Liquid waste streams such as wastewater treatment sludge (biosolids), coal combustion residuals (coal ash slurries), horizontal direction drilling (HDD) mud, and dredged sediments are challenging to manage for many reasons.  Regulatory restrictions on liquid waste disposal require free liquids to be absorbed, or solidified, prior to acceptance at landfill facilities.  The absorbent material that is selected can impact the landfill’s leachate management costs, the landfill’s longevity, and the water quality in groundwater and surface water in the vicinity of the landfill.  Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), one of the EPA’s few accepted absorbent materials, help landfills minimize leachate management costs, mitigate environmental risks from leachate leaks, and maximize landfill life.

Zappa-Stewart supplies large volumes of sodium polyacrylate superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) to many industrial and consumer sectors.  Hot/cold packs, the gel-filled packaging that accompanies perishable online grocery deliveries, is one specific SAP application that is experiencing explosive growth in demand.  With the increased demand for SAPs in the hot/cold pack market, we have also received an increasing volume of questions from customers and end users about ways that SAPs can be repurposed, rather than simply tossed in the garbage. It’s a great question and fortunately for millions of consumers across the globe, we have some answers.

Are superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) biodegradable? Will SAPs release liquids in a landfill? These questions are asked by many professionals in the environmental waste management industry when considering SAPs for a project. SAPs are used globally to solidify liquid waste streams safely and efficiently prior to final disposal or reuse. However as with any waste treatment reagent, it is important for environmental practitioners to understand how SAPs behave once they are disposed in a landfill or left on-site as a component of fill material. 

Which Are Better?

The decision to introduce waste solidification is a great step forward in the fight to control and mitigate the risk for hospital-acquired infection.  However, once the decision to solidify fluid wastes is made, the next concern is which packaging format to introduce self-dissolving packs or bottles.

The rapid increase in horizontal directional drilling (HDD) activities throughout North America has resulted in a higher demand for vacuum truck services to manage liquid waste streams. And while drilling contractors and pipeline maintenance crews often rely on the convenience and efficiency of hiring a vacuum truck to get liquid waste out of their way, the next step in the process, liquid waste solidification, is often not as efficient or cost effective as it could be. Low-end commodity absorbents, like those that are widely used in the waste treatment industry, present several challenges to environmental contractors. Fortunately, superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) offer a safe, efficient, and cost-effective solution to liquid waste solidification.

The Zap-Loc solidifier for medical and laboratory use greatly reduces the risk for spread of infection through the fast and efficient solidification of infected waste.  The Zap-Out line of solidifiers takes this one step further through the addition of a patented additive for treating the waste fluid during the solidification process.

When we think of life and death decision-making, police officers, firefighters and doctors often come to mind. However, nurses and other healthcare professionals also make life and death decisions on a daily basis, and at the same time, they repeatedly put their own health at risk through the potential spread of infection.  All this to improve the health of others they may never have met.

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are used in many industries to reduce the challenges and risks associated with managing liquid waste.  Waste solidification is the process utilized by environmental waste management professionals to render liquid waste into a solid state that can be more easily managed, transported, and disposed.  To learn more about the benefits of SAP technology, the Top 5 Reasons to Solidify with SAPs are provided below.

Safety is of the highest importance with most companies in any industry. And while sodium polyacrylate superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are extremely safe products, misconceptions or uncertainties about the safety of SAPs are often encountered in various SAP end-use markets.