Contributor, The Textile Industry and the Environment, UNEP

1. W.ASTE AND EMISSION AUDITING
ANNEX E
WASTE
AND
EMISSION
AND
ENERGY
AUDITS
This technique aims to identify all important sources of emissions and wastes within a plant, and
in particular, to determine why they occur. In this way priority waste streams can be addressed in
the most cost-effective manner.
A good waste audit:
• defines sources, quantities and types of waste being generated;
• collates information on unit operations, raw materials, products and water usage and wastes;
• highlights process inefficiencies and areas of poor management;
• helps to set targets for waste reduction;
• permits the development of cost-effective waste management strategies;
• raises awareness in the workforce regarding benefits of waste reduction;
• increases knowledge of the process;
• helps to improve process efficiency.
The technique is essentially a mass-balance approach which reconciles materials coming into the sile
with products and wastes leaving it. II is parlicularly well adapted to studying processing operations
of a plant.
The wasle audit consists of a number of discrete Sleps as shown in the attached diagram. The preaudit
phase is particularly imponant in gaining both management and worker support for the audit.
Following the second phase, i,e. the mass balance, the synthesis phase is the key to taking action. Here
the obvious reduction measures arc idenliried and immedialely implemented. The segregation of waste
streams for separate trealment is examined, and ways of avoiding the remaining waste streams are studied.
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