A Permanent Way to Dispose of Asbestos is to Turn It Into Something Else

After asbestos is removed from a home, factory, or office building, it could be safely contained and properly disposed of at a landfill that can safely contain this toxic substance. But that only moves the asbestos from one place to another. If something goes wrong at the landfill or someone digs into it, these cancer-causing fibers could be released again into the air or water. What might be a way to permanently end the threat of asbestos waste?

There’s More Asbestos Waste Than Can Be Safely Landfilled

The proper disposal of asbestos is becoming more of an issue in Europe, according to the BBC. It’s estimated that about 200 million tons of asbestos were produced globally until about 2010 (but asbestos is still being mined, and products containing it continue to be sold).

About half of that asbestos may be in Europe, with six million tons in the United Kingdom and about 30 million tons in the US, either still in buildings or in landfills.

At least 230,000 tons of asbestos-containing waste go into landfills annually in England. More than 1.2 million tons of asbestos waste was landfilled in Australia from 2022 to 2023. By one estimate it may take at least another 25 years for all of Europe’s asbestos to end up in landfills.

Poland is an example of a country trying to properly dispose of asbestos-containing products because of their lack of capacity. Their national asbestos abatement program started in 2002 after an estimated two million tons of asbestos fibers were imported into the country and ended up in about 15.5 million tons of products.

Under Polish rules, all such waste is to be buried in landfills capable of handling hazardous waste. It’s wrapped in plastic foil, placed in special pits with strengthened sides, and topped with six feet of soil. The Polish government found they would need 84 such landfills to deal with their asbestos. By 2022, there were 59 asbestos landfills, and only 31 were available for use.

If Asbestos is Changed to Something Safe, It Need Not Be Landfilled

Instead of landfilling asbestos containing-products, a group of companies have developed ways to make them non-toxic (or “denaturing” asbestos) and safe to re-use in other products. Those ways include heat, microwaving it, or changing it with chemicals and encapsulating in another material (such as glass).

• In Rotterdam, the Netherlands, an industrial plant owned by Asbeter takes asbestos cement sheets, wets and shreds them. They create a slurry by milling and heating these sheets to 212 degrees and then exposing them to an alkaline solution. In chemistry, pH is a scale of how acid or base a substance is. Something that’s alkaline is more base and less acidic. The process turns asbestos fiber and the cement into a non-toxic material, calcium silicate hydrate, which can be used in concrete
• Thermal Recycling in Britain uses heat to physically and chemically change asbestos fibers to the point the end product isn’t asbestos. It’s called Calmag and can be used as cement to create paving stones. The company is permitted to treat 29,500 tons of asbestos annually
• A French company, Inertam, heats asbestos to high temperatures, where it becomes a glass-like material

Other companies are working on using fungi or lichen or “activated landfills” that use fungi, bacteria, and plants that could help break down or cover asbestos products to prevent fibers from becoming airborne.

What’s the Goal?

All this research, investment, and work is to prevent the fourth wave of asbestos exposure. The waves are:

• First: Those who worked with asbestos and created asbestos-containing products and family members who were exposed to fibers on workers’ clothes
• Second: Those who installed asbestos-containing products and family members who were exposed to fibers on workers’ clothes
• Third: People living or working in buildings with damaged products releasing asbestos fibers into the air
• Fourth: People who suffer environmental exposure around landfills with fibers in the air and water

Given these landfills are often located in areas where populations generally earn less money and their property is worth less than in other parts of countries, this potential future burden would be on those least able to afford it.