Environmental Science Chapter 23

2.2kg/4.5 lb of solid waste per day.

Each was refused acceptance in each port it went to. Eventually the Break of Dawn took its material back to New York for incineration. The Khian Sea illegally dumped part of its load on a beach in Haiti and the rest someplace in the ocean.

1. Packaging makes the product more attractive and therefore more likely to sell. 2. Packaging protects the item and keeps the item sanitary.

1. Dump it. 2. Bury it. 3. Burn it. 4. Compost it.

Open dumps are unsanitary and malodorous places in which disease-carrying vermin such as rats and flies proliferate. Methane gas is released which is flammable and a greenhouse gas.

1. Covering the compacted solid date with soil: This reduces the number of rats and vermin, lessens the danger of fires, and decreases the amount of odor. 2. Compacted clay and plastic sheets at the bottom of sanitary landfills: these layers prevent liquid waste (leachate) from seeping into the groundwater.

Methane gas can accumulate in sanitary landfills and may cause explosions.

Not In My Back Yard, people do not want waste disposal sites(or any other ugly r dangerous disposal or industrial site) near where they live.

Plastic.

Biodegradable plastics are supposed to be broken down by microorganisms in sanitary landfills, but preliminary evidence indicated that it is not working because the optimum conditions are not being melted and reused.

1. Old tires are a fire hazard and if they catch on fire they are difficult to put out. 2. Old tires collect rainwater which provides a good breeding place for mosquitoes.

Because of high moisture content.

Refuse-derived fuel incinerators.

Lime scrubbers are devices in incinerator towers in which a chemical spray neutralizes acidic gases.

Electrostatic precipitators give fly ash a positive electrical charge so that it adheres to negatively charged plated rather than going out the chimney.

Fly ash is the name given to ash which floats up through the chimney of an incinerator and it is usually the most toxic ash.

Composting converts yard waste, food scraps, sewage sludge and etc. into soil conditioners such as mulch and compost.

1. Reduce the amount of waste as much as possible. 2. Reuse products as much as possible. 3. Recycle materials as much as possible.

Do I really need this product, or do I merely want it?

Reuse of products requires more energy and produces more pollution than not having the product in the first place.

The concept used is called Product Stewardship.

Source reduction is an aspect of waste management in which products are designed and manufactured in ways that decrease not only the volume of solid waste but also the amount of hazardous materials in the solid waste that remains.

Dematerialization is the decrease in size and weight of a product as a result of technological improvements over time. Results in source reduction only if the new product is as durable as the one it replaced.

The consumer pays an extra5-10 cents for a bottled beverage, but when they return the empty (bottle) to the store, they get the money back.

1. Conserves our natural resources. 2. More environmentally benign. 3. It generates jobs.

Some food containers are composed of thin layers of metal foil, plastic, and paper which makes them difficult to separate.

Many older paper mills are not equipped to process waste paper.

Cullet.

Glassphalt is made of a mixture of colored glass bottles and road surface materials. It is used to pave some roads.

Sweaters, carpeting, automobile parts, tennis ball felt, polyester cloth, coat hangers, flower pots, foam insulation, toys, and plastic lumber.

Retread tires, playground equipment, trashcans, garden hoses, reef building on coastlines, and rubberized asphalt for pavement.

It is a way to reduce the wight and volume of municipal solid waste by charging households for each container of garbage.

The Hooker Chemical company dumped tons of toxic chemicals into the Love Canal. The company then put a layer of top soil over it and donated it to a local board of education which built a school and housing over it. Eventually the toxic chemicals rose to the surface causing health problems.

Dioxin is ingested. It settles onto plants which are eaten by animals which then humans eat or eaten directly by humans. They are stores in the fatty tissues. Passed to infants in breast milk.

1. Cancer (several types). 2. Damage reproductive, immune, and nervous system. 3. Delay fetal development. 4. Endometriosis. 5. Decrease in sperm production. 6. Linked to increased heart disease risk.

1. Liver and kidney damage. 2. Harm to skin, eyes, reproductive organs and gastrointestinal organs. 3. They are endocrine disruptors. 4. Intellectual impairments to infants in the womb. 5. They may also cause cancer.

1. High temperature incineration. 2. Extraction from solid using solvents. 3. Biodegradation using bacteria.

The main source of the radioactive materials have been the production of nuclear warheads and the dismantling of old nuclear warheads=Nuclear weapons manufactures.

Chemical safety programs that stress accident prevention by redesigning industrial processes to involve less toxic materials.

Most were originally in rural areas on the outskirts of cities, but with the growth of cities and their suburbs, many of the dumps are now surrounded by residential developments.

1. Current landowners. 2. Prior owners. 3. Anyone who has dumped waste on the site. 4. Anyone who had transported waste to the site.

1. Nerve gases. 2. Mustard gases. 3. Napalm. 4. Rocket fuel. 5. Pesticides for agriculture and gardening.

Bacteria that breakdown harmful chemicals to harmless substances are spread in the contaminated soil and encouraged to grow. It takes longer, but can be far cheaper.

Plants used to absorb toxic compounds from the soil and store them in their tissues are harvested and disposed of in toxic/hazardous waste landfills.

A plasma torch incinerator can reach temperatures of 10,000ºC while normal incinerators connote get above 2000ºC. At this temperature, the hazardous waste is almost completely turned into harmless gases.

They are more likely to gave hazardous waste facilities, sanitary landfills, sewage treatment plants, and incinerators in them.

The right of every citizen, regardless of age, race, gender, social class, or other factors, to adequate protection from environmental hazards.

The rights of the poor and disenfranchised versus the rights of the rich and powerful.

The commission decided that racial considerations had been a factor in site selection because the applicant had ruled out all perennial sites near predominantly white neighborhoods.

To avoid more stringent environmental standards which increase the cost disposing of the hazardous waste in their own country.

It restricts the transport of hazardous waste. It allows countries to export hazardous waste only with the prior consent of the importing country as well as countries that the waste passes through in transit. In 1995 it was modified to ban the export of any hazardous waste between industrial and developing countries.

The consolidated program to deal effectively with solid waste is known as Integrated Waste Management.

It is a concept which recognizes that individual happiness and quality of life are not necessarily linked to the accumulation of material goods. People who embrace voluntary simplicity recognize that a persons values and character define that individual more than how many thinks he or she owns.

Form \"tool libraries\" to share tools which reduces the need for every household to own its own tools. This can also be done with luggage, household appliances, cookbooks, and recreational equipment. Car sharing programs ave been started in many european countries it reduces the number of cars manufactures, and reduces the number of miles individuals drive.

Voluntary Simplicity 1. Individual happiness and quality of life are not necessarily linked to the accumulation of material goods. 2. A person's values and character define that individual more than how many things he or she owns. 3. Voluntary simplicity requires a change in behavior as people purchase and use fewer items than they might have formerly.

a. Solid waste is discarded solid materials produced through human activity. b. Municipal solid waste consists of solid materials discarded by homes, office buildings, real stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals, prisons, libraries, and other commercial and institutional facilities. c. Non-Municipal solid waste includes from agriculture, mining and industry.

a. Sanitary landfills have double layers at the bottom of high density plastic sheets, compacted clay, high density plastic sheets and compacted, which prevent liquid waste from seeping into groundwater. b. Sophisticated system to collect leachate from water passing through the landfill and gases that form during decomposition. c. Located far from bodies of water and densely populated areas. It also should take into account flooding, climate and precipitation.

a. Modern mass burn, waste-to-energy incinerators are large incinerators which collects bottom ash for hazardous waste disposal. Attached to them they have a boiler to heat water to make steam which can heat a building or generate electricity. It also gas a lime scrubber to remove acidic gases, electrostatic precipitators to remove fly ash for hazardous waste disposal.

Sanitary landfills Advantages: As compared to open dumps: -Reduces the number of rats and vermin as compared to open dumps. -Reduces problems associated with leachate. -Less odor -Decrease the chance of fire. -Can take in large amounts of waste at less cost than other methods. Disadvantages: -produces methane gas, which is explosive. -Potential contamination of surface water and groundwater is still present. -Many are filling up and closing without new ones opening. NIMBY. -After closure, they must be monitored for 30 years. Incineration Advantages: -Reduces waste volume by 90% -Produces heat which can be used to produce steam for warming buildings or generating electricity. -Also produces less carbon dioxide than equivalent power plants using fossil fuels. Disadvantages: -Air pollution, including toxic compounds, toxic metals, and greenhouse gases, acidic gases which lead to acid rain. -Large amounts of toxic ash is produced which must be disposed of. -Difficult to build new incinerators because people don't want them near them, \"NIMBY\". -Expensive pollution control devices must be added.

a. Source reduction is an aspect of waste management in which products are designed and manufactured in ways that decrease not only the volume of solid waste but also the amount of hazardous materials in the solid waste that remains. b. All three (reduce, reuse, recycle), reduce the demand for new products which reduces the solid waste in manufacturing. Also reuse and recycle keeps materials in use for longer periods of time rather than the materials being discarded at a high rate and contributing to the volume of solid waste. All three can be used by the manufacturing industry and people (consumer) who use the product.

a. All of these should be reduces which reduces the use of raw materials and waste production throughout. Paper a. Burning in waste-to-energy incinerators which can produce steam for heating buildings and generating electricity. b. Recycling reduces the need for cutting down trees to produce new paper. Plastic a. Plastic should both be reduced and incinerated. Both would reduce the amount of plastic in the environment and incineration of plastic can be used to produce steam for heating buildings and generating electricity. Glass a. Reuse of bottles will reuse the night to produce new glass and cut down on discarded glass. Cuts down the use of taw materials and energy use. b. Recycling glass will reduce the need to produce new glass and costs less to produce than new glass. It also can be used to create other products such as glassphalt which is a good road building material. Metals a. Metals can be recycled which is much cheaper and more energy efficient than mining and extraction metals from one (metal containing rock). Also reduces the use of raw materials. Food Waste and Yard Waste a. Composting of food and yard waste would help allocate the stress on sanitary landfills and produce soil conditioners such as mulch and compost.

a. They reduce the volume of waste by reducing the need for people to purchase new products which leads to a reduction in manufacturing waste and because products are in use for longer periods of time, items which would normally be discarded and adding to the amount of solid waste are kept in use and not disposed of.

a. For this to be truly recycling, it must be a closed loop, which these business's do not success in doing because these businesses do not reduce their use of new products (made from virgin materials) and also are not actually reducing their own waste production, they are profiting from it and at the same time buying new materials themselves, contributing to manufacturing waste.

a. For recycling to work, discarded materials must be put back into use. This means there has to be a valuable, useful product produced from the discarded material and it must show a profit in order to provide incentives for people to be involved in recycling. If no one use or buys recycled products, then recycling will have to stop. If there is no demand for the recycled product, it will simply have to be disposed of anyway.

a. Any discarded chemical (solid, liquid, or gas) that threatens human health or the environment.

a. Any of a family of mildly to extremely toxic chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds that are formed as by-products in certain industrial processes. They are produced during the combustion of chlorine compounds.

a. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) are a group of industrial chemicals composed of carbon hydrogen, and chlorine. They are clear or light yellow, oily liquids or waxy solids. The health problems they cause include: Kidney damage, harm to eyes, skin, reproductive organs, gastrointestinal tract. They are endocrine disrupters, they cause intellectual impairment, and they may also be carcinogenic.

a. Hazardous waste brought into developing countries is causing the same type of hazardous waste sites that industrialized nations are trying to avoid. Because these countries lack the funds knowledge to store and clean up these sites they will eventually poison their water supplies and harm their people.