1. Outcome 4—Global Issues
Solid Waste Disposal

2. Why is this an issue? Early civilizations: Hunter-gatherers
More modern societies: As cities developed, the need for trash disposal increased.
With smaller populations and more mobility, people left their trash behind as they moved on …

3. Solid Waste—definition
Solid waste is defined as household garbage and other discarded materials.
In the US, each man, woman and child produces 4 lbs./day. If you include construction site and sewage treatment plant wastes, it bumps our totals up to 6 lbs./day...

4. “If you really put your mind to it, you can cut your household garbage down to one bag per week.”

5. Solid Waste—definition
On average, Americans produce twice as much trash now compared to 40 years ago!
Many of today’s products are designed to be used once and then thrown away.
During Nov and Dec, households will generate ~1million extra tons of garbage per week!

6. Solid Waste—definition
2 types of trash—
Biodegradable — will eventually decompose due to actions of decomposers.
Non-biodegradable — will never decompose because they are not made of items found in the natural world.

7. Where does our trash go?
Today: 60% of our trash is landfilled, 30% is recycled and the rest is incinerated.
% by volume = Paper 50%, Plastic 10%, Metal 6%, Glass 1%, Organic matter 13%, Misc. 20%

8. History of trash collection
Open dump concept and problems
Produced smells in nearby areas
Provided breeding grounds for flies and rats
During the Middle Ages, European city dwellers threw their garbage out the door and onto the street. The people of the time didn’t understand that many diseases are caused by filthy environmental conditions.
Unattractive to look at
Spread of disease rampant

9. Today’s trash collection
Sanitary landfill: Wastes put in ground and covered each day with dirt, plastic or both.
Mandated since 1993—trying to help environment has increased the $$ to dispose of trash. Landfills are expensive!

10. Today’s trash collection
Why are landfills so expensive?
2 types of liners to contain leachate/garbage
collecting and treatment of the leachate
monitoring of groundwater, surface water, and methane.

11. Sanitary Landfill

14. Layering in a landfill
Pack/compact garbage into 3 m deep sections, cover with 15 cm soil and continue this layering until desired height. Finally, seal the landfill with 60cm of soil, planting trees and grass on top.

15. Problems with Landfills
Leachate (it’s black) is seeping through a weak spot in the cover of a landfill:
Leachate — water that contains toxic chemicals dissolved from wastes in landfill. If this gets through the liners, it may contaminate nearby water supplies and poison ecosystems.

16. Stream in Connecticut
Leachate that has entered streams and completely contaminated the water.

17. Problems with Landfills
Methane —decomposition in a landfill that occurs without oxygen. The byproduct is methane, a highly flammable gas…

18. Problems with Landfills
Methane makes up only about 60% of the gases being released … also present are:
CO2
H2O, N2, H2S, VOCs
Vinyl chloride, Mercury, Benzene, Methylene chloride, and many more
Even some radioactive gases are released
Many of these other gases are known carcinogens (cancer causing) (

19. Problems with Landfills
Eventually we will run out of space…no one wants a landfill in their neighborhood.
WI only has about 5 – 10 years left of landfill space.
Neighboring states are actually out of space already and are buying space in our landfills, decreasing our timeline even more.

21. Alternatives to Landfilling
Produce less waste:
By making choices you can limit your trash production.
Look at packaging options in the items you buy.
Companies will get the message that consumers don’t want all the extra packaging.

22. Alternatives to Landfilling
Incineration: burning of waste.
Most waste is paper...burning reduces the volume of our trash by 90%.
Some plastics and bleached paper contains products that when burned create dioxin...a carcinogen.
The remaining ash contains heavy metals such as Mercury and Lead. This ash must be sent to a special landfill = $$
Chicago Incinerator

23. Alternatives to Landfilling
Recycling—currently we recycle 30% of our trash, up from 7% in 1970.
saves raw materials and energy
it lowers air and water pollution.
An Al can produced from a recycled can uses only 5% of the energy required to mine the raw material (bauxite).
If we recycled the Sunday newspaper alone we could save 500,000 trees/wk

24. Alternatives to Landfilling
Benefit Al
Steel
Paper
Glass
Energy saved
90–97%
47-74%
23-74%
4-32%
Lowers air pollution
95%
85%
74%
20%
Lowers H2O pollution
97%
76%
35%
Lowers amt of mining wastes
------
80%
Lowers amt of H2O used
40%
58%
50%

25. Alternatives to Landfilling
Compost —
grass clippings/yard waste and kitchen scraps...
it would reduce stream of flow to landfill by ~13%
Backyard Composting
Municipal Composting

26. Reduce and Reuse—the consumption issue
US and Canada residents produce 2 – 3 times the amount of solid waste per person than other industrialized countries and many more times that of a developing nation.
People living in cities produce more than a rural person.

27. Consumption issue
More and more people work away from home making convenience foods a desirable item.
Many times, in a convenience food, it took more energy to produce the packaging than it did to create the actual product!

28. Consumption issue
Packaging makes up approximately 50% of our waste stream and is the cause for the use of 50% of our paper and 25% of all plastics...this all goes directly to a landfill!

29. Disposables…what’s the big deal?
Disposable items make up another 25% of our waste...in the US we throw out enough:
Aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet every 3 months
Tires to encircle the planet 3 times
18 billion disposable diapers/year = to the moon and back 7 times!
2 billion disposable razors/year
10 million computers/year
8 million TVs/year
2.5 million non-returnable plastic bottles/HOUR
38 billion pieces of junk mail/year

30. What can you do?
Carry groceries that are small, or use a canvas bag, string bag, etc.
Buy recycled goods—especially if they contain post-consumer waste—and then recycle them when you are done. If you don’t buy recycled goods, then you ARE NOT recycling!
Reduce your junk mail
Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
11 West 42nd St.
PO Box 3681
New York, NY

31. What can you do? Buy products in concentrated form when possible
Choose items with least amount of packaging
Helium balloons = litter! Don’t buy them
Use pesticides in smallest amount possible and whenever possible, use a less toxic alternative
Do not dispose of hazardous chemicals by flushing them, pouring down drain, throwing in trash or dumping in storm sewers...dispose of them properly!