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In this episode Neil and Ian discuss new exciting methods relating to asbestos disposal. These new methods if adopted will help stop asbestos having to go to landfill \\u2013 as spoken about by Dr Yvonne Waterman in at the Birmingham Contamination Expo \\u2013 Asbestos Denaturation

• Chemical eradication \\u2013 which leaves by products that can be re used in the building trades \\u2013 asbestos cement
• Thermal destruction \\u2013 heated to extremely high temperatures where the asbestos is totally destroyed and becomes inert
• Kinetic \\u2013 asbestos is placed in large industrial units and heavy balls are also placed in the unit and the kinetic energy from the rotation of the unit destroys the asbestos fibre
• Biological \\u2013 growth of fungus to eradicate asbestos

More info re all of this will be at the European Asbestos Forum held in November in Holland

https://www.europeanasbestosforum.org/

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Transcript:

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Hi! Welcome to Asbestos Knowledge Empire. My name is Neil Munro.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Hi! I\\u2019m Ian Stone. So today we\\u2019re talking about some exciting developments with regards to asbestos land fill.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 What happens to asbestos? So we went to a conference or an exhibition.\\xa0

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 It was the [unclear \\u2013 00:57]

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 That\\u2019s the word.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, in Birmingham.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Lots of different people from the industry, asbestos industry flood, everyone in and around that was there. Lots of different companies sort of exhibitions sharing sort of new techniques, best practice, innovations and there are also quite a lot of seminars.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yes, so, one of them we saw Dr. Yvonne Waterman she spoke about asbestos denaturation. So at the moment asbestos goes to the landfill, so we remove it, it gets bunked up or wrapped appropriately, gets taken off to other waste transfer station or straight to landfill.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, and get buried in the ground.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 And that\\u2019s the long short of it. Asbestos comes out of the ground, we wrapped it up, we stick it back in the ground.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 And this is creating not a very nice legacy that we are leaving for future generations really, all these harmful material. So we imported all asbestos that\\u2019s been used in this country, so we export it from different countries and create millions of tons of asbestos products and to this date all of it that\\u2019s been removed is going to land fill.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yes.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 And if you can imagine the tons and tons of these materials that of now just been buried in the ground and will continue for the future. However, there are some really exciting innovations that are coming in their infancy to market and we just want to share those. We pick this up from some experts at the conference at the exhibition and so we got to share that in this podcast today.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah. This is what Dr. Yvonne Waterman, I can\\u2019t remember her colleague\\u2019s name, but that\\u2019s what she spoke about. We just want to give you kind of our layman\\u2019s interpretation of what she spoke about.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, it is very layman.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 There is going to be more information on this.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Different removal techniques have been pioneered in there, so how many is it roughly?

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Four we\\u2019ve got.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 So if we start with the first one then. This was the quite exciting one for me which I highly appreciate was chemical eradication.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 I think this one sounds, I don\\u2019t know, sounds the most promising to me.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, that and the kinetic one, and even the final one.\\xa0

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 [unclear \\u2013 03:14]

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 This three definitely.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 So yeah, chemical eradication, and what she spoke about was basically putting asbestos cement products into a vat of acid, don\\u2019t know what type of acid it is.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, and the additional benefits, these are byproducts from industries. So they are using the acids that are byproducts of and waste products from other industries, and using them to break down the asbestos.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, and also what happens is once the asbestos is broken down that creates a byproduct of the original asbestos material so the Portland cement and the gypsum after basically what the chemical reaction does. It destroys the asbestos fibers in their entirety. So once it\\u2019s been through the acid there is no asbestos fiber essentially left, and you\\u2019re just left with materials that can then be re-pass and re put back into construction materials.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yup, so these are inert materials that are left and yes they\\u2019d be really useful for like roads.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 They were talking about making blocks out of them and basically reuse them as building materials.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Which if you think how much that\\u2019s going to save in landfill is just unbelievable, when we use these materials that\\u2019s just amazing.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 It was kind of complex.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 We\\u2019ve just\\u2026 we got that very, very\\u2026

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Dump it down to our very simplistic level.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Simple diagram explain it this cement sheet are loaded into big vats full of this acid and it\\u2019s like two step process that it go through and like Ian said you end up with this inert raw material that\\u2019s left at the end.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 So next one thermal destruction. I don\\u2019t know that she spoke about thermal in sense. It\\u2019s just I know that\\u2026 she did.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 It is basically heating the asbestos products at to, I think it goes above 1,500 \\xbaC, and basically it gets to a certain temperature where the asbestos just breaks down.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Again, the properties of the asbestos material while we\\u2019ve used it, it seizes to be like that, and basically you can\\u2019t use it in the same manner. The fibers don\\u2019t split and again it becomes inert. So again, kind of the byproduct of that you are left with an inert material that can be used and re-used. I know there\\u2019s been trials in America and stuff where they use if for roads and things. So again, that\\u2019s an option for the future.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, and I know for a fact that this has been used out in the States. Hasn\\u2019t been brought over here yet I think simple because of the cost. They haven\\u2019t been able to produce a cost effective way bringing that method over here. \\xa0

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 No. Next one, kinetic, now this sounds pretty cool. Basically using large machines, large units that will rotate and within that machine are big steel balls or balls made of some material placed in there and then as the machine rotates the kinetic energy destroys anything that\\u2019s put in there. So it\\u2019s just smash the smithereens and what you are left with again it has broken it down to a point of no return, the asbestos fibers are fully destroyed and the other materials that are put in there are fully destroyed.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 That\\u2019s crazy.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 It is. It\\u2019s a mad one.\\xa0

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 I don\\u2019t quite get the science behind that either. I don\\u2019t know how that works but.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 I want to see the machine, the size of the machine that they are talking about to do this.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah. On picture there, have drawn collider.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Exactly, yeah, like it is the next level science definitely.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 The next one which was interest me but this is probably the less effective one is in time scale because it is the biological. Now, apparently there is a biological work breaking down asbestos. Again, I think this is predominantly across on cement products where they are using fungus/fungi to literally just eat the material away. But I think the trouble with this one is it takes years to actually do.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, that\\u2019s just, can you imagine that? There are some mushrooms on certain asbestos.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, and there is no as he left.\\xa0 \\xa0

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Madness.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 How was that?

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, it was really great talk by Yvonne and she went into it in a hell lot of more data and we just flavored it now.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 The reason we do it is because we want to obviously highlight the facts but it is also to give a shout out to Yvonne because it was a really good talk and

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 She had took the European Asbestos Forum.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 That\\u2019s it which is taking place in November.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yeah, November in Holland. It is an annual conference that she puts on this a hell lot of speakers from around the world from asbestos and occupational health. The leading voices on it in the world are going to be attending.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Yes. If this type of stuff interest you this is kind of stuff that they are putting out there, they are pioneering. They just feeding this information out trying to change in the industry and essentially eradicate the asbestos risk.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Exactly. That\\u2019s why we wanted to share it. It\\u2019s a great talk I think that\\u2019s going to be an amazing forum. Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to make it because I\\u2019m away on holiday but I think hopefully Neil is going to be attending there to kind of get more in-depth knowledge and information. I mean that chat that we saw she was on for about 30 minutes wasn\\u2019t it so it is a real brief flavor. But yeah they are going to be doing a hell lot deeper than we have.

Neil:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 I hopefully. I\\u2019ll be up here to share some information with you guys.

Ian:\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 Hope you enjoy that, quite a random one, quite off the cuff. Remember asbestos first, not last.\\xa0 \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0