Standardization News

ASTM International’s committee on waste management (D34) is seeking volunteers to help create five new standards related to waste treatment, recovery, and reuse (subcommittee D34.03). 

Classification for Degradable Materials and Products (WK56175)
This guide will help classify products based on how they degrade.  It will support greater consistency and clarity for people who buy, sell, and use materials and products that claim to have certain degradation characteristics.  In particular, the standard could help purchasing managers, waste-management operators, sustainability managers, and product managers.

Guide for Operating an Anaerobic Digestion Facility (WK56176)
Anaerobic digestion of organic waste, an alternative to composting, is gaining popularity for a number of reasons (e.gs., energy from biogas, avoiding fugitive leachate, improving life cycle analysis reporting). With more anaerobic digesters entering the market, there is a need for standards to measure degradation within these digesters. This new guide could help maximize safety and performance of digesters while minimizing environmental impact.  People who design and operate digestion facilities – both in waste management and energy industries – will find the standard useful, as will compost facility operators who want to transition from aerobic to anaerobic operations.

Practice for Estimating the Environmental Persistence of Materials Using First Order Rate Constant Calculations (WK56177)
Experts working in waste management, environmental sciences, and chemical production need to know how long a product will remain intact and whether it will accumulate over time.  This standard will help them estimate how long a material will remain in a specific environment, allowing them to better understand its long-term impact on the environment.  Specifically, the standard provides a way to calculate first-order rate constant and then apply that calculation to estimate the material’s persistence. 

Guide for Materials Intended for Discard into Municipal Waste Water Treatment Facilities (WK57010)
Some products are frequently discarded into wastewater systems.  The guide will help determine whether a material will have a neutral, positive, or negative impact on wastewater systems.  This will help companies better understand how their products degrade and choose environmentally-friendly materials.

Guide for Materials Intended for Discard into Municipal Landfills (WK57011)
Some products are frequently discarded into municipal landfills.  The guide will help determine whether a material will have a neutral, positive, or negative impact on landfills.  This will help companies better understand how their products degrade and choose environmentally-friendly materials.  In addition, the standard could help waste operators determine what kinds of materials they allow to be discarded into their landfill systems.  

Committee on Waste Management (D34) Next Meeting: April 24-27, 2017, Las Vegas
Technical Contact: Teresa Clark, ENSO Plastics, Mesa, Ariz., tel +1.623.242.2313  
ASTM Staff Contact: Brian Milewski, tel +1.610.832.9619