Welding Waste In Vocational College: Should It Be Properly Managed?

This article outlines the study findings on solid waste composition and generation rates in six vocational college welding workshops in Malaysia. Our data indicated that vocational college welding waste was composed of scrap metal, metal dust, welding electrodes, and grinding disks which constituted 92.89, 3.64, 3.07 and 0.4 percent of the total welding waste, respectively. The total welding waste generation rates were varied from 59.57 to 117.63 kgw^-1 across the study workshops with the average of 83.42 kgw^-1. Per capita generation rates were varied from 0.60 to 1.90 kgw^-1st^-1 with the average of 1.23 kgw^-1st^-1. These data illustrate the potential environmental impact of welding waste due to its amount and hazardous nature of the constituents as some components were known to contain various metal oxides. These data are important in determining the dimensions of solid waste management in vocational educationalinstitutions.