Solid and Hazardous Waste Chapter 13 Waste; Waste-Disposal Methods; Shrinking the Waste Stream; and Hazardous and <a href="/keyword/toxic-waste/" >toxic waste</a> s WASTE According to EPA, US produces 11 billion tons of solid waste annually. About half is agricultural waste. More than one-third is mining related. Industrial Waste - 400 million metric tons. Hazardous/Toxic - 60 million metric tons. Municipal (domestic &amp; business) Waste 230 million metric tons. Municipal Waste Stream in the U.S. 4.6 lbs per person / per day or 1679 lbs/yr (0.8 ton/yr). 2/3 tons/person/yr 5-10X as much as developing countries per capita 2X as much as Europe or Japan per capita 2 3 The Waste Stream Waste stream - the steady flow of varied wastes we all produce In spite of recent progress in recycling, many recyclable materials end up in the trash. Problem: refuse mixing of recyclable and non-recyclable materials, hazardous and non-hazardous materials 4 Municipal Solid Waste Composition in the US (by weight before recycling) Cunningham &amp; Cunningham 2006 (EPA 2000) 5 <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> Methods 6 <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> Methods Open Dumps And some Ocean Dumping Predominant method of <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> in developing countries Illegal dumping problem Groundwater contamination 7 Ocean Dumping http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.h 8 <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> Methods (cont'd) Sanitary Landfills More than 1,200 of the 1,500 existing landfills in the U.S. have closed. Many major cities must export their trash. 9 Sanitary Landfills 10 <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> Methods (cont'd) Exporting Waste `Garbage Imperialism' Although most industrialized nations in the world have agreed to stop shipping hazardous and <a href="/keyword/toxic-waste/" >toxic waste</a> to less developed countries, the practice still continues. Within rich nations, poor neighborhoods and minority populations are more likely to be the recipients of LULUs (locally unwanted land uses). <a href="/keyword/toxic-waste/" >toxic waste</a> s are sometimes &quot;recycled&quot; as building materials, fertilizer or soil amendments. NIMBY Not In My Back Yard! BANANA Build Absolutely Nothing Around Nobody Anytime! NOPE Not On Planet Earth! 11 <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> Methods (cont'd) Incinerator Types Mass Burn - Everything smaller than major furniture and appliances loaded into furnace. Creates air pollution problems. Refuse-Derived Fuel - Refuse is sorted to remove recyclable and unburnable materials. Higher energy content than raw trash. Reduces disposal volume by 80-90%. Residual ash sent to landfills and usually contains toxic material. 12 Mass-Burn Garbage Mass-Burn Garbage Incinerator Incinerator 13 Shrinking the Waste Stream Recycling the reprocessing of discarded materials into new, useful products Reusing vs. recycling Recycling successes, eg New Jersey has 60% recycling rate 1/2 - 2/3 of all aluminum cans recycled Problems: fluctuating market prices, contamination 14 Recycling Benefits, Incentives Recycling saves money, energy, raw materials, and land space, while also reducing pollution. Recycling encourages individual awareness and responsibility. Japan - probably the most successful recycling program in the world Creating incentives for recycling - public policies, consumer demand Some make a living by gathering up recyclables!! 15 16 U.S. Recycling Rates 99.2 (EPA 2007 in red) US 40-20% PET recycling and China 80% PET recycling! Plastic - Polyethylene terephthalate 64.3 Cunningham &amp; Cunningham 2006 (EPA 2003) 48.6 54.5 64.1 28.1 28.0 34.8 17 U.S. Recycling Rates 18 U.S. Recycling Rates 19 Rabanco Recycling 20 UW Paper Recycling 21 Municipal Waste, 1995 22 Recycling Shrinking the Waste Stream (cont'd) Composting Energy Biological degradation of organic material under aerobic conditions. Combustion (fire, steam) Gasification (syngas, methanol) Anaerobic decomposition (methane, ethanol) Disassembly and recycling of obsolete consumer products. Reusable glass container makes an average of 15 roundtrips between factory and customer before it has to be recycled. Demanufacturing Reuse 23 Composting Seattle Tilth 24 West Point Wastewater Treatment Plant Renton Wastewater Treatment Plant 25 26 Producing Less Waste The best way to reduce our waste stream is to produce less waste Excess packaging of food and consumer products is one of our greatest sources of unnecessary waste. Photodegradable plastics break down when exposed to UV rays. Biodegradable plastics can be decomposed by microorganisms. There are problems with photodegradable and biodegradable plastics, eg, don't degrade completely, littering is considered ok with these degradable products ??? 27 Resource Management Solving the Waste Problem? (Input management) Conservation (Output management) Waste Reduction Reuse and Recycle Removal Remediation Used by Society Restoration Reduce Efficiencies Improved Substitutions sources sinks 28 Hazardous and <a href="/keyword/toxic-waste/" >toxic waste</a> s What is hazardous waste? - Discarded material containing substances known to be ignitable, corrosive, explosive or reactive, fatal, toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, or teratogenic to humans or other life forms. May contain either hazardous or toxic material. U.S. industries generate about 265 million metric tons of officially classified <a href="/keyword/toxic-waste/" >toxic waste</a> s each year. 29 Hazardous Waste Producers - United States 30 Hazardous <a href="/keyword/waste-disposal/" >waste disposal</a> Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 1976 requires rigorous testing &amp; mgmt of <a href="/keyword/toxic-waste/" >toxic waste</a> . (`cradle to grave' records) Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund Act) 1980 (rapid containment, cleanup, etc &amp; transfer cost to those at fault) &amp; 1995 (lessens cost to those at fault or time to cleanup) Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA communities right to know) - Toxic Release Inventory 1984 (companies report on toxic releases annually) 31 Tracking Hazardous Wastes Toxic Release Inventory Cradle to Grave 32 Superfund Sites National Priority List placed 1,671 sites on Superfund cleanup list by 2004 33 National Priority List (NPL) NPL sites - waste sites that are especially hazardous to human health or environmental quality (1,671 superfund sites) EPA estimate: 36,000 seriously contaminated sites in the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) estimate: 400,000 seriously contaminated sites 34 Superfund Sites Total costs for hazardous waste cleanup in the US are estimated between $370 billion and $1.7 trillion. For years, most of the funding has gone to legal fees, but this situation has improved over past several years. Studies of Superfund sites reveal minorities tend to be over-represented in these neighborhoods. 35 How Clean is Clean? Brownfields - Contaminated properties that have been abandoned or are not being used `up to its potential' because of pollution concerns. Up to one-third of all commercial industrial sites in urban core ...