 Examples of Hazardous Waste

 Hazardous waste is a liquid, solid, or gas and is one of the following:  Ignitable = easily catches fire (natural gas, alcohol)  Corrosive = corrodes metals in storage tanks or equipment  Reactive = chemically unstable and readily reacts with other compounds, often explosively or by producing noxious fumes  Toxic = harms human health when inhaled, ingested, or contact human skin

 Industry produces the largest amount of hazardous waste  But waste generation and disposal are highly regulated  Households = the largest source of unregulated hazardous waste  Paint, batteries, solvents, cleaners, pesticides, etc.  Mining, small businesses, agriculture, utilities, and building demolition all produce hazardous wastes  Organic compounds and heavy metals are particularly hazardous because their toxicity persists over time

 Synthetic organic compounds resist bacterial, fungal, and insect activity  Plastics, tires, pesticides, solvents, wood preservatives  Keep buildings from decaying, kill pests, and keep stored goods intact  Their resistance to decay makes them persistent pollutants  They are toxic because they are readily absorbed through the skin  They can act as mutagens, carcinogens, teratogens, and endocrine disruptors

 Any discarded chemical that threatens human health or the environment  1% of the solid waste in the U.S.  May be solids, liquids, or gases  Includes chemical that are dangerously reactive, corrosive, explosive or toxic ---- more 700,00 different chemicals are known to exist

 Lead, chromium, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, tin, and copper  Used widely in industry for wiring, electronics, metal plating and fabrication, pigments, and dyes  They enter the environment when they are disposed of improperly  Heavy metals that are fat soluble and break down slowly can bioaccumulate and biomagnify

 Only 7% of the 3,000 chemicals used in large quantities have been tested for health and environmental effects  The greatest threat to human health from toxic waste sites comes from drinking water laced with toxic contaminants.  Table examples

 Electronic waste (“e-waste”) = waste involving electronic devices  Computers, printers, cell phones, TVs, MP3 players  Americans discard 400 million devices/year  67% are still in working order  They are put in landfills, but should be treated as hazardous waste Valuable trace minerals can be recovered – the 2010 Olympic medals were made from e-waste!

 Hazardous waste used to be discarded without special treatment  People did not know it was harmful to human health  They assumed the substances would disappear or be diluted  Since the 1980s, cities have designated sites or collection days to gather household hazardous waste

Where is it? Describe the disposal site there. What are the environmental risk/effects from this site? Why is clean-up a concern?

What are they? Human sources? Natural sources? How are they transferred? Effects?

 What are they?  Uses?  Effects?  Properties that make them useful in industry?  How are they transferred?  They have been banned by the EPA. Why are they still a problem?  How can they be destroyed? List 3 ways.

 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) = states must manage hazardous waste  Large generators of hazardous waste must obtain permits  Materials must be tracked “from cradle to grave”  Intended to prevent illegal dumping Principle of inherent safety – industrial processes are redesigned to involve less toxic material so that dangerous accidents are prevented

 Instructs EPA to identify which is hazardous and to provide guidelines and standards to states for hazardous waste management programs.  Bans hazardous waste from land disposal unless it has been treated to meet EPA’s standards of reduced toxicity.

 Commonly known as the Superfund Act  Established a program to tackle the huge challenge of cleaning up abandoned and illegal toxic waste sites across the United States.

 A piece of industrial or commercial property that is abandoned or underused and often environmentally contaminated, and could be considered as a potential site for redevelopment is know as a brownfield.  Estimates run as high as 400,000 seriously contaminated sites in the United States, not counting military bases and nuclear weapons facilities.

 Superfund National Priorities List – sites that pose the greatest threat to public health.  Of the 1400 sites on the Superfund National Priority List, only about 250 have been clean up and 656 other sites have been partially cleaned up.

 There is urgency to clean up these sites because of the growth of cities in rural dump sites.  Federal government, current land owners, prior owners, anyone who has dumped waste on the site, and anyone who has transported waste to a particular site share in the cost.

 These do not lessen the hazards of the substances  But they help keep the substance isolated from people, wildlife, and ecosystems  Landfills = must have several impervious liners and leachate removal systems  Design and construction standards are stricter than for ordinary sanitary landfills  Must be located far from aquifers

 Surface impoundments = store liquid hazardous waste  Shallow depressions are lined with plastic and clay  The water evaporates  The residue of solid hazardous waste is transported elsewhere  The clay layer can crack and leak waste  Rainstorms cause overflow, contaminating nearby areas

1. Source reduction  2. Environmental chemistry – green chemist ry  Bioremediation – the use of bacteria and other microorganisms to break down hazardous waste  Phytoremediation – the use of plants to absorb and accumulate toxic material from the soil.

 Deep-well injection = a well is drilled deep beneath the water table  Waste is injected into it  A long-term disposal method  The well is isolated from groundwater and humans  However, the wells can corrode and leak waste

 Radioactive waste is very dangerous and persistent  The U.S. has no designated single disposal site  Waste will accumulate around the nation  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) = the first underground repository for transuranic waste from nuclear weapons development  Caverns are 655 m (2,150 ft) below ground in a huge salt formation thought to be geologically stable  WIPP became operational in 1999 and is receiving thousands of shipments of waste

3. Conversion to less hazardous materials using high heat 4. Long-term storage  uses several layers of clay and high density plastic liners at the bottom of the landfill

 NIMBY  The National Justice Advisory Council provides grants to help low- income communities in the United States identify and address local environmental problems.

 Hazardous waste is transported to developing countries.  Basel Convention (1992)– formed to restrict the international transport of hazardous waste.

 The 3 “R”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle  Voluntary simplicity: We are a High input/Throw- away society