Chapter 12 Wastes in the Environment

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Chapter 12 Wastes in the Environment
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Old Automobiles

• In NA, close to 12 million vehicles are discarded
• 75 of a car can be reused or recycled
• Reduces air and water
• pollution
• Challenge recycling
• plastic

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Old Automobiles

• Automakers making changes
• Many companies developing completely recyclable
  cars
• EU requiring cars to
  
• be 95 recoverable
• by 2015

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Solid Waste Facts

• U.S. generates most per capita, with Canada
  second
• How much produced per person per day?
• Why do we produce so much solid waste?

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Solid Waste

• Most produced by mining, agriculture, industry
• Nonmunicipal solid waste
• 98.5 of waste produced

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Municipal Solid Waste

• Residential and commercial waste produced in an
  area
• Heterogeneous mixture

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Disposal Of Solid Waste

• Open Dumps
• Now illegal
• Sanitary Landfills
• Receive close to 55 of the municipal solid waste
  generated in NA
• Compacts waste and buries it under a shallow
  layer of soil
• Plastic is a special problem, Why?

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Sanitary Landfills

• 54 MSW
• Dig hole, add waste, compact, bury
• Liner at the bottom
• Leachate
• Liquid that seeps
• down
• Collection system

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Sanitary Landfills
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Problems With Landfills

• No location is ideal
• Methane may build up
• Leachate may contaminate water supplies
• They fill up
• Passing problem on

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Plastics

• Fastest growing part of the waste stream
• Why do we use so much plastic?
• Dont degrade
• Some countries banning/taxing use
• Photodegradable?
• Biodegradable?

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Incineration

• Burning solid waste
• Two benefits
• Volume reduced up to 90
• Produces heat that
• can be used
• Waste-to-energy
• incinerators
• Less CO2 produced

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Incineration

• Best materials
• Paper, plastics, rubber
• Tires
• Produce a lot of heat
• Use instead of coal?

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Types Of Incinerators

• Mass burn recover energy produced
• Modular small, less expensive
• Refuse-derived
• Remove noncombustible waste
• Burn combustibles only

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Mass Burn Incinerator
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Problems With Incineration

• Air pollution
• Large amounts of ash produced
• Bottom ash
• Fly ash
• No ideal location
• Expensive
• Passing problem on

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Composting

• Biodegradable solid waste
• Yard waste, food scraps, sewage sludge
• Forms compost
• Uses?

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Reducing Solid Waste

• Three goals
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Needs vs. wants
• Make good choices!

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Source Reduction

• Waste reduced at the source
• Aluminum cans 35 lighter
• Dry-cell batteries contain less mercury
• Dematerialization
• Decrease in size and weight of a product as
  technology improves
• Must be durable!

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How Can You Reduce?

• Use reusable grocery bags
• Eliminate your junk mail!
• Mail Preference Service
• Dont use paper plates, cups, towels
• Use a lunchbox reusable containers
• Buy in concentrate
• Buy in bulk

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How Can You Reduce?

• Buy durable products
• Use rechargeable batteries
• Buy items with the least amount of packaging
• Eat less fast food
• Think about your purchases before you buy

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Reusing Products

• Many reduce ideas also good for reusing!
• Donate or sell used items
• Should beverage containers be refillable?
• Why dont we reuse items?

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Recycling

• Reclaiming a resource
• Use it for same or different product
• 32 MSW
• Increased during the 1990s
• There must be a market for recycled goods
• Buy items made from recycled materials!

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Recycling Benefits

• Conserves resources
• Saves energy
• Creates jobs

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Recycling Concerns

• Generates pollution de-inking paper
• Separation may be difficult
• Market fluctuates
  
• Still encourages consumption

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Recycling Paper

• 1/3rd of waste in Canada is paper and
  paperboard
• Denmark 97 of its paper is recycled
• Legislation can make a difference how?
• Buy recycled paper!

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Recycling Glass

• Each year Canadians throw away 6 million tones of
  glass
• Forms cullet
• Make new products
• Add to roadways glassphalt

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Recycling Metals

• Aluminum
• Big success story!
• In U.S. 44 beverage cans recycled
• Other metals also recycled
• May be difficult why?

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Recycling Plastic

• In Canada, plastic equals 7 of total weight in a
  typical landfill
• May be more expensive to recycle why?
• Challenge different kinds
• Separation necessary

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Recycling Tires

• EPA indicates 36 of tires recycled
• What are they used for?
• Future holds many opportunities

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Recycling electronics and Electrical Equipment

• In Canada, provincial responsibility to regulate
  electronic waste
• Take Back program exists in a number of
  promises
• E-waste is still a massive problem in Canada
• Exporting used electronics to places like Guiyu,
  China is a huge problem

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Integrated Waste Management

• Development of an overall waste management plan
• Use the three Rs and other disposal methods

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Hazardous Waste

• Any discarded chemical that threatens human
  health or the environment
• Reactive, corrosive, ignitable toxic substances
• 1 of North America solid waste stream
• 700,000 chemicals known to exist

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Love Canal

• Neighborhood in Niagara Falls, NY
• 1977
• Hooker Chemical Co.
• Disposed of toxic waste in canal
  
• After filled, covered with topsoil
  
• and donated land

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Love Canal

• School and houses built
• Toxic waste oozed out
• 1978 many families evacuated
• 1990 area safe for resettlement

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Types of Hazardous Wastes

• Acids
• Dioxins
• Abandoned explosives
• Heavy metals
• Infectious waste
• Nerve gas
• Organic solvents
• PCBs

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Dioxins

• Group of 75 chemical compounds
• Formed by combustion of chlorine compounds
• Incineration, smelters, paper mills

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Dioxins

• Emitted in smoke
• Settle on land
• Incorporated into food web
• Virtually everyone has them in their body
• Carcinogenic

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PCBs

• Polychlorinated biphenyls
• Group of 209 industrial chemicals
• manufactured between 1929-1979
• Cooling fluids, vacuum pumps, inks
• Dangers discovered in 1968

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PCBs

• Harm skin, eyes, reproductive organs, GI tract
• Hormone disrupters
• Intellectual impairments
• Carcinogenic?
• Hard to get out of
• environment
• Some bacteria can degrade

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Managing Hazardous Waste

• Technology exists for environmentally sound
  management
• Very expensive!
• No country currently has an effective program
• Using fewer
• chemicals would help

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Chemical Accidents

• In Canada, each province has a hazmat team
• Most involve oil, gasoline, petroleum
• Principle of inherent safety
• Use less toxic materials
• Fewer dangerous accidents
• 1984, Bhopal chemical spill, one of the worst in
  worlds history

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Public Policy Toxic Waste Cleanup

• Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act
• Canadian Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air
  Act, Canada Water Act, Ocean Dumping Control Act

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Basel Convention

• A global convention under the United Nations
• Goal is to harmonize hazardous waste disposal
  among nations
• As of October 2006, 168 countries were a part of
  the convention

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Managing Toxic Waste Production

• Three ways
• Source reduction
• Conversion to less hazardous materials
• Long-term storage

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Source Reduction

• Most effective approach
• Green chemistry
• Redesigning chemical processes
• Reduce environmental harm
• Will not eliminate hazardous waste

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Convert Materials

• Reduce dangerous compounds to less dangerous ones
• High-temperature incineration
• PCBs ? water, CO2
• Still must dispose of ash

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Long-Term Storage

• Hazardous waste landfills
• Strict environmental criteria and design
• Leaching must be prevented

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Hazardous Waste Landfill
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Eco Canada Career Focus

• Consider a career as a Hazardous Waste Technician
• Handle, process, pack and track hazardous waste
  for shipment, treatment and disposal

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Case Study Montreals Waste Management Plan

• Waste management is a big concern for industrial
  societies
• Montreal implemented a Metropolitan Waste
  Management Master Plan (MWMMP)
• Plan outlines reduction, recovery, reuse, and
  disposal
• Focuses on increased citizen involvement

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Case Study Montreals Waste Management Plan

• Aims to recover and reuse 60 of waste
• Is the MWMMP meeting its goals?
• Meanwhile other cities in Canada are diverting
  between 52and 60 of their waste