Nothing can be forgotten, Only left behind.

When you “throw it away”, Where does it go? Where is “away”? In 1987, a barge loaded with garbage Sailed for 5 months looking for A place to dump it all!

Solid waste is any discarded material That is not a liquid or a gas. Americans generate more than 10 Billion tons of solid waste each year.

Its not just the amount of waste That causes a problem, it’s also The kind of waste. There are basically 2 kinds: Those made of biodegradable materials And those that are not. A biodegradable material is a material That can be broken down by living Things into simpler chemicals that can Be consumed by other living things.

Examples of a biodegradable material May be; paper, cotton, or leather. Some nonbiodegradable materials May include; polyester, nylon, and Most all plastics.

Most of what we throw away as a Nation comes from manufacturing And mining. United States Solid Waste

Only about 2% is municipal solid waste, This is the trash produced by Households and small businesses. United States Municipal Solid Waste

Paper and cardboard make up a huge Part of what we throw away, mostly Because everything that we buy Comes in at least one layer of Paper or cardboard. The amount of municipal waste produced Each year is enough to fill a convoy of Garbage trucks that would stretch Around the world 6 times!

More than 50% of our waste is stored In a landfill. That is a facility Where garbage is placed in the Ground and then covered with a A layer of dirt at the end of Each day. Only about 25% of our trash is Recycled.

Landfill

One major problem with landfills is LEACHATE. Leachate is water that contains Toxic chemicals dissolved in it From wastes in the landfill. This happens when water seeps down Through the landfill and dissolves Junk from batteries, paints, Pesticides, cleansers, etc.

Modern landfills also do not allow For things to biodegrade! A benefit of landfills is that they Can be used to create methane gas Which can be used to create electricity.

One option for garbage is to take it To incinerators. An incinerator burns the garbage Until it is ash, which is then trucked Away to a landfill. This reduces the amount of solid Waste, but pollutes the air.

An Incinerator

There are basically 3 options for Dealing with solid waste… Producing less waste Recycling Changing materials used

If we produce less waste, we will Reduce the expense and difficulty Of collecting and disposing it. Many ideas are common sense: Reusing shopping bags, Using both sides to paper, Use metal eating utensils, Pick products with less packaging, etc.

Making products from recycled Materials usually saves water, And energy. Like making steel from scrap uses Only 25% of the energy as making New steel.

In order for recycling to work Everyone must take part. After materials are recycled, and Remanufactured, they must be Sold again. You actually have to buy recycled Products for the process to continue.

There are 7 different types of Plastic, some can be recycled, and some can’t.

Unfortunately, not all plastic can be recycled. Most recycling centers accept types one and two, types four and five are less commonly recycled, and types six and seven are rarely, if not virtually never, recycled.

Type 1 (PETE): Polyethylene Terephthalate. Soft drink and water bottles, some waterproof packaging. Commonly recycled.

Type 2 (HDPE): High-Density Polyethylene. Milk, detergent, and oil bottles, toys, and some plastic bags. Commonly recycled.

Type 3 (V): Vinyl/Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Food wrap, vegetable oil bottles, construction materials, shower curtains. Not recyclable, can leach chemical additives and is known to offgass in the air!leach chemical additivesoffgass

Type 4 (LDPE): Low-Density Polyethylene. Many plastic bags, squeezable bottles, garment bags. Recycled at most centers but not curbside programs.not curbside programs

Type 5 (PP): Polypropylene. Refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops, some carpets, some food wrap. Recycled at most centers but not curbside programs.not curbside programs

Type 6 (PS): Polystyrene. Throwaway utensils, meat-packing, take-out containers, protective packing. Recycled at some centers but not curbside programs, and banned in some cities.not curbside programs, and banned in some cities

Type 7 (OTHER): Composite plastic. Nalgene bottles, milk cartons, toothpaste tubes. Can't be recycled, must be landfilled.

There are a few new kinds of Plastics that biodegrade quickly. One of them is made with cornstarch And a few special chemicals That allow it breakdown In a matter of weeks.

Hazardous waste are wastes that Are toxic or highly corrosive or That explode easily.

These wastes can be any state of Matter, some examples… Dyes, cleansers, solvents Heavy metals like mercury Pesticides And radioactive wastes.

The methods used to dispose of Hazardous wastes often are not Carefully thought out. One example of a huge screw up Occurred at Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, New York.

What happened was that a chemical Company buried hazardous wastes And then sold the land to the Local school district. A school and many houses were built And eventually all had to be abandoned. The wastes were oozing into the Buildings and many people were getting Cancers, many other diseases and dying.

Now, because of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, All companies have to keep records Of all the wastes they Create and dump. If the wastes ever cause a problem, Then the company is liable.

Because the safe disposal of hazardous Wastes is very expensive, the Government created the Superfund Act. This created a fund of money to Pay for cleaning up abandoned Hazardous waste sites.

Most hazardous wastes produced in The US today are disposed of By some form of land disposal. The 2 major ways are deep-well injection And surface impoundment.

Deep-well injection is when wastes Are pumped deep into the ground, Where they are absorbed into a Dry layer of rock below the Level of ground water.

Surface impoundment is when a Pond is built that has a sealed Bottom so that the waste Cannot leak out.

The biggest issue is for radioactive Hazardous wastes. It takes thousands of years for the Radioactivity to decrease enough to Be handled again. So engineers must figure out a place To put it all so that it doesn’t get Disturbed by groundwater or Earthquakes.

At the moment, the government wants To have it all shipped to Yucca Mt. In Nevada. But people in Nevada don’t want it There, they are afraid that if Things go wrong, then people Might get hurt. But the current method of storing Radioactive waste is on the site where It was used, which makes Hundreds of unsafe places.

Lastly motor oil… One gallon of motor oil could Contaminate up to Gallons of water. The Exxon Valdez oil tanker that Spilled 185 million gallons of oil was Only 1/15 of the amount of oil that Is thrown away each year. RECYCLE IT!!