Chapter 19 Review
can be broken down by biological processes
biodegradable
Identify three ways you can produce less waste.
buying less, recycling, composting
Describe how you can use your consumer buying power to reduce solid waste.
by buying products that have less packaging or that can be used more than once
Describe how a modern landfill works.
an area of land or an excavation where wastes are placed for permanent disposal, must contain the waste that is buried inside and keep it from causing problems with the environment. Waste inside a landfill must not come into contact with the soil and groundwater surrounding the landfill. Landfills are maintained by covering wastes each day with a layer of soil, plastic, or both
Which of the following would not reduce the amount of municipal solid waste going to landfills?
eliminating recycling programs
Surface impoundment includes which physical process
evaporation
List two benefits of composting.
keeps organic wastes out of landfills, provides nutrients to the soil
place to dispose of waste by burying it
landfill
water that contains dissolved chemicals from wastes that have been buried
leachate
Solid waste includes all of the following except
methane
rocks and minerals left over from excavation and processing
mining waste
any discarded solid material
solid waste
process used for disposing of wastes involving a pond with a sealed bottom
surface impoundment
Which regulation requires producers of hazardous wastes to document how their wastes are handled?
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
If an owner of a business illegally dumps hazardous waste, which law allows the EPA to sue the owner and force the owner to pay for the cleanup?
the Superfund Act
describe two ways in which hazardous waste is disposed
Deep-well injection involves deep-well disposal of hazardous waste. Deep-well injections pump hazardous wastes deep into the ground, where they are absorbed into a dry layer of rock below the level of groundwater, surface impoundment is a natural depression or a human-made excavation that serves as a disposal facility that holds an accumulation of wastes
Name two environmental problems caused by landfills.
Methane, and Leachate
requires producers of hazardous waste to keep records of how wastes are handled
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Describe how one law that governs hazardous waste
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires producers of hazardous waste to keep records of how their wastes are handled.
name two characteristics of hazardous waste
They may be solids, liquids, or gases. They often contain toxic, corrosive, or explosive materials.
Name one characteristic that makes a material biodegradable
can be broken down by biological processes
List the steps that an item must go through to be recycled.
collecting and sorting discarded materials by type taking the materials to a recycling facility cleaning the discarded materials so that they can be shredded or crushed reusing the shredded or crushed material to manufacture new products selling the new products to consumers
nutrient-rich material made from decomposed plant and animal materials
compost
Identify two types of solid waste.
garbage and sludge
any toxic, corrosive, or explosive waste
hazardous waste
facility for burning trash
incenerator
The ash produced when solid waste is incinerated is _____________ than the original solid waste.
more toxic
One disadvantage of biodegradable plastic is that
the plastic parts are reduced to smaller pieces but are not completely degraded
Which of the following is the most important function of a landfill?
to contain buried waste and prevent it from contaminating the environment
Name one advantage and one disadvantage to producing degradable plastic.
uses less fossil fuel, plastic parts are only reduced to smaller pieces, not eliminated