Waste and Recycling

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Waste and Recycling

• Approaches Through Technology

Bill Kuhl
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This presentation is one in a series of
presentations to create awareness of how
technology is being applied to address major
issues, I am not trying to push any political
agenda, only an awareness of the importance of
science.
Note the data used in this presentation was
mainly found through Internet resources,
hopefully it is fairly accurate. There are people
that will argue that recycling wastes more energy
than it saves. My point is that there are big
challenges in modern society and through
technology such challenges hopefully will be more
manageable problems in the future.
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Waste What are the Issues

• With increasing population and our pre-packaged
  lifestyle, there is an increasing amount of waste
  and fewer places to dispose of that waste.
• When not disposed of correctly waste can be
  hazardous to the environment and our health.
• Progress has been made in recycling many
  materials which saves room in landfills, causes
  less pollution, requires less energy, and saves
  on raw materials.
• New eco-friendly materials have been created
  that do not require petroleum and break down
  faster in landfills.
• There is much debate on whether we are running
  out of landfill space, not many people want to
  live near a landfill and in the past there have
  been issues of groundwater contamination from
  landfills.

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How Much Waste?

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency
  the United States produces approximately 220
  million tons of garbage each year.
• This averages out to about 4 pounds of garbage
  for each US citizen each day.
• This is equivalent to burying more than 82,000
  football fields six feet deep in compacted
  garbage.

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How Much Waste?
The Garbage Produced in the United States Each
Year Could Fill a Line of Garbage
Trucks Stretching from the Earth to the Moon
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Electronics Waste
Especially in electronics, technology changes so
fast that items often are discarded while still
operational just to stay compatible with current
technology.
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Electronics Waste

• There are now a billion computers in use
  worldwide -- over 200 million in the United
  States.
• In the United States the average life span of a
  computer is three to five years, 30 million
  become obsolete each year.
• Many of the computers end up as toxic waste
  allowed to degrade in landfills.

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Electronics Waste

Monitors, particularly the older cathode ray tube
monitors are one of the worst computer components
to put in the landfill. Each one contains 3 to 8
pounds of lead as well as mercury, cadmium, and
chromium which are hazardous to the environment.
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Using Technology to Help Manage Waste Issues
These are some of the ways I see the excessive
waste problem tackled through technology

• Recycling
• Alternative Materials
• Incineration
• Composting

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Recycling
About 95 Less Energy is Needed to Make Aluminum
from Recycled Sources than From Raw Materials
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Recycling
Recycling a Single Aluminum Can Saves Enough
Energy to
Run 100 Watt Light Bulb for Almost 4 Hours
Power a Television for 3 Hours
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Recycling
More Space Could be Saved in Landfills by
Recycling Paper than any Other Material
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Recycling
If Each Person Re-used 1 Grocery Sack for 1 Trip.
It Would Save 60,000 Trees
Think of How Many Trees if Everyone used
Re-useable Cloth Grocery Bags
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Recycling
Plastic Bags made from Recycled Plastic rather
than Raw Material Require 2/3 Less Energy and
Over 80 Less Water
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Recycling
Glass Containers Made from Recycled Glass
Containers uses About ½ the Energy than Making
from Raw Material.
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Alternatives to Petroleum-based Plastics Most
plastic products are based on plastic that is
petroleum-based. In addition to requiring a
dwindling resource that powers most
transportation, this type of plastic takes a very
long time to break down in landfills. There are
plastics known as bioplastics that are made
from more natural resins such as corn, wheat,
potatoes or algae. For food containers,
alternative eco-friendly materials have been
created from raw materials such as wood fiber,
starch, and limestone. Costs for the
eco-friendly materials has been slightly higher
but with the increasing cost for petroleum and
improvements in manufacturing technology for
alternative materials the cost difference should
disappear.
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Incineration
Waste incinerators can reduce the volume of waste
by over 80, pollution issues must be addressed
and the cost is rather high. As a benefit steam
heat and electricity can be produced.
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Composting
The natural process by which microorganisms break
complex organic matter into topsoil can occur
more quickly through composting. There must be
selection in type and ratio of waste material to
maintain a good nitrogen to carbon ratio.
Composting can be done on an individual basis or
on a larger scale.
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