Chapter 19 Environmental Science

How can municipalities and businesses benefit by recycling?

Composting reduces landfill waste, enriches soil and helps it resist erosion, encourages soil biodiversity, makes for a healthier plants and more pleasing gardens, and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.

Third step in the recycling process

Consumer purchase of products made from recycled materials.

Describe the process of composting, and list two uses for compost.

Composting is the conversion of organic waste into mulch or humus through natural biological processes of decomposition. Banana peels, grass clippings.

Is surface in pounds make a permanent storage solution? Explain.

No, because the underlying layer can crack and leak waste, some harmful substances may evaporate or get blown into surrounding areas. Rainstorms can cause ways to overflow and contaminate nearby areas.

What does NIMBY stand for, and how does it relate to where landfills are located?

Not-In-My-Back-Yard. Landfills are rarely located in neighborhoods that are home to wealthy and educated people with the political clout to keep them out.

Why do you think companies wrap their products in so much packaging - and what can consumers do to reduce the amount of packaging companies use?

Packaging ensures that the contents are delivered to the consumer or business end-user in good-condition. Instead of generating more waste turn into a renewable object or product.

List the characteristics of hazardous waste.

Paints, batteries, oils, solvents, cleaning agents, lubricants, and pesticides. Two classes of chemicals that are considered hazardous waste: organic compounds and heavy metals.

_____ is the largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste.

Paper

In the United States, what does municipal solid waste mainly consist of?

Paper, 33%.

How in why do some companies and properly dispose of their hazard waste?

Some companies illegally dumping waste or ship their hazardous waste to developing nations. The costs to local governments forced to deal with illegal dumping are very high.

What can consumers do to convince companies to produce quality goods that last a long time, rather than using poorly made endurable goods?

Some components intentionally design goods that will quickly wear out or become outdated.

Sources and Characteristics of Low-Level Radioactive Waste

Sources: Hospitals, laboratories, uranium mines, contaminated clothing of a nuclear power plant workers. Characteristics: Less snow in danger, they're more common, and therefore may cause more danger than we know.

Sources and Characteristics of High-Level Radioactive Waste

Sources: Wastes from nuclear power plants. Characteristics: Emit large amounts of radiation. These wastes are very dangerous to handle and dispose of.

Every person in the United States generates about _______ of trash per year.

1,600 lbs

Explain how people can use the gas that is generated by landfills.

At Fresh Kills, collection wells pull landfill gas upward through a network of pipes by vacuum pressure. This tapped gas should soon provide enough energy for 25,000 homes.

Why are radioactive waste difficult to dispose of safely?

Because of the long half-life of many elements in radioactive waste.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Incinerators

Benefits: At incineration facilities, waste is generally sorted and metals removed. Metal-free waste gets chopped into small pieces so that it burns more easily. Incinerating waste reduces its weight by up to 75% and its volume by up to 90%. Drawbacks: When trash is burned, hazardous chemicals- including dioxins, heavy metals, and PCBs - can be created and released into the atmosphere.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Open Dumps

Benefits: Local authorities took on the task of consolidating trash into open dumps at specified locations to keep other areas clean. To decrease the volume of trash, these dumps would be burned from time to time. Drawbacks: Residents are repeatedly exposed to the harmful, toxic, and foul-smelling smoke from dump burning.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Sanitary Landfills

Benefits: Waste is partially decomposed by bacteria and compressed under its own weight to take up less space. Drawbacks: Liners can be punctured and leachate collection systems eventually cease to be maintained. Landfills are kept dry to reduce leachate, but the bacteria that break down material thrive in wet conditions.

First step in the recycling process

Collection and processing of recyclable materials by municipalities and businesses.

Has bottle bills been successful? Explain.

Data suggest that bottle bills increase recycling rates and that higher redemption amounts boost recycling rates further.

How do most industrialized nations today dispose of their wastes?

Dumping and burning.

Where does industrial waste come from?

Factories, farms, mines, and refineries, as well as materials from construction sites.

Why does reusing items make sense environmentally and economically?

Habits as simple as bringing your own coffee cup to coffee shops or bringing sturdy reusable cloth bags to the grocery store can, overtime, have substantial. Used items can be as functional as new ones and much cheaper.

Why is it so difficult to clean up hazardous waste sites?

Hazardous waste contamination can be expensive and can make residents and farm animals sick, and crops fail to thrive.

Where does wastewater come from?

Households, businesses, industries, or public facilities and drain or flush down our pipes.

Describe what happens during the second step of the recycling loop.

Magnetic pulleys, optical sensors, water currents, and air classifiers separate items by weight and size. MRFs clean the materials and shred them so that industries can use the reprocessed materials to manufacture new goods and materials.

Describe financial incentives used by some local and state governments to convince consumers to reduce waste.

Municipalities charge residents for home trash pickup according to the amount of trash they put out.

What effect has the widespread availability of plastic products had on the environment?

Plastic products wore out quickly and soon piled up in dumps. Since the 1970s, plastic products have accounted for a significant increase in solid waste.

Name one limit of recycling.

Recycling rates vary from one product or material to another. Recycling rates also very from state to state.

Why is it important for consumers to buy products made with recycled materials whenever possible?

Recycling reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and incinerators.

Describe technologies scientists have devised to mitigate emissions from incinerators.

Scrubbers chemically treat the gases produced in combustion to remove hazardous components and neutralize acidic gases, such as sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid, turning them into water and salt.

How can plastic grocery bags damage the environment?

They don't decompose or breakdown naturally, so they can build up into major sources of waste and litter.

Label the diagram of sanitary landfill using terms from the work bank.

Top Left: soil Top right: solid waste Middle left: gravel Middle right: plastic linear Bottom left: aquifer Bottom right: compacted impermeable linear

Second step in the recycling process

Use of recyclables by industry to manufacture new products.

__________ accounts for about 97% of the 7.6 billion tons of waste generated by U.S. industrial facilities every year.

Wastewater

What are the benefits of reducing the amount of waste we generate?

We lower the costs of disposal and recycling, we conserve resources, and produce less pollution.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the EPA sets standards by which states are to manage _________ ______.

hazardous wastes

The EPA classifies __________ waste that is neither hazardous nor municipal solid waste.

industrial

Pens, disposable cameras, and paper coffee cups are examples of __________ goods.

nondurable

In the 1970s, nondurable goods made with ________ became widely available.

plastic

The Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) established a program known as the _________ to clean up hazardous waste sites.

superfund

There are many steps people can take to reduce _____ in their lives every day. People can achieve ______ _________ by buying items that use less _________ and by buying _______, rather than __________ goods. They an also support the ban of certain ________, such as those used to make grocery bags, that are not _____________ and therefore with not breakdown naturally. Another way reduce waste is to return glass bottles to stores or collection facilities instead of throwing them away.

waste. source reduction. packaging. durable. nondurable. plastics. biodegradable.