Chapter 21

The majority of recyclable wastes are ____.

preconsumer, and generated in the manufacturing process

The most desirable method of dealing with hazardous wastes is ____.

recycling and reusing hazardous waste

Bottle bills ____.

require a deposit for every bottle purchased, and refund the deposit when the bottle is returned

Taking a refillable coffee cup to the office and using it instead of throwaway cups is an example of ____.

reusing

Downcycling a material can also be described as ____.

secondary recycling

Plastic bags being recycled into a park bench is an example of ___.

secondary recycling

Roughly how much of the plastic waste in the United States is recycled?

10%

The glass recycling rate in the United States is about ___. ____.

33%

What is the most common method of hazardous waste storage in most countries of the world?

Land burial

Garbologists have discovered that trash in landfills is slow to decompose. Why is this?

Trash is compacted so tightly that sunlight, water, and air are unable to reach it.

Newspapers from 50 years ago may still be readable because trash can resist decomposition for centuries if it is not exposed to air, sunlight, water, and bacteria.

True

Which characteristic would not be used to define hazardous waste?

conductive

The products of composting can be used to supply plant nutrien

ct! True

One way to deal with the creation of solid wastes is to reduce the environmental impact without trying to reduce the amount of waste produced. This is called ____.

er waste management

Discarded packaging from snack foods are an example of ___

external waste

E-waste can be recycled to extract ____.

gold, rare earths, and other valuable metals

Discarded car batteries and dry-cell batteries are best described as ____ waste

hazardous

The largest contributor to industrial solid waste in the United States is the ____ industry.

mining

Waste that includes paper, food wastes, cans, bottles, yard waste, glass, wood, and similar items is called ____ waste.

municipal solid

Plastics are routinely recycled because they are composed of pure resins that can be extracted and used for other plastic products.

False

The incineration of hazardous wastes is quick, conserves space, and reduces waste volume but is not used because of the increased water pollution that results.

False

The use of rechargeable batteries is increasing the amount of toxic waste in municipal solid waste.

False

How does the amount of industrial solid waste compared to municipal solid waste generated in the United States?

Municipal waste account for less than 5% of all waste.

Solvents, pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins would be categorized as which type of hazardous waste?

Organic compounds

The ____ is used in the United States to regulate hazardous waste.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Integrated waste management involves using strategies for waste disposal and waste reductio

True

The Basel Convention bans the transfer of hazardous e-waste from more-developed countries to less-developed countries.

True

One method of biomimicry, in which the wastes produced by one manufacturer become the raw materials for another manufacturer, is called ____.

a resource exchange web

For recycling to be successful, three steps must be applied consistently. The three steps, in order of application, are ____.

collecting recyclables, converting recyclables, and buying/selling recyclables

One characteristic of waste-to-energy incineration is that it ____.

concentrates hazardous substances into ash

The life cycle of a product that begins when it is manufactured and ends when it is discarded as solid waste, typically in a landfill or as litter, is called ____.

cradle-to-grave

Filtration and distillation are ____ methods for detoxifying hazardous waste.

physical

What is one disadvantage of using plasma gasification to detoxify hazardous waste?

r Groundwater contamination

Reusing items over and over provides several advantages, but ____ is not one of them.

reducing bacterial infections

Burial or long-term storage of hazardous waste is the first priority for environmental scientists.

t! False