AP Environmental Science
Chapter 17 and 21: Waste and Hazardous Materials
I. Solid and hazardous waste | revisit the class assignment on toxic waste sites
A. Two famous incidents illustrate the dangers of dealing with hazardous waste –
Love Canal and the Bhopal chemical spill
B. overview of what we throw out – p. 577-579
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The Story of Stuff - a movie on product life cycles
household hazardous waste
Photos depicting the huge amounts of batteries, bottles, cell phones, etc
that are "thrown away" each year
Ocean trash - Beachcomers Alert
Photopgrapher Edward Burtynsky documents waste and pollution
associated with oil
Ocean trash is a big problem. Sierra article May 2009: Message in a
Bottle | 2010 article in Conservation: Garbage In, Garbage Out
E-waste is another growing problem - p. 591-592
C. approaches to handling waste | see links on renewable/environmentally friendly
products
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the poor and disadvantaged have often been forced to deal with more
waste and pollution than other members of society. Check out Green for
All - Environmental Justice
1. Integrated waste management - fig 21-6; priorities, fig 21-7; 2120
2. Sanitary landfills – fig. 21-17 and 21-18
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Lots of good landfill resources - Waste Manangement
Explore DC area landfills and incinerators on Google Earth
3. burning wastes – incinerators (“waste-to-energy”) – fig. 21-15
and 21-16
4. Sewage treatment
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tour the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant in DC |
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How sewage treatment plants work | another site from
Melbourne, Australia
5. Industrial ecology focuses on integrating industrial processes so
that waste materials and energy are easily used (fig.21-31)
(example - Kalundborg, Denmark) (more here)
6. a shift to service flow economy focuses on providing services
rather than goods; this approach encourages companies to design
efficient equipment with re-usable parts and reduce waste
7. reducing use of materials and reusing materials - fig. 21-8 and
21-9, 21-10, 21-11
8. re-use materials
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neigh-borrow is a website that give you opportunities to
borrow materials instead of buying them
9. recycling
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composting | "organic recycling" (composting)
recycling pros and cons: fig. 21-14
Two types
Technology buy-back program (Gazelle) | Techforward |
EPA list of cell phone recyclers | Recellular phone
recycling
learn where you can recycle hazardous materials and other
products
Paper or plastic: which should you choose?
Top 10 principles of Good Consumption
videos and animations of how recycling works (Waste
Management Co)
Where to recycle light bulbs
creative use of trash as art
10. detoxifying and handling toxic materials
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phytoremediation - fig. 21-22
deep well injection and other storage solutions – fig. 21-23,
24, 25, 26; p. 594
special threats – lead, mercury (fig. 17-12 and 17-11 p.
455), chlorine, dioxins, PCBs (17-10)
more on mercury - fact sheet from USGS and info from
Sierra club
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BPA, phthalates, and other endocrine disruptors are a big
problem - p. 456
USGS toxic substances program
Toxic release inventory - companies must report releases of
toxic chemicals
Get tested for mercury
EPA's state-by-state listing of fish consumption advisories based on toxic contamination
ToxTown is a webpage that looks at household sources of
toxic materials. Use the related ToxMap page to search for
toxic substances in real places
National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental
Chemicals
Toxicology tutorials
Toxmap - superfund sites and toxic releases
Household products database
Chemical toxicity data - material safety data sheets
D. Hazardous waste regulation
1. Superfund program and the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act and Toxic Release Inventory in the US – p. 595-96
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EPA My Environment
Oak Ridge National Laboratory risk assessment page catalogs research on toxicity of various chemicals and
products
2. brownfields development
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DestiNY USA is a major development in the Syracuse, NY
area. It uses only renewable energy sources and was
developed in a "brownfield" area.
3. POP treaty (international)