CHAPTER 16:
SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE
Objectives
1. Define solid waste, municipal solid waste, industrial solid waste, and hazardous waste. Note the recycling principle of
sustainability. Compare developed and developed countries production of hazardous waste. State the quantity of the
world’s solid waste that is produced by the United States. State the %age of solid waste produced in the United States
that is municipal solid waste.
2. Compare waste management and waste reduction approaches to solid and hazardous waste. Discuss integrated waste
management. List the four Rs of waste reduction. List five waste reduction strategies of industries and communities.
3. Define reuse and recycling. Note reuse/recycling strategies.
4. Distinguish between closed-loop recycling and open-loop recycling; materials-recovery facilities of mixed solid waste
and a source-separation approach of recycling. Define composting. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of
recycling. List the three most important obstacles to recycling and reuse in the United States, and suggest ways to
overcome them
5. Define all common waste burial structures. Note the disadvantages and advantages of burying wastes. List the three
priorities of hazardous waste management. Summarize Denmark’s experience with detoxification of hazardous waste.
List common physical, chemical, and biological methods of hazardous waste treatment. List the common storage
options for hazardous waste storage.
6. Name and briefly describe two U.S. hazardous-waste laws. Describe how Superfund has been subverted and how its
enforcement can be improved.
7. Summarize the goals of the environmental justice movement. List four ways to make a transition to a low-waste
society.
Key Terms {(Terms are listed in the same font style as they appear in the text.)}
1. bioremediation (p. 392
13. municipal solid waste (p.
23.
2. brownfields (p. 397)
331)
3. composting (p. 387)
14. National Priorities List
24.
4. cradle-to-grave (p. 396)
(NPL)
5. deep-well disposal (p. 393)
(p. 396)
25.
6. dirty dozen (p. 398)
15. open dumps (p. 390)
7. ecoindustrial revolution (p.
16. pay-as-you-throw (PAUT)
26.
385)
(p. 387)
27.
8. environmental justice (p.
17. persistent organic pollutants
398)
(POPs) (p. 398)
28.
18. phytoremediation (p. 392)
9. hazardous or toxic waste
(p. 382)
19. postconsumer (external)
10. industrial solid waste (p.
wastes (p. 386)
29.
381)
20. precautionary principle (p.
398)
30.
11. integrated waste
management (p. 383)
21. preconsumer (internal) waste
12. materials-recovery facilities
(p. 386)
31.
(p. 387)
22. primary (closed-loop)
32.
recycling (p. 386)
Outline
sanitary landfill (p.
390)
secondary recycling
(downcycling) (p. 386)
secure hazardous-waste
landfills (p. 396)
solid waste (p. 381)
source separation (p.
387)
Superfund Act
(CERCLA)
(p. 396)
surface impoundments
(p. 393)
waste management (p.
383)
waste reduction (p. 383)
waste-to-energy
incinerators (p. 389)
16-1 Solid and Hazardous Waste: Solid waste is unwanted/discarded material that is not liquid/gaseous. There are two major
kinds of solid waste—municipal solid waste (MSW) (workplace and residential garbage), and industrial solid wastes .
Hazardous waste is waste that threatens human health because it is flammable, corrosive, reactive or toxic.
A. Nature recycles all its waste—one of the four principles of sustainability.
B. Humans accumulate their waste, and bury or burn them eventually. 98.5 % of solid waste in the U.S. is industrial
waste, and the remaining 1.5 % is municipal solid waste.
C. Developed countries produce 80–90 % of global hazardous wastes, with the U.S. leading the way.
D. There are two reasons to be concerned about the amount of solid and hazardous waste people produce:
1. At least 75 % of these materials represent an unnecessary waste of the Earth’s resources.
2. These wastes lead to huge amounts of pollution, greenhouse gases.
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135
16-2 Dealing with Solid Waste
A. One way to deal with solid waste is to implement waste management. This high-waste approach manages waste in
order to reduce its environmental impact, but does not address waste production as a result of economic growth.
B. Another method is waste reduction. This low-waste approach sees solid waste as a potential resource, which should
be reused, recycled, or composted.
C. Some experts have insisted on using the integrated waste management approach, which is a combination of waste
reduction and waste management. Adoption of the latter has been slow in developed countries, where 55 % of the
MSW is still buried in landfills.
D. To cut waste production and promote sustainability, we must reduce consumption and redesign our products. There
are five sustainable approaches:
1. Redesign manufacturing processes and products to use less material and energy and to produce less waste and
pollution.
2. Develop products that are easily repaired, reused, remanufactured, composted, or recycled.
3. Eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging.
4. Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems.
5. Establish cradle-to-grave responsibilities laws to return various consumer products to the manufacturer at the
end of their cycle of usefulness.
16-3 The Importance of Reusing and Recycling: Reusing involves prolonging the lifespan of a product cleaning and using it
again for as long as it can be done. Recycling collects waste materials, and then turns all or a part of them into useful
products, and sells the new products.
A. Reusing products helps reduce resource use, waste, and pollution; it also saves money.
1. Developing countries reuse their products; but there is a health hazard for the poor.
2. U.S. e-waste goes to developing countries where workers are exposed to toxic metals, dioxins, etc.
3. Large city dumps expose scavengers to toxins and infectious diseases.
4. Refillable containers create jobs, make costs lower for the product, and lessen waste.
5. Shopping bags, food containers, pallets, and tools can be reused/borrowed.
B. Recycling processing consists of two methods; primary recycling is preferred.
1. Primary/closed-loop recycling when new products of the same type are created from the waste: new newspaper
from old newspaper.
2. Secondary/downcycling converts waste materials into different products.
C. Scientists distinguish pre-consumer/internal waste that is generated from a manufacturing process that recycles, and
post-consumer/external waste that is generated by consumer use of products before being recycled. 75 % of the total
of recyclable wastes are pre-consumer wastes.
D. Five types of materials can be recycled: paper products, glass, aluminum, steel, and some plastics. Switzerland and
Japan recycles 50 % of their MSW. Experts note that 75 % of a car can be recycled or reused.
E. Solid waste recycling can be done in a materials-recovery facility (MRF). Machines shred and separate the mixed
waste and sell raw materials to manufacturers. The wastes are recycled and/or burned to produce energy; but such
plants are expensive. They, also, must process a large input of garbage.
F. Source separation recycling relies on households and businesses to separate their trash before disposal or pick-up;
these are collected and sold to other dealers. This process saves money, provides more jobs per unit of materials, and
yields cleaner and usually more-valuable recyclables.
G. Composting biodegradable organic waste is a great way to mimic nature. Presently, U.S. municipal composting
programs recycle about 37 % of the U.S. yard waste.
H. The major disadvantage of recycling is when it costs more to recycle than to send them to a landfill or an
incinerator. Plastic recycling is not economically feasible because virgin plastic resins are less expensive than
recycled plastic resins.
I. There are three factors that hinder reuse and recycling:
1. The cost of a product does not include harmful environmental health costs in its lifecycle.
2. Resource-extracting industries receive government tax breaks and subsidies while recycle and reuse industries
do not.
3. The demand and price for recycled materials fluctuates so there is less interest in committing to this method.
J. Recycling and reuse can be encouraged by increasing subsidies and tax breaks for recycling businesses; pass laws
that require product packaging and e-waste to be returned to the manufacturer; increase government purchase of
recycled products.
16-4 Burning or Burying Solid Waste
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Chapter 16
A. Municipal solid waste is burned in waste-to-energy incinerators, which produces steam for heating or electricity.
There are 98 of them in the U.S.
B. The advantages and disadvantages of burning solid waste include—significant solid waste reduction, high operating
costs, air pollutions, toxic ash, and citizen opposition to the process.
C. Most solid waste is buried in landfills, which will leak toxic liquids into the surrounding soil and water.
1. Open dumps in the ground that hold garbage are common in developing countries; they are sometimes covered
with dirt.
2. Sanitary landfills spread the solid waste out in thin layers, compact it, and cover it daily with clay/plastic foam.
Modern landfills line the bottom with an impermeable liner, which collects leachate, or contaminated rainwater
as it percolates through the solid waste.
16-5 Dealing with Hazardous Waste: The three levels of priorities for dealing with hazardous waste include: produce less,
convert as much as possible to less harmful substances, and put the rest in a long-term, secure storage.
A. Physical, chemical, and biological methods can be used to reduce or remove the toxicity of hazardous waste
including incinerators, bioremediation, and phytoremediation.
B. Ideally long-term storage should be the last resort after the first two priorities cannot be implemented, but for most
countries including the U.S., this is the preferred priority. Presently hazardous wastes are disposed of by
incineration, deep-well disposal, surface impoundments, and secure hazardous waste landfills.
C. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulates about 5 % of the U.S. hazardous waste.
D. In the U.S., the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA/Superfund
program) was passed in 1980.
1. The law identifies hazardous waste sites.
2. The law provides for cleanup of these sites on a priority basis.
3. The worst sites go on a National Priorities List (NPL) and are scheduled for total cleanup.
4. There are also laws that provide for cleaning up brownfields as well as abandoned sites contaminated with
hazardous wastes like factories, gas stations, junkyards, etc.
E. Toxic metals are typically heavy metallic elements that are not a part of metabolic processes.
F. Lead is a toxic metal and poses environmental threats in many countries, especially brain damage in children, and
therefore children should be specifically protected from lead products. That is why leaded gasoline was discontinued
in the U.S.
16-6 Achieving a Low-Waste Society
A. Environmental injustice has been practiced in the past by placing hazardous treatment plants, incinerators, and
landfills in communities populated by minority populations in the United States.
B. Opposition to such practices has grown to such a level that local grassroots groups have successfully opposed the
construction of such facilities. Health risks for people living near these facilities are much higher than for the general
population.
C. NIMBY, “Not In My Backyard,” philosophy has been replaced by most citizens with the NOPE principle—Not On
Planet Earth—or by the NIABY principle, “Not In Anyone’s Backyard.”
D. In 2000, a global treaty to control 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), the dirty dozen, was developed by 122
delegates, save the U.S. These chemicals—including dioxins, furans, and DDT—bioaccumulate and biomagnify (in
the food chain).
E. There are four principles for transitioning to a low-waste society:
1. Everything is connected.
2. There is no place to send waste “away.”
3. Diluting waste is not the solution to pollution.
4. The best solution is to prevent waste and pollution and, then, reuse/recycle the materials that we use.
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