Chapter 21: Solid and Hazardous Waste

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Chapter 21 Solid and Hazardous Waste

• Aaron Gewecke, Will Gibson, Naba Zamir, Nick
  Beyer

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21-1 Wasting Resources

• The US produces 33 of the worlds solid waste
• Solid waste any unwanted or discarded material
  that is not a liquid or a gas
• 98.5 comes as a result of mining, oil and
  natural gas production, agriculture, sewage
  sludge, and industrial activities
• Remaining 1.5 is municipal solid waste (MSW)
  from homes or urban areas

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21-2 Producing Less Waste and Air Pollution

• 2 ways to deal with waste
• Economic Approach Burying, burning, shipping it
  off to be stored
• Waste and Pollution Prevention Method not using
  the resources in the first place and views waste
  as resources that should be recycled/reused

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21-1 Wasting Resources

• Hazardous Wastes Possible classifications
• Contain toxic, carcinogens, mutagens or
  teratogens. Ex pesticides
• Catches fire easily. Ex gasoline, paints
• Too reactive could explode or release fumes.
  Ex ammonia
• Can corrode metals. Ex drain cleaners
• 95 of our hazardous waste is not regulated
  because of this definition

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21-2 Producing Less Waste and Air Pollution

• Ways to reduce waste
• consume less
• redesign manufacturing processes to use less
  energy, waste, and pollution
• Develop products easy to reuse
• Design products to last longer
• Eliminate and reduce packaging
• Economic incentives like trash taxes

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21-3 Solutions Cleaner Production and Selling
Services Instead of Things

• Eco industrial Revolution
• Achieve industrial, economic, and environmental
  sustainability
• Bring about cleaner production/industrial ecology
• Industrial manufacturing process would be
• Closed systems
• Cyclical flow
• Waste become raw material
• Biomimicry - Mimic nature and interact in
  resource exchange webs

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21-3 Continued

• Economic benefits of biomimicry
• Reduce cost of controlling pollution
• Improve health and safety of workers
• Reduce legal liability
• Stimulate companies to produce environmentally
  friendly chemicals (subsidies, tax breaks, etc.)
• Example Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
  Company (3M)

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21-3 Cont.

• Service Flow Economy
• Lease/rent services the goods provide instead of
  purchasing
• Yields profit
• Minimum material use
• Lasts long
• Easy to maintain
• Recyclable

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21-4 Reuse

• Benefits
• Extends resource supplies, reduces energy waste,
  creates jobs, saves money (for companies)
• Problems
• Disposable plates, napkins, and tissues have
  taken the place of reusable items in todays
  society
• Examples of reusable items
• Lunch boxes, cloth shopping bags, recyclable
  pallets

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21-5 Recycling

• Two types of recycling
• Primary, or closed-loop recycling
• Secondary, or downcycling
• Recycling on Solid Waste
• Source separation approach
• Little air/water pollution
• Low startup costs/moderate operating costs
• Save energy
• More jobs
• Cleaner and valuable recycleables
• Educate public

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21-6 Recycling Paper and Plastics

• Recycling instead of making new paper
• Saves money, energy, reduces air/water pollution
• Plastics are much harder to recycle
• Occur in many different types
• Often are made of composites of plastics
• Contain chemicals that must be removed before
  recycling

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21-7 Detoxifying, Burning, Burying, and
Exporting Chemical Wastes

• Detoxifying Waste involves injecting waste with
  cyclodextrin to remove toxins
• Plasma detoxification is another option
• Includes decomposing organic material into ions
  and atoms

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21-7 Detoxifying, Burning, Burying, and
Exporting Chemical Wastes

• Burning Waste
• High cost
• Air pollution
• Beginning to be outlawed

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21-7 Detoxifying, Burning, Burying, and
Exporting Chemical Wastes

• Sanitary Landfill
• Spread out in thin layers
• Compacted
• Covered with layer of clay
• To deal with leachate (leakage)
• Any leakage pumped into the bottom of the
  landfill
• Stored in tanks
• Sent into regular sewage
• Other Greener Ideas
• Apply green water to landfills

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Exporting Waste

• Canada recycles 89 of the U.S.s exported waste
• Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste
• Requires consent from the recipient nation before
  waste is shipped there

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Disposal of Liquid Waste

• Disposal of Waste
• Deep underground wells
• surface impoundments
• Above ground storage facilities
• Built and reinforced to insure no damage is
  caused by storms
• Fans/filters to prevent release of toxic gases

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21-8 Lead, Mercury, Chlorine, and Dioxins

• Threat from lead
• Nervous system impairment
• Lowered IQ (4-7 points)
• Shortened attention span
• Hyperactivity
• Hearing damage
• Behavioral disorders
• Threat from mercury
• Neurotoxin harm brain and spinal cord
• Exposed to mercury in two ways
• Inhaling
• Eating contaminated fish
• Human-based sources of mercury
• Coal burning
• Waste incineration electric arc furnaces

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21-8 Lead, Mercury, Chlorine, and Dioxins

• Chlorine
• Used in
• Plastics (PVC)
• solvents
• Paper and pulp bleaching
• Produces many toxins
• Dioxins
• Family of 75 different chlorinated hydrocarbon
  compounds formed as by-products in chemical
  reactions involving chlorine and hydrocarbons
• Sources
• Wood-burning fireplaces
• Coal-fired power plants
• Metal smeling/refining facilities
• Wood pulp paper mills
• Sludge

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21-9 Hazardous Waste Regulation in the US

• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)-
• EPA must identify hazardous wastes
• Provides firms that store, treat and dispose of
  hazardous wastes
• Superfund Act (Comprehensive Environmental
  Response, Compensation, and Liability Act)
• Cleaning abandoned hazardous sites and affected
  groundwater
• Made possible through taxes on raw chemicals

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21-9

• Polluter pays principle
• EPA must find responsible parties (that polluted
  an area) and charge them for the cleanup
• Brownfields
• Abandoned industrial and commercial sites that
  are in most cases contaminated
• 450,000-650,000 sites in the US, attempts are
  being made to restore or change these sites so
  they dont affect groundwater

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21-10 Achieving A Low Waste Society

• Living free of pollution is considered a human
  right
• POPs treaty
• Treaty to control 12 persistent organic
  pollutants (POPS), also called the dirty dozen
• Precautionary principle
• Prevention of pollution and waste instead of
  cleaning it up