Module 4 - Solid Waste Exam

Non-Hazardous Waste

Regulated by state and local govs; Also regulated by Resource Conservation And Recovery Act; Divided into municipal solid waste and industrial solid waste

RCRA

Banned open dumping of waste; Set minimum standards of municipal and industrial waste landfills

Municipal Solid Waste

Waste from homes, institutions, and commercial sources consisting of everyday items; Excludes municipal wastewater treatment sludges (ex. food scraps, furniture, etc.); 292.4 million tons produced in US annually; Tripled since 1960

Industrial Solid Waste Definition

Variety of non-hazardous materials that result from the production of goods or products (ex. waste from electric power generation and manufacturing of materials such as pulp and paper, iron and steel, glass and concrete)

US Waste in Society

Largely paper and paperboard; Plastics have increased; Small changes, but overall large amount of waste increase);

4 Dimensions of Municipal Solid Waste Disposal

Recycling, Composting, Combustion, Landfilling

EPA Hierarchy of Municipal Waste Treatment

Source Reduction most favorable (or reuse goods when applicable); Recycle or compost;

Combust with energy recovery methods; Treatment and disposal in a landfill is last resort

Advantages of EPA Hierarchy of Waste Management

Reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, Prevents pollution generated by use of new materials; Decreases amount of materials shipped to landfills; Preserves natural resources; Opens new manufacturing employment opportunities; Saves energy

Waste Management Trends

Recycling has increases; Burning trash in a way that recovers energy; Very good at recycling paper/paperboard products, but not really good at recycling plastics; Great takeoff in recycling in 80s, but have since plateaued and dropped off; Not “closing the loop” and making goods sustainable; Composting is still increasing significantly

Problems with Growing Volume of Non-Hazardous Waste

Landfills are filling and are difficult to expand; Getting approval to create new landfills is difficult (a lot of public resistance); Leaves waste combustion as one of the few scalable outlets to deal with the waste; Increased waste stream also results in additional release into aquatic environments

Waste Minimization

Use of source reduction and/or environmentally sound recycling methods prior to entry recovery, treatment, or disposal of wastes

Source Reduction

Reduces/eliminates the generation of waste at the source and refers to any practice that reduces the use of hazardous materials in production processes; Minimize amount of waste generated, Use less material per product, Make products that last longer, Abandon the “planned obsolescence” approach (get iPhones knowing they will eventually stop working)

Recycling

Reuse of materials in original or changed forms rather than discarding them as wastes; Reuse centers, grass cycling, home composting, business recycling, drop-off centers, etc. ; Good at recycling batteries; Tires/glass are often not recycled

“Drop and Swap” Household Hazardous Waste Programs

Provide disposal path for hazardous waste that can’t be put in municipal waste; Acts as pathway for source reduction as well 

Composting

Aerobic biological decomposition of organic materials to produce a stable humus-like product; Produces a useful material that resembles soil and can be used in gardening

Incineration of Municipal Waste

Reduces total volume of waste to 5-15% of original, and reduces mass to 15-25% of original; No attempt to separate trash into components for value; Can generate energy; At high temps, glass and aluminum in the trash melt; Metals from residues can be recycled into scrap metal

Key Factors in Proper Incineration

Maintain proper temp (hot enough to fully burn); Appropriate waste residence time (long enough to burn); Appropriate amount of air introduced (enough oxygen to burn); Proper mixing (enough exposure to fully burn)

If Waste Incinerators are Operated Improperly

Formation/release of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; Formation of CO; Release of Mercury; Formation of polychlorinated Dioxins, Deibenzofurans, etc.; Bottom ash and fly ash may contain adherent toxicants and high levels of metals; Sometimes ash must be treated as hazardous waste due to high metal concentrations

Incineration Negative Aspects

Deposition of pollutants falls disproportionately on nearby residents (environmental justice issue); Landfill is only alternative for some materials and products of incineration; Air emissions may be potentially hazardous to human health and the environment; Economics often require subsidies or fee

Incineration Plants Prevalence

75 facilities in the US; Some states classify this as “renewable energy”

Types of Landfills

Municipal Solid Waste Landfills (receive household waste, industrial solid waste, construction/demolition debris, non-hazardous sludge); Hazardous Wast Landfills receive hazardous waste

Sanitary Landfills

Solid waste is buried, began in the early 1900s, and were little just pits where the waste would eventually be covered; Groundwater is in permanent contact with garbage because water table is too high; No liner/barrier/impermeable layer; Thin soil allowed rainfall to percolate all the way through; No monitoring system

Federal Minimum Standards for Landfills

Location restrictions, Composite liners requirements, Leachate (liquid permitting through landfill) collection and removal systems, Groundwater monitoring requirements, Closure and post-closure care requirements, Corrective action provisions, Financial assurance

Landfill Location Importance

Can’t be set near airports because birds drawn to landfills are hazardous to planes; Can’t be set near flood regions or areas with high water tables

Modern Sanitary Landfill

Waste is buried in a way to ensure there is not environmental contamination or risks of explosions, and with monitoring and treatment systems on-site; Bottom and secondary liner barriers; Leachate system to remove any water that does percolate through; Gas recovery is introduced to prevent anaerobic organisms from breaking down trash and reducing methane (methane buildup can lead to explosion); A cover

How a Modern Sanitary Landfill Works

Bottom lined with clay and sealed with thick plastic sheet; Flexible membrane layer holds toxic chemicals; Leachate sump collects leachates which are then collected and treated; Garbage is piled, compacted, and covered; Anaerobic bacteria aid in decomposition and produce CH4 gas

Landfill Cover Systems

Prevent physical contact/exposure to waste; Reduce precipitation infiltration; Once covered, commonly used for recreational use (parks, gold courses, etc.)

Permits for new MSW Landfill

State: Solid waste facility permit, Environmental impact assessment, Wetlands protection permit, Wastewater discharge permit; Local Permits: Zoning permits; Need to have post-closure care in place

Landfill Post-Closure Care Plan

Description of required monitoring and maintenance activities; Name, address, phone number of person to contact; Description of planned uses of land; Financial assurances to close and monitor site for 30 years; Have ability to remediate if necessary

Dangers of MSW Landfills

46% of MSW landfills are located uphill and within 1 mile of a drinking water well; Leachates contain toxic heavy metals and solvents/cleaning agents

Air Pollution from Landfills

Methane poses a fire hazard and is a greenhouse gas; VOCs are potentially carcinogenic and may create odors or respiratory irritation

Poorly Managed Landfills

Not impermeable to water above or below; Topsoil and cap can be disturbed by vegetation, weathering, collapse, burrowing animals, sunlight, cracking, human activity, etc.; Old landfills frequently contain historical contamination with hazardous waste; Leachate can be toxic; May contain large numbers of microorganisms that can create slime, clogging the leachate collection systems

Megafills

Centralized regional landfills; Take in 5,000-10,000 tons of trash per day; More cost effective

Hazardous Waste

Any solid waste which, because of its quantity, concentration, or properties, may have harmful effects on human health or the environment when it is improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or mismanaged; Generated from liquids, solids, gases, and sludges; Definition of solid waste is not limited to wastes that are physically solid

Listed Waste

Hazardous; On the EPA’s list of wastes associated with manufacturing and industrial processes defined as hazardous

Universal Waste

Hazardous; Batteries, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment, and bulbs; Federal regulations don’t require that the materials be managed in a way that prevents release to the environment; In general, materials managed as universal waste can be stored for a year and are not required to be shipped with a manifest or by a hazardous waste transport

Characteristic Waste

Not specifically listed by the EPA, but may still be considered hazardous if it exhibits Ignitability, Corrosivity, Reactivity, or Toxicity

Mixed Waste

Waste that contains both radioactive and hazardous waste components

Ignitable Chemicals

Generally liquids with flash points below 140 degrees F

Reactive Chemicals

Ignite or create poisonous vapors when mixed with other products or can explode when exposed to heat, air, water, or shock

Corrosive Chemicals

Generally aqueous wastes with a pH less than or equal to 2.0 or greater than or equal to 2.5

Toxic Chemicals

May cause long-term illness (such as cancer); Pesticides, paint-thinners, many auto products, some cleaners, etc.

Household Hazardous Waste

Pesticides, cleaning products, automotive products, painting supplies, and other flammable and nonflammable products;

Medical Waste

Hazardous Source; Chemicals, infectious agents, and radioactive materials; More than 3.5 million tons produced annually in the US; Previously regulated by Medical Waste Tracking Act which was passed to combat health risks of medical waste washing up on beaches; Preferred treatment option is incineration (required for potentially infectious waste)

Industrial Hazardous Waste

Heavy metals from plating operations, toxic chemicals, solvents, and residues from the manufacture of pesticides

Radioactive Waste

Hazardous; Spent nuclear fuels and weapons materials, and tailings from uranium processing

Mining Wastes and Extraction Wastes

Toxic chemicals left over from mining operations include acids and heavy metals

Radioactive Waste Categories

High-Level Waste (spent nuclear fuel); Transuranic Waste (defense-related; contains man-made radioactive elements heavier than uranium); Uranium Mill Tailings (sandy waste material from extracting uranium ores); Low-Level Waste (a catch-all term for all other types of radioactive waste); Naturally occurring radioactive materials and particle accelerator-produced radioactive wastes

Radioactive High-Level Waste

No long-term disposal site; Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository is designed to take this waste if opened; Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 specifies that high-level waste is to be disposed underground in deep geologic repositories; Would be the only “disposal” facility in the US; Important for national security; Stored in “wet storage pool” —> “dry cask storage”

Transuranic Waste Disposal

Disposed in Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; Very well-suited facility that is geologically stable, far from aquifer formations, and shielded from precipitation; Only facility to take transuranic waste in the US

Amount of Hazardous Waste Produced

400-700 million tons generated annually in the world; 35 million tons generated annually in the US; Underground disposal is overwhelmingly preferred method of disposal

Environmental Justice Concerns with Hazardous Waste Disposal

High-income countries generate majority of waste; Some low-income countries will accept international shipments of hazardous waste for compensation; This practice may endanger health of local population if proper disposal doesn’t exist; UN is intervening - Basal Convention mandates that countries exporting waste fully disclose its contents and receiving countries have to decline shipments

Hazardous Waste Landfills

Greater protection against leakage and can have a leakage detection system; Much more extensive monitoring during operation and after closure; Types of hazardous waste are typically grouped together

Problems with Hazardous Waste Landfills

Often private owned (no long-term control); No restriction on waste form (waste not well separated); Collected leachate must be treated or drummed and sent elsewhere; Plastic liners may degrade and fail; Vented air may be toxic

Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites in US

40,000; Potential exposure of hazardous waste to locals; High cost to remediate, Reduced value of property, Potential ecological damage

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976

Provides EPA with authority to control and track hazardous waste from “cradle to grave”, which is achieved through a “manifest system” (need to document when it was created, transported etc); Defines and governs treatment, storage, disposal facilities, and methods of waste management; Defines which wastes are hazards; Set standards for facilities and issued operating licenses

Toxic Substances Control Act

Authorized EPA to issue rules requiring testing of specific chemicals and to establish regulations that restrict manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce, and use/disposal of chemicals

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

Developed national program for emergency response, information gathering and analysis, liability for responsible parties, and site cleanup; Created “Superfund” to collect taxes, cost recoveries, and fines/penalties used in emergency cleanups; Superfund is funded by taxes on the petrochemical industry through 1995; EPA can recover funds via litigation against Potentially Responsible Parties (“polluters pay principle”)

Substance Priority List

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease ranked hazardous substances in a list; Prioritization of problematic substances based on a combination of their frequency, toxicity, and potential for human exposure at a NPL sites (not a list of “most toxic” substances)

National Priority List

CERCLA established; List of sites of national priority among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the US; sites eligible if they have a sever enough “score” on the Hazard Ranking System; Considers the HAZARDS present, likelihood of release of the hazard that could result in EXPOSURE, and the people/sensitive environments affected by release; States and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry can make sites eligible regardless of HRS score

Average Remediation Cost of an NPL Site

$50 million

RCRA and CERCLA Sites Referral

Many sites assessed under superfund, Some are pre-screened out, Remainder placed in Active Site Inventory, Majority require no further action, Some become NPL sites, Some NPL-Caliber sites are referred to a Non-NPL Clean-up Program; 43% deferred to RCRA, 32% referred to state, 20% referred to EPA removal, 5% other cleanup programs

____ people live within ___ miles of a Superfund Site

73 million, 3 miles; Minority groups disproportionately burdened by this (environmental justice issue)

Brownfields

Formerly used for industrial, manufacturing, or commercial uses and became abandoned or underutilized due to known or suspected contamination; over 450,000 brownfields in the US; Prospective purchasers/developers are exempt from liability of future site contamination as long as they don’t impede the performance of a response action

UConn Landfill

Hazardous site; CT Department of Environmental Protection issued an order requiring UConn to thoroughly evaluate and remediate contamination; Previously used as chemical and ash disposal; Wetlands also became contaminated; Chemical Pits nearby used to dispose of organic chemicals, VOCs, solvents, and pesticides; Neither were lined, and rainfall produced leachate rich in chemicals

UConn Landfill Removal

Removal of 40,000 cubic yards of soil/sediment; Restoration of 3 acres of wetlands and creation of 2 acres of new wetlands; Installation of impervious cap and leachate collection system; Commitment to groundwater monitoring for 30 years; Remediation completed in 2008

UConn Brownfield Site

UConn Waterbury is near former Brownfield; 120,000 tons of contaminated soil were removed; 63 vacant buildings were demolished

Love Canal

Original Superfund; Was originally going to be used to provide electricity to an affluent community, but the project was no longer needed and thus fell through; In 1942, Hooker Chemical received permission to use the site as a chemical waste dump; HCC drained the canal and lined it with clay (relatively ahead of its time in terms of disposal practices); HCC disposed 21,000 tons of hazardous waste at the site in 55 gallon barrels; Capped the landfill in clay; HCC then sold the Love Canal waste site to the Niagara Falls Board of Education (needed land for a new school during the Baby Boom): HCC disclosed the presence of hazardous waste on the property, but included a liability limitation clause, attempting to absolve themselves of responsibility of the detrimental impacts of waste at the site; At least 12 chemical carcinogens were discovered later on; Residential area that had developed experienced unusually high precipitation in the 70s; landfill collapsed in certain sections, leading to the drums rising, basements seeping with oily residue and water contamination; HCC technically didn’t do anything illegal; Declared a threat to human health in 1978; President Carter allowed 239 families to relocate, and later 700 additional families; Political motivation in 1980 culminated in the passage of the CERLA/Superfund legislation

Valley of the Drums

A.L. Taylor owned a drum recycling facility and allowed for dumping of hazardous waste drums no the site without a permit; Taylor passed away in 1977, leaving the environmental contamination unresolved; In 1978, Kentucky Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection investigated the site; 100,000 waste drums on site, many in poor condition; Major EPA cleanup removed 17,000 drums

Persistent Organic Pollutants

Set of toxic chemicals that are persistent in the environment and are able to last for several years before breaking down; Resistant to chemical and biological degradation; Able to travel long distances through repeated evaporation and deposition; Lipophilic, accumulating in the fatty tissues of living creatures; Results in bioaccumulation of POPs up the food chain; Creatures “at the top of the food chain” experience the greatest concentration of POPs and highest chronic exposure; Long-lived within people; Found in every living organism on Earth; 10/20 on the Substance Priority List

UN Environmental Program - “Dirty Dozen”

Set of POPs, many of which have been subjected to international regulations or have been discontinued from use in the US: DDT (agricultural insecticide - Silent Spring), Polychlorinated Biphenyls - PCBs (industrial chemical and plasticize), Dioxins (unintended byproduct of burning garbage and industrial processes)

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Form from burning fossil fuels, wood, garbage, and tobacco; Charred meats are a dietary exposure to PAHs; Naphthalene is the most fundamental PAH (active component in moth balls); Effects depend on the molecular structure; Benzo(a)pyrene is a potent carcinogen

DDT

Concerns of carcinogenicity, endocrine disruption, and neurological effects; Most high-income countries have banned the use of DDT; Silent Spring; Previously credited with saving millions of lives by preventing malaria infections; Hermann Muller won the Nobel Prize for its discovery and positive impacts on public health

Dioxins

Family of chemical compounds that are unintentional byproducts of certain industrial, non-industrial, and natural processes, usually involving combustion; Only 30/419 are regarded as having significant toxicity; Prototypical dioxin is TCDD; Stable, persistent, and bioaccumulate; Acute exposure can lead to skin lesions and altered liver function; Chronic exposure can lead to impaired immune system, impaired nervous system development, endocrine disruption, and carcinogenesis

Agent Orange

Dioxins are byproducts of herbicide production; Potent herbicide containing traces of TCDD was sprayed by US military during Vietnam War to clear foliage; 368 pounds of TCDD sprayed over Vietnam during the war; General population is still suffering from this contamination

Dioxins from Waste Incineration

Incomplete combustion of goods leads to the formation of byproducts other than CO2; Dioxin compounds form from incomplete combustion of goods containing chlorine atoms; Especially true for burning of polyvinyl chloride (third most common plastic in the world)

Dioxins in E-Waste

Electronic waste, especially in low/middle-income countries (e-waste transfers from high-income countries to low-income countries is banned by the UN); Prior to banning the import of e-waste was the largest destination from high-income countries; Many lower income countries burn circuit boards, wires, and other plastics to recover the copper and steel, which produces high levels of dioxins

Other Important Exposure Sources of Dioxins

High-temperature industrial processes; Pulp and paper industry; Traffic exhaust; Cigarette smoke; Bioaccumulate (countries frequently monitor dioxins within food supply)

TCDD Toxicity

LD 50 varies greatly among different species

Dioxin-Like Compounds

PCDDS, PCDFs, and PCBs have similar chemical structures and thus similar health effects (GENERALLY)

PCBs

Prior to being banned, they were used as insulating fluids in transformers/capacitors and as industrial lubricants; Bioaccumulate; Known to be present at 500 Superfund sites in the NPL

Carson River Site

Extensive Mercury contamination; In 1859 a large deposit of silver and gold was discovered; Mercury was used to assist in extraction, causing the release of 14 million pounds of Hg into the environment

Mercury

Small-scale gold mining using mercury is practiced in 70 countries (20% of global gold supply): Mercury-gold mixture is heated to burn off the Hg, leaving the gold to collect, but polluting the environment; Also in degassing of Earth’s crust, Fossil fuel burning, Industrial releases; Dietary Sources (2 micrograms/day, especially seafood); Dental amalgam Sources (less than 5 micrograms/day, cavity filler material is silver-mercury)

Inorganic Mercury

Includes metallic mercury and mercury vapor as well as mercurous or mercuric salts; Inorganic metallic mercury is used in gold extraction; Mercuric Chloride is present in some cosmetic products worldwide

Organic Mercury

Compounds containing mercury-carbon bonds; Previously used in farming seed preservatives as fungicides; Methyl mercury is infamous for bioaccumulation in seafood, and is associated with chronic diet toxicity; Dimethyl mercury is extremely acutely toxic and is associated with occupational hazards

Mercury as a Non-Essential Metal

Humans do not need mercury for any metabolic or physiological function, and consuming mercury only decreases health

Minamata Japan

Large amount of industry; A lot of methyl mercury was released into the sea around the city; Bioaccumulated in fish and consumed by local population, causing the largest incidence of mercury poisoning ever; Minamata disease (methyl mercury poisoning) caused over 1000 deaths and permanently disabled at least 2250 people (neurodevelopment); '“Cerebral palsy” epidemic was recognized, including in cats receiving fish scraps; Factories were producing acetaldehyde; Association with increased methyl mercury in umbilical cords and the production rate of acetaldehyde by the factories; Individuals exposed to about 50 micrograms/day

Iraq Incident

1971 shipments of wheat and barley were sent from the US and Mexico to Iraq; Grain shipment was intended to be used for planting crops, and seeds were coated with fungicide, containing methyl mercury; Labeling not the shipment was in English/Spanish, not Arabic; Shipment arrived late, and farmers were not aware of the fungicide hazard, and used it for animal feed and making bread; There were 6200 methyl mercury poisoning cases, with 500 deaths; Individuals exposed to 500 micrograms/day

Green Chemistry

Design of chemical products and processes that reduces/eliminates the use and generation of hazardous substances; Production of hazards must be recognized as a design flaw; Recognizes hazard as a molecular property that chemists can influence in the same way that we design molecules for color, solubility, melting point, reactivity, etc.; Change in how to deal with environmental problems from circumstantial to intrinsic

Circumstantial

Use, exposure, handling, treatment, protection, recycling, costly

Intrinsic

Molecular design for reduced toxicity, Reduced ability to manifest hazard, Inherent safety from accidents or terrorism, Increased potential profitability

How is Green Chemistry in Effect Today?

Some industries are geared towards cleaning up after wasteful chemical synthesis; However, persistence of chemicals in the biosphere and in our bodies is a major global health issue

Green Chemistry Changes

Defense and aerospace, Automotive, Household cleaners, Cosmetics, Agriculture, Electronics, Pharamaceuticals