environmental issues and choices chapter 21 - solid and hazardous waste

secondary recycling

A process in which waste materials are converted into different products; for example, used tires can be shredded and turned into rubberized road surfacing.

materials recovery facilities (MRFs)

A recycling facility where items are sorted, cleaned, shredded, and prepared for reprocessing into new items

environmental justice

A social movement and field of study that focuses on equal enforcement of environmental laws and eliminating disparities in the exposure of environmental harms to different ethnic and socioeconomic groups within a society.

-Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. People across the world have limited to no access to healthy food, transportation, and good air/water quality. For example, people with lower incomes by cheaper foods so they at least have some food to eat, which is usually higher in calories and very unhealthy. Also, Haiti has trash everywhere, and the people do not have access to proper methods to properly dispose of the trash.

A. What is environmental justice? Describe some recent examples that the concept of environmental justice can be applied to.

hazardous (toxic) waste

Any solid, liquid, or containerized gas that can catch fire easily, is corrosive to skin tissue or metals, is unstable and can explode or release toxic fumes, or has harmful concentrations of one or more toxic materials that can leach out.

solid waste

Any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas.

-single-stream recycling refers to a system in which all paper fibers, plastics, metals, and other containers are mixed in a collection truck, instead of being sorted by the depositor into separate commodities and handled separately throughout the collection process -MRF is a specialized plant that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers -advantages - convenient for public, increases recycling rates, and decrease garbage collection costs -disadvantages - increase risk of contamination, manual sorting process at certain parts of the MRFs, increased cost to sort materials

B. What is single-stream recycling? What role do MRFs play? Describe three advantages and three disadvantages associated with this recycling approach.

-municipal solid waste - Solid materials discarded by homes and businesses in or near urban areas. -industrial solid waste - Waste from production of consumer goods, mining, agriculture and petroleum extraction and refining -hazardous waste - Any solid, liquid, or containerized gas that can catch fire easily, is corrosive to skin tissue or metals, is unstable and can explode or release toxic fumes, or has harmful concentrations of one or more toxic materials that can leach out.

Compare and contrast municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial solid waste, and hazardous (toxic) waste. Provide examples of each.

-Three ways my actions contribute to resource use, waste, and pollution include using single serve items, buying clothes and other items that I don't necessarily need, and throwing away leftovers. Each item takes time and resources to produce, which generates pollution from the production. All items, when discarded, end up in a landfill or other form of waste disposal, taking years to hundreds of years to break down. I can diminish these impacts by using reusable items, buying only necessities or limiting items purchased, and making sure to eat all leftovers/food.

D. Identify three ways in which your own actions contribute to resource use, waste, and pollution and for each, explain how it contributes to the generation of solid waste. Now describe three ways in which you could diminish these impacts. Note: you may not use "trash" as an answer!

electronic waste (e-waste)

Discarded electronic products such as computers, monitors, printers, DVD players, cell phones, and other devices. Heavy metals in these products mean that this waste may require treatment as hazardous waste.

sanitary landfills

Disposal sites for non-hazardous solid waste that is spread in layers and compacted to the smallest practical volume. The sites are typically designed with floors made of materials to treat seeping liquids and are covered by soil as the wastes are compacted and deposited into the landfill.

open dump

Fields or holes in the ground where garbage is deposited and sometimes covered with soil. They are rare in developed countries, but are widely used in many developing countries, especially to handle wastes from megacities.

-physical - concentrates, solidifies, or reduces the volume of the waste; evaporation, sedimentation, flotation, solidification, and filtration -chemical - include ion exchange, precipitation, oxidation and reduction, and neutralization -biological - landfarming (the waste is carefully mixed with surface soil on a suitable tract of land); Food or forage crops are not grown on the same site. Microbes can also be used for stabilizing hazardous wastes on previously contaminated sites; in that case the process is called bioremediation. -bioremediation - The use of living organisms to detoxify and restore polluted and degraded ecosystems -phytoremediation - A method employed to clean up a hazardous waste site that uses plants to absorb and accumulate toxic materials

Hazardous wastes can be detoxified using physical, chemical, and biological methods. Explain each of these. Define bioremediation and phytoremediation.

-plastics, paper/cardboard, glass, metal, and steel

Households and workplaces produce five major types of recyclable materials. What are they?

-In more-developed countries, MSW is buried in landfills or burned in incinerators. -In less developed countries, much of it ends up in open dumps

How is most MSW disposed of in less developed countries? More developed countries?

-not buy as many items -compost -use reusable items -donate items instead of tossing them

Identify four steps you can take to prevent and reduce the generation of solid waste.

-ignitability (flammability), corrosivity (something can rust or decompose), reactivity (explosive), and toxicity (poisonous) -organic compounds, non-degradable toxic heavy metals, highly radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants

List the four characteristics that make waste hazardous.

-advantages - produces energy and reduces waste -disadvantages - high operating costs, air pollution, and citizen opposition

MSW is also burned in waste-to-energy incinerators around the globe. What are the advantages and disadvantages of burning waste at these sites?

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

Management of non-hazardous and hazardous solid waste including landfills and storage tanks. Set minimal standards for all waste disposal facilities and for hazardous wastes.

waste management

Managing wastes to reduce their environmental harm without seriously trying to reduce the amount of waste produced.

primary (closed loop) recycling

Process in which materials are recycled into new products of the same type—turning used aluminum cans into new aluminum cans, for example.

waste reduction

Reducing the amount of waste produced; wastes that are produced are viewed as potential resources that can be reused, recycled, or composted.

municipal solid waste (MSW)

Solid materials discarded by homes and businesses in or near urban areas.

-advantages - reduces odor, low operating costs (getting more expensive tho), and rapidly constructed -disadvantages - leakage, air pollution, and Not in My Backyard (NIMBY)

The majority of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States is stored in sanitary landfills. What are the advantages and disadvantages of storing waste at these sites?

recycle

The process of making new products from materials that were used in another product.

composting

The process of mixing decaying leaves, manure and other nutritive matter to improve and fertilize soil.

-refuse - to not use something, which helps minimize waste -reduce - to use less of something -reuse - using a product over and over again in the same form; an example is collecting, washing, and refilling glass beverage bottles -recycle - The process of making new products from materials that were used in another product. -recycling is least preferred because it stills causes there to be trash and processes still have to be in effect to get rid of the item and turn it into something else

Waste reduction is based on the four Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Describe and provide an example of each. From an environmental perspective, why is recycling the least preferred of these options?

-Some advantages of recycling include the reduction of air and water pollution, the conservation of energy, and the protection of biodiversity -disadvantages of recycling include the loss of money as the result of aluminum recycling and how source separation is an inconvenience to people.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of recycling solid waste?

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) aka Superfund

aimed at cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous waste, as well as preventing contamination of future sites by assigning liability to parties involved

preconsumer (internal) waste

generated in a manufacturing process

National Priorities List

list of contaminated sites ranked on exposure; high ranking ones eligible for Superfund

leachate

polluted liquid produced by water passing through buried wastes in a landfill

refuse

to not use something, which helps minimize waste

reduce

to use less of something

reuse

using a product over and over again in the same form; an example is collecting, washing, and refilling glass beverage bottles

postconsumer (external) waste

waste generated by consumers' use of products.

waste-to-energy incinerators

when wastes are incinerated, they use the heat generated to boil water and make steam for heating water or space, or for producing electricity.

-deep-well disposal - method of disposal of hazardous liquid waste that involves pumping the waste deep into the ground below and completely isolated from all freshwater aquifers -surface impoundments - a natural depression or a human-made excavation that serves as a disposal facility that holds an accumulation of wastes -secure hazardous waste landfills - sites where liquid and solid hazardous wastes are placed in drums or other containers and buried in carefully designed and monitored landfills. -most common is landfills?

There are numerous ways to store hazardous wastes. Describe deep-well disposal, surface impoundments, and secure hazardous waste landfills. Which of these hazardous waste disposal methods is most common in the United States?

integrated waste management

Variety of strategies for both waste reduction and waste management designed to deal with the solid wastes we produce.

industrial waste

Waste from production of consumer goods, mining, agriculture and petroleum extraction and refining