Cost-effective, environmentally sound management of our wastes continues to be a volatile issue, the solution of which must integrate science, technology, individual responsibility, and policy. Waste management must address utilization, the preferred option, and disposal, the option of last resort.

The EERC's approach to waste management begins with understanding the complete and detailed physical, chemical, mineralogical, leaching, and biological character of the waste in question. This understanding is critical to successful utilization or environmentally friendly disposal and enables us to predict what is in a material, how much is there, how it may leach out, and how it will ultimately behave.

EERC groundwater and waste management research is directed toward understanding the occurrence, transport, and fate of contaminants that may move out of waste deposits into the surrounding environment, so that risks can be safely managed in the disposal setting. The understanding developed in waste management research is also valuable in the cleanup of contaminated sites.

Coal Ash
The Coal Ash Research Center, established in the early 1970s, develops environmentally friendly, commercially viable uses for coal ash from power plants.

Wastewater
Innovative strategies for wastewater treatment from industrial processes are reducing adverse environmental effects while simultaneously developing valuable by-products.

Biomass
The Centers for Renewable Energy and Biomass Utilization focus on developing the following technologies:

• Cofiring biomass with coal
• Using agricultural wastes and food-processing wastes to produce transportation fuels and chemical feedstocks