Investigation of environmental impacts and waste management practices of Burdur Lake Basin marble quarries

Mining activities used in many sectors in our country and in the world are of great economic importance and play a vital role in the development and progress of countries. The open pit mining method is a mining method that covers the entire extraction of ores or minerals, and it is important that these processes are carried out economically, efficiently, and safely. Marble is intensively produced in many provinces in Turkey. Marble is a type of mineral that has an increasing area of use and has an important place in the general mining sector. With the increase in the number of marble quarries in Turkey, the amount of hazardous waste has also increased, which has made hazardous waste management an important issue. The disposal of hazardous waste may require special technologies, and the high costs of these technologies may lead to irregular disposal of hazardous waste. To prevent this situation and ensure the sustainability of hazardous waste management, reuse and recovery methods must be developed before the final disposal of hazardous waste. In this context, the workflow of marble quarries, process structure, and the sources and amounts of hazardous wastes generated at each process stage were determined, and the recovery and disposal methods of hazardous waste were examined. In addition, waste production factors (WFP) were calculated using waste declaration system data. Determining the WFP s, which define an acceptable range for the amount of waste produced per facility capacity, is very important in terms of improving waste management and providing control capability to the waste declaration system. These WFPs determined for facilities and authorized institutions can be used as a control mechanism in making necessary improvements regarding waste management in the facility. It was determined that WFP values for hazardous wastes generated in the quarries included in the study ranged between 1.16E-07 - 5.64E-05, and the highest WFP value belongs to waste code 15 01 06. t has been observed that waste generation largely depends on the quality of raw materials and processing efficiency. Sustainable waste management, which aims to ensure waste recycling by using the produced wastes, residues and by-products in the field of raw material production for different industries, comes to the fore.The status and problems of the hazardous waste management system were analyzed by interviewing marble quarry officials, and suggestions were presented to reduce waste and increase recovery rates. In this way, a pioneering study was carried out to ensure environmental and economic sustainability by making hazardous waste management more effective.