1. Solid and Hazardous Waste
Chapter 16

2. Reusing and recycling old automobiles
75% of a car’s parts can be recycled or reused
25% (glass, metals, plastics, rubber, fabrics, etc.) end up in landfills
About 37% of the iron and steel scrap reprocessed in US comes form old cars
Produces 87% less air pollution, 76% less water pollution, than mining and refining an equivalent amount of ore
Japan, 2015, 95% of cars must be recycled/recovered

3. Solid Waste Learning Objectives:
Distinguish between municipal and nonmunicipal solid waste
Describe the features of a modern sanitary landfill and relate some of the problems associated with sanitary landfills
Describe the features of a mass burn incinerator and relate some of the problems associated with incinerators
Explain the composting process

4. Solid Waste
US generates more solid waste per capita than any other country = 2.1 kg per day
Canada is a close second
Materials that we throw away would be repaired, reused or recycled in less affluent nations

5. Solid Waste

6. Solid Waste Types of Solid Waste Municipal Solid Waste
Combined residential and commercial waste produced by a municipal area - 2% of total waste
Solid materials discarded by homes, offices, stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals, prisons, libraries, and other commercial and institutional facilities
Paper and paperboard, yard waste, plastics, food waste, metals, rubber, leather, textiles, wood and glass
Non-municipal Solid Waste
Generated by industry, agriculture, and mining

7. Solid Waste

8. Solid Waste Disposal of Solid Waste Open Dumps Sanitary Landfills
Old method, now illegal. Unsanitary, smelly, supported populations of disease-carrying animals (rats, flies, etc)
Sanitary Landfills
Waste is compacted and buried under a shallow layer of soil
Incineration
Burning of waste. Reduces volume by 90%
Composting
Yard and food waste are converted into compost, which has nutritional properties for soil

9. Solid Waste

10. Solid Waste Sanitary Landfills Replaced open dumps
Receive 54% of municipal waste
Does not pollute local surface or groundwater
Double-liner system at the bottom of landfill
Plastic, clay, plastic, clay
Collect leachate (liquid that seeps through solid waste) and gases produced during decomposition
Strict guidelines and management, but still problems

11. What a Scientist Sees

12. Solid Waste Special Problem of Plastic
Amount of plastic in solid waste is growing
Packaging is about half the amount of plastic
Chemically stable, doesn’t decompose
Some areas have banned use of certain plastics
Alternatives
Photodegradable
Degrade when exposed to light-doesn’t work if buried
Biodegradable
Decomposed by microorganisms, but preliminary studies show it doesn’t work in landfills

13. Solid Waste Incineration Benefits: Problems:
Volume of solid waste is reduced by 90%
Produces heat that can be used warm buildings or generate electricity
Best materials for burning are paper, plastic, rubber
Glass and food waste must be removed
Problems:
Air pollution, CO, particulates, heavy metals, toxic materials
Large quantities of ash, which require proper disposal in hazardous waste facilities
Expensive to run due to costly pollution control devices

14. Solid Waste

15. Solid Waste

16. Solid Waste Composting
Yard waste is a substantial portion of municipal solid waste
Best recovery method is to convert it into soil conditioners, provide nutrients to the soil
Compost
Mulch
Other compostables
Food scraps, sewage sludge, agricultural manure
Uses
Landscaping in public parks and playgrounds
Sold to gardeners
First became popular in Europe, now part of integrated waste management in US as well.

17. Solid Waste

18. EnviroDiscovery The US-China Recycling Connection
In the 2000s, China became biggest importer of America’s recyclable materials “scrap”
Used in China as raw material for Chinese factories
China depends on scrap for economic growth

19. Global Climate Change
How do municipal and nonmunicipal solid waste differ?
What are some features of sanitary landfills? What problems are associated with them?
What are the main features of a mass burn incinerators? What problems are associated with incinerators?
How do composters work?

20. Reducing Solid Waste Learning Objectives Define source reduction
Summarize how source reduction, reuse, and recycling help reduce the volume of solid waste
Define integrated waste management

21. Reducing Solid Waste Goals of Waste Prevention
Reduce the amount of waste as much as possible
Purchase products that have less packaging, last longer or are repairable
Decrease consumption: “Do I REALLY need it?”
Reuse products as much as possible
Recycle materials as much as possible

22. Reducing Solid Waste

23. Reducing Solid Waste Source Reduction Reusing Products
Products are designed and manufactured in ways that decrease the amount of solid and hazardous waste they produce
Dematerialization- making smaller and more durable products to replace larger more wasteful products
Reusing Products
For example, refillable glass beverage bottles, which get reused by bottlers

24. Reducing Solid Waste Recycling Materials
Many materials can be collected and processed into new products
Conserves natural resources, more environmentally benign
Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7000 gallons of water, 4100 kwh of energy and 3 cubic yards of landfill space
In 2007 annual recycling rate in US was 374 lbs per person
US recycles about 32% of solid waste 24

25. Reducing Solid Waste Recycling Paper Recycling Glass
US currently recycles 55% of paper and paperboard (Denmark, 97%)
Recycling Glass
28% glass waste recycled in US
Costs less than glass made from virgin materials
Containers are crushed to make cullet
New containers are made from cullet
Different colors are separated before crushing to make cullet more valuable

26. Reducing Solid Waste Recycling Metals
Aluminum - best success stories in the US
49% of beverage cans are recycled
Requires less energy to recycle than to make new can from raw materials

27. Reducing Solid Waste Recycling Plastic
12% of containers and packaging in the US
37% of recycled plastic is used to make carpet, auto parts, tennis ball felt, polyester cloth
Depending on economy (price of petroleum), sometimes it’s cheaper to make plastic from raw materials than to recycle
46 different plastic types are common, many are mixtures.
All must be separated before recycling 27

28. Reducing Solid Waste Recycling Tires
Used for retreat tires, playground equipment, trash cans, garden hoses, rubberized asphalt for pavement
Carpets, roofing materials, molded products
Lots of research in product development
Also burned in waste-to-energy incinerators to produce electricity

29. Environmental Insight

30. Environmental Insight30

31. Reducing Solid Waste Integrated Waste Management
A combination of the best waste management techniques into a consolidated program to deal effectively with solid waste
Waste minimization, waste prevention (reduce, reuse, recycle)

32. Environmental InSight

33. Global Climate Change What is source reduction?
How do source reduction, reuse, and recycling reduce the volume of solid waste?
What is integrated waste management?

34. Hazardous Waste Learning Objectives: Define hazardous waste
Briefly characterize two types of hazardous waste: dioxins and PCBs

35. Hazardous Waste Also called Toxic Waste 1% of solid waste stream in US
Discarded chemical that threatens human health or the environment
Dangerously reactive, corrosive, ignitable, or toxic chemicals
Solids, liquids, gases
700,000 different chemicals
Love Canal disaster
Hooker Chemical Company covered toxic dump with topsoil and donated to school board
Toxic waste from abandoned dump leaked into neighborhood and contaminated homes and people
700 families were evacuated
Lead to the creation of Superfund Act
Holds polluters accountable for the cost of cleanup

36. Hazardous Waste

37. Hazardous Waste Types of Hazardous Waste Dioxins
Many have been discussed in other chapters
Dioxins
Group of 75 similar chemicals produced from combustion of chlorine compounds
Incineration of medical and municipal wastes
Are incorporated in food web, humans ingest dioxins from contaminated meat, dairy, and fish
Bioaccumulated in body fat
Cause several kinds of cancer in lab animals
Likely affect human reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. Passed in human milk to infants

38. Hazardous Waste Types of Hazardous Waste
PCBs-polychlorinated biphenils
Group of 209 industrial chemicals
Prior to 1970 ban by EPA, were dumped into landfills, sewers, fields-this why still dangerous today
Serious health problems, liver/kidney damage, eyes, skin, reproduction
Endocrine disrupters of thyroid gland, may be carcinogenic
Several bacteria that degrade PCBs 38

39. Hazardous Waste

40. Hazardous Waste

41. EnviroDiscovery Handling Nanotechnology Safely
Nanomaterials: unique materials and devices at the ultrasmall scale of atoms and molecules
Potential uses in medical treatment for cancer, solar panels to make electricity, heat resistant glass.
Might pose health and safety risks
EPA has adopted precautionary approach
Burden of safety proof will be on companies that sell nanotechnology

42. Global Climate Change What is hazardous waste?
What are two sources of dioxins? Of PCBs?

43. Managing Hazardous Waste
Learning Objectives:
Compare the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (the Superfund Act).
Explain how green chemistry is related to source reduction

44. Managing Hazardous Waste
Chemical Accidents
NRC – National Response Center
On scene coordinator to determine size and chemical nature of incident
Chemical Safety Programs have traditionally stressed accident mitigation and adding safety systems to existing procedures
More recently, focus on accident prevention
Principle of inherent safety: industrial processes are redesigned so that dangerous accidents are less likely to occur

45. Managing Hazardous Waste
Public Policy and Toxic Waste Cleanup
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Instructs EPA to identify which wastes are hazardous, and to provide guidelines and standards for hazardous waste programs
Superfund Act - CERCLA
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
Provides for the cleanup of abandoned and inactive hazardous waste sites
At many of these sites, hazardous wastes have migrated deep into the soil and have polluted groundwater

46. Managing Hazardous Waste

47. Managing Hazardous Waste
Managing toxic Waste Production
Superfund Act deals only with waste produced in the past, not currently
Most effective approach is source reduction
Green Chemistry: commercially important chemical processes are redesigned to significantly reduce environmental harm
Using less hazardous or non-hazardous materials
Second best approach is to reduce toxicity
By chemical, biological, or physical means
Incineration is an example, but ash is hazardous

48. Managing Hazardous Waste
Hazardous Waste Landfills
Waste that is not completely detoxified must be placed in long-term storage
Toxic Waste Landfills
Subject to strict environmental criteria and design features
Layers of compacted clay and plastic liners
Leachate is collected and detoxified
Deep-well Injection
For toxic liquid waste, such as explosives and pesticides
Waste is injected deep underground between two impermeable layers

49. Managing Hazardous Waste

50. Case Study High-Tech Waste
Average computer is replaced every 18–24 months
Not broken, just rapid technological change
Old computers work, but have no resale value
Thrown away
80% of electronic devices go to landfills
Huge waste of high quality plastics and metals, including toxic compounds
3-8lbs of lead per computer. Also cadmium, mercury, copper, tin palladium, etc.
20% of electronic devices are e-cycled
Many are shipped overseas for recycling and recovery of useful materials, often in hazardous working conditions

51. Case Study

52. Global Climate Change
How are the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act alike and what is the focus of each act?
How is green chemistry applied to reducing sources of hazardous waste?