1. Solid and Hazardous Waste
Chapter 13

3. Outline: Solid Waste Waste Disposal Methods Shrinking the Waste Stream
Recycling
Hazardous and Toxic Wastes
Federal Legislation
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (Superfund Act)
Management Options

4. HIGH WASTE SOCIETY
Enough aluminum to rebuild the country’s commercial airline fleet every 3 mounths
Enough tires each year to encircle planet Earth almost 3 times
18 billion disposable diapers
2 billion disposable razors
19 million computers
8 million television sets
17 billion pounds of polystyrene peanuts

5. 3,000 square miles of used carpet
13,200 pounds of construction wastes per person trillion pounds
2.5 million non-returnable plastic bottles per hour
1.5 billion pounds of edible food per year
186 billion pieces of junk mail per year
This is only part of the 1.5% of all solid municipal waste

6. WASTE
According to EPA, US produces 11 billion tons of solid waste annually.
About half is agricultural waste.
More than one-third is mining related.
Industrial Waste million metric tons.
Hazardous/Toxic - 60 million metric tons.
Municipal Waste million metric tons.
Two kg per person / per day.
Waste Stream

7. US Domestic Waste

8. WASTE - DISPOSAL METHODS
Open Dumps
Open, unregulated dumps are still the predominant method of waste disposal in developing countries.
Most developed countries forbid open dumping.
Estimated 200 million liters of motor oil are poured into the sewers or soak into the ground each year in the US.
Five times volume of Exxon Valdez.

9. Waste Disposal Methods
Landfills
Sanitary Landfills
Refuse compacted and covered everyday with a layer of dirt.
Dirt takes up as much as 20% of landfill space.
Since 1994, all operating landfills in the US have been required to control hazardous substances.

10. Sanitary Landfills

11. Landfills
Historically, landfills have been a convenient, inexpensive waste-disposal option.
Increasing land and shipping fees, and demanding construction and maintenance requirements are increasing costs.
Suitable landfill sites are become scarce.
Increasingly, communities are rejecting new landfills.
Old landfills are quickly reaching capacity and closing.

12. Waste Disposal Methods
Exporting Waste
Although most industrialized nations have agreed to stop shipping hazardous and toxic waste to less-developed countries, the practice still continues.
Garbage imperialism also operates in wealthier countries.
Indian reservations increasingly being approached to store wastes on reservations.

13. Waste Disposal Methods
Incineration and Resource Recovery
Energy Recovery - Heat derived from incinerated refuse is a useful resource.
Steam used for heating buildings or generating electricity.

14. Incinerator Types
Refuse-Derived Fuel - Refuse is sorted to remove recyclable and unburnable materials.
Higher energy content than raw trash.
Mass Burn - Everything smaller than major furniture and appliances loaded into furnace.
Creates air pollution problems.
Reduces disposal volume by 80-90%.
Residual ash usually contains toxic material.

15. Mass-Burn Garbage Incinerator

16. Mass burn incineration
Burning Wastes
Mass burn incineration
Advantages
Reduced trash
volume
Less need for
landfills
Low water
pollution
Disadvantages
High cost
Air pollution
(especially
toxic dioxins)
Produces a
highly toxic ash
Encourages
waste production
Air pollution
Waste to energy

17. Incinerator Cost and Safety
Initial construction costs are usually between $100 and $300 million for a typical municipal facility.
Tipping fees are often much higher than tipping fees at landfills.
EPA has found alarmingly high toxin levels in incinerator ash.
Concentrated in fly ash.
Pollution control methods are not guaranteed to be 100% effective.

18. Recycling Potential Problems Market prices fluctuate wildly.
Contamination
Most of 24 billion plastic soft drink bottles sold annually in the US are PET, which can be melted and remanufactured into many items.
But a single PVC bottle can ruin an entire truckload of PET if melted together.

19. U.S. Recycling Rates

20. Recycling Benefits Saves money, raw materials, and land.
Encourages individual responsibility.
Reduces pressure on disposal systems.
Japan recycles about half of all household and commercial wastes.
Lowers demand for raw resources.
Reduces energy consumption and air pollution.

21. Recycling Benefits Example
Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves 4 tons of bauxite, 700 kg of coke and pitch, and keeps 35 kg of aluminum fluoride out of the air.
Producing aluminum from scrap instead of bauxite ore cuts energy use by 95%.
Yet still throw away more than a million tons of aluminum annually.

22. Shrinking the Waste Stream
Composting
Biological degradation of organic material under aerobic conditions.
Demanufacturing
Disassembly and recycling of obsolete consumer products.
Reuse
Reusable glass container makes an average of 15 round-trips between factory and customer before it has to be recycled.

23. Shrinking the Waste Stream
Producing Less Waste
Excess packaging of food and consumer products is one of our greatest sources of unnecessary waste.
Paper, plastic, glass, and metal packaging material make up 50% of domestic trash by volume.
Increase use of photodegradable and biodegradable plastics.
Too much emphasis on recycling ?

24. Hazardous Waste
Legally, hazardous waste is any discarded liquid or solid that contains substances known to be:
Fatal to humans or laboratory animals in low doses.
Toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic to humans or other life-forms.
Ignitable with a flash point less than 60o C.
Explosive or highly reactive.

25. Hazardous Waste Disposal
Federal Legislation
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Comprehensive program requiring rigorous testing and management of toxic and hazardous substances.
Cradle to grave accounting.

26. Hazardous Wastes Contains one or more of 39 identified compounds
Catches fire easily
Reactive or explosive
Corrodes metal containers

27. Not Hazardous Wastes Radioactive wastes Household wastes Mining wastes
Oil and gas drilling wastes
Liquids containing organic hydrocarbons
Cement kiln dust
<100 kg (220 lb) per month

28. HAZARDOUS AND TOXIC WASTES
EPA estimates US industries generate 265 million metric tons of officially classified hazardous wastes annually.
At least 40 million metric tons of toxic and hazardous wastes are released into the environment each year.

29. Cradle to Grave

30. Federal Legislation
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).
Modified in 1984 by Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act.
Aimed at rapid containment, cleanup, or remediation of abandoned toxic waste sites.
Toxic Release Inventory - Requires 20,000 manufacturing facilities to report annually on releases of more than 300 toxic materials.

31. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (Superfund Act)
Government does not have to prove anyone violated a law, or what role they played in a superfund site.
Liability under CERCLA is “strict, joint, and several”, meaning anyone associated with a site can be held responsible for the entire clean-up cost.

32. Superfund Sites
EPA estimates 36,000 seriously contaminated sites in the US.
By 2000, 1,551 sites had been placed on the National Priority List for cleanup with with Superfund financing.
Superfund is a revolving pool designed to:
Provide immediate response to emergency situations posing imminent hazards.
Clean-up abandoned or inactive sites.

33. Superfund Sites
Total costs for hazardous waste cleanup in the US are estimated between $370 billion and $1.7 trillion.
For years, most of the funding has gone to legal fees, but this situation has improved over past several years.
Studies of Superfund sites reveal minorities tend to be over-represented in these neighborhoods.

34. How Clean is Clean
Brownfields - Contaminated properties that have been abandoned or are not being used up to potential because of pollution concerns.
Up to one-third of all commercial industrial sites in urban core of many big cities fall into this category.
In many cases, property owners complain that unreasonably high purity levels are demanded in remediation programs.

35. THE LOVE CANAL TRAGEDY “THERE IS NO AWAY”
Between 1942 and 1953 Hooker Chemicals and Plastics sealed chemical wastes containing at least 200 different chemicals into steel drums and dumped them into an old canal excavation near Niagra Falls, New York.
Hooker Chemicals covered over and sold the landfill to the Niagra Falls School board for $1. There was a disclaimer denying legal responsibility for injury caused by toxic chemicals
Hooker warned the School Board not to disturb the topsoil because of possible danger from toxic wastes.
By 1959 an elementary school and 949 homes were built in the 10 square block area of Love Canal

36. Love Canal continued Roads and sewers crisscrossed the dump site.
An expressway built at one end of the dump blocked ground water from reaching the Niagra River creating a “bath tub” effect allowing ground water and rainwater to build up and come to the surface.
1978 residents began complaining about chemical smells and chemical burns their children received playing in the canal area.
Complaints were ignored!!
In 1977 chemicals begin leaking into storm sewers, gardens, and basements of homes.

37. “An Individual Matters”
In 1978 after considerable citizen pressure led by Lois Gibbs and considerable media publicity the state acted.
Her children began experiencing “unexplained illnesses.”
She formed the Love Canal Home Owners Association.
This grass roots organization brought hazardous waste issues to national prominence and spurred th federal Superfund legislation to clean up toxic waste sites.

38. What has happened since?
The state closed the school and arranged for the 2239 homes nearest the landfill evacuated, purchased and destroyed.
Two years later President Jimmy Carter declared Love Canal a federal disaster area .
The Federal Government had the remaining 564 relocated and provided funding to buy 564 new homes elsewhere.
Residents of all but 72 of the homes moved out.

39. The dump site was covered with a new clay cap and surrounded by a drainage systems that pumps leaking wastes to a new treatment plant.
After 15 years of court battles OxyChem parent company of Hooker agreed to a $98 million settlement and agreed to pay New York state $7.1 million for site clean up.
Because of the difficulty of linking exposure of specific chemicals to specific health threats, the long term health effects on Love Canal remain remain unknown and contoversial.

40. In June 1990 the EPA declared the “Black Creek Village” safe and allowed state officials to begin selling the remaining 234 homes at a 10-20% discount.
The dump has not been cleaned up only fitted with a drainage system.
EPA acknowledges that the dump will leak again.
Buyers must sign an agreement that New York State and the Federal Governmentmake no guarantees about the safety of living in these homes.

41. Love Canal is a vivid reminder that we can never really throw anything away, that wastes don”t stay put, and that preventing pollution is much safer and cheaper than trying to clean it up.

42. Hazardous Waste Management Options
Produce Less Waste
Avoid creating wastes in the first place
Recycle and Reuse
Convert to Less Hazardous Substances
Physical Treatment (Isolation)
Incineration
Chemical Processing (Transformation)
Bioremediation (Microorganisms)

43. Hazardous Waste Management Options
Store Permanently
Retrievable Storage
Can be inspected and periodically retrieved.
Secure Landfills
Modern, complex landfills with multiple liners and other impervious layers and monitoring systems.

44. Secure Landfills

45. Summary: Solid Waste Waste Disposal Methods Shrinking the Waste Stream
Recycling
Hazardous and Toxic Wastes
Federal Legislation
RCRA
CERCLA
Management Options

46. Producing Less Waste and Pollution
Waste management (high waste approach)
Burying, burning, shipping
Waste prevention (low waste approach)
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Chemical or biological treatment
Burial

47. Dealing with Materials Use and Wastes
1st Priority
2nd Priority
Last Priority
Primary Pollution
and Waste Prevention
• Change industrial
process to eliminate
use of harmful
chemicals
• Purchase different
products
• Use less of a harmful
product
• Reduce packaging and
materials in products
• Make products that
last longer and are
recyclable, reusable or
easy to repair
Secondary Pollution
• Reduce products
• Repair products
• Recycle
• Compost
• Buy reusable and
recyclable products
Waste Management
• Treat waste to reduce
toxicity
• Incinerate waste
• Bury waste in
landfill
• Release waste into
environment for
dispersal or dilution
Fig. 21.4, p. 521

48. Dealing with Hazardous Wastes
Produce Less Waste
Convert to Less Hazardous or Nonhazardous Substances
Put in Perpetual Storage
Manipulate
processes
to eliminate
or reduce
production
Recycle
and
reuse
Land
treatment
Incineration
Thermal
Chemical
physical, and
biological
Ocean and
atmospheric
assimilation
Landfill
Underground
injection
Waste
piles
Surface
impoundments
Salt
formations
Arid region
unsaturated
zone

49. Reuse Extends resource supplies Maintains high-quality matter
Reduces energy use
Refillable beverage containers
Reusable shipping containers and grocery bags

50. Characteristics of Recyclable Materials
Easily isolated from other waste
Available in large quantities
Valuable
Pay-as-you-throw garbage collection

51. Benefits of Recycling Reduces global warming Reduces acid deposition
Reduces urban
air pollution
Make fuel
supplies
last longer
Reduces
Saves
energy
energy demand
water pollution
Recycling
Reduces solid
waste disposal
mineral
demand
Protects
species
habitat
destruction
Fig. 21.7, p. 530

52. INDIVIDUALS MATTER
Ray Anderson CEO of Interface Atlanta based company that makes carpet
Lease carpet - Install clean & inspect carpet on monthly basis
Repair carpet overnight
recycle carpet into new carpet using renewable energy
Developed new polymer Solenium
Can be recycled, cleaned with water, will not mildew

53. Burying Wastes
Sanitary landfill
Leachate collection
Monitoring wells
Emit greenhouse gases (CO2 and methane)
Space near where waste is produced

54. Sanitary Landfill Compacted solid waste Topsoil Sand Clay Garbage
Synthetic liner
Subsoil
When landfill is full,
layers of soil and clay
seal in trash
Methane storage
and compressor
building
Electricity
generator
Leachate
treatment system
Methane gas
recovery
Pipe collect explosive
methane gas used as fuel
to generate electricity
Compacted
solid waste
storage tanks
monitoring
well
Groundwater
Leachate pipes
Leachate pumped up
to storage tanks for
safe disposal
Clay and plastic lining
to prevent leaks; pipes
collect leachate from
bottom of landfill

55. Deep-well Disposal Advantages Safe method if sites are chosen
carefully
Wastes can be
retrieved if
problems
develop
Low cost
Disadvantages
Leaks or spills at
surface
Leaks from
corrosion of well
casing
Existing fractures
or earth quakes
can allow wastes
to escape into
groundwater
Encourages
waste production
Fig , p. 538

56. Hazardous Waste Landfill
Bulk waste
Impervious
clay
Earth
Water table
Groundwater
Clay cap
Gas vent
Topsoil
Sand
Plastic cover
Impervious clay cap
Leak
detection
system
Reaction
wastes
in dreams
Double leachate
collection system
Plastic double liner
monitoring
well

57. Above Ground Hazardous Waste Disposal
transporter
Hazardous waste
Support
column
Inspector
Elevator shaft
Fig , p. 540

58. Exporting Wastes
Shipping to developing countries
Potentially huge profits for exporters
Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste
Many developing countries refusing wastes

59. Case Studies: Lead Lead poisoning major problem in children
Primary Sources of Lead
Leaded gasoline (phased out by 1986)
Lead paint (banned in 1970)
Lead in plastics
Lead in plumbing
Progress is being made in reducing lead

60. Hazardous Waste Regulation in the United States
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
Superfund
National Priority List
Polluter-pays principle
Brownfields

61. Solutions: Achieving a Low-Waste Society
Local grassroots action
International ban on 12 persistent organic pollutants (the dirty dozen)
Cleaner production
Improved resource productivity
Service flow economies