Urbanization and Solid and Hazardous Waste

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Urbanization and Solid and Hazardous Waste

• Chapter 13

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13-1 What Are the Major Population Trends and
Problems in Urban Areas?

• Concept 13-1 Urbanization continues to increase
  steadily, and most cities are unsustainable
  because of high levels of resource use, waste,
  pollution, and poverty.

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Half of the Worlds People Live in Urban Areas
(1)

• Urbanization
• Urban growth
• Natural increase
• Immigration from rural areas
• Pushed from rural areas to urban areas
• Pulled to urban areas from rural areas

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Half of the Worlds People Live in Urban Areas
(2)

• Four major trends
• Proportion of global population living in urban
  areas is increasing
• Number and size of urban areas is mushrooming
• Megacities, hypercities
• Urban growth slower in developed countries
• Poverty is becoming increasingly urbanized
  mostly in developing countries

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Case Study Urbanization in the United States (1)

• Four phases between 1800 and 2008
• Migration from rural areas to large central
  cities
• Migration from large central cities to suburbs
  and smaller cities
• Migration from North and East to South and West
• Migration from cities and suburbs to developed
  rural areas

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Case Study Urbanization in the United States (2)

• Environmental problems decreasing
• Older cities
• Deteriorating services
• Aging infrastructures

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Urban Sprawl Gobbles Up the Countryside (1)

• Urban sprawl
• Contributing factors to urban sprawl in the U.S.
• Ample land
• Federal government loans
• Low-cost gasoline highways
• Tax laws encouraged home ownership
• State and local zoning laws
• Multiple political jurisdictions poor urban
  planning

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Urban Sprawl Gobbles Up the Countryside (2)

• Effects of urban sprawl
• Megalopolis
• Bowash

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Urbanization Has Advantages

• Centers of
• Economic development
• Innovation
• Education
• Technological advances
• Jobs
• Environmental advantages

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Urbanization Has Disadvantages (1)

• Huge ecological footprints
• Lack vegetation
• Water problems

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Urbanization Has Disadvantages (2)

• Concentrate pollution and health problems
• Excessive noise
• Different climate and experience light pollution

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Life Is a Desperate Struggle for the Urban Poor
in Developing Countries

• Slums
• Squatter settlements
• Shantytowns
• Terrible living conditions
• What can governments do to help?

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Case Study Mexico City

• Urban area in crisis
• Severe air pollution
• Water pollution
• 50 Unemployment
• Deafening noise
• Overcrowding
• Traffic congestion
• Inadequate public transportation
• 1/3 live in slums (barrios) or squatter
  settlements
• What progress is being made?

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13-2 How Does Transportation Affect Urban
Environmental Impacts?

• Concept 13-2 A combination of plentiful land,
  inexpensive fuel, and expanding networks of
  highways in some urban areas has resulted in
  dispersed cities that depend on motor vehicles
  for most transportation.

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Cities Can Grow Outward or Upward

• Compact cities
• Hong Kong, China
• Tokyo, Japan
• Mass transit
• Dispersed cities
• U.S. and Canada
• Car-centered cities

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Motor Vehicles Have Advantages and Disadvantages
(1)

• Advantages
• Mobility and convenience
• Jobs in
• Production and repair of vehicles
• Supplying fuel
• Building roads
• Status symbol

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Motor Vehicles Have Advantages and Disadvantages
(2)

• Disadvantages
• Largest source of outdoor air pollution
• Accidents death and injury
• Helped create urban sprawl
• Traffic congestion

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It is Difficult to Reduce Automobile Use (1)

• Full-cost pricing high gasoline taxes
• Difficult to pass in the United States
• Strong public opposition
• Mass transit not an option in most cities
• Dispersed nature of the U.S.
• What about a tax shift?

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It is Difficult to Reduce Automobile Use (2)

• Raise parking fees
• Tolls on roads, tunnels, and bridges into major
  cities
• Car-sharing
• Charge a fee to drive into a major city
• It is working in some cities

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It is Difficult to Reduce Automobile Use (3)

• Bicycles
• Heavy-rail systems
• Light-rail systems
• Buses
• Rapid-rail system between urban areas

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13-3 How Can Cities Become More Sustainable and
Livable?

• Concept 13-3A Urban land-use planning can reduce
  uncontrolled sprawl and slow the resulting
  degradation of air, water, land, biodiversity,
  and other natural resources.
• Concept 13-3B An ecocity allows people to choose
  walking, biking, or mass transit for most
  transportation needs, recycle or reuse most of
  their wastes, grow much of their food, and
  protect biodiversity by preserving surrounding
  land.

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Smart Growth Works (1)

• Smart growth
• Reduces dependence on cars
• Controls and directs sprawl
• Cuts wasteful resource

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Smart Growth Works (2)

• U.S. cities
• Portland, OR
• San Francisco, CA
• Curitiba, Brazil
• China stand on urban sprawl
• Europe compact cities

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The Ecocity Concept Cities for People Not Cars

• Ecocities or green cities
• Build and redesign for people
• Use renewable energy resources
• Recycle and purify water
• Use energy and matter resources efficiently
• Prevent pollution and reduce waste
• Recycle, reuse and compost municipal waste
• Protect and support biodiversity
• Urban gardens farmers markets
• Zoning and other tools for sustainability

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Core Case Study The Ecocity Concept in
Curitiba, Brazil

• Ecocity, green city Curitiba, Brazil
• Bus system cars banned in certain areas
• Housing and industrial parks
• Recycling of materials
• Helping the poor
• New challenges

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13-4 What Are Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste,
and Why Are They Problems?

• Concept 13-4 Solid waste represents pollution
  and unnecessary waste of resources, and hazardous
  waste contributes to pollution, natural capital
  degradation, health problems, and premature
  deaths.

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We Throw Away Huge Amounts of Useful Things and
Hazardous Materials (1)

• Solid waste
• Industrial solid
• Municipal solid waste (MSW)
• Hazardous, toxic, waste
• Hazardous wastes
• Organic compounds
• Toxic heavy metals
• Radioactive waste

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We Throw Away Huge Amounts of Useful Things and
Hazardous Materials (2)

• 8090 of hazardous wastes produced by developed
  countries
• Why reduce solid wastes?
• ¾ of the materials are an unnecessary waste of
  the earth's resources
• Huge amounts of air pollution, greenhouse gases,
  and water pollution

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Case Study Solid Waste in the United States

• Leader in solid waste problem
• What is thrown away?
• Leader in trash production, by weight, per person
• Recycling is helping

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Electronic Waste is a Growing Problem (1)

• Electronic waste, e-waste fastest growing solid
  waste problem
• Composition includes
• High-quality plastics
• Valuable metals
• Toxic and hazardous pollutants

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Electronic Waste is a Growing Problem (2)

• Shipped to other countries
• What happens in China?
• International Basel Convention
• Bans transferring hazardous wastes from developed
  countries to developing countries
• European Union
• Cradle-to-grave approach

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Electronic Waste is a Growing Problem (3)

• What should be done?
• Recycle
• E-cycle
• Reuse
• Prevention approach remove the toxic materials

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13-5 What Should We Do About Solid Waste?

• Concept 13-5A A sustainable approach to solid
  waste is first to reduce it, then to reuse or
  recycle it, and finally to safely dispose of what
  is left.
• Concept 13-5B Technologies for burning and
  burying solid wastes are well developed, but
  burning contributes to pollution and greenhouse
  gas emissions, and buried wastes eventually
  contribute to pollution and land degradation.

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We Can Burn or Bury Solid Waste or Produce Less
of It

• Waste Management
• Waste Reduction
• Integrated waste management
• Uses a variety of strategies

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We Can Cut Solid Wastes by Reducing, Reusing, and
Recycling (1)

• Waste reduction is based on
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Seven strategies
• (1) Redesign manufacturing processes and products
  to use less material and energy
• (2) Redesign manufacturing processes to produce
  less waste and pollution

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We Can Cut Solid Wastes by Reducing, Reusing, and
Recycling (2)

• Seven strategies cont
• (3) Develop products that are easy to repair,
  reuse, remanufacture, compost, or recycle
• (4) Eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging
• (5) Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems
• (6) Establish cradle-to grave responsibility
• (7) Restructure urban transportation systems

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Reuse Important Way to Reduce Solid Waste,
Pollution and to Save Money

• Reuse clean and use materials over and over
• Downside of reuse in developing countries
• Salvaging automobiles parts
• Rechargeable batteries

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Case Study Use of Refillable Containers

• Reuse and recycle
• Refillable glass beverage bottles
• Refillable soft drink bottles made of
  polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic
• Paper, plastic, or reusable cloth bags
• Pros
• Cons

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There Are Two Types of Recycling (1)

• Primary, closed-loop recycling
• Secondary recycling
• Types of wastes that can be recycled
• Preconsumer internal waste
• Postconsumer external waste

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There Are Two Types of Recycling (2)

• Do items actually get recycled?
• What are the numbers?
• Will the consumer buy recycled goods?

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We Can Mix or Separate Household Solid Wastes for
Recycling

• Materials-recovery facilities (MRFs)
• Source separation
• Pay-as-you-throw
• Fee-per-bag
• Which program is more cost effective?
• Which is friendlier to the environment?

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We Can Copy Nature and Recycle Biodegradable
Solid Wastes

• Composting
• Individual
• Municipal
• Benefits
• Successful program in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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Science Focus Bioplastics (1)

• Plastics from soybeans not a new concept
• Key to bioplastics catalysts
• Sources
• Corn
• Soy
• Sugarcane

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Science Focus Bioplastics (2)

• Sources cont
• Switchgrass
• Chicken feathers
• Some garbage
• CO2 from coal-burning plant emissions
• Benefits lighter, stronger, cheaper, and
  biodegradable

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Case Study Recycling Plastics (1)

• Plastics composed of resins
• Most containers discarded 4 recycled
• Litter beaches, water
• Significance?

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Case Study Recycling Plastics (2)

• Low plastic recycling rate
• Hard to isolate one type of plastic
• Low yields of plastic
• Cheaper to make it new

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Recycling Has Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages
• Disadvantages

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We Can Encourage Reuse and Recycling (1)

• What hinders reuse and recycling?
• Encourage reuse and recycling
• Government
• Increase subsidies and tax breaks for using such
  products
• Decrease subsidies and tax breaks for making
  items from virgin resources

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We Can Encourage Reuse and Recycling (2)

• Fee-per-bag collection
• New laws
• Citizen pressure

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Burning Solid Waste Has Advantages and
Disadvantages

• Waste-to-energy incinerators
• 600 Globally
• Most in Great Britain
• Advantages
• Disadvantages

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Burying Solid Waste Has Advantages and
Disadvantages

• Open dumps
• Sanitary landfills

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13-6 How Should We Deal with Hazardous Waste?

• Concept 13-6 A sustainable approach to hazardous
  waste is first to produce less of it, then to
  reuse or recycle it, then to convert it to less
  hazardous materials, and finally, to safely store
  what is left.

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We Can Use Integrated Management of Hazardous
Waste

• Integrated management of hazardous wastes
• Produce less
• Convert to less hazardous substances
• Rest in long-term safe storage
• Increased use for postconsumer hazardous waste

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We Can Detoxify Hazardous Wastes

• Collect and then detoxify
• Physical methods
• Chemical methods
• Use nanomagnets
• Bioremediation
• Phytoremediation
• Incineration
• Using a plasma arc torch

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We Can Store Some Forms of Hazardous Waste

• Burial on land or long-term storage
• Deep-well disposal
• Surface impoundments
• Secure hazardous landfills

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Case Study Hazardous Waste Regulation in the
United States

• 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
  (RCRA)
• 1980 Comprehensive Environmental, Compensation,
  and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Superfund
• Pace of cleanup has slowed
• Superfund is broke
• Laws encouraging the cleanup of brownfields

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13-7 How Can We Make the Transition to a More
Sustainable Low-Waste Society?

• Concept 13-7 Shifting to a low-waste society
  requires individuals and businesses to reduce
  resource use and to reuse and recycle wastes at
  local, national, and global levels.

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Grassroots Action Has Led to Better Solid and
Hazardous Waste Management

• Not in my backyard
• Produce less waste
• Not in anyones backyard
• Not on planet Earth

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Countries Have Developed International Treaties
to Reduce Hazardous Waste (1)

• 1989 Basel Convention
• 1995 Amended
• 2008 Ratified by 192 countries, but not
• The United States
• Afghanistan
• Haiti

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Countries Have Developed International Treaties
to Reduce Hazardous Waste (2)

• 2000 Delegates from 122 countries completed a
  global treaty
• Control 12 persistent organic pollutants
• 2000 Swedish Parliament Law
• By 2020 ban all chemicals that are persistent and
  can accumulate in living tissue

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We Can Make the Transition to Low-Waste Societies

• Norway, Austria, and the Netherlands
• Committed to reduce resource waste by 75
• East Hampton, NY, U.S.
• Reduced solid waste by 85
• Follow guidelines to prevent pollution and reduce
  waste