Chapter 14

How much of the Superfund is currently funded by corporate taxes?

0%

Rank the following substances according to how much they contribute to municipal solid waste in the United States, with the largest on the top.

1. Paper 2. Food 3. Plastics 4. Metal 5. Wood

Match the waste disposal method to its example or description. 1. Ocean Dumping 2. Incinerating 3. Open Dumping 4. Waste Exporting

1. Receives about 25,000 metric tons of packaging per year 2. Reduces volume of waste and creates energy and air pollution 3. The most prevalent form of waste disposal in developing countries 4. Shipping waste to less-developed countries

Match the federal legislation with its regulatory function. 1. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 2. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act 3. Toxic Release Inventory

1. Requires testing and monitoring of hazardous substances 2. Rapid containment, cleanup, and remediation of abandoned waste sites; also known as Superfund 3. Requires industry to disclose the toxins they produce

Match the material with how it is handled at a sanitary landfill. 1. Methane. 2. Liquid Contaminents

1.Vented, flared, or collected and used as fuel 2.Collected in a drainage system and then managed

What is the recycling rates of single-use water bottles?

20%

Approximately how much aluminum is recycled in the United States?

50%

______solid waste is a combination of the household and commercial refuse that amounts to more than 250 million metric tons per year in the United States.

Blank 1: Municipal

Approximately half of the solid waste produced in the United States is ________waste, which is generally recycled into the _______on the farms where it is produced.

Blank 1: agricultural or farm Blank 2: soil, ground, earth, or fields

Of the many benefits linked to _______ development, urban revitalization has positive social and economic impacts.

Blank 1: brownfield

The Superfund was designed to provide money for immediate response to _____ events that pose imminent hazards without having the lengthy court processes that would delay cleanup.

Blank 1: emergency or disastrous

Ash from incinerators has high levels of dioxins, furans, and other_____ materials, which is a point of concern for the population surrounding the incinerator.

Blank 1: toxic, hazardous, poisonous, or dangerous

What is the trend of recycling in the United States over the past 20 years?

Both the percent of materials recycled and the overall tonnage have increased.

_____ processing can detoxify hazardous materials so they are no longer toxic, such as removing chlorine from PCBs.

Chemical

______ is the biological degradation or breakdown of organic matter under aerobic (oxygen-rich) conditions.

Composting

_____ is a major obstacle in plastics recycling, because a single PVC bottle mixed in with PET bottles can ruin the whole batch.

Contamination or Mixing

Where is e-waste shipped for recycling?

Countries with weak environmental regulations

Which of the following are benefits of using compost? (Mark all that apply.)

Improved crop yields Reduced soil erosion Soil enrichment

______ is a quick way to dispose of hazardous wastes by heating the waste to over 1,000οC for a sufficient period of time. When done incorrectly, it may lead to pollution.

Incineration

The amount of solid waste created per person per day has remained steady over the past 20 years in the United States, but the total amount of solid waste created each year has ______ over the same time frame.

Increased

Where does most e-waste go for (informal) recycling? (Choose all that apply.)

India Ghana

What is the purpose of a biogas digester?

It converts organic waste to gas that is used to generate heat and electricity.

The country of_______ is currently the best large-scale recycler; even large cities there have 10 categories of recyclables including used clothing.

Japan

From the list of waste disposal methods, choose the one by which most municipal waste in the United States is disposed?

Landfilling

the _____ that is produced in a landfill from decomposition can be collected and used as a fuel to generate electricity.

Methane

What is the status of international shipments of hazardous waste?

Most stopped 30 years ago, but it still occurs.

Why is the cost of waste disposal on the rise? (Mark all that apply.)

New landfills have strict regulations to protect public health, so the construction costs are higher. Cities must truck their garbage hundreds of miles to a disposal site.

How much have municipal recycling rates increased in the United States in the past 60 years?

Over 100%

What category of waste has lead in amount (tons) recycled for the past 60 years?

Paper

What is the largest component of municipal solid waste in the United States?

Paper

________ retrievable storage is technical and expensive and is usually reserved for the most toxic waste types such as radioactive wastes.

Permanent

plastics break down when exposed to ultraviolet radiation (light).

Photodegradable

______ treatments are one of the ways in which hazardous wastes can be disposed of. These treatments isolate or tie up substances in glass or concrete but still require storage.

Physical

Which of the following are examples of item reuse? (Mark all that apply.)

Purchasing used items at a thrift store Salvaging bricks from an old house Bringing a mug to work for daily coffee

Some of the strategies that can shrink the waste stream include ______. (Choose all that apply.)

R R R

The _____ is a revolving pool of funds that was designed to immediately respond to emergency situations and remediate abandoned or inactive polluted sites.

Superfund

Which of the following are examples of recycling?

Taking old tires and shredding them to make rubberized playground surfacing Taking old aluminum cans, melting them, and recasting them into new cans

Why did New York City reinstate recycling programs in the early 2000s?

They realized it was cheaper to recycle materials than to dispose of them in other ways.

True or false: The waste stream contains many valuable resources.

True

The ______ stream describes the steady flow of varied refuse and garbage that humans produce.

WAste

What "ingredients" are helpful in creating compost from your own organic waste? (Mark all that apply.)

Wood chips Vegetable waste Fallen leaves Lawn clippings

What lightweight metal is the easiest and most valuable to recycle, as the cost of mining and producing it from its raw state is very energy-intensive and expensive?

aluminum or aluminium

Sites on the NPL are those that ______.

are most in need of remediation

The incineration of hazardous waste is relatively quick and easy, yet ______.

be expensive

The United States produces about 11 ______ tons of solid waste each year.

billion

Plastics that are composed of or incorporate materials, such as cornstarch, that can be decomposed by microorganisms are termed ______.

biodegradable

Plants, bacteria, and fungi can be employed to treat hazardous waste in a process called ________

bioremediation

Of the many benefits linked to________ development, urban revitalization has positive social and economic impacts.

brownfield

Many municipalities ______ their solid waste, which creates large amounts of heat that power steam turbines to generate electricity.

burn

The biggest source(s) of toxic and hazardous waste in the United States are _____.

chemical and petroleum industries.

Neutralization and oxidation are two examples of how hazardous waste can be treated ______.

chemically

The benefits of producting and using _______ include better water retention, less erosion, and better crop yields, as well as saving landfill space.

compost

The biological degradation or breakdown of organic matter under aerobic conditions is called ______.

composting

Hazardous waste is any discarded material that contains substances known to be ______. (Choose all that apply.)

corrosive fatal to humans or lab animals in low doses toxic, carcinogenic, or mutagenic to humans or other life-forms

One of the issues with electronic waste is that much of the ______ is carried out in the developing world where workers have little or no health protection.

disposal and recycling

The recycling of plastics and metals saves a lot of ______ , which decreases our dependence on foreign oil supplies.

energy

True or false: International shipments of hazardous waste no longer occur.

fake News

Refuse-derived__________ incinerators have the majority of recyclable and nonburnable refuse removed before burning.

fuel

Historically, landfills were the cheap and easy way to deal with solid waste. Because of rising land prices and increasing costs of ______ to move the waste, this is no longer the case.

gas

The majority of hazardous waste is ______.

handled properly

The Superfund was established for NPL sites that ______.

have been orphaned

Any discarded material that is explosive, or contains explosive substances, is considered to be a(n) _______ wate

hazardous

Forty million metric tons of toxic and ______ wastes are released in the U.S. every year. The biggest culprits are the chemical and petroleum industries.

hazardous

RCRA, CERCLA, NPL, SARA, and TRI are all concerned with legislation that regulates _____ waste management.

hazardous or toxic

Some of the benefits of using brownfield sites include ______. (Choose all that apply.)

helping to rebuild urban areas reducing the destruction of open green space for development (sprawl)

Debates against incinerator cost-effectiveness include _________, higher fees charges to garbage haulers, and the concentration of toxic materials that results.

high initial construction costs

Permanent retrievable storage is extremely expensive and is usually reserved for ________ materials such as spent uranium fuel rods and dioxins.

highly toxic

Landfilling costs are dramatically reduced when waste is ______, reducing waste volume by 80 to 90 percent.

incinerated

The recycling rates ______ in areas that have deposits on beverage containers.

increase dramatically

The amount of e-waste is ______ rapidly every year, and therefore is adding to the amount of hazardous materials exposed to the environment.

increasing

Recycling reduces the stress on _______for disposal by removing that material from the waste stream.

landfills or incinerators

Buying products with ______ is one of the best ways to reduce the volume of trash produced.

less packagin

New plastic is often cheaper than recycling plastic, leading to ______ recycling rates.

low

Everything smaller than sofas and refrigerators are dumped into a giant furnace and burned in a _____ burn furnace.

mass

The combination of household and commercial refuse is termed ______.

municipal waste

Issues with wildlife, such as seabirds and turtles, eating plastic and other trash are the result of littering and ______dumping.

ocean

______ dumps are inexpensive but have many problems such as smell, fires, vermin, and people scavenging in this hazardous area.

open

the reycling of _____ means less trees cut down

paper

Physical treatments tie up hazardous wastes into substances such as glass, ceramics, or cement so that they cannot enter the environment; the waste also needs to be stored ______.

permanently

Ocean dumping results in widespread issues with sea life, such as seals being drowned in discarded nets and seabirds starving because their stomachs are filled with ________.

plastic

Brownfield sites are areas that have been, or have been suspected of being _______, and therefore are abandoned or underutilized.

polluted or contaminated

Hazardous waste is dangerous and expensive to deal with; therefore, the best solution is to not ________ in the first place

produce it

Recycling reduces the need for ______ to make a certain product, thereby reducing pressures on the areas where those materials are mined.

raw materials

Instead of building a large incinerator, the city of Philadelphia is investing in waste collection facilities that wilL _______ about 600 tons every day

recycle

One of the largest obstacles for the recovery rate of plastics is that many beverage bottles are designed to be used "on-the-go" and many do not make it to a _____ bin

recycle

It takes less energy to ______ than to make it new from raw materials. (Choose all that apply.)

recycle plastic make steel from scrap produce aluminum from scrap

______ is when a type of discarded material is reprocessed into a new product.

recyclign

Newspapers processed into insulation and steel cans turned into new construction materials are both examples of _____.

recycling

Among the "three Rs," _______ waste is the cheapest option for waste management because it saves the most energy, materials, and money.

reduce

Some of the ways to shrink the waste stream include recycling, reusing, and _______ the wastes we produce. (Hint: think of the three Rs.)

reduce

The best way to reduce hazardous waste is by ________.

reducing procution

Which of the following is the cheapest way to manage waste?

reducing waset

A successful way to eliminate hazardous waste is to _______ the waste and use it in another industry. This way the producer of the waste does not have to pay for disposal and the user gains raw material for little cost.

reuse

Salvaging construction materials from old buildings and then including them in new construction is an example of ______ materials.Q

reusign

Which of the following is the most energy efficient?

reusing

Although recycling glass bottles is more energy efficient than using virgin material, _______ is even more efficient because no energy is needed to melt down and reform the bottles.

reusing or reuse

The reprocessing of discarded materials into new, useful products is ______.

reycylign

a ______ landfill compacts and covers solid waste with dirt in order to decrease odors and discourage vermin populations.

sanitary

A(n) ______ landfill is the most popular solution for hazardous waste.

secure

A sanitary landfill is used for ______ waste.

solid

The Superfund was paid for by a tax levied on the producers of toxic and hazardous wastes, but because of the actions of Congress in 1995, ______ public dollars now completely pay for the cost of toxic waste cleanup.

tax

Some of the issues with open dumps include ______. (Choose all that apply.)

the spread of waste and pollution by wind and rain the amount of waste oil poured into them smell

Since composting is an aerobic process, what do you need to do to create compost from your own organic waste?

turn it over every week or so

A biogas digester on a dairy farm ______.

turns manure into fuel