Environmental Science Chapter 14
-Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). Modified in 1984 by Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA). Aimed at rapid containment, cleanup, or remediation of abandoned toxic waste sites. SARA established a communitie's right to know and state emergency response plans that gives people access to info about what is present in their communities. Toxic Release Inventory - Requires 20,000 manufacturing facilities to report annually on releases of more than 300 toxic materials.
Be able to describe, in depth, the two pieces of federal legislation.
-Industrial Waste - 400 million metric tons. 60 million is hazardous/toxic Municipal Waste - 230 million metric tons. Two kg (4.6 lbs) per person / per day. yard trimmings 14%, food 14%, wood 6%, plastics 12%, metals 5%, glass 5%, paper and paperboard 28%, textiles others 12%
Know how the different categories of waste are distributed when considering municipal contributions
-50% is agriculture. 33% is mining related.
Know what industries make up the most waste?
-Produce Less Waste Avoid creating wastes in the first place Recycle Primary or closed loop - does not use virgin resources (use newspaper to make newspaper) Secondary or down cycling - high quality to low quality Reuse - does not convert high quality to low quality Convert to Less Hazardous Substances Physical Treatment (Isolation) Incineration Chemical Processing (Transformation) Bioremediation (Microorganisms) Store Permanently Retrievable Storage Can be inspected and periodically retrieved (must be guarded and monitored). Secure Landfills Modern, complex landfills with multiple liners and other impervious layers and monitoring systems. Consume less Get manufacturers to produce products that use less materials and less energy Get manufacturers to produce less waste in production including packaging Get manufacturers to produce long-lasting, fixable products that are not disposable Promote establishing a trash tax
What are all of the ways we can manage hazardous waste? Know the pros and cons of each.
-Recycling is the reprocessing of discarded materials into new, useful products. Potential Problems Market prices fluctuate wildly. Contamination - Most of 24 billion plastic soft drink bottles sold annually in the U.S. are PET, which can be melted and remanufactured into many items. But a single PVC bottle can ruin an entire truckload of PET if melted together.Benefits Saves money, raw materials, and land. Encourages individual responsibility. Reduces pressure on disposal systems. Japan recycles about half of all household and commercial wastes. Lowers demand for raw resources. Reduces energy consumption and air pollution. Composting Biological degradation of organic material under aerobic conditions. DE manufacturing Disassembly and recycling of obsolete consumer products. http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/new-cbs-evening-news-anchor-names-e-waste-story-among-his-favorites-more-enviro-stories-to-come-video.html Reuse Reusable glass container makes an average of 15 round-trips between factory and customer before it has to be recycled. (video 2 - trash traders) Producing Less Waste Excess packaging of food and consumer products is one of our greatest sources of unnecessary waste. Paper, plastic, glass, and metal packaging material make up 50% of domestic trash by volume. Increase use of photodegradable and biodegradable plastics.
What are all the ways we can shrink the waste stream? Know the pros and cons of each one
-EPA estimates 36,000 seriously contaminated sites in the U.S (maybe as many as 400,000). By 2004, 1,671 sites had been placed on the National Priority List for cleanup with Superfund financing. Superfund is a revolving pool designed to: Provide immediate response to emergency situations posing imminent hazards. Clean-up abandoned or inactive sites.Total costs for hazardous waste cleanup in the U.S. are estimated between $370 billion and $1.7 trillion. Polluter pays- originally, then in 1995 Congress agreed to let the tax expire. Now general revenues pay entire cost and industry cost is zero! Mostly found near old industrial facilities , mining sites, old dumps, etc (love canal video 3) Studies of Superfund sites reveal minorities tend to be over-represented in these neighborhoods. Brownfields - Contaminated properties that have been abandoned or are not being used up to potential because of pollution concerns. Up to one-third of all commercial industrial sites in urban core of many big cities fall into this category. In many cases, property owners complain that unreasonably high purity levels are demanded in remediation programs. EPA - dirt must be clean enough for children to play in, even eat, without risk
What are superfund and brownfield sites?
-Open, unregulated dumps are still the predominant method of waste disposal in developing countries. Most developed countries forbid open dumping. Estimated 200 million liters of motor oil are poured into the sewers or soak into the ground each year in the U.S. Historically, landfills have been a convenient, inexpensive waste-disposal option. Increasing land and shipping fees, and demanding construction and maintenance requirements are increasing costs. Suitable landfill sites are becoming scarce. Increasingly, communities are rejecting new landfills (NIMBY) Old landfills are quickly reaching capacity and closing. Shipping 100s of miles away (Fresh Kill Landfill in Staten Island closing) open ocean dumping 25,000 metric tons (55 million lbs) of packaging dumped at sea 50,000 northern fur seals become entangled in refuse and drown or starve. - fed reg stopped offshore sewage sludge disposal in 1992 but other waste still enters from beach or boats. exporting waste Although most industrialized nations have agreed to stop shipping hazardous and toxic waste to less-developed countries, the practice still continues. Garbage imperialism also operates in wealthier countries. export waste Indian reservations increasingly being approached to store waAlthough most industrialized nations have agreed to stop shipping hazardous and toxic waste to less-developed countries, the practice still continues. Garbage imperialism also operates in wealthier countries. Indian reservations increasingly being approached to store wastes on reservations. stes on reservations. incineration 16% Energy Recovery - Heat derived from incinerated refuse is a useful resource. Steam used for heating buildings or generating electricity.Refuse-Derived Fuel - Refuse is sorted to remove recyclable and unburnable materials (Higher energy content than raw trash). Mass Burn - Everything smaller than major furniture and appliances loaded into furnace (creates air pollution problems). Reduces disposal volume by 80-90%, but residual ash usually contains toxic material. Initial construction costs are usually between $100 and $300 million for a typical municipal facility. Tipping fees are often much higher than tipping fees at landfills. EPA has found alarmingly high toxin levels in incinerator ash. Concentrated in fly ash. Pollution control methods are not guaranteed to be 100% effective.
What are the different waste disposal methods? Know the pros and cons of each one.
-Federal Legislation Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) - 1976 (rickra) Comprehensive program requiring rigorous testing and management of toxic and hazardous substances. Cradle to grave accounting. However, the official definition does not include waste produced by radioactive material, households, mining, oil and gas drilling and a long list of others, therefore hazardous waste laws do not regulate 95% of the country's waste!
What is the definition of hazardous waste?
-Any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas. produces 11 billion tons of solid waste.
What is the definition of solid waste?
