as MSDS sheets show. Due to the lax regulations, hazardous waste, once passed through a sewage treatment plant, is determined as non-hazardous sewage sludge.

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