[31New methodology for hazardous waste classification using fuzzy set theory：Part I．Knowledge acquisition.pdfVIP

Available online at Journal of Hazardous Materials 154 (2008) 1040–1051 New methodology for hazardous waste classification using fuzzy set theory Part I. Knowledge acquisition N. Musee ∗, L. Lorenzen, C. Aldrich Centre for Process Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa Received 23 March 2007; received in revised form 6 October 2007; accepted 3 November 2007 Available online 13 November 2007 Abstract In the literature on hazardous waste classification, the criteria used are mostly based on physical properties, such as quantity (weight), form (solids, liquid, aqueous or gaseous), the type of processes generating them, or a set of predefined lists. Such classification criteria are inherently inadequate to account for the influence of toxic and hazard characteristics of the constituent chemicals in the wastes, as well as their exposure potency in multimedia environments, terrestrial mammals and other biota. Second, none of these algorithms in the literature has explicitly presented waste classification by examining the contribution of individual constituent components of the composite wastes. In this two-part paper, we propose a new automated algorithm for waste classification that takes into account physicochemical and toxicity effects of the constituent chemicals to humans and ecosystems, in addition, to the exposure potency and waste quantity. In part I, available data on the physicochemical and toxicity properties of individual chemicals in humans and ecosystems, their exposure potency in environmen