Environmentalist (2008) 28:289–296
DOI 10.1007/s10669-007-9142-4
Wastewater management in small- and medium-size
enterprises: case studies
Sohair I. Abou-Elela Æ Fayza A. Nasr Æ
Saber A. El-Shafai
Published online: 12 October 2007
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract Wastewater management in small and
medium-sized enterprises representing the chemical and
food industries was investigated. The results showed that
wastewater discharged from an ink-production factory was
highly contaminated with organic pollutants. Anaerobic
biological treatment followed by chemical coagulation using
ferric chloride aided with lime proved to be very effective
and produced an effluent that complied with national regu-
latory standard for wastewater discharge into public sewage
network. Also, management of wastewater from a confec-
tionery factory representing the food sector was carried out.
Aerobic biological treatment using plastic-packed trickling
filter proved to be an effective treatment method. However,
application of in-plant control measures alleviated the
requirement for the construction of a wastewater treatment
plant. The applied pollution prevention and cleaner pro-
duction measures involved good housekeeping, recovery of
spent chocolate, modification of floor cleaning and installa-
tion of suction devices for the removal of sugar and starch
powders. All improvement measures were documented by
cost/benefit analysis.
Keywords Biological treatment
Chemical industry

Chemical treatment
Food industry
In-plant control

Small- and medium-sized enterprises
Trickling
filter
Waste minimization
S. I. Abou-Elela
F. A. Nasr
S. A. El-Shafai (&)
Water Pollution Research Department, National Research
Centre, Cairo, Egypt
e-mail: saberabdelaziz@hotmail.com
1 Introduction
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an
important role in production, innovation and employ-
ment creation. SMEs are enterprises classified as having
fewer than 50 employees; make up 80–90% of all
industrial establishments in most countries (Behnsen et al.
2002). Although SMEs constitute the backbone of an
economy, they also account for the bulk of human
resources use and polluting activities of the environment.
In order to compete with larger enterprises in the market,
SMEs should perceive environment-oriented management,
regard as cost intensive that hampers innovation and
development. Competition for capital and new investment
opportunities is driving the environmental performance of
SMEs in the 21st century. Achieving this objective
requires financial performance and a commitment to
innovation and best practice. Also, sustainability-driven
companies achieve their business goals by integrating
economic, environmental and social growth opportunities
in a pro-active, cost-effective and responsible manner
today, so they will outpace their competitors and be
tomorrow’s winners.
In Egypt, SMEs represent a major portion of the
enterprises employing a workforce of fewer than 50
people are responsible for some 80% of all employment
in Egypt. Although individually their environmental
impact may not be great, their cumulative impact is
substantial. Therefore, integrating environmental man-
agement into their system becoming a business given and
is a requirement according to the national environmental
laws. To achieve such goals, the implementation of
pollution-prevention measures, cleaner production and
low-cost treatment technologies are required (Abou-Elela
2002).
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