From my Gen Z understanding, asbestos was found out to be really toxic and damaging, but how did we purge it like we did lead in most products? I know with other hazardous waste we have to bury it for the foreseeable thousands of years, or it turns into a superfund site. What methods did we manly use to get rid of asbestos? I have also checked search, and search engines extensively to see similar queries but I have found none. So, I see this to be OC if that makes sense, or an original question.
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It is worth noting that asbestos is only really problematic to humans when you inhale it and it gets into your lungs. This means a solid sheet of asbestos or material the that is sealed away in a building is not going to cause any harm until you start breaking up boards or otherwise damaging it and causing dust.
So we haven’t actually gotten rid of asbestos entirely, we have just stopped producing and using new material – where asbestos is already in use, typically it will just be left in place until we have a reason to move it.
When we do need to move it is when we start having to be careful, but how careful will depend on what type of asbestos or actually is. A common use is asbestos was in the corrugated roof panels often used on garages and other small structures, and this stuff is actually pretty safe – a little care to not break it up or crumble it and cause dust and you can pop it in the back of a van and take it to your local waste/recycling centre who will dispose of it for you.
The trickier one is where it has been installed as a wooly insulation material, or incorporated into something that needs broken up like concrete – because dealing with this is almost impossible to do without creating dust, it needs to be dealt with by a specialist contractor – they will build a tent around the structure so that any dust is contained, then remove the material in sealed containers, generally also using various other dust control methods like respirators and clean suits for workers to protect them, damping down material to prevent airborne dust and so on.
In both cases disposal is essentially the same – because there is no real way to safely break it down and recycle it, into landfill it goes. They just make efforts to seal it up to prevent it leaking out, and things like landfilling it separately to the material that is going to be squashed and broken down by the bulldozers to limit the change of damage and leaks. Once buried safely it is of no real danger unless someone goes to the trouble of digging it up again.
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