Solid and Hazardous Waste

What is solid waste?

ia any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas

Who lead producer in solid waste?

The U.S at 44 tons per person per year

What is the majority of solid waste?

98.5% comes from industry, oil and gas production, mining, and agriculture 

What is municipal solid waste? 

solid material discarded by homes and businesses 

How much of municipal solid waste is paper, cardboard, and yard waste?

59%

What happens to solid waste in the U.S?

73% is either buried or burned

Only 27% is recycled or composted

Is litter a kind of solid waste?

Yes

What are the two approaches to dealing with the garbage produced? 

Waste management or high-waste 

Waste prevention or low-waste 

What is waste management or high-waste approach?

where we continue to produce wastes, then bury or burn them

What is waste prevention or low-waste approach?

Where we reduce waste, reuse, and recycle

What is waste reduction? 

eliminating or reducing overpacking + manufacturers should make products with less parts, or produce products that last longer, and products should be made that are easier to repair

Define reuse

is to use an item more than once

What is not reused?

disposable diapers, plastic utensils, disposable cameras, and paper towels

Whats an example of reusing?

collecting, washing, and refilling soda and beer bottles

How have tires been used? 

They are burned for energy and to make products like artificial reefs and “asphalt” roads 

How much can recycling and composting reduce waste by?

60-80%

What is composting?

the partial breakdown of organic plant and animal matter by aerobic bacteria to produce a material that can be used as fertilizer or topsoil

Where can organic waste come from?

food-processing plants, kitchens, yard waste, maure, municipal sludge, etc

What does composting do?

mimics nature

What is resource recovery?

is salvaging usable metals, paper, plastics, and glass from solid waste and selling them to manufacturing industries for recycling

What does resource recovery do? 

saves energy, reduces pollution, prolongs life of landfills, and extends the life of mineral supplies 

What is material-recovery facilities (MRFs)?

have machines which separate mixed waste, recover recyclable materials, which are then sold to manufacturing industries

What is source separation?

where homes and businesses remove and separate recyclables, which are then picked up by either the municipalities or by private haulers

What 8 states have comprehensive recycling programs>

Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island 

Obstacles to reuse and recycling?

Not many plants that recycle iron, aluminum, wastepaper, plastics, and tires

Metal industries in the U.S have not modernized

Americans are conditioned to a throwaway lifestyle

How does Ocean County recycle?

1) recyclables are picked up in your town

2) full truck is weighted at recycling center

3) truck empties on tipping floor

4) empty truck is weighted

5) recyclables are sorted, baled and sold

6) your town gets a check for its share of profits

How many buildings are at the Ocean county recycling center? 

two buildings; one for paper the other for co-mingled 

How is paper recycled to be made into newspaper?

“contaminants” removed

loaded on to truck

taken to Garden State Paper

dumped into acid

pulp made into rolls of newsprint

sold to asbury park press

What happens to mixed offices?

“Contaminants” removed

compacted and baled

sold to Marcal which produce paper towels, tissues, etc

What happens to corrugated?

“Contaminants” removed

compacted and baled

sold to mostly china to be made into new boxes

What has been the biggest problem to paper consumption in the U.S?

Overpacking 

What is co-mingled?

Tin, aluminum, plastics, glass

How is tin recycled?

removed by magnets

compacted and baled

Sold to companies that make canned products

How is aluminum recycled?

Aluminum does not stick to magnets so a current of electricity is passed through the cans to “trick” them to briefly magnetize them

compacted and baled 

And sold mostly likely to Anheuser Busch 

How many plastic types are there?

type 1-7

What plastics do Ocean county recycle?

1 is PETE (Polyethylene terephthalate) (soda bottles)

2 HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) (milk jugs)

How is plastic recycled?

Optic scanners separate 1s from 2s 

Bottles are compacted 

Baled

then sold to companies that will produce new plastic products 

What percentage of waste does plastic account for?

22% and

What are the different kinds of glass?

Clear = flint

Brown = amber

Green = green

How is glass recycled?

separated by optic scanners

crushed into sand

flint is melted to make new clear jars 

Amber is melted to make beer bottles

Green is no longer recycled 

What did the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act do in 1976

banned crude incinerators + banned open dumps

What percentage of municipal solid waste is burned?

15%

What are the pros of incinerators?

Kills bacteria 

drastically reduces volume and weight

doesn’t pollute water

doesn’t pollute air if properly equipped with pollution devices 

What are the cons of incinerators?

produce small amounts of hydrochloric acid, dioxins, and heavy metals

toxic ash residue produced must be landfilled

NIMBY people have been a problem

What is waste-to-energy incinerator?

the heat produced will generate electricity or heat nearby buildings 

How much of our municipal solid waste is buried?

57%

What are sanitary landfills?

land waste disposal site in which waste is spread in thin layers, compacted, and covered with a fresh layer of soil each day

What happens to sanitary landfills once they are full?

they are closed and used asparks, golf courses, etc.

What occurs beneath the sanitary landfills?

anaerobic decomposition produces methane which is good because we can capture the methane to heat

What occured with the fresh kills landfill?

the landfill in staten island closed in 1997 because it interfered with planes from Newark Airport

What is hazardous waste?

any solid, liquid, or containerized gas that can catch fire easily, is corrosive to skin tissue or metals, is unstable an can explode or release toxic fumes

When did concern over hazardous waste begin? 

in 1977 with the love canal incident 

Where can hazardous waste be found?

there are traces of it in all our water, rain, food, and blood

toxic chemicals are released from industry, and in addition a tremendous amount comes from homes, lawns, gardens,etc. + illegally dumped toxic waste is from illegal drug labs

Ways to deal with hazardous waste in order of priority

1) waste prevention by waste reduction, recycling and reuse

2) convert it to a less hazardous or non-hazardous material

3) perpetual storage, either in secured landfills or underground vaults

how is hazardous waste disposed of?

injected into deep wells, or stored on the surface in impoundments or landfills but this can contaminate the groundwater

When was The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act passed?

passed by congress in 1976

What did The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act require the EPA to do?

identify hazardous waste, set standards for their management, and re quires permits; called cradle-to-grave as it tracks hazardous waste from the time it is produced until the time it is disposed

When was the RCRA amended?

1984 which requires each chemical to be treated to the fullest extent possible before being landfilled

What happened in the 1990 at the EPA?

relaxed the 1984 standards that allows hazardous wastes to be diluted and injected into deep wells

What is the superfund program?

$16.3 billion fund for the cleanup of abandoned or inactive waste dump sites and leaking underground tanks in

When was the superfund program established? 

1980

Who has the largest number of superfund sites?

New Jersey with only 56 sites that have been cleaned