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` Area IV: Pollution IVA4: Solid Waste
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` 24-1 Wasting Resources Solid waste is another kind of resource; the U.S. is not utilizing this resource well l U.S. produces 33% of world’s solid waste l solid waste is unwanted/discarded material that is not liquid/gaseous goods and services produce it indirectly municipal solid waste (garbage/trash) comes mostly from homes and workplaces l solid waste is a sign of a society’s waste of its resources
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` Fig. 24-2 Sources of waste in U.S.
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` 24-2 Producing Less Waste l waste management: high-waste approach that accepts waste production as a result of economic growth it attempts to reduce environmental harm it transfers the waste from one part of the environment to another
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` 24-2 Producing Less Waste l waste reduction: low-waste approach sees solid waste as a potential resource, which should be reused, recycled, or composted it discourages waste production it encourages waste reduction and prevention saves matter and energy resources, reduces pollution, helps protect biodiversity, and saves money (maybe)
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` Fig. 24-3 Dealing with waste
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` 24-2 Producing Less Waste l to cut waste production and promote sustainability: consume less use less materials and energy and produce less waste and pollution by redesigning manufacturing processes and products develop products that are easily repaired, reused, remanufactured, composted, or recycled design products with long lives eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging
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` 24-2 Producing Less Waste l a design revolution has encouraged the use of less material and energy for each unit of goods and services products that use less material have been substituted for previous products products, which take less material/energy to produce, have been made l a resource productivity revolution will get 75–90% more work/service from each unit of material resources that we use
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` 24-3 Ecoindustrial Revolution The ecoindustrial revolution will reduce waste production by copying nature l one manufacturer’s wastes become raw materials for another manufacturer; “industrial ecosystem” or “biomimicry” this reduces the costs of controlling pollution it reduces exposure to toxic and hazardous materials; improves the health of workers biomimicry stimulates companies to pursue creative, beneficial products (for example, 3M Company’s Pollution Prevention Pays (3P))
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` Fig. 24-5 Industrial ecosystem
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` 24-3 Ecoindustrial Revolution l a service flow/product stewardship economy is based on selling services instead of goods; customers lease or rent the services that goods provide product uses minimum amount of materials product lasts as long as possible product is easy to maintain, repair, remanufacture, reuse, or recycle this type of service is based on eco-leasing (for example, Xerox Corporation and Ray Anderson’s INTERFACE company)
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` 24-4 Reuse Reusing products helps reduce resource use, waste, and pollution; it also saves money l developing countries reuse their products, but there is a health hazard for the poor l U.S. e-waste goes to developing countries l large city dumps expose scavengers to toxins and infectious diseases l refillable containers create jobs, costs less for the product, and lessen waste l many items can be reused/borrowed
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` Fig. 24-6 Energy consumption
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` 24-5 Recycling Recycling collects waste materials, turns them into useful products, and sells the new products l five types of materials can be recycled: paper products glass aluminum steel some plastics l recycling saves money and creates jobs, more than burning or landfilling wastes
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` Fig. 24-8 Benefits of recycling
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` 24-5 Recycling l recycling processing consists of two methods; primary recycling is preferred primary/closed-loop recycling: new products of the same type are created from the waste: new newspaper from old newspaper secondary/downcycling converts waste materials into different products l pre-consumer/internal waste is generated from a manufacturing process that is recycled
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` 24-5 Recycling l post-consumer/external waste is generated by consumer use of products l composting biodegradable organic wastes is a great way to mimic nature l solid waste recycling can be done in a materials-recovery facility (MRF) machines shred and separate the mixed waste and sell raw materials to manufacturers wastes are recycled and/or burned to produce energy, but such plants are expensive must process a large input of garbage
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` Sorting trash
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` Bales
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` Fig. 24-9 Materials recovery facility (MRF)
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` 24-5 Recycling l source separation recycling relies on households and businesses to separate their trash this produces less air and water pollution lower startup costs and operating costs saves more energy and provides more jobs pay-as-you-throw (PAUT) waste collection systems charge for the mixed waste that is picked up but not for the recycled, separated materials
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` 24-5 Recycling l plastic recycling is not feasible because of these problems plastics are difficult to isolate in different materials not much individual plastic resin is recoverable per product recycled resin is much more expensive than virgin plastic resin
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` Fig. 24-10 How plastics are made
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` 24-5 Recycling l a new polymer, polyactide (ACT), made by Cargill and Dow is being used to produce plastic containers, which can be composted for a soil conditioner l the economics of recycling depends on the costs one counts environmental and health benefits outweigh the costs of recycling some materials cost more than it is worth
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` 24-5 Recycling l factors that hinder reuse and recycling are: cost of a product does not include harmful environmental health costs in its life cycle resource-extracting industries receive government tax breaks and subsidies while recycle and reuse industries do not landfill charges are low in the U.S. (due to lots of space?) the demand and price for recycled materials fluctuates so less interest in committing to it
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` Fig. 24-11 Life-cycle analysis of a shirt
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` 24-6 Burning and Burying Solid Waste l municipal solid waste is burned in waste-to- energy incinerators, which produces steam for heating or producing electricity l disadvantages of burning solid waste include: high operating costs air pollution concerns citizen opposition to the process
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` Fig. 24-12 Waste-to-energy incinerator
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` 24-6 Burning and Burying Solid Waste l most solid waste is buried in landfills, which can leak toxins into soil and water open dumps in the ground hold garbage; sometimes it is covered with dirt sanitary landfills spread the solid waste out in thin layers, compact it, and cover it daily with clay/plastic foam modern landfills line the bottom with an impermeable liner, which collects leachate leachate is collected, stored in tanks, and then sent to a sewage treatment plant
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` Fig. 24-14 Sanitary landfill
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` 24-10 Achieving a Low-Waste Society l NIMBY: Not In My Backyard l NOPE: Not On Planet Earth or ‘not in anyone’s backyard’ l in 2000, a global treaty to control twelve persistent organic pollutants (POPs) was developed; 50 countries must sign for effectiveness POPs are toxic chemicals stored in the fatty tissue of humans and other organisms 12 chemicals, the dirty dozen, need to be phased out, detoxified, and/or isolated
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` 24-10 Achieving a Low-Waste Society l four principles for transitioning to a low- waste society everything is connected there is no place to send wastes “away” diluting waste is not the solution to pollution the best solution is to prevent waste and pollution and, then, reuse/recycle the materials that we use
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