Chapter 24: Solid Waste EQ: How do we manage waste in our world?

In the U.S. 98.5% is “Industrial solid waste” from mining, industries and agriculture 1.5% is Municipal solid waste (MSW) Paper (30%), Glass, Metals, Food waste, E-waste Watch Trash, Inc: E-Waste in China:

US produces 1/3 of world’s solid waste Including… enough tires each year to encircle the planet almost 3 times An amount of disposable diapers every year that, if linked end to end, would reach to the moon & back 7 times About 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR oTake 1,000s of years to break down About 274 million plastic shopping bags PER DAY, an average of about 3,200 every second oPlastic bags take 400-1,000 years to break down The Volume of Waste has doubled since 1960! Why? ??? Population Growth, Increase in Disposable Materials, Excessive packaging, etc. We have a HIGH Waste Culture

Prevention/ Reduction Recycle & reuse materials instead of disposing of them Use nonhazardous materials instead of hazardous Government Regulation: LEGISLATION! The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) –1976 EPA sets standards for management of municipal & hazardous waste, Prohibits open dumps & set standards for landfills, Requires a cradle-to-grave approach to disposal of hazardous waste, Regulates only 5% of hazardous waste in US

Toxic Substances Control Act (TOSCA) – 1976 Gives EPA authority to track, monitor, & ban industrial chemicals Ex: lead, PCBs The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA; Superfund Act) - passed in 1980 Love Canal, NY (1978): neighborhood/ schools built on toxic waste dump  polluted streams, groundwater  plants died; kids started getting sick, esp. leukemia  Lois Gibbs & others protests & got place cleaned up Goal: identify hazardous waste sites/releases & clean them; create trust fund = Superfund; taxed oil & chemical companies Now: tax that funded the Superfund Act expired in 1995, not renewed; now taxpayers clean up superfund sites

Armstrong World Industries in Macon is now a federal Superfund site. Flathead Catfish in the nearby Ocmulgee River have been found to contain cancer-causing chemicals. (photo courtesy USFWS, 2011) Ground water extraction system at the Monsanto Corp. (Augusta Plant) site. Ground water tested positive for arsenic.

Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act ("the Brownfields Law"). Amended the CERCLA (Superfund) by providing funds to assess and clean up brownfields & then converted to parks, athletic fields, neighborhoods Brownfields: abandoned factories, junkyards, old landfills, gas stations Contaminated with hazardous waste Nuclear Waste Policy Act – 1982 Government is responsible for providing place for permanent disposal of radioactive waste Type Levels of Radioactive Waste: High-level : nuclear reactor waste, waste from spent fuel, waste from weapons; waste from mining & processing uranium ore Low-level: waste from industrial, medical, or research facilities (gloves, needles, etc.) Examples of Storage Sites: Yucca Mountain, Nevada (controversial); Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico

POPs Treaty: signed in 2000 by 122 countries Controls use of 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that persist in the environment & bioaccumulate & biomagnify Called the Dirty Dozen: DDT & other chlorinated hydrocarbons, PCBs, dioxins, furans Dioxins:are manufactured on a small scale for chemical and toxicological research, but mostly exist as by-products of industrial processes such as bleaching paper pulp, pesticide manufacture, and combustion processes such as waste incineration. The defoliant Agent Orange contained dioxinby-productsAgent Orange

Environmental Justice Idea that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences 870,000 U.S. federal subsidized housing units are within a mile of factories that report toxic emissions to the EPA Emelle, AL largest hazardous waste landfill and 90% of the town is African American

Options for solid waste: 1. Waste management:  Attempt to control wastes in ways that reduce environmental harm, but don’t reduce amount of waste produced 2. Waste reduction:  Produce less waste & pollution  Includes reduce, reuse, & recycle programs 3. Integrated Waste Management: use a variety of strategies for waste disposal & reduction; Estimated that 75-90% of waste could be eliminated

Options for disposal: Incineration: accounts for ~13% of MSW Landfills: accounts for ~54% of MSW Other methods: Interstate transfer… N.Y. Staten Island closed its Fresh kill landfill and pays $64/ton to ship to other states. It produces 11,000 tons / day!  Burning Solid Waste MSW is burned in Waste-to-Energy Incinerators Reduce weight of trash; Modern incinerators produce lower emission of greenhouse gases & other pollutants than modern landfills Con: produce toxic ash (i.e. particulate matter, lead, mercury, dioxins, furans, puts workers at risk) a group of chemicals that are formed during combustion processes such as waste incineration, power generation, metal production and fuel burning

Burying Solid Waste Open dumps: fields or holes where garbage is put More common in developing countries; illegal in US 2. Sanitary landfills: solid wastes are spread out, compacted, covered daily w/ layer of soil, clay or plastic foam Bottoms & sides are double-lined w/ plastic and then clay Leachate (landfill water) is piped out to collection ponds Methane is burned or collected for energy Must monitor groundwater quality Federal law prohibits landfills from being near geological faults, wetlands, floodplains; must be 6 feet above water table

Solid Waste Pollution Detroit & Riverview Michigan mine landfill gas under A 212 acre landfill called Mt. Trashmore In Florida 150 former landfill sites are on the Superfund list b/c they are in wetlands.

NIMBY = Not In My Backyard Leachate

Danehy Park Cambridge, MA was once an open burning dump then it was turned into a sanitary landfill, until it was closed in 1952, today it is a 55 acre park with soccer fields, basketball courts, and baseball diamonds.

Hazardous Waste 4 categories: 1. Corrosive: corrodes metal 2. Ignitable/ Flammable 3. Reactive: chemically unstable/ reactive 4. Toxic: health risks Examples: industrial solvents medical waste car batteries organic compounds: pesticides, PCBs heavy metals: lead, mercury radioactive waste

Dealing With Hazardous Solid Waste: Other Methods Plasma Arc Torch: passing an electrical current through air generates electric arc & extremely high temps  plasma  breaks down toxic waste into gas & solid material (aggregate) Con: Super high cost! Bioremediation: bacteria & fungi destroy toxic substances – PCBs, pesticides, oil Phytoremediation: using plants to take up contaminants from the soil; slow process Advantages: low cost, reduces soil erosion, less habitat destruction, creates “green” space Disadvantages: slow process, vegetation may be dangerous for animals, may not get all hazardous waste from deep underground

“Dirty Dozen” POPs: Hazardous Waste

Dealing With Hazardous Waste 1. Surface impoundment: use of ponds, pits, or lagoons to store liquid hazardous waste. Water evaporates, toxins stay. Cons: leaks, storms, air pollution 2. Deep-well injection: pumping liquid hazard waste deep underground past aquifers In US, 64% of liquid hazardous waste is injected into deep wells 3. Landfills with specific areas designated – main destination for solid hazardous waste (ex: E-waste)

Phytoremediation: direct use of plants to stabilize or reduce contamination Sunflowers: radioactive materials (Strontium-90, Cesium-137) Poplars, willows: dry cleaning solvents & uranium Indian mustard, brake ferns: lead and arsenic

Dealing With Hazardous Solid Waste: Other Methods Plasma Arc Torch: passing an electrical current through air generates electric arc & extremely high temps  plasma  breaks down toxic waste into gas & solid material (aggregate) Con: Super high cost! Bioremediation: bacteria & fungi destroy toxic substances – PCBs, pesticides, oil Phytoremediation: using plants to take up contaminants from the soil; slow process Advantages: low cost, reduces soil erosion, less habitat destruction, creates “green” space Disadvantages: slow process, vegetation may be dangerous for animals, may not get all hazardous waste from deep underground

Exporting Waste - ex. 1. toxic incineration ash from Philadelphia to Haiti, 2. e-waste going to China, India, and Nigeria, where poor disassemble electronics w/out protective clothing /watch?v=hvx-W-XAie0 Vessel containing toxic ash sailed 16 months, before finally returning to PA, left 4,ooo tons of ash in Haiti calling it “fertilizer”, remaining 10,000 tons were dumped into the sea

Sustainability 6: ways to reduce waste 1. Redesign manufacturing processes & products to use less material & energy 2. Redesign manufacturing processes to produce less waste & pollution 3. Develop products that are easy to reuse, compost or recycle 4. Design products to last longer 5. Eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging 6. Establish cradle-to-grave responsibility laws: require companies to take back products (electronics & appliances) at end of life to be repaired or recycled 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 Reuse  Refillable containers (glass & PET plastic bottles) Denmark, Finland, & parts of Canada – banned all beverage containers that cannot be reused  Reusable cloth bags!  Plastic is bad b/c made from oil, causes pollution, harms wildlife  Ireland, Taiwan, Netherlands tax plastic shopping bags  India, France, Italy, China, Australia, San Francisco have banned most plastic bags

Recycling: 5 major types of recyclable products: paper, glass, aluminum, steel, & some plastics 2 types of recycling: Primary/ closed-loop recycling: Materials recycled into same type: aluminum cans  aluminum cans Secondary/ open-loop recycling Materials converted to other products: tires  play ground flooring

Recycling: To mix or separate? Materials-recovery facilities: machines or workers separate mixed waste to recover recyclables Cons: plants are expensive, make pollution Source separation: Households & businesses separate waste Cleaner, saves energy, higher yields of recyclables To promote separation: Pay-as-you-throw (PAUT) or Fee-per-bag programs: charge for amount of mixed waste picked up, but not for separated recyclables

Recycling: Composting using decomposer bacteria to recycle yard trimmings, food scraps Creates organic material that can be used for fertilizer, topsoil Some cities have centralized community compost facilities ASAP Science – What if Humans Disappeared? Coffee Horror

 Recycling: Paper  Pulp & paper industry is 5 th largest consumer of energy & uses tons of water  Amount of paper thrown away each year in US is more than all paper used in China  95% of books & magazines are printed on virgin paper  Chlorine bleach is bad – pollutes air & water Making recycled paper uses 64% less energy & produces less air & water pollution than making it from wood pulp Another option: tree-free paper – straw, kenaf & hemp, elephant poo

Recycling: Plastics Plastics – made of large polymers (resins) produced from oil & natural gas Contribute to liter, hurt wildlife Most is not recycled b/c so many types & difficult to separate components & expensive Solution: BIOPLASTICS! Made from corn, soybean, sugarcane, feathers Technology still improving – could be lighter, stronger, cheaper, less energy-needed & less pollution & BIODEGRADABLE!