ASBESTOS
WHAT IS ASBESTOS?
Asbestos is a name given to a number of naturally occurring fibrous
silicate minerals that have been mined for their useful properties
such as thermal insulation, chemical and thermal stability and high
tensile strength.
The most common types of asbestos are, Chrysotile, Amosite and
Crocidolite, Chrysotile being the most common type found in
buildings.
These materials were thought to have been in use for almost 4000
years and used for wicks in lamps and candles around 400 bc.
Marco polo was said to have visited the asbestos mines in
China and concluded that asbestos was in fact a stone, and
laid to rest the myth that asbestos was the hair of a woolly
lizard.
In 1899 the first patent was submitted for the manufacture of
asbestos sheets in Germany and in 1919 the standard
corrugated sheet was introduced in Australia.
In Europe- post war construction relied
heavily on asbestos –reaching an all time
high in 1973.
Thankfully in 1998 the council of Europe
adopted a report recommending all forms
of asbestos be banned; the most widely
used Chrysotile was finally prohibited
in 2005.
It is estimated that there are some 400 million tonnes of
asbestos waste in buildings and around 70 % of that will
require specialist treatment and or disposal shortly.
The current means of handling, transporting and disposing
of asbestos waste is costly and has always been a hit and
miss affair, legislation states that safety is paramount,
handling and transfer must be kept to a minimum, but in
practise the industry operates a loose interpretation and
asbestos can be treated as a general waste throughout
Presently this material is being stripped, double bagged,
marked as hazardous waste and transported to ever
decreasing authorised land fill sites, at any time during this
series of operations the environment is subject to invasion
by loosened fibres, this dumped material is often moved
mechanically and rolled, thus fracturing and exposing the
asbestos until such time as it becomes covered with
aggregate or soil.
The disposal of special waste such as asbestos is costly and
many back street cowboys operations are trading as collectors
charging bona fide contractual companies large sums of
money, these operators travel the country to find isolated
areas to fly tip mixed bags of builder’s rubbish.
This action leaves the local and county councils the burden to
tidy up this mess, a costly exercise which could also be
passed on to the rate payers.
Asbestos has never had good press but rightly so, it is one
product that is a continuing problem of “what can we do with it”
Our aim is to get this product some good press and prove to
industry it is not such a big deal to handle Asbestos.
We feel we can reduce the worry and cultivate a safer policy
and accountability, offering a service in research and analysis,
offer consultancy and identification, preparation and a service
on specific requirements to resolve an age old problem – but
not on the cheap.
In 2002 we recognised that there must be a way to
simplify current means and operations to dispose of asbestos
and other wastes, thus came the idea of encapsulation in
plastic containers utilising waste plastics, sand and Portland
cement to act as a binding agent and transferring fractured asbestos and
the binders through a simple process, ensuring total protection to all
operatives.
At the time our prototype machine was being developed our main concern
of the engineering and design team was the operation of the machine, and
its compliance with current asbestos legislation, if this machine did not meet
the requirements the design would require changing or abandoning.
The requirements of the legislation are the control of asbestos at work
regulations 2002 namely regulation 10(Prevention of exposure so far as is
reasonably practicable) and regulation 15 (Prevent, so far as reasonably
practicable, the spread of asbestos.)
Phase 1 Methodology
The first testing phase of the machine used a non asbestos
fibre cement board to check he crushing wheel on the machine,
this proved successful and led on to phase two of the testing
procedures
Phase two used actual asbestos cement sheets (10 to 15 %
asbestos content) this material was removed by trained
personnel from the actual site where the machine was tested
and fed through the machine
Regulation 10 and 15 CAWR was complied with and to prove
this air monitoring was carried out by and accredited laboratory.
The machine was set up within a small polythene enclosure,
operatives were issued with the correct respirators along with
type 5 coveralls with elasticated hood, ankle and cuffs and
disposable overshoes.
Ambient air samples were taken for 15 minutes, results
showed no contamination so the area did not require any
pre cleaning; once the ambient samples had been
analysed four further pumps were strategically positioned
and the machine was operated for approximately 15
minutes, this was all the time required for a substantial
amount of asbestos to be treated through the desk top
machine.
After the operation the pumps were left running for 30
minutes to test 240 litres of air ( 15 minutes operation and
15 minutes static ) the results of which concluded that an
airborne fibre concentration (fibres/ml of air did not
exceed 0.02f/ml(or 0.01f/ml projected for 480 litres of air
over 1 hour.
The machine proves that under normal operation the
clearance indicator is met (0.01f/ml for the duration of the
tests.
So, we have an innovative machine which could revolutionise
the asbestos waste industry and inhibit the constant use of
dumping loose asbestos products into landfill sites, our aim is
to find an end user for the product but legislation requires
change or exemption for us to move on.
We envisage asbestos as a renewable resource rather than a
waste product, and by crushing this material and mixing it with
course of fine aggregates with Portland cement to obtain wet
slurry we can encapsulate this mix in a recycled plastic
moulded container resulting in an encapsulated concrete block.
These blocks could have a multitude of
uses both on and offshore especially in
the renewable sector and here are just
a few examples….
1. Containers positioned to assist depleted groins to break wave power and reduce
sand and gravel erosion on beaches.
2. Protective gabions acting as retaining barriers against land slip.
3. Road side protective gabion, Stackable containers with fluorescent chevrons and
galvanised steel crash barriers.
4. Block units for beach and cliff defences where undercut and erosion of the cliff face has
occurred which can be stacked by telehandler from the beach or crane from above.
5. Material types features such as Rustic Brick Cotswold Stone and Welsh slate.
OFFSHORE
AND
RE-NEWABLES
6. Subsea cofferdam, showing recycled plastic containers -moulded profiles to fit
riser leg on offshore structures or wind turbines.
7. Hedge hogs, recycled plastic moulded profiles filled with asbestos slurry which can be
deposited on the sea bed around steel structures or wind turbines to retard erosion of sand
and shingle.
8. Our Mobile unit would be similar to the one shown but with a separate enclosed
vehicle containing the asbestos fracture unit, this unit will run in tandem with the
aggregate unit and mix at point to the rear of both vehicles into a recycled plastic
container of choice.
We believe that if we can change people’s perception, asbestos will no longer be a
dirty word, we can inhibit the constant use of dumping loose asbestos products into
ever decreasing land fill , we can assist in the recycling of thousands of tonnes of
plastics waste and we can train and employ possibly hundreds of people.
We believe that our encapsulated waste products in containerised block form can be
utilised to protect our coasts from erosion and sand drift by positioning strategically
along our beaches to shore up crumbling cliffs and forming reefs to contain the
southward drifts of sand and shingle
Outer harbour projections can utilise the block form units as back fill ballast between
the piling voids by the thousands of units as a cheap means of stabilising the
cofferdams prior to the concrete infill.
Consider the potential as barriers to retain soil banks along our motorways, easy to
transport to any site, can be handled by forklift of crane, a clean and efficient renewable
source and a replacement to expensive rock and aggregate.
We welcome your questions….