The Love Canal: there is no away

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The Love Canal there is no away

• This tragedy demonstrates the difficulty in
  lining exposure to a variety of chemicals to
  specific health effects.
• Hooker Chemical and Plastics had buried drums of
  toxic chemicals in an old canal, covered the mess
  with clay and sold the land to the Niagara Falls
  school board.
• Toxic chemicals remained to haunt the area

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CHAPTER 14

• SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE

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Wasting Resources the high waste approach -
solid waste

• Solid waste is any unwanted or discarded material
  that is not a liquid or a gas
• 98.5 comes from industry, agriculture and mining
• 1.5 is municipal solid waste of this 30 is
  recycled or composted, 70 is dumped
• Read the list of stuff we throw away, p. 356 e.g.
  enough disposable diapers to reach the moon and
  back - seven times!

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Wasting Resources the high waste approach -
hazardous waste

• Definition - (1) solid or liquid containing one
  or more toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic or
  teratogenic compounds exceeding established
  limits, (2) catches fire easily, (3) reactive or
  unstable may release toxic fumes, (4) corrosive
• Congress added other categories - radioactive,
  mining or fossil fuel byproducts, hydrocarbons
• 95 hazardous waste is not regulated by hazardous
  waste laws b/c not legally hazardous

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Producing less waste and pollution

• Waste management assumes a high-waste approach
  move and dispose of all that stuff
• Preventing pollution assumes a low-waste
  approach which wastes are potential resources
  which wastes should not be used
• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle chemically of
  biologically treat the rest and bury it properly

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Less waste is best

• What are the 5 benefit of reducing waste and
  pollution given on p. 358-9?
• Most initiatives to reduce waste either required
  no capital investment or paid it back soon.
• What was 3Ms waste reduction results?
• Solutions Buy less, buy products that waste
  fewer resources and produce less pollution

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Less waste is best - 2

• Use less hazardous products - baking soda
• Green design and life cycle assessment - design
  to last longer and recycle easily
• Eliminate unnecessary packaging
• Use trash taxes and pay-as-you-throw
• Shift to true service economy e.g. leasing do
  this by eliminating subsidies for use of
  unrecycled material and tax pollutants

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Reuse refillable containers

• To extend resource supplies (high quality matter
  resources) and reduce energy use and pollution
  (low quality matter resources)
• U.S. used refillable bottles before 70s then
  local bottling companies disappeared.
• Denmark has banned beverage containers that
  cannot be reused a violation of European Unions
  packaging waste law?
• Lunchboxes, shopping bags and shipping containers

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Recycling composting

• Soil microorganisms break down organic matter in
  presence of oxygen
• Produces organic fertilizer reclamation use
• Large scale programs must be placed carefully
  (put next to land fill), control odor, (filter
  air or keep within closed container), and exclude
  toxic materials

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Recycling two types

• Primary (closed loop) - new products of same type
  made from wastes - best option
• Secondary (open-loop) - different products made
  from wastes
• Remember that just because label says it is
  recyclable doesnt mean it is recycled.
• Pay-as-you-throw - cost of garbage collection
  depends on what you throw away

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Centralized recycling

• Mixed solid wastes recycled in materials recovery
  facilities (MRFs) -
• once trash is mixed, it is expensive to separate
• plants are expensive to build and maintain
• may produce toxic pollutants and ash
• Source separation approach
• use compartmentalized collection vehicles
• less pollution litter, cheaper and easier

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Economics of recyling

• What do critics say? (p. 366)
• Should recycling programs pay for themselves?
• Do waste management programs pay for themselves?
• What is the enviromentalists answer?
• So what stands in the way of recycling? No
  environmental of health costs in market prices,
  subsidies for resource extracting industries, and
  lack of steady market for recycled materials

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Case studies

• Recycle aluminum cans or replace them with
  refillable bottles
• Wastepaper recycling - what does it save?
• Postconsumer waste versus preconsumer waste
• Plastic recycling - plastics made from
  petrochemicals --gt hazardous wastes
• separation is difficult because of different
  types
• plastic price is artificially low
• need to find more uses for recycled plastics

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Detoxifying, burning, burying, and exporting
wastes

• Detoxification - Denmark has best program
• Bioremediation - biological treatment of
  hazardous wastes use bacteria mimic nature 1/3
  cost of incineration contaminated groundwater?
• Phytoremediation - natural or genetically
  engineered plants remove contaminants
• Burning solid and hazardous wastes - mass burn
  incinerators --gttoxic air pollutants have been
  banned in Sweden Japan incinerates most

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Detoxifying, burning, burying, and exporting
wastes - 2

• Land Disposal
• sanitary landfill - solid wastes spread in
  layers, compacted and covered daily with clay or
  plastic foam clay and impermeable plastic liner
  to prevent lechate (treated as regular sewage)
• well run landfills can be odor free and used for
  other purposes later
• many materials decompose very slowly encourage
  waste production instead of pollution prevention
  and waste reduction

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Land disposal -2

• Anaerobic decomposition of organic wastes
  produces methane which must be collected and
  burned
• If toxic gases escape could --gt cancers
• Groundwater contamination in 85
• Leakage is delayed, but occurs with liners
• Larger, regional landfills are replacing small
  local ones.

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Land disposal - 3

• Deep-well disposal (below aquifer) of hazardous
  wastes - adequately regulated?
• Surface impoundment-lined ponds,pits,lagoons
• solids settle on plastic liners, volatiles
  vaporize
• Hazardous wastes stored in drums under- ground

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Land disposal - 4

• Storage of hazardous wastes in above ground
  reinforced concrete buildings
• Concern about shipments of hazardous wastes by
  trucks and trains to landfills, incinerators
  etc. 34,500 toxic chemical accidents

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Detoxifying, burning, burying, and exporting
wastes - 3

• Exporting wastes to other counties, states or
  countries (developing)
• Unethical waste disposal firms
• 1994 - ban on all exports to developing
  countries U.S. (only) did not support ban
• Environmental answer - decrease production of
  hazardous wastes

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Case Studies - Lead

• Lead exposure - childrens deaths problems
• nervous system impairment, lowered IQ, short
  attention span, hyperactivity, hearing damage,
  behavior disorders
• has decreased due to banning leaded gasoline
• no really safe level for lead in blood
• How to protect children from lead poisoning -
  read nine suggestions

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Case Studies

• Byproduct in formation of chlorinated
  hydrocarbons - TCDD is dioxin
• collect in soil and fatty tissue breast milk
• carcinogenic level currently seen in U.S.
  population produces most powerful effects
• elimination of dioxin production would not be
  economic sacrifice.

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Case Studies - Chlorine

• Problems associatedwith chlorine compounds
• they are persistent, accumulate in body fat, and
  are harmful to health
• Goal is to phase out use use substitutes
• Used in plastics, solvents, and paper pulp
  bleaching
• We could clean without chlorine ozone could be
  used for bleaching purification

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Hazardous waste regulation in U.S.

• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act - 1976 and
  1984 - EPA to identify and set standards for
  management for hazardous wastes
• Superfund Act - Comprehensive Environmental
  Response, Compensation and Liability Act - 1980
  State and federal funds used to clean up
  abandoned hazardous waste dump sites EPA must
  find liable culprit for polluter pays principle
• 1375 sites are on national priority list toxic
  military dumps

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Solutions Achieving a low waste society

• Grassroots action - bottom-up change land fills
  and dumps often in poor areas - environmental
  justice
• NIMBY - but wastes must end up in someones
  backyard
• NIABY- not in anyones backyard or NOPE
• Persistent organic pollutants - dirty dozen
  included DDT
• What are 4 key principles (p. 379)