Waste Generation
Geography 456/556
• As cities have grown in size and economies have permitted
higher rates of consumption, the amount of waste
generated has increased
• In the 19th century city, household wastes were usually
disposed in the streets. Pigs, dogs, and other scavengers
wandered freely in cities and consumed the household
waste.
City and the Environment
Waste Generation and Management
• Rain and trenches in the center of lanes
occasionally washed away the refuse –
quagmires of pooling water, mud, rotting
garbage and animal feces (horses, pigs,
dogs)
A dry day in New London, CT in the 1860s. In the spring and
after rain, streets would often turn into impassable quagmires.
Horse manure on the
street was a vector for
disease, especially
during the summer
months
Note the wooden sidewalks for
pedestrians
• Human waste found
its way into privies,
many of which leaked
into water supplies
• It was the health
threats believed to be
associated with the
miasmas of trash and
human waste that
prompted many of the
infrastructure
initiatives in the late
19th century
Mud in the City
Even the wealthy
did not escape mud
in the city.
Likewise they too
could be infected
with cholera or
yellow fever.
Because diseases
did not discriminate
by class, the
powerful in urban
affairs were
primarily
responsible for
improvements in
sanitation,
including waste
management
1
Landfill to Penitentiary
Growing Waste Production
As New York expanded in size and it rates of consumption
increased, so did the amount of waste it generated. Riker’s island
expanded from 87 acres to 400 acres by 1939.
• Between 1920 and 2000, per capita refuse
production increased from 2.8 to 4.5
pounds/day
• In 2000, MSW equaled 232 million tons, up
from 88 million tons in 1960
Sanitary Landfills
Dumps outside of Town
•
• As towns and cities grew larger, residents or municipalities
paid to have people haul trash out of town, where it was
deposited in ‘wastelands’ – wetlands, floodplains, mine
pits
Sanitary Landfills
Beginning in about the 1930s, a new method for getting rid of solid
wastes was adopted by many municipalities: sanitary landfills
– Layers of garbage and soil. Covering the garbage reduces smells
and vermin. Because the waste is capped every night by soil, little
air or water reaches the waste to allow for decomposition.
– When a landfill reaches predetermined height (or depth) it is
capped with clay and planted with grass.
– Ideally there is little or no leakage from landfills to pollute water,
but it does occur
– Under anaerobic conditions, methane gases are produced as a
byproduct of decomposition. These have to be vented otherwise
explosions are possible. In some landfills, the methane is captured
and used to produce power. It can be economical to use the
methane from landfills. See: http://www.epa.gov/lmop/about.htm
Landfills are responsible for 46 percent of methane released in Great
Britain. Methane is a greenhouse gas. It has about 20 times the
heat trapping ability of Carbon dioxide.
Athens-Hocking Landfill
Location Restrictions
•100-year floodplains
•Wetlands
•Faults or seismic zones
•Airports
•Unstable areas (soils,
geology)
•
•
Solid Waste Landfill Criteria: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/nonhw/muncpl/factbook/internet/lanf/258toc.htm#top
Clay soils once prized for making bricks are now the foundation for sanitary
landfills
This facility accepts demolition waste and household waste. Regulations for
treatment of demolition waste are not as stringent as for household waste.
Household waste must be dumped in sanitary landfills (clay and plastic liners)
and covered nightly
2
Athens Recycling Facility
•
•
•
•
Facility accepts glass, aluminum, cans, paper,
boxboard, cardboard, and plastics 1 and 2
Tom O’Grady, director of the facility, stressed
that recycling is not the solution – recycling still
uses a lot of energy
Recycling is the last of the three “R’s” – reduce,
reuse, recycle is the order that should be
practiced to minimize resource use, energy
consumption, and pressure on landfills.
Individuals can make recycling more cost
effective and easier for the workers by sorting
recyclables and not putting non-recyclable
materials (plastic bags, non 1 and 2 plastics) in
with recyclables: the facility then has to pay to
dispose them
Recycling uses Energy
•
•
Bottles are crushed to reduce
volume but the process uses
energy. Refilling bottles
requires the least energy.
Recycling still uses about 60
percent of the energy
required to make a new
bottle.
Clear glass needs to be
separated from colored glass
or the facility gets less
money for the product
Plastics
•
Newspaper Recycling
•
The facility bales tons of
newspapers per week.
Facilities that process the
newspapers will accept a
certain amount of colored
paper but the heavy metals
used to create the color are
hazardous waste products
that have to be disposed at
higher costs therefore
reducing the amount they
can pay Athens for its
newspapers. Each of these
bales weighs almost a ton.
•
•
What goes into the Landfill?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Paper products: 40%
Yard Waste: 20%
Metals: 9%
Food: 9%
Glass: 8%
Plastic: 7%
Facts on solid waste and recycling in the
US:
The Athens facility accepts
plastics 1 and 2. Putting
other plastics in the recycling
bins means added cost for the
facility (which has to pay to
dispose them).
Refillable containers would
drastically reduce the amount
of waste that goes into
landfills or recycling
Success depends on a
combination of will from
consumers, government and
business
Other Stuff
•
•
•
•
•
Some items we throw away every year:
240 million tires
1.6 billion pens
2 billion razors and blades
16 billion diapers
– http://www.deq.state.or.us/wmc/solwaste/cwrc/edpro2.html
3
Recycling on the Rise
Per Capita Recycling
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/pubs/report-00.pdf
™ In 2000, recycling recovered 30
percent (70 million tons) of
municipal solid waste
™ 9,250 curbside recycling programs
™ 3,800 yard waste composting
programs
Still Throw Away
• As much as 80 percent of municipal solid
waste could be recycled or composted
What can cities do to reduce
pressure on landfills?
• What methods do you think would be
effective at reducing waste?
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Addressing the Issue
• What can cities do to reduce pressure on landfills?
– Send it somewhere else. Remember the Mobro? A garbage scow
from Islip, Long Island, it carried 3,000 tons of garbage around for
two months looking for a place to unload its cargo:
“North Carolina turned it away. So did five other states, including Florida
and Louisiana, as well as Belize, the Bahamas, and Mexico. After 57
forlorn days on the high seas, the Mobro returned to New York, still
bearing its by-now-infamous load. Three and a half months later, the trash
was burned and finally buried back home in Islip.”
– New York City just sent its last barge to the Fresh Kills Landfill, the
largest in the world. It closed on July 4, 2001 after 50 years of operation.
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/pubs/report-00.pdf
Displacing the Problem
– Mayor Giuliani presided over the event, declaring that he had kept his
promise to the residents of Staten Island that he would not make them
accept New York City’s garbage.
– Problem is simply displaced. NYC’s garbage will be shipped to landfills
out of state, primarily to Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Reducing Pressure on Landfills
– Recycle and compost. Some municipalities
offer free compost in exchange for residents
separating organic materials from waste.
Others offer free or reduced priced composters.
About 50% of the population in the US has
municipal curbside recycling. Some cities (e.g.
San Francisco) have curbside organic waste
collection (yard waste and food):
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LGLibrary/Innovations/Curbside/CaseStudy.htm
Charge for garbage collection
• By charging by the
bag or using multitier system, it
encourages less
waste, more
recycling and
composting. But
charging too much
encourages people
to dump illegally
Container Deposits
– Pressure states to impose deposits on refillable
containers. Economic incentive for people to
reuse. In 1964, 89% of all soft drinks and 50
percent of beer was sold in refillable glass
bottles. Today, about 7 percent.
5
Burn Trash
“Money Burner” and Dioxin Generator in Columbus
– Reduces pressure on landfill but creates other
hazards (air pollution, toxic releases to air).
Very expensive, even if energy is sold.
Buy less wasteful products with longer
use
Send it back to the manufacturer
•
• Purchasing products with less packaging reduces
waste. Products that last longer (no cheap tires)
mean fewer get into the waste stream over time
•
•
•
•
Other Examples
• The Netherlands: manufacturers must refill 90 percent of
containers
• Ireland: Plastic bag tax of 13 cents (to encourage reusable
bags)
• Brazil: State of Rio de Janeiro requires importers to abide
by plastic take-back program and fund anti-litter or
recycling advertising
• Japan: requires cities to sort waste and return packaging to
manufacturers for reuse
• Denmark: tax based on environmental impact of
packaging: lower tax for paper and cardboard, higher for
aluminum and plastics
In Germany, manufacturers have to take back up to 70% of their
packaging for recycling or reuse. Incineration is not allowed.
Implemented in 1991 and by 1996, 80% of all packaging in Germany
was recycled, and amount of packaging has been reduced. Cradle-tograve responsibility.
Benjamin Moore paints in Massachusetts – take-back program
In British Columbia, buyers pay an eco-fee at point of sale of paint that
is used to pay for a take-back program run by a non-profit
Nike Reuse-a-shoe program. Accepts any kind of athletic shoes and
grinds them up for playing surfaces
http://www.epa.gov/epr/products/emerging.html#takeback Other take-back programs.
Governance
Some of the solutions can be addressed at the individual level
(composting, smart buying), others require cooperation at the
municipal, state or federal level in order to create a level playing field.
For example, if Ohio passed a law requiring all manufacturers to take
back their packaging, manufacturers could move to another state to
escape the law. But if the law was federal, manufacturers in one state
would not have an advantage over another. But it is important to
remember that it would be a short-term advantage since actions that
reduce waste over the long term usually increase profits.
Ohio Office of Pollution Prevention: Waste Reduction
http://www.epa.state.oh.us/opp/consumer/wastep2.html
6
Developing World
•
•
•
•
Garbage disposal in poor countries is also becoming an issue as urban
populations increase. Most of the world’s largest cities are found in
poor countries. What happens to the waste?
Funds for waste disposal are scarce, and open dumps are still used.
Scavengers pick through dumps and trash on streets for valuable items.
In Guatemala, poor scavengers wait for delivery of garbage to search
for items of value, as well as food.
In cities, scavengers also go door to door to purchase useful items –
such as rags – that can be sold, much like scavengers used to in Europe
and North America (some valuable items, like aluminum, make
scavenging worthwhile for people in North America; recycling
aluminum uses about 5 percent of the energy required to make a new
can – about 40 percent of aluminum in new cans is postconsumer
recycled. About 66 percent of aluminum cans are recycled).
US Figures
•
•
•
While scavengers remove some materials from the waste stream, the rapid growth of
cities in developing countries coupled with lack of infrastructure and services means
that garbage accumulates in large quantities, especially in poor neighborhoods. This
detracts from livability and increases health hazards.
In Dar es Salaam, for example, only about 5 percent of solid waste in collected by the
municipality.
In Kumasi, Ghana, rapid urban growth along with ineffective management means that
most garbage is not collected, and the problem is particularly severe in poor areas:
Waste Management in Poor Cities
•
“The Kumasi metropolitan area currently accommodates an estimated
one million people -- over four times the population in 1960. The growth
rate has exceeded the local authority’s capacity to provide adequate
services and prevent environmental degradation. The collection,
treatment and disposal of solid waste is one of the primary headaches
of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA). The city’s Waste
Management Department (WMD) collects only about 40% of domestic
refuse generated each day by households, institutions and markets.
The rest is dumped indiscriminately into natural drains and public
spaces. The situation is worst in high-density, low-income residential
areas where services are minimal or absent. Heaps of uncollected
rubbish can be found scattered all over Kumasi, causing enormous
public health hazards, especially for children.” Johan Post, “The
Problems and Potentials of Privatising Solid Waste Management in
Kumasi, Ghana” Habitat International¸. Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 201-215,
1999. Article online.
• Despite the problems with waste management in poor
countries, consumption rates, and therefore waste rates, are
lower in poor countries. In the United States, each
individual discards about 4.5 pounds of garbage per day.
In Bangladesh, the figure is about about 12 ounces (most
of which is organic and compostable). S Hasan, “Problems of
municipal waste management in Bangladesh: An inquiry into its nature”HABITAT
INTERNATIONAL 22: (2) 191-202 JUN 1998. Available online.
•
Garbage for bus tokens and other items
•
See:
http://www.globalearn.org/expeditions/brazil/expedit
ion/investigate/indcomm/iin971028-curitibarecycling.html
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Hazardous Waste
Hazardous Waste
•
• Toxic wastes that are harmful to humans and other organisms
• About 35,000 chemicals manufactured in the U.S. are
considered hazardous to human health
• About 1 ton per person per year is generated
• 3/4 of hazardous wastes a result of chemical manufacturing,
production of metals, and petroleum refining
• between 1945 and 1985, annual hazardous waste production
in the US jumped from 1 billion tons to 670 billion tons
•
•
•
About 90 percent is believed to be unsafely stored – cell 691 at the
Athens-Hocking landfill is known to contain hazardous waste but no
one knows where it is!
Hazardous waste is disposed of three ways in land: deep-well
injections, surface impoundments and landfills
Deep-well disposal – liquid hazardous waste in pumped under pressure
into dry, porous geologic formation below groundwater – seeps into
rocks. Surface impoundments like pits, ponds or lagoons are used for
settling hazardous wastes on the bottom. Supposed to be lined.
Specially designed landfills for hazardous wastes require materials to
be placed in non-corrosive drums and buried.
Economic incentives to cheat. Hazardous waste companies can charge
high disposal fees for picking up hazardous waste then dump the
hazardous waste illegally (or export it).
Hazardous Waste Regulation
• Alarmed by growing evidence that many
hazardous materials and wastes pose serious
health risks, public demand for tighter controls
resulted in establishment of laws during the 1970s
and 1980s that regulate the production, use,
distribution, and disposal of solid and hazardous
wastes.
• 1976, Congress passed RCRA – Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act – to identify
hazardous wastes and set management standards.
EPA supplies information on facilities that require
permits:
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/rcris/rcris_query_
java.html
Love Canal
• The Love Canal episode in the 1970s captured the nation’s
attention. The highly polluted tract of land (an abandoned
canal project from the nineteenth century) was a dumping
site for the Hooker Chemical company in the 1940s and
50s.
• Formerly a swimming hole for the town of Niagara Falls,
and later a dump for the city, the chemical company had
purchased the canal adjacent to its facility and dumped
toxic wastes into it.
• After complaints of putrid smells, the company covered the
site with a clay cap and topsoil and planted it with grass.
Superfund
•
•
•
The company sold it to the school board in the 1950s (the company did not want to sell it to
the school board but the board threatened eminent domain) and warned the board not to
disturb the clay cap. The school board built a school on the site and subdivided for a
residential subdivision. Roads and sewers disrupted the clay cap, and a highway at one end
of the dump blocked groundwater from moving toward the Niagara River. As the cap was
disturbed and water backed up, chemicals began oozing to the surface. Children got chemical
burns and health problems seemed to be on the increase. State officials found that pregnant
women living on the Love Canal site were four times as likely to have a miscarriage. In
1978, the state closed the school, purchased the homes and destroyed the structures.
Complaints from residents living near the landfill continued and in 1980 it was declared a
federal disaster area. Funds were provided to install a new drainage and treatment works and
a new clay cap was constructed. The chemical company was forced to pay compensatory
damages and held responsible for any future cleanup.
•
•
•
Because of what happened at Love Canal, new legislation was passed
in 1980 --CERCLA (1980) Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act – commonly called Superfund. It
was amended in 1986 by SARA – the Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act.
The goal of Superfund is to clean up old hazardous waste sites. Funded
by a tax on chemical and petroleum industries. Funds may be used for
cleanup if liability cannot be established.
Ranking sites (National Priorities List) is highly politicized. As of
2000 there were 1226 sites on the NPL.
Only a small number of sites have been cleaned up
Enormous sums of money have been spent on legal fees trying to
determine who disposed what, where, when and how.
8
Ohio Superfund Sites
Hazard Ranking System
• One of the outcomes of SARA (1986) was the
establishment of a Hazard Ranking System. It
charges the EPA with the task of ranking the
hazard of hazardous wastes to human health or the
environment.
• It is a numerical scoring based on three criteria:
– likelihood that a site has released or has the potential to
release hazardous substances into the environment;
– characteristics of the waste (e.g. toxicity and waste
quantity); and
– people or sensitive environments (targets) affected by
the release.
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/oh.htm
Top 20 Hazardous Substances:The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry publishes
the top 20 hazardous substances that is used by the EPA in its HRS. They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Arsenic
Lead
Mercury
Vinyl Chloride
Benzene
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
Cadmium
Benzo(a)pyrene
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Benzo(b)fluoranthene
Chloroform
DDT, P'P'Aroclor 1260
Aroclor 1254
Trichloroethylene
Chromium (+6)
Dibenz[a,h]anthracene
Dieldrin
Hexachlorobutadiene
DDE, P,P'
• It is the primary tool to determine if a site will be
placed on the National Priorities Listing
Superfund Sites
• Tend to be found in areas of abandoned industry
and landfills – in or close to urban areas –
especially in older “rustbelt” parts of the country.
• Map of NPL sites using interactive EnviroMapper
at the EPA site:
http://map3.epa.gov/enviromapper/index.html
Conclusion
• Waste production tied to consumption
• Waste removal long standing issue in cities
• Recycling on the rise in the US and per
capita production holding steady
• Poor countries waste less but have fewer
resources for removal
• MSW versus hazardous waste
• Sanitary landfills, RCRA, SARA
9