Combustion Consequences of Solid Waste Group members: Utsab Dasrao, Phillip Jiang, Hemraj Mohabir

Solid Waste Management Facilities? What are they? Any facility for the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, transfer, processing, treatment or disposal of solid wastes, including hazardous wastes, whether such facility is associated with facilities generating such wastes or otherwise.

Types of Solid Waste Management Facilities Recycling and Material Recovery Facilities Organic Waste Recycling Facilities (OWRF) Recyclable Handling and Recovery Facilities (RHRF) Construction & Demolition (C&D) Debris Processing Facilities Vehicle Dismantling Facilities Electronic Recycling Facilities Combustion, Transfer, and Collection Facilities Transfer Stations Household Hazardous Waste Collection and Storage Facilities Municipal Waste Combustion Facilities Landfills Municipal Solid Waste Landfills Other Solid Waste Landfills

The Focus We gathered the location of solid waste management facilities that combust solid waste. The group chose this topic to gather a rough or conservative estimate of the amount of solid waste United States burn and New York in particular. After finding out the rough number, the goal was to think of ways to limit combustion and manage our wastes better.

Combustion Centers

Close to home look

Dangers of solid waste Currently there are 86 incinerators across 25 states, burning about 29 million tons of garbage annually.

What does it mean? Using these data points and comparing it to an EPA graph (2010) 5000-6000 pounds of carbon are pumped into the air by these facilities every hour. America has about over 86 of these facilities now. The amount of pollution generated is astronomical and before they had only 76 until recently.

Addressing the problem Stop Throwing Things Out A simple and obvious choice is to cut back on the amount of waste by using and throwing out less in the first place. Some states have adopted regulatory strategies to discourage dependence on landfills. Use less Packaging Packaging is one of the major sources of waste paper and plastics. According to Earthworks Groups, it accounts for approximately one-third of all the garbage Americans send to landfills. Packaging should be minimal. Smart buyers can support the use of environmentally friendly packaging by purchasing products with minimal packaging or with packaging made of recycled or recyclable materials. Turning Waste Material into Raw Material Recycling works, and it does so in several ways. It reduces the monetary and environmental costs of landfilling. It substitutes used materials for virgin materials, thereby reducing the demand for natural resources. It conserves energy. And it creates jobs in the community.

Conclusions Overall, with all these simple solutions to our never ending trash problem, our pollution problem could become an easy fix. With everyone pitching in and playing their part in recycling, there would be less of trash burning and landfill dumps. With less trash combustion, this would result in less air pollutants. This great outcome would easily allow our air to be fresher, and would lessen the burden on our ozone layer. As well as better air for our lives, we would also have more room earth should we use less of our landfills. Currently, a lot of or trash gets just piled up on mountains in remote areas. This is obviously an inefficient way to get rid of our trash, since eventually we will run out of space. It is never too late to start working for a better tomorrow, the earlier we start preparing our trash for better ways to be taken out, the better our future will be.