1. Anya, Ariana, Abby, and Maddie
Hazardous Waste
Anya, Ariana, Abby, and Maddie

2. What is Hazardous Waste?

3. Definitions
Corrosive: are acidic or alkaline wastes which can readily corrode or dissolve flesh, metal, or other materials
-ex. Waste sulfuric acid from automotive batteries
Discarded Commercial Products: These lists include specific commercial chemical products in an unused form.
-ex. Some pesticides and some pharmaceutical products become hazardous waste when discarded
Ignitable nonspecific source: Wastes from common manufacturing and industrial processes
-ex. solvents that have been used in cleaning or degreasing operations

4. More definitions
Reactive: wastes that are unstable under "normal" conditions. They can cause explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water.
-ex. lithium-sulfur batteries and explosives
Source specific: includes certain wastes from specific industries, such as petroleum refining or pesticide manufacturing.
Toxic: wastes that are harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed. When toxic wastes are land disposed, contaminated liquid may leach from the waste and pollute groundwater.
-ex. mercury and lead

5. Conversion Techniques
Physical Treatment
Stabilization (Solidification)
Sometimes used on incinerator ash or other haz. material before landfilling or underground burial.
Additives are combined with waste material to make it more solid and prevent chemical reactions.
Soil washing at dumpsites to filter haz. waste solids out of liquids.
Distillation
Heated to a vapor and then condensed to liquid

6. Conversion Techniques Contd.
Chemical Treatment
Materials are added or removed from the haz. material to produce new, less hazardous chemicals.
Chemical Neutralization
Like mixing a corrosive acid with with carbonate lime or a different high p-H material until it isn’t acidic anymore.

7. Conversion Techniques Contd.
Biological Treatment
Includes the utilization of microbes to break down wastes through a series of organic chemical reactions.
New materials created by the microbe reactions can be recycled or reused.
Future lies in genetic engineering

8. Conversion Techniques Contd.
Incineration
Municipal solid wastes are burned at high temperatures to convert them to gaseous and residue products.
Helps reduce the amount put in landfills by 20-30%.
Thermal Treatment
Incinerators turn solid waste material into heat, gas, steam and ash.
Air pollution brings controversy

9. Perpetual Storage Long-term Meant to survive ‘forever’
Natural stresses
Eventually fail
Heavily regulated by EPA
Some specific to liquid/solid wastes
Natural and manufactured

10. Examples of Perpetual Storage
Solid
Landfills
Waste Piles
Liquid
Surface Impoundments
Underground Injections
Natural Storage
Salt Formations
Arid Region Unsaturated Zone

11. Solid Waste Landfills Waste Piles Secure - Buried
Double-layer plastic protection
Groundwater contamination
Waste Piles
In drums in specified facility
Easy to spot leaks
Ship to facility

13. The Problem with Landfills

14. Liquid Waste Surface Impoundments Underground Injections Groundwater
Excavated lagoon/lake
Underground Injections
Shoot waste below cap-rock zone
Groundwater
Earthquakes

16. Natural Storage Salt Formations Arid Region Unsaturated Zone
Salt = no flowing water
Can be sealed
Arid Region Unsaturated Zone
Between land surface and groundwater

18. Case Study: Love Canal
Intended to be the center of an industrial city the 19th century, however it was never finished
1942: became a garbage dump, as well as a location where Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation began dumping their chemical waste
1946: Hooker bought the location to use as an industrial landfill
1953: Hooker sold the land to the city for $1.00 on the condition that the company be released from any liability for injury or damage caused by the dump's contents

19. Love Canal continued
The city filled in the landfill, and built houses adjacent to the land, and a school/playground on top of the site
A survey taken by local mothers found:
many birth defects
chronic medical problems
miscarriages/stillborns
1978: City purchased houses surrounding landfill and demolished them (239 houses)
1988: Occidental Petroleum (the parent company of Hooker Chemical and Plastics) agreed to pay some $250 million in damages to Love Canal residents

20. The Superfund Program
“Superfund is the federal government’s program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.”
It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups.

21. Superfund Program Contd.
Process
Assess sites
Place on priority list
Establish and implement cleanup plans

22. Superfund Program Andover Waste Disposal Engineering Site
A baseline risk assessment is used to see if there would be potential threats to human health and the environment.
Detailed analysis is completed for each site.
Looks at things like cost and state acceptance, overall human and environmental health, implementability, effectiveness, and others.
Each are ranked with importance.
Details are summarized to developed a remedy.
Andover
Waste Disposal Engineering Site
Includes a 72 acre landfill
Early on there was risk of groundwater contamination, so they implemented an extraction/treatment system.
Have an enclosed flare system to deal with harmful gases.
Also have piloted a treatment system for the hazardous waste pit.

23. E-Waste https://youtu.be/8ZBHOVYbOIA
Electronic products that have become unwanted or non-working and have essentially reached the end of their useful life.
Televisions, microwaves, computers, and cell phones are examples
China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines handle anywhere from 50 percent to 80 percent of this e-waste, often shredding, burning, and dismantling the products.
E-waste has a lot of health risks. For example, primary and secondary exposure to toxic metals, such as lead, results mainly from open-air burning used to retrieve valuable components such as gold. Combustion from burning e-waste creates fine particulate matter, which is linked to pulmonary and cardiovascular disease.

24. Works Cited