At the present moment, there are being used several methods in the world for the incineration of hazardous waste. The basis of these methods is thermal liquidation of hazardous waste. There are known several technologies, but one of the most popular methods is the incineration of hazardous waste in rotary kilns. It is a well-tried method, which ensures the liquidation of hazardous waste in a safe way regarding the environment and humans. In 1998 the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development announced an international competition for the delivery of hazardous waste incineration facility. A decision was reached to purchase a facility from the Danish company "Chemcontrol" Ltd. as this facility uses rotary kiln technology. The facility is designed complying with the EU legislative requirements for the incineration of hazardous waste:

it is equipped with appropriate exhaust fume and sewage treatment facilities;

 

in order to ensure monitoring and control of emissions from the incinerator, there is installed a continuous emission monitoring system, which measures the concentration of carbon monoxide, oxygen, total organic carbon, chlorine hydrogen and sulphur dioxide;

 

the facility has a programmable controller, which automatically turns off the system in case of malfunctioning. Depending on the mistake level, it is possible to turn off only some part of the facility, for instance, waste charging system, or the entire facility if it is necessary.

The hazardous waste incinerator together with charging system occupies an area of 200 m2. To ensure maintenance of the facility there is necessary an area 3 meters in radius. The facility is placed on an area with solid deck, which is connected to the sewage system that can be closed in case of emergency. Incineration capacity is 300 kg/h, exploitation - 7000 h per year.

The facility will be tested in Denmark before the delivery- real hazardous waste, including pesticides will be tested to ensure its compliance with the requirements.

Several municipalities have shown interest about the installation of this facility on their territory. Final choice of the site for the installation of the facility will be done after EIA procedure.

In the present stage of the development the priority for the establishment of hazardous waste management system is the liquidation of pesticides collected at the temporal hazardous waste storage site in Gardene, as lasting waste storage is associated with additional costs and can create additional risk because packaging of the collected pesticides can corrode and become useless in some cases. After the facility is put into operation, non-liquid pesticides and similar hazardous waste will be incinerated during the first 18 months. Afterwards all waste generated on the territory of Latvia, for liquidation of which there is necessary high-temperature incineration, which involves cleaning of the resulting gases, will be incinerated in this incinerator. If free, it can also be used to incinerate other kinds of waste.