Solid Waste Notes
Whats is solid waste
Reducing Waste
- any material that we discard, that is not liquid or gas, is solid waste
- Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
- solid waste from home or office
- Industrial Solid Waste
- solid waste produced from mines, agriculture or industry
- Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
- Hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment
- Ignitability - Ignitable wastes create fires under certain conditions or are spontaneously combustible, or have a flash point less than 60 °C (140 °F)
- Corrosivity - Corrosive wastes are acids or bases (pH less than or equal to 2 or greater than or equal to 12.5) that are capable of corroding metal containers, such as storage tanks, drums, and barrels.
- Reactivity - Reactive wastes are unstable under "normal" conditions. They can cause explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when mixed with water.
- Toxicity - Toxic wastes are harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed (e.g., containing mercury, lead, etc.). When toxic wastes are disposed of on land, contaminated liquid may drain (leach) from the waste and pollute ground water. Toxicity is defined through a laboratory procedure called the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP).
- Major types: Organics and Heavy Metals, Radioactive wastes
- on-site (at home)
- open dump
- Unsanitary, draws pests and vermin, harmful runoff and leachates, toxic gases
- Still accounts for half of solid waste
- Several thousand open dumps in the USA
- sanitary landfill
- Layer of compacted trash covered with a layer of earth once a day and a thicker layer when the site is full
- Require impermeable barriers to stop escape of leachates: can cause problem by overflow
- Gases produced by decomposing garbage needs venting
- 1 acre/10,000 people: acute space problem: wastes piling up over 150 million tons/year;
- number of landfills down from 8000(1988) to 3091(1996)
- Methane Production
- Avoid: Swampy area/ Flood plains /coastal areas, Fractures or porous rocks, High water table.
- Prefer: Clay layers, Heads of gullies
- incineration
- Solves space problem but:
- produces toxic gases like Cl, HCl, HCN, SO2
- High temp furnaces break down hazardous compounds but are expensive ($75 - $2K/ton)
- Heat generated can be recovered: % of waste burnt
- Japan 67%, Switzerland 80%, USA 6%
- Solves space problem but:
- ocean dumping
- Out of sight, free of emission control norms
- Contributes to ocean pollution
- Can wash back on beaches, and can cause death of marine mammals
- Preferred method: incineration in open sea
- Ocean Dumping Ban Act, 1988: bans dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste
- Dredge spoils still dumped in oceans, can cause habitat destruction and export of fluvial pollutants
- Gases: Methane, Ammonia, Hydrogen sulphide
- Heavy Metals: Lead, Chromium in soil
- Soluble substances: chloride, nitrate, sulfate
- Surface Run-offs
- Vegetation: may pick up toxic substances
- Plant residue in soil
- Paper/plastics etc – blown by the wind
Reducing Waste
- Incineration, compacting
- Hog feed: requires heat treatment
- Composting: requires separation of organics from glass and metals
- Recycling and Reusing
- Recycle of glass containers: 5 million tons
- Plastic: marked by types for easy recycling
- Converted into Fibers, trash bags, plastic lumber, fill for pillows, insulation etc
- Junked cars: 150 – 200 kg of plastics: soon to be recycled
- USA recycled 83 million tons of MSW.
- This provides an annual benefit of 182 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced,
- comparable to removing the emissions from 33 million passenger cars.
- But the ultimate benefits from recycling are cleaner land, air, and water, overall better health, and a more sustainable economy.
Chapter 12 “Waste” Notes—Guiding Questions
p. 303-309
(1) What is solid waste? How much of it do we produce in the U.S. each year? Is any discarded material that isn’t a liquid or a gas, 10 billion tons is created.
(2) Why has the amount of waste produced doubled in the U.S. since the 1960s? Many products are designed to be used once and then thrown away.
(3) Compare and contrast biodegradable versus non biodegradable materials. Provide an example of each as well. Biodegradable is material that can be broken down by living things into simpler chemicals that can be consumed by living things, ex. Newspaper, paper bags, cotton fibers, and leather.
Non biodegradable are the opposite they cant be broken down by living things, ex. Polyester, nylon and plastic
(4) Where does most of our solid waste come from (about 70%)? Manufacturing and mining.
(5) What is municipal solid waste? What makes up the largest portion of this waste (Figure 12-8)? The trash produced by households and businesses, paper makes up the largest part.
(6) What percentage of our trash is recycled? Over 25% of our trash is recycled
(7) Where does our trash that is not recycled go (you can use Figure 12-9)? Landfills and incinerators
(8) Describe three problems with storing waste in landfills. Leachate, methane, and space the landfill takes up
(9) When is NC estimated to run out of landfill space (use Figure 12-12)? 5- 10 years.
(10) Describe two problems with incinerating waste. Toxic fumes, pollutes the air.
p. 303-309
(1) What is solid waste? How much of it do we produce in the U.S. each year? Is any discarded material that isn’t a liquid or a gas, 10 billion tons is created.
(2) Why has the amount of waste produced doubled in the U.S. since the 1960s? Many products are designed to be used once and then thrown away.
(3) Compare and contrast biodegradable versus non biodegradable materials. Provide an example of each as well. Biodegradable is material that can be broken down by living things into simpler chemicals that can be consumed by living things, ex. Newspaper, paper bags, cotton fibers, and leather.
Non biodegradable are the opposite they cant be broken down by living things, ex. Polyester, nylon and plastic
(4) Where does most of our solid waste come from (about 70%)? Manufacturing and mining.
(5) What is municipal solid waste? What makes up the largest portion of this waste (Figure 12-8)? The trash produced by households and businesses, paper makes up the largest part.
(6) What percentage of our trash is recycled? Over 25% of our trash is recycled
(7) Where does our trash that is not recycled go (you can use Figure 12-9)? Landfills and incinerators
(8) Describe three problems with storing waste in landfills. Leachate, methane, and space the landfill takes up
(9) When is NC estimated to run out of landfill space (use Figure 12-12)? 5- 10 years.
(10) Describe two problems with incinerating waste. Toxic fumes, pollutes the air.
Non-Renewable Resource Notes
Resources
Traditional energy
Non-renewable resource
Peat – is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter and id the first stage in the formation of coal
Peat is still mined as fuel in Ireland and England
Advantages and disadvantages of oil
Advantages
Pros and cons of natural gas
Pros
Cons
Hydrolic Fracturing or fracking is technology used in drilling for oil and natural gas
Pros and Cons of Coal
Pros
Cons
To nuclear
Adv
Traditional energy
- Wood
- Field crops
- Fecal material
- Peat
- Coal
- Oil
- Natural gas
- Nuclear
Non-renewable resource
Peat – is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter and id the first stage in the formation of coal
Peat is still mined as fuel in Ireland and England
Advantages and disadvantages of oil
Advantages
- ample supply 42-93 years
- Low cost
- High net energy yield
- Easily transported within and between countries
- Low land use
- Technology is well developed
- Efficient distribution system
- need to find substitutes within 50 years
- Large government subsides
- Environmental cost not included in market price
- Artificially low prices encourages wastes and discourages search for alternative
- Pollutes air when produced and burned
- Releases CO2 when burned
- Can cause water pollution
Pros and cons of natural gas
Pros
- Ample supple
- High net energy yield
- Low cost
- Less air pollution than fossil fuels
- Lower CO2 emissions than other fossil fuels
- Easily transported by pipelines
- Low land use
- Good fuel for fuel cell, gas turbines, and motor vehicles
Cons
- Nonrenewable resource
- Releases CO2 when burned
- Government subsidies
- Environmental costs not included in market
- Methane can leak from pipelines
- Difficult to transfer from one country to another
- Can be shipped across ocean only as highly explosive LC
Hydrolic Fracturing or fracking is technology used in drilling for oil and natural gas
Pros and Cons of Coal
Pros
- Amplw supplie 225-900 years worth
- High net energy yield
- Low cost
- Well developed technology
- Air pollution can be reduced with improved technology
Cons
- Severe land disturbance , air pollution, and water pollution
- Severe threst to human health when burnes
- Environmental cost not inckuded in market price
- Large government subsides
- High Co2 emission when produced and burned
- Radioactive
To nuclear
Adv
- Large supply
- Low environmental impact
- Emits 1/6 as much CO2 as coal
- Moderate land and water pollution
- Moderate land use
- Low risk because pf accidents because of multiple safety system
- Cannot complete economically without huge government subsides
- Low net energy yield impact
- Environmental costs not included in market price
- Risk of catastrophic accidents
- No widely accepted