SMT 232 Final Study Guide
The correct ranking of current material recycling rates, in their descending order (that is, from the largest to smallest material recycling rates) is:
-paper & paperboard, plastics, metal, glass
The best description of an environment externality is:
- a social costs that the producer does not have to pay
In a MRF an eddy current separator would be used to sort ___________.
- aluminum cans from ferrous cans
Materials and or products most often banned from US landfills are:
- lead acid batteries and whole tires
How can ferrous metals be separated from shredded MSW?
- with magnets
Recycling category of this plastic is used for thermal insulation, packing peanuts, video cassettes, egg cartons, disposable plates & cups:
-#6
Aluminum contributes to ____% toward the total MSW in 2010. Out of these ____% was generated from durable goods and _____% was generated from food & beverage containers.
-1.4, 38.4, 42.2
According to the USEPA, the estimated recycling rate for textiles is approximately ____%
-15%
Give examples to textile 'recycling' in the following categories:
-1: repurpose- new with no changes... using old tshirts as rags for cleaning -2: repurpose-new products with only physical changes... cutting jeans into shorts -3: re-use... clothes to goodwill, selling old prom dresses
_______ million tons of metal waste was generated and _____ million tons of metal waste were recycled in 2010.
-22, 8
Recycling rate of glass containers was ____% in 2010.
-33
Recycling rate of metals was _____% in 2010.
-35.1%
Currently, the per capita generation of MSW is approximately:
-4.4 pounds/person/day
Glass contributed to ____% of the total MSW generated in 2010.
-4.6
Approximately, how much is the annual amount of construction and demolition waste generated produced in the US according to the EPA (2014)?
-534 million tons
According to the USEPA, the estimated recycling rate for plastics is approximately ___%?
-8
_____% of steel waste was generated from durable goods.
-83.8
Metals contribute to ___% of the total MSW generated in 2010.
-9
Which country is a leader in extended producer responsibility?
-Germany
A tool which assess the potential environmental impacts of products, systems, or services at all stages is often referred to as:
-LCA
MSW is an acronym for:
-Municipal Solid Waste
This is the most valuable plastic resin:
-PET
Taken together, plastic bottles made of these two plastic (resin) types make up about 1.3% of the total MSW generated:
-PET and HDPE
Recycling ______ has environmental concerns because it is made using vinyl chloride monomer, which is a carcinogen; it's incinerationcan form dioxin; it can contain bisphenol A, which mimics hormones; it may also contain lead as a stabilizer and cadmium as a pigment.
-PVC
Plastics made of these two plastic resin types and used as containers are the plastics having the highest recycling rates.
-Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
The State of Garbage latest report compares the percent of recycling, composting, combustion, and landfilling in 7 regions of the US during 2008. In which region was the percent landfilling rate the highest?
-Rocky Mount
The 4 components of the US EPA's integrated waste management hierarchy, listed in descending order of preference (the most at the left):
-Source Reduction, recycling, combustion with energy recovery, landfilling
The part of RCRA that covers non-hazardous solid waste is:
-Subtitle D
_________ is the major US Federal law that governs the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.
-The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Which of the following statements are true?
-The markets for recyclable material sales flucuate
The State of Garbage latest report compares the percent of recycling, composting, combustion, and landfilling in 7 regions of the United States during 2008. In which region was the percent recycling rate the highest?
-West
What is EPR?
-a strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products
Identifying how much environmental burden should be associated with four different dairy products all produced from the same factory and raw materials is called:
-allocation
All but one of these is a problem in recycling textile fibers/polymers. Which one?
-blue tint to all recycled fibers
Which of the following characteristics describe unbleached kraft pulp?
-brown, strong
List 3 limits/barriers of aluminum recycling:
-collection -cleanliness -price paid
The first step in recycling is _______ which employs __________.
-collection, reverse logistics
What are barriers to recycle glass:
-color separation is required -glass cullet is heavy
Which of the following is not a common life cycle stage for a product.
-company start-up
Most recovered plastics (by weight) are from the product category of:
-containers and packaging
List 4 possible consequences of "re-use of textile" when shipped outside USA/EU
-contamination -landfills -pollution (burning, mosquito nets) -social concerns (business of local places)
List 4 barriers to textile recycling:
-contamination -public participation -dyes -government participation
List 4 reasons for the current 'sad' state of textile industry:
-cost driven -PR driven -systems not transparent -new technology research is limited
The selective dismantlement of a building in order to reuse or recycle its components is termed:
-deconstruction
List at least 4 advantages of plastics:
-easily molded -cheap -lightweight -durable
Most recovered paper in the US goes to:
-exports
Deconstruction of a home is more cost effective than demolition, largely because of the recovered value of structural elements.
-false
Name the 2 metals that contribute the highest amount towards MSW:
-ferrous metals -aluminum
Which of these uses air bubbles to remove ink contaminants from paper fibers?
-flotation
Most plastics are produced from _______, first made into _______ and then synthesized into _______.
-fossil oils, monomers, polymers
In this aspect of LCA, the functional unit, the system boundaries, and the data collections methods are defined
-goal and scope
In a MRF a zig-zag air classifiers would be used to sort __________.
-heavy particles from light particles
In this aspect of LCA, they identification of the future consequences of an action are preformed
-impact assessment
What are the influencing factors that determine the municipal waste generation and management globally?
-income,
In this aspect of LCA, all of the mass and energy flows across the system boundary are quantified
-inventory analysis
The Materials Recovery Facility, or MRF:
-is an operation that receives, separates, and prepares recyclable materials for end-user manufacturers -is a transfer station -has a residual waste stream that gets landfilled
List 4 advantages of using deconstruction to dismantle a building:
-less waste -tax benefits -recovered value of structural elements -heavy equipment not required
How much energy content do metals have?
-low
What are the two plastic recycling methods?
-mechanical -chemical
Which of the following has the lowest recycling rate?
-milk containers
One of the barriers to the recycling of textiles is:
-mixture of different polymers within a textile item
List 4 challenges of using deconstruction:
-more expensive -dangerous -takes longer -markets for resale
A household that sorts their recyclables into 3 bins (for example glass and plastic in one bin, aluminum and ferrous cans in another, and all paper types in a 3rd) for collection would be said to be using which separation strategy?
-multiple source separation
List 4 utilization areas that recycled aluminum is used for:
-new beverage cans -building & construction -transportation -electrical goods
Give one example of each of the following textile recycling methods:
-no chemical change: chop -chemical addition: dye/color change, flame retardant -minor chemical change: grafting -major chemical change: depolymerization
What are the two main European Union waste management directives?
-packaging directive: reduce packaging weight and volume; decrease hazardous substance content; develop designs to promote, recovery, reuse, and recycling -landfill directive: bans the land disposal of waste prior to treatment
An environmental protection agency tries to increase the number of pollinated flowers by introducing a new species of bees. The new bees propagate unabated and become a nuisance. This is an example of
-parts thinking
Common paper recycling operations are:
-pulping and flotation -washing and screening
Give 2 reasons why recycling metals are beneficial:
-re-melting results in significant energy cost savings -
Some landfilling alternatives:
-recycling -incineration -source reduction -composting
As discussed in class, market failure occurs when:
-recycling facilities are owned by local governments and are not run for profit -there are sharp changes price of recycled materials -manufacturers receive no price signal from the market concerning the recyclability of their products
Describe "soft stripping" deconstruction and give 2 examples:
-removing structures and elements that are easy to take down and have high value before demolition -hardwood floors and cabinets
The primary process function of the MRF is:
-separation
"Commons" refers to:
-shared resources like air and water
With __________ there are two separated categories of materials: recyclables and non-recyclables.
-single source separation
A MRF that onlu receives commingled paper (fiber) and containers (plastic, metal, glass) mixed together is which type of MRF?
-single stream??
List some factors that influence the design of a MRF
-size of equipment -OSHA -location (factory of mobile) -how many different types of recyclables -facility layout
Glass types
-sodaline: bottles, drinking glasses -crystal: high quality drinking glasses, vases -pyrex: lab glassware, kitchen glassware
_________ is one of the strategies used to avoid waste. It includes design, reuse of products and materials, longer product life, better packaging and composting of organic waste:
-source reduction
According to the 1987 Brundtland report "Our Common Future", __________ is defined as the "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"
-sustainability
What is the biggest problem to textile recycling?
-textiles are complicated
Waste is a material:
-that has no value -that is an inherent by-product of economic activity
In the article "MSW Recycling Issues" by Lave et al., the concept that "recycling is good only if environmental discharges and resources used to collect, sort, and recycle a material are less than the environmental discharges and resources needed to dispose of the material safely" is defined as:
-the economic-environmental criterion
This plastic type consists of long chain polymers that soften when heated and can be remolded and thus recycled. What type of plastic is this?
-thermoplastic
If a city announced that they earned a million dollars from recyclable sales, would this mean
-they neglected to explain how much they spent collecting material and operating the MRF
In "Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Issues" by Lave et al. the authors state that the goal(s) to recycle are:
-to increase environmental quality by lowering pollutant discharges -to increase sustainability of the economy
Children at a local elementary school are found to take more food than is needed to eat when an unlimited buffet is offered to them at their cafeteria. This is an example of ______.
-tragedy of the commons
_____________ uses bag opening, broken glass/fines removal from commingled stream, cleaning paper, and removal of materials from mixed MSW (container separation, food waste, fines removal) as size separator in MRF.
-trommel
A cradle to grave LCA considers everything from harvesting materials to the disposal of the finished goods.
-true
Net exports is the largest category for where recovered paper is the US goes.
-true
The manufacturing of textiles requires large amounts of water and electricity.
-true
Making belts from recycled bicycle tire tubes is an example of the process of converting recyclable materials into new products having greater functionality or value called _________.
-upcycling
Which of the following along with agitation in pulping is used to separate paper into fibers
-water
The EPA reports that in 2009 there were ________ operating MSW landfills in the US. The State of Garbage reports the average tipping fee in 2008 at surveyed landfills was ______.
1908, $44 per ton
According to the EPA's most recent report on MSW generation, recycling, and disposal in the US, the amount of MSW generated in the United States in the year 2010 was:
250 million tons
According to the EPA's most recent report on the MSW generation, recycling and disposal in the US, the overall MSW recycling rate (including composting) in 2010 was:
34%
In which region was the percent landfilling rate the highest?
Rocky Mountain
The largest material component by weight in MSW is:
paper and paperboard
According to the US EPA definition, reuse is a __________ activity.
source reduction
If virgin raw materials are priced lower than the recycled materials that can be substituted for the virgin materials, and the manufacture of the virgin materials generate external costs, then the best policy is:
tax the use of raw materials
