1. Solid and Hazardous Waste

2. WASTE
According to EPA, U.S. 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

3. U.S. Domestic Waste

4. WASTE DISPOSAL METHODS
Open Dumps
Open, unregulated dumps are still the predominant method of waste disposal in developing countries.

6. WASTE DISPOSAL METHODS CONT’D
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 U.S. have been required to control hazardous substances.

7. Sanitary Landfills

8. 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 becoming scarce.
Increasingly, communities are rejecting new landfills.
Old landfills are quickly reaching capacity and closing.

9. Secure Landfills

10. WASTE DISPOSAL METHODS CONT’D
Incineration and Resource Recovery
Energy Recovery - Heat derived from incinerated refuse is a useful resource.
Steam used for heating buildings or generating electricity.

11. Mass-Burn Garbage Incinerator

12. Incinerator Cost and Safety
Initial construction costs are usually between $100 and $300 million for a typical municipal facility.
Tipping fees for incinerators are often much higher than landfills.
EPA has found alarmingly high toxin levels in incinerator ash.

13. 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.

14. HAZARDOUS AND TOXIC WASTES
EPA estimates U.S. 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.

15. 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.
Corrosive
Explosive or highly reactive.

16. Love Canal
Founded by William Love, who was trying to design a city that ran off hydroelectric power.
Began digging a canal to Niagara Falls, but ran out of money.
Hooker Chemical bought the land and used the canal as a dumpsite for several hazardous chemicals.
The dumpsite was buried, planted over, and eventually sold to the city of Niagara Falls for $1.

17. Khian Sea waste disposal incident
In August of 1986, a cargo barge was loaded with 14,000 tons of toxic incinerator ash from Philadelphia.
New Jersey no longer accepted their waste as of 1984.
The barge was to be dumped on a man-made island on the Bahamas, but it was turned away.
Also turned away by the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Bermuda.

18. Khian Sea waste disposal incident
In January of 1988, the barge was able to unload 4,000 tons in Haiti, claiming it was “topsoil fertilizer”.
Greenpeace alerted Haiti officials that it was toxic ash. Haiti ordered the ash be reloaded, but the barge left.
Attempted to unload the cargo in Morocco, Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
Name of the ship was changed twice
Eventually dumped into the Atlantic and Indian Ocean in November 1988.

20. HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL
Exporting Waste
Although most industrialized nations have agreed to stop shipping hazardous and toxic waste to less-developed countries, the practice still continues.
Basel Convention in 1994 passed an agreement that banned the export of hazardous waste.

21. 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.

22. Cradle to Grave

23. Federal Legislation
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).
Also known as the “Superfund”
Aimed at rapid containment, cleanup, or remediation of abandoned toxic waste sites.
Enacted in response to the Love Canal disaster

24. CERCLA
Government does not have to prove anyone violated a law, or what role they played in a superfund site.
Anyone associated with a site can be held responsible for the entire clean-up cost.

25. Superfund Sites in Lake County
Petersen Sand and Gravel (Libertyville)
Site of illegal dumping of paint and solvents.
Cleanup completed, redeveloped as Independence Grove
Yeoman Creek Landfill (Waukegan)
Improperly lined landfill

26. Superfund Sites in Lake County
Johns-Manville Corp. (Zion)
Asbestos disposal site
Waukegan Harbor (Waukegan)
Multiple contaminated sites – hydraulic fluid contamination in the harbor, waste from coke plant in the soil

27. Superfund Sites in Lake County
H.O.D. Landfill
Improperly sealed, vinyl chloride entering groundwater.
Retrofitted with methane collection, used to heat nearby high school.

28. Superfund Sites in Lake County
Vulcan-Louisville / Fansteel
Former smelting plant, used for industrial waste disposal.

29. SHRINKING THE WASTE STREAM
Recycling
Recycling is the reprocessing of discarded materials into new, useful products.
Currently, about two-thirds of all aluminum cans are recycled.
Half of all aluminum cans on grocery shelves will be made into another can within two months.

30. Recycling
Potential Problems
Market prices fluctuate wildly.
Contamination
Most of 24 billion plastic soft drink bottles sold annually in the U.S. 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.

31. U.S. Recycling Rates

32. Recycling Cont’d
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.

33. Recycling Cont’d
Benefits Example
Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves 4 tons of bauxite, 700 kg of petroleum 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.

34. SHRINKING THE WASTE STREAM
Composting
Biological degradation of organic material under aerobic conditions.
Demanufacturing
Disassembly and recycling of obsolete consumer products.

35. SHRINKING THE WASTE STREAM CONT’D
Producing Less Waste
The cheapest and most effective way to reduce waste is to not produce it at all.
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.

36. Wastewater Treatment
Human sewage is a waste product that is unavoidable, but it can be treated to minimize environmental impacts.
Screening removes any trash or large objects that may have entered the sewage stream.

37. Wastewater Treatment
Primary treatment holds the sewage in a large containment vessel.
Heavy solids that sink to the bottom are removed.
Grease and oils that float to the top are also removed.
May also be aerated to remove as much of the smell as possible.
The sludge that is leftover from these treatments is decomposed with bacteria or composted.

38. Wastewater Treatment
Secondary treatment adds bacteria to decompose the dissolved organic matter.
The bacteria must then be killed once the process is complete. This is usually done with chlorine.
Tertiary treatment is any additional treatment, such as the removal of nitrates and phosphates.

39. Wastewater Treatment Plant

40. Sewer Overflow
Sewage treatment plants have a limited amount of water that can be processed at any given time.
If a flood, snow melt, or other excess water event occurs, raw sewage may be dumped directly into the nearby water body.
Sewage overflow plume in Milwaukee Harbor