Solid and Hazardous Waste

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Solid and Hazardous Waste
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Question of the day

• From when you woke up till Eco class, make a list
  of all the things you have thrown away?
• Do you think about the packaging of a product
  before you buy it? (How about those
  Starbucks/Wawa cups?)
• How often do you reuse objects, recycle objects?

3
Question of the day

• List the top five materials that you think get
  thrown away into landfills.
• What is the difference between a sanitary
  landfill and an incinerator?

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Overview of Chapter

• Solid Waste
• Types of Solid Waste
• Waste Prevention
• Reducing the Amount of Waste
• Reusing Products
• Recycling Materials
• Hazardous Waste
• Types of Hazardous Waste
• Management of Hazardous Waste

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Solid Waste

• US generates more solid waste per capita than any
  other country
• 1.98 kg per person per day (lets just say 2 kg,
  books says 2.1kg)
• Types of Solid Waste
• Municipal solid waste
• Solid material discarded by homes, office
  buildings, retail stores, schools, hospitals,
  prisons, etc
• Relatively small portion of solid waste produced
• Non-municipal solid waste
• Solid waste generated by industry, agriculture,
  and mining

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Zero waste family

• http//nomoredirtylooks.com/tag/zero-waste-family/
  

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Composition of Municipal Solid Waste
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Disposal of Solid Waste

• Three methods
• Sanitary Landfills
• Incineration
• Recycling

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Sanitary Landfill

• Compacting and burying waste under a shallow
  layer of soil
• Most common method of disposal

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Chester County Solid Waste Authority

• http//www.chestercountyswa.org/

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Sanitary Landfill

• Problems
• Methane gas production by microorganisms
• Contamination of surface water ground water by
  leachate
• Not a long-term remedy
• Few new facilities being opened
• Closing a full landfill is very expensive

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Q of day

• What company picks up your trash?
• Where does your trash go? Be specific.
• What are some problems with landfills?

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Sanitary Landfill

• Special Problem of Plastic
• Much of plastic is from packaging
• Chemically stable and do not readily break down
  and decompose

• Special Problem of Tires
• Cannot be melted and reused for tires
• Made from materials that cannot be recycled
• Can be incinerated or shredded

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Tires

• http//tire-conversion.com/index.php/why-we-recycl
  e/general-information
• Household Hazardous Waste Days
• Chester County, PA http//www.chestercountyswa.org
  /pdf/LHSchedule.pdf
• Delaware County, PA http//www.co.delaware.pa.us/r
  ecycle/hhw.html

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Incineration

• Volume of solid waste reduced by 90
• Produces heat that can make steam to generate
  electricity
• Produce less carbon emissions than fossil fuel
  power plants (right)

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Incineration

• Types of Incinerators
• Mass burn (below)
• Modular
• Refuse-derived

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Incinerator

• Problems Associated with Incineration
• Yields air pollution
• Produce large amounts of ash
• Site selection often controversial

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Chester, PA Trash to Steam Plant

• http//www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/07/06/news
  /doc4a51b600e9972546641127.txt?viewmodefullstory
• http//www.covantaenergy.com/en/list-of-facilities
  /videos.aspx

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Composting

• Includes
• Food scraps
• Sewage sludge
• Agricultural manure
• Yard waste
• Reduces yard waste in landfills
• Can be sold or distributed to community

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How to yard compost?

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vZqWTYB_XLwEfeature
  related

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Period 5 Q of day

• What are the top 3 things that are thrown away?
• What is the 4th?
• What can we/you do to prevent so much of the 4th
  going to landfills?

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Dive!

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v0HlFP-PMW6E
• Interesting concept

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Waste Prevention

• Three Goals
• (1) Reduce the amount of waste
• (2) Reuse products
• (3) Recycle materials

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Reducing Waste

• Purchase products with less packaging

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Reducing Waste

• Source reduction
• Products are designed and manufactured in ways
  that decrease the volume of solid waste in the
  waste stream
• Pollution Prevention Act (1990)
• Dematerialization
• Progressive decrease in the size and weight of a
  product as a result of technological improvements

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Reusing Products

• Refilling glass beverage bottles
• Heavier glass that costs more
• Japan recycles almost all bottles
• Reused 20 times

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Recycling Materials

• Every ton of recycled paper saves
• 17 trees
• 7000 gallons of water
• 4100 kwatt-hrs of energy
• 3 cubic yards of landfill space
• Recycle
• Glass bottles, newspapers, steel cans, plastic
  bottles, cardboard, office paper

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Recycling

• Recycling Paper
• US recycles 50
• Many developed countries are higher
• Recycling Glass
• US recycles 25
• Costs less than new glass
• Can be used to make glassphalt (right)

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Recycling

• Recycling Aluminum
• Making new can from recycled one costs far less
  than making a brand new one

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Recycling

• Recycling Metals other than Aluminum
• Lead, gold, iron, steel, silver and zinc
• Metallic composition is often unknown
• Makes recycling difficult
• Recycling Plastic
• Less than 20 is recycled
• Less expensive to make from raw materials

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Recycling

• Recycling Tires
• Few products are made from old tires
• Playground equipment
• Trashcans
• Garden hose
• Carpet
• Roofing materials
• 36 of tires are currently recycled to make other
  products

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Upcycle Project-. Create! Creativity!

• Terracycle
• Freecycle
• http//www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-farm-magazine
  -and-books/urban-farm-exclusives/upcycle.aspx?cm_m
  mcVanity-_-upcycle-_-na-_-van

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Recycling research continued

• Where can you recycle materials like?
• Computers

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Single Stream recycling

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vJ_RWqgXcP_k

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Cell phone recycling

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vsCU4o_Ce9PMNR1fe
  aturefvwp
• The After Life of Cell Phones
• http//www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Cellp
  hone-t.html?pagewantedall_r0
• Terracycle- video and website

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Integrated Waste Management
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Question of the day 3

• 1. What qualifies as hazardous waste?
• 2. Why do you think it needs separate disposal?
• What is Superfund? (just guess)

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Hazardous Waste

• Any discarded chemical that threatens human
  health or the environment
• Reactive, corrosive, explosive or toxic chemicals
• Types of Hazardous Waste
• Dioxins
• PCBs
• Radioactive waste

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Management of Hazardous Waste

• Chemical accidents
• National Response Center notified
• Typically involves oil, gasoline or other
  petroleum spill
• Current Management Policies
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976,
  1984)
• Comprehensive Environmental Response,
  Compensation, and Liability Act (1980)

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Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976,
1984)

• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
  gives EPA the authority to control hazardous
  waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes
  the generation, transportation, treatment,
  storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA
  also set forth a framework for the management of
  non-hazardous solid wastes. The 1986 amendments
  to RCRA enabled EPA to address environmental
  problems that could result from underground tanks
  storing petroleum and other hazardous substances.
• HSWA - the Federal Hazardous and Solid Waste
  Amendments - are the 1984 amendments to RCRA that
  focused on waste minimization and phasing out
  land disposal of hazardous waste as well as
  corrective action for releases. Some of the other
  mandates of this law include increased
  enforcement authority for EPA, more stringent
  hazardous waste management standards, and a
  comprehensive underground storage tank program.

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Management of Hazardous Waste

• Cleaning up existing hazardous waste superfund
  program
• 400,000 waste sites
• Leaking chemical storage tanks and drums (right)
• Pesticides dumps
• Piles of mining wastes
• Must be cleaned up

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Love Canal

• First site of its kind. Sparked CERCLA.
• (aka Superfund)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvKIM9sE0t6Isafety_
  modetruepersist_safety_mode1safeactive
• http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c
  /Hooker_Electrochemical_Quit_Claim_Deed_to_Board_o
  f_Education.pdf

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Case-In-Point Hanford Nuclear Reservation
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Management of Hazardous Waste

• Superfund National Priorities List
• 2006 1558 sites on the list
• States with the greatest number of sites
• New Jersey (115)
• California (93)
• Pennsylvania (93)
• New York (86)
• Michigan (65)

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Superfund What is it?

• Superfund is the name given to the environmental
  program established to address abandoned
  hazardous waste sites. It is also the name of the
  fund established by the Comprehensive
  Environmental Response, Compensation and
  Liability Act of 1980, as amended (CERCLA
  statute, CERCLA overview). This law was enacted
  in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps
  such as Love Canal and Times Beach in the 1970s.
  It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to
  compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or
  reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups.

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Management of Hazardous Waste

• Biological Treatment of Hazardous Chemicals
• Bioremediation
• Phytoremediation
• Management the Waste we are Producing Now
• (1) source reduction
• (2) conversion to less hazardous materials
• (3) long-term storage

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Management of Hazardous Waste

• Hazardous Waste Landfill

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Superfund research

• With a partner, log on to the EPAs webpage for
  SUPERFUND.
• I will assign you a county. Pick a SUPERFUND
  site
• Where is it?
• What is the contamination? Who are the parties
  involved (the polluters)?
• How is it being cleaned up?
• Is it cleaned up or is the site still active?