Solid, Toxic and Hazardous Waste
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Outline:
•
•
•
•
Solid Waste
Waste Disposal Methods
Shrinking the Waste Stream
 Recycling
Hazardous and Toxic Wastes
 Federal Legislation
 Management Options
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Bioaccumulation
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
US Age-Adjusted Cancer Death Rates
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Population Sensitivity Variations
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
SOLID WASTE
•
US produces 11 billion tons solid waste a year
 About half agricultural waste
 More than one-third mining-related
 Industrial Waste - 400 mil. metric tons
- Hazardous/Toxic - 60 mil. tons
 Municipal Waste - 200 million tons
- Two-thirds of a ton per person.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
US Domestic Waste
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
WASTE DISPOSAL METHODS
•
Open Dumps
 Open, unregulated dumps main method in
developing countries.
- Most developed countries forbid open
dumping.
 Estimated 200 million liters of motor
oil in the US.
 Five times volume of Exxon Valdez.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Waste Disposal Methods
•
Landfills
 Sanitary Landfills
- Refuse compacted and covered
everyday with a layer of dirt (20%)

Since 1994, all US landfills must
control hazardous substances.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Sanitary Landfills
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Landfills
•
Landfills have been a convenient,
inexpensive option.
 Increasing land and shipping fees, and
demanding construction and maintenance
requirements are increasing costs.
-
Scarcity of sites; communities rejecting
.Old landfills reaching capacity, closing.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Waste Disposal Methods
•
Exporting Waste
 Although most industrialized nations have
agreed to stop shipping hazardous and
toxic waste to less-developed countries,
the practice still continues.
- Garbage imperialism also operates in
wealthier countries.
- Indian reservations increasingly being
approached to store wastes on
reservations.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Waste Disposal Methods
•
Incineration and Resource Recovery
 Energy Recovery - Heat derived from
incinerated refuse is a useful resource.
- Steam used for heating buildings or
generating electricity.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Incinerator Types
•
•
•
Refuse-Derived Fuel - Refuse is sorted to
remove recyclable and unburnable materials.
- Higher energy content than raw trash.
Mass Burn - Everything smaller than major
furniture and appliances loaded into furnace.
- Creates air pollution problems.
Reduces disposal volume by 80-90%.
 Residual ash usually contains toxic
material.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Incinerator Cost and Safety
•
•
Initial construction costs are usually between
$100 and $300 million for a typical municipal
facility.
 Tipping fess are often much higher than
tipping fees at landfills.
EPA has found alarmingly high toxin levels in
incinerator ash.
 Concentrated in fly ash.
- Pollution control methods are not
guaranteed to be 100% effective.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
SHRINKING THE WASTE STREAM
•
Recycling
 Recycling is the reprocessing of discarded
materials into new, useful products.
- Currently, about two-thirds of all
aluminum cans are recycled.
 Half of all aluminum cans on grocery
shelves will be made into another can
within two months.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
US Recycling Rates
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Recycling
•
Potential Problems
 Market prices fluctuate wildly.
 Contamination
- Most of 24 billion plastic soft drink
bottles sold annually in the US are PET,
which can be melted and
remanufactured into many items.
 But a single PVC bottle can ruin an
entire truckload of PET if melted
together.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Recycling
•
Benefits
 Saves money, raw materials, and land.
 Encourages individual responsibility.
 Reduces pressure on disposal systems.
- Japan recycles about half of all
household and commercial wastes.
 Lowers demand for raw resources.
 Reduces energy consumption and air
pollution.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Recycling
•
Benefits Example
 Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves 4 tons
of bauxite, 700 kg of coke and pitch, and
keeps 35 kg of aluminum fluoride out of
the air.
- Producing aluminum from scrap instead
of bauxite ore cuts energy use by 95%.
 Yet still throw away more than a
million tons of aluminum annually.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Shrinking the Waste Stream
•
•
•
Composting
 Biological degradation of organic material
under aerobic conditions.
Demanufacturing
 Disassembly and recycling of obsolete
consumer products.
Reuse
 Reusable glass container makes an
average of 15 round-trips between factory
and customer before it has to be recycled.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Shrinking the Waste Stream
•
Producing Less Waste
 Excess packaging of food and consumer
products is one of our greatest sources of
unnecessary waste.
- Paper, plastic, glass, and metal
packaging material make up 50% of
domestic trash by volume.
 Increase use of photodegradable and
biodegradable plastics.
 Too much emphasis on recycling ?
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
HAZARDOUS AND TOXIC WASTES
•
EPA estimates US industries generate 265
million metric tons of officially classified
hazardous wastes annually.
 At least 40 million metric tons of toxic and
hazardous wastes are released into the
environment each year.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Hazardous Waste
•
Legally, hazardous waste is any discarded
liquid or solid that contains substances
known to be:
 Fatal to humans or laboratory animals in
low doses.
 Toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or
teratogenic to humans or other life-forms.
o
 Ignitable with a flash point less than 60 C.
 Explosive or highly reactive.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Hazardous Waste Disposal
•
Federal Legislation
 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) - 1976.
- Comprehensive program requiring
rigorous testing and management of
toxic and hazardous substances.
 Cradle to grave accounting.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Cradle to Grave
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Dioxin in Seveso, Italy 1976
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Environmental Justice
•
Correlation between pollution and race
 1982 African American rallies in NC
•
Minorities more affected by toxic wastes and
industries.
 Minority areas before toxic placement?
 Greater ability of whites to avoid or move.
 Class issues: poor whites as affected?
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Federal Legislation
•
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).
- Aimed at rapid containment, cleanup, or
remediation of abandoned toxic waste
sites.
 Toxic Release Inventory - Requires
20,000 manufacturing facilities to
report annually on releases of more
than 300 toxic materials.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
CERCLA
•
Government does not have to prove anyone
violated a law, or what role they played in a
superfund site.

Anyone associated with a site can be held
responsible for the entire clean-up cost.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Superfund Sites
•
EPA estimates 36,000 seriously contaminated
sites in the US.
 By 1997, 1,400 sites had been placed on
the National Priority List for cleanup with
with Superfund financing.
- Superfund is a revolving pool designed to:
 Provide immediate response to
emergency situations posing imminent
hazards.
 Clean-up abandoned or inactive sites.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
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.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
How Clean is Clean
•
Brownfields - Contaminated properties that
have been abandoned or are not being used
up to potential because of pollution concerns.
 Up to one-third of all commercial industrial
sites in urban core of many big cities fall
into this category.
- In many cases, property owners
complain that unreasonably high purity
levels are demanded in remediation
programs.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Hazardous Waste Management Options
•
•
Produce Less Waste
 Avoid creating wastes in the first place
 Recycle and Reuse
Convert to Less Hazardous Substances
 Physical Treatment (Isolation)
 Incineration
 Chemical Processing (Transformation)
 Bioremediation (Microorganisms)
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Hazardous Waste Management Options
•
Store Permanently
 Retrievable Storage
- Can be inspected and periodically
retrieved.
 Secure Landfills
- Modern, complex landfills with multiple
liners and other impervious layers and
monitoring systems.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Secure Landfills
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Summary:
•
•
•
•
Solid Waste
Waste Disposal Methods
Shrinking the Waste Stream
 Recycling
Hazardous and Toxic Wastes
 Federal Legislation
- RCRA
- CERCLA
 Management Options
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.