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Review
Chapter 21: Solid and Hazardous
Waste
WASTING RESOURCES
Solid waste: any unwanted or discarded
material we produce that is not a liquid or gas.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) garbage: produce
directly from homes.
Industrial solid waste: produced indirectly by
industries that supply people with goods and services.
WASTING RESOURCES
The United States produces about a third
of the worlds solid waste and buries more
than half of it in landfills.
About 98.5% is industrial solid waste.
The remaining 1.5% is MSW.
About 55% of U.S. MSW is dumped into landfills,
30% is recycled or composted, and 15% is burned
in incinerators.
Hazardous Waste
Hazardous (toxic) waste: threatens human
health or the environment because it is toxic,
chemically active, corrosive or flammable.
Mandated by Congress, haz wastes do NOT
include: radioactive waste, toxic materials
discarded by homes, mining waste, oil and gasdrilling waste, cement kiln dust and waste from
small businesses or factories that produce less
than 220 pounds of waste.
So, the haz waste laws do NOT regulate 95% of
the countrys waste!!!!
INTEGRATED WASTE
MANAGEMENT
Figure 22-5
RECYCLING
Primary (closed loop) recycling:
materials are turned into new products of
the same type.
Secondary recycling: materials are
converted into different products.
Used tires shredded and converted into
rubberized road surface.
Newspapers transformed into cellulose
insulation.
Trade-Offs
Incineration
Advantages
Reduces trash
volume
Less need
for landfills
Disadvantages
Expensive to build
Costs more than
short-distance
hauling to
landfills
Low water
pollution
Difficult to site
because of citizen
opposition
Concentrates
hazardous
substances
into ash for
burial or use
as landfill
cover
Sale of energy
reduces cost
Output approach
that encourages
waste production
Can compete
with recycling
for burnable
materials such
as newspaper
Trade-Offs
Sanitary Landfills
Advantages
No open burning
Little odor
Low groundwater
pollution if sited
properly
Can be built quickly
Low operating costs
Disadvantages
Noise and traffic
Dust
Air pollution from toxic
gases and volatile organic
compounds
Releases greenhouse
gases (methane and CO2)
unless they are collected
Groundwater contamination
Slow decomposition
of wastes
Discourages recycling,
reuse, and waste reduction
No shortage of landfill
space in many areas
Radioactive
contaminants
Organic
contaminants
Sunflower
Inorganic
metal contaminants
Poplar tree
Indian mustard
Willow tree
Landfill
Polluted
groundwater
in
Decontaminated
Soil
water out
Groundwater
Rhizofiltration
Roots of plants such as
sunflowers with dangling
roots on ponds or in greenhouses can absorb pollutants
such as radioactive strontium90 and cesium-137 and various
organic chemicals.
Phytostabilization
Plants such as willow
trees and poplars can
absorb chemicals and
keep them from
reaching groundwater
or nearby surface
water.
Polluted
leachate
Brake fern
Oil
spill
Phytodegradation
Plants such as poplars
can absorb toxic organic
chemicals and break
them down into less
harmful compounds
which they store or
release slowly into the air.
Soil
Groundwater
Phytoextraction
Roots of plants such as Indian
mustard and brake ferns can
absorb toxic metals such as
lead, arsenic, and others and
store them in their leaves.
Plants can then be recycled
or harvested and incinerated.
Superfund
Superfund
Procedure once the EPA identifies a site:
Groundwater around the site is tested for
contamination. If nothing is really found,
nothing more might be done.
If a threat is identified, they may a) dig a deep
trench and install a concrete containment dike
around the site and b) covering the site with
impervious layers of plastic and clay
The worst sites are put on a National Priorities
List and scheduled for total cleanup.
Superfund
To keep taxpayers from footing the bill, the EPA
finds the parties responsible, orders them to pay
for the entire cleanup, and suing them if they do
not.
When the EPA cannot find the responsible party,
it draws money out of the Superfund for cleanup.
Since 1981, about 1,900 sites have been placed
on the NPL. Until 2000, 750 have been cleaned
up at a cost of $300 billion.
Brownfields
Brownfields are abandoned industrial and
commercial sites that in most cases are
contaminated (e.g. factories, old landfills, gas
stations).
450,000 600,000 sites exist in the U.S., many
of them in economically stressed inner cities.
Many of these sites can be cleaned up and
reborn as parks, athletic fields and
neighborhood.