WASTE DISPOSAL

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WASTE DISPOSAL
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GET THE FACTS

• The US, with 5 of the worlds population,
  generates 33 of the worlds total waste.
• The major source of solid waste in the US comes
  from mining.
• The largest type of domestic solid waste in the
  US is paper.

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Nearly everything we do leaves behind some kind
of waste.  In fact, in 2006, U.S. residents,
businesses, and institutions produced more than
251 million tons of municipal solid waste, which
is approximately 4.5 pounds of waste per person
per day. 
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• Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)more commonly known
  as trash or garbageconsists of everyday items we
  use and then throw away, such as product
  packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing,
  bottles, food scraps, newspapers, appliances,
  paint, and batteries. This comes from our homes,
  schools, hospitals, and businesses.

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Municipal Solid Waste GenerationIn 2009,
Americans produced about 243 million tons of MSW,
or about 4.5 pounds of waste per person per day.
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All Wastes Are Not Equal

• Biodegradable Material- material that can be
  broken down by living things into simpler
  chemicals that can be consumed by living things.
• Examples newspapers, paper bags, cotton fibers,
  leather

• Nonbiodegradable Material- material made from
  synthetic materials that do not exist in nature.
• Examples polyester, nylon, and plastic.

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http//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18538484/ns/nightly_ne
ws/t/paper-or-plastic-whats-greener-choice/http
//www.youtube.com/watch?vRD07GkmM2fchttp//www.
ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_pl
astic.html
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How is waste disposed?

• 1. landfills - engineered areas where waste is
  placed into the land. Landfills usually have
  liner systems and other safeguards to prevent
  polluting the groundwater.

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Pros and Cons of Landfills

• Cons

• Pros

• Rising land prices
• Transportation costs to the landfill
• Expensive to run and monitor
• Suitable areas are limited.
• NIMBY (not in my backyard!)
• Undesirable emissions into the air
• Possible leaching into ground and water table.

• Waste is covered each day with dirt to help
  prevent insects and rodents.
• Liners and drainage systems control leaching
• Collection of methane can produce energy

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• Burying rubbish is not possible at Virginia Beach
  as it sits on a water table just 6-8 feet below
  the ground. A plan to convert the open trench
  into a mountain of trash and create a
  recreational park was devised.

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Mt Trashmore, Virginia Beach, VA
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2. Open Dumping

• Pros

• Cons

• Inexpensive
• Provides a source of income to the poor by
  providing recyclable products to sell

• Trash blows away in the wind
• Vermin and disease
• Leaching of toxic materials into the soil
• aesthetics

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3. Burning

• Pros

• Cons

• Heat can be used to provide energy
• Reduces impact on landfills
• Mass burning is inexpensive
• What is left is 10-20 of the original volume
• Burning waste at extremely high temperatures
  destroys chemical compounds and disease-causing
  bacteria

• Air pollution including lead, mercury, Nox,
  cadmium, SO2, HCl and dioxide
• Sorting out batteries, plastics, etc. is
  expensive
• Initial costs of incinerators are high
• No way of knowing toxic consequences

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In addition to burning solid waste to
generate electricity, we can recapture the
energy buried in landfills. Methane gas is
created as garbage decomposes. Burning methane
from landfills is a three-fer

• it eliminates a bubble of gas that could crack
  the clay cap that seals the top of the landfill
  (the cap keeps rainwater from mixing with the
  decaying solid waste and creating more "garbage
  juice" that could pollute creeks)
• it converts a gas that has strong global warming
  characteristics (methane) into a gas that has
  less impact (carbon dioxide)
• it generates "green" electricity that can be sold
  for a profit

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How can we help reduce all the refuse?

• Source reduction
• Recycle
• compost

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• EPA encourages practices that reduce the amount
  of waste needing to be disposed of, such as waste
  prevention, recycling, and composting.
• Source reduction, or waste prevention, is
  designing products to reduce the amount of waste
  that will later need to be thrown away and also
  to
• make the resulting
• waste less toxic.

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• Recycling - the recovery of useful
  
  materials, such as paper, glass,
  plastic,
• and metals, from the trash to use to
• make new products, reducing the
  
  amount of new raw materials needed.

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Recycling

• Pros

• Cons

• Turns waste into an inexpensive resource
• Reduces impact on landfills
• Reduces dependence on foreign oil
• Reduces air and water pollution
• Reduces need for raw material and the costs
  associated with it.

• Poor regulation
• Fluctuations in market price
• Not all products can really be recycled because
  stations can recycle all products

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• Composting - collecting organic waste, such as
  food scraps and yard trimmings, and storing it
  under conditions designed to help it break down
  naturally. This resulting compost can then be
  used as a natural
• fertilizer.

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Composting

• Pros

• Cons

• Creates nutrient-rich soil additive
• Aids in water retention
• Slows down soil erosion
• No major toxic issues

• Public reaction to odor, vermin and insects
• NIMBY

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• Currently, in the United States, 33.8 of SMW is
  recovered and recycled or composted, 11.9 is
  burned at combustion facilities, and the
  remaining 54.3 is disposed of in landfills.

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Hazardous Wastes

• Wastes that are toxic or highly corrosive or that
  explode easily.
• They may be solids, liquids, or gases
• Examples are dyes, solvents, PCB, toxic heavy
  metals (lead, mercury, cadmium), pesticides,
  radioactive wastes

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Hazardous Wastes

• Over 40 million tons of hazardous waste are
  produced in the United States each year.
• They are produced by large industrial facilities
  such as chemical manufacturers, electroplating
  companies, petroleum refineries, and by more
  common businesses such as dry cleaners, auto
  repair shops, hospitals, exterminators and photo
  processing centers.

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Love Canal

• In 1920 Hooker Chemical had turned an area in
  Niagara Falls into a municipal and chemical
  disposal site. In 1953 the site was filled and
  relatively modern methods were applied to cover
  it. A thick layer of impermeable red clay sealed
  the dump, preventing chemicals from leaking out
  of the landfill.A city near the dumpsite wanted
  to buy it for urban expansion. Despite the
  warnings of Hooker, the city eventually bought
  the site for 1 dollar. Hooker could not sell for
  more, because they did not want to earn money off
  a project so clearly unwise. The city began to
  dig to develop a sewer, damaging the red clay cap
  that covered the dumpsite below. Blocks of homes
  and a school were built and the neighborhood was
  named Love Canal.

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• Love Canal seemed like a regular neighborhood.
  The only thing that distinguished this
  neighborhood from others was the strange odors
  that often hung in the air and an unusual seepage
  noticed by inhabitants in their basements and
  yards.
• Children in the neighborhood often
• fell ill. Love Canal families
• regularly experienced
• miscarriages and birth defects.

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• When Love Canal was researched, over 130 pounds
  of the highly toxic carcinogenic TCDD, a form of
  dioxin, was discovered. The total of 20,000 tons
  of
• waste present in the landfill
• appeared to contain more
• than 248 different species
• of chemicals. The waste
• mainly consisted of
• pesticide residues and
• chemical weapons research refuse.

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• The chemicals had entered homes, sewers, yards
  and creeks and Gibbs decided it was time for the
  more than 900 families to be moved away from the
  location. Eventually President Carter provided
  funds to move all the families to a safer
  area.https//www.youtube.com/watch?vpJ_-b7ZAWyM

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Love Canal helped to get the Superfund Program
established

• Superfund protects the public and the environment
  by cleaning up the nations worst hazardous waste
  sites.
• The Superfund program responds to abandoned and
  active hazardous waste sites, and accidental oil
  and chemical releases.

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How to manage hazardous waste

• Produces less
• Resuse
• Convert into nonhazardous substance
• Incinerate
• Land disposal (deep-well injection)

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Hazardous Wastes in Your Homes

• House paint buy in small quantities
• pesticides reduce the use
• batteries look for recycling programs
• motor oil take it to a service station

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E-waste

• Electronic waste such as computers, cell phones
  and iPods
• It is the fastest growing solid waste problem