Chapter 22: Solid and Hazardous Waste
“Solid wastes are only raw materials we are too stupid to use.”-Arthur C. Clarke
Core Case Study: Love Canal: There is NO AWAY!
Lessons from Love Canal:
 We can never really throw anything away.
 Wastes do not stay put.
 Preventing pollution is much safer and cheaper than trying to clean it up.
I.
Wasting Resources
Solid waste-any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas.
*The United States with 4.5% of the world’s population produces about 33% of the
world’s solid waste.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW garbage)-solid wastes from homes and businesses in or
near urban areas.
In the US, we produce 440 billion pounds of garbage which is twice as much in 1970 and
there is enough garbage produced that we can fill a bumper-bumper convoy of garbage
trucks encircling the globe eight times. This amounts to 1600 pounds of garbage per
person per year in the US.
Some things to think about:
 There is enough aluminum that is thrown away each year that can rebuild the
country’s entire commercial airline fleet every 3 months.
 Enough tires thrown away each year that could encircle the planet almost three
times
 About 18 million disposable diapers thrown away each year which if linked end
to end would reach to the moon and back seven times.
 About 2 million disposable razors, 19 million computers, and 8 million TV sets
thrown away each year.
 Thrown away used carpet that would cover 3,000 square miles.
Where does municipal waste produced in the US go?
What is the definition of hazardous waste?
 Contains one or more 39 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic
compounds at levels which exceeds established limits
 Catches fire easily
 Is reactive or unstable enough to release toxic fumes
 Capable of corroding metal containers
What is not considered to be hazardous wastes?
 Radioactive wastes
 Household hazardous wastes
 Mining wastes
 Oil and gas-drilling wastes
 Cement kiln wastes
 Wastes from thousands of small business and factories that generate less than 220
pounds of hazardous waste per month
 E-waste
What’s the problem?...hazardous waste laws do not regulate 95% of the country’s
hazardous waste. On the average, the US produces 75% of the world’s hazardous waste.
II.
Producing Less Waste and Pollution
A. Waste Management (high-waste approach)
 Burying wastes (groundwater contamination from leaking/leaching)
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Burning wastes (air pollution from combustion)
Shipping wastes to another country or state (that’s not very nice!!!)
B. Pollution Prevention (low-waste approach)
 Reduce waste and pollution
 Reuse as many things as possible
 Recycle and compost as much as possible
 Chemically or biologically treat or incinerate waste that cannot be reduced,
reused, recycled or composted
 Bury what is left in “state of the art “ landfill (Is this truly a solution?)
 Refuse to buy products that cannot be recycled
 BUY WHAT YOU NEED…NOT WHAT YOU WANT!!!
How to deal with solid wastes according to scientists?
a. primary pollution and waste prevention
b. secondary pollution and waste prevention
c. waste management
How do deal with hazardous wastes according to scientists?
a. produce less waste
-change industrial processes to eliminate the use of harmful chemicals
b. convert less hazardous or nonhazardous products
-reuse products
c. put in perpetual storage (Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Storage, Fallon, Nevada)
-burn waste
How can we reduce waste and pollution?
 Decrease consumption
 Doing more with less by redesigning manufacturing processes and products to
use less material and energy per unit of output goods and services
 Redesigning manufacturing processes to produce less waste and pollution
 Developing products that easy to repair, reuse, remanufacture, compost or
recycle
 Design products to last long (Laws of Thermodynamics!!)
 Eliminating or reducing unnecessary packaging
 Using trash taxes
III.
Solutions: Cleaner Production and Selling Services Instead of Things
Service-flow vs. Material-flow economy
What are the differences?

Service flow economy-for a fee, often on a monthly basis, companies would
provide all the materials and products needed to supply and maintain their
services and would take back all materials at the end of their useful lives
which is called a “cradlecradle process”. This type of economy would
increase employment because it takes more people to service and
remanufacture equipment than it does to extract raw materials and to use them
to fabricate products that are often thrown away and replaced with newer
models.
Ex: Xerox copying machines, Kodak and Fujii disposable cameras, Dow
chemicals

Material flow economy-it is the economic model that we have currently where
if we want something, we order it and then we own it. When we are “done”
with the product, we dispose of it.
Ex: computers, TVs, cars
IV.
Reuse
Why should we reuse?
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Extends resource supplies
Keeps high-quality matter resources from being reduced to low-matter
quality waste
Reduces energy use and pollution more than recycling
Examples of reuse:
 Refillable glass beverage bottles
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
Refillable soft drink bottles made up of PET plastic
Metal or plastic lunchboxes
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V.
Plastic containers for storing lunchbox items and refrigerator leftovers instead
of using throwaway plastic wrap and aluminum foil
Cloth shopping bags
Shipping pallets made up of recycled plastic waste instead of throwaway
wood pallets
Tool library
Recycling
Primary vs. Secondary Recycling
What is the difference?
Primary-“closed loop” in which wastes discarded by customers are recycled to
produce new products of the same type such as newspaper newspaper and old
aluminum cans new aluminum cans
Secondary-“opened loop” in which waste materials are converted into different and
usually lower-quality products.
What makes a “good” recyclable material?
a. easily isolated from other wastes
b. available in large quantities in fairly uniform form
c. valuable
How do Materials-Recovery Facilities (MRFs) work?
Machines shred and sort mixed wastes to recover valuable materials for sale to
manufacturers as raw materials The remaining paper, plastics, and other combustible
wastes are recycled or burned to produce steam or electricity to run the recovery plant or
to sell to nearby industries or homes. Ash from the incinerator is buried in a landfill.
Food For thought: What are the cons of MRFs?
Is the separation of solid wastes the answer?
1) produce little air and water pollution
2) has low startup costs and moderate operating costs
3) saves more energy and provides more valuable recyclables
4) educates people about the need for waste reduction, reuse, and recycling
VI.
Refuse
Need vs. want
In the long run, you save money and the environment!!!
VII.
Recycling Aluminum, Wastepaper, Plastics, Glass
A. Paper:
*It takes about 6,600 pounds of trees and 196,000 other resources (water, chemicals,
etc.) to make 2,200 pounds of paper.
How is paper made and how much is recycled?
a. chlorine and chlorinated compounds are used to bleach 40% of the world’s paper.
Is it feasible to recycle plastics?
CRV-Cash Redemption Value
Currently in California, each beverage container under 16 oz. has a CRV of $0.05 and
each beverage container over 16 oz. has a CRV of $0.10.
Currently only 7% by weight of all plastic wastes and 10% of plastic containers in the
US are recycled.
VIII.
Detoxifying, Burning, Burying, and Exporting Wastes
How can hazardous wastes be detoxified?
 Bioremediation-biological treatment of hazardous wastes. It can be used on
the following wastes: pesticides, gasoline, diesel fuels, PCBs and organic
solvents. It does not work well with toxic metals, highly concentrated
chemical wastes, or complete digestion of complex mixtures of toxic
chemicals.
 Phytoremediation (rhizofiltration, phytostabilization, phytodegradation, and
phytoextraction)-using natural or genetically engineered plants to filter and
remove contaminants. Ex: sunflower seeds can remove 95% of lead and other
toxic contaminants from soil and water within 24 hours. It is inexpensive,
does not involve heavy machinery, and can reduce the amount of materials
dumped in landfills. However, it is very slow, only effective at depths where
roots can reach, and animals may feed on pollutant-containing leaves.
Is burning solid and hazardous waste the answer?
Advantages
Reduces trash volume
Less need for landfills
Low water pollution
Disadvantages
High cost
Air pollution
Produces a highly toxic ash
Encourage waste production
Is land disposal of solid waste the answer?
Sanitary landfill-solid wastes are spread out in thin layers, compacted, and covered daily
with fresh layer of clay or plastic foam.
Advantages
No open burning
Little odor
Low groundwater pollution if sited
properly
Can be built quickly
Low operating costs
Can handle large amounts of waste
Filled land can be use for other purposes
Disadvantages
Noise and traffic
Dust
Air pollution from toxic gases and volatile
organic compounds releases greenhouse
gases (CH4 and CO2)
Groundwater contamination
Slow decomposition of wastes
Encourages waste production
Eventually leaks and can contaminate
groundwater
No shortage of landfill spaces in many
areas
Is land disposal of hazardous wastes the answer?
a. deep-well disposal
Advantages
Safe method if sites are chosen properly
Wastes can be retrieved if problems
developed
Low cost
b. surface-impoundment
Advantages
Inexpensive
Disadvantages
Leaks or spills at surface
Leaks from corrosion of well-casing
Existing fractures from earthquakes can
allow wastes to escape into groundwater
Encourages waste production
Disadvantages
Groundwater contamination from leaking
Can store wastes indefinitely with secure
double liners
liners
Air pollution from volatile organic
compounds
Overflow from flooding
Disruption and leakage from earthquakes
Promotes waste production
c. secure hazardous-waste landfills
d. above-ground buildings
Is exporting of hazardous wastes the answer?
IX.
Case Studies: Lead, Dioxins, Mercury, and Chlorine
Points of Review: Lead Poisoning
a. how
b. symptoms
c. known cures
How to protect children from lead poisoning?
 Testing all children for blood levels for lead by age 1
 Banning burning of hazardous wastes
 Phasing out leaded gasoline worldwide
 Testing older buildings for leaded paint and lead dust and removing this
hazard
 Banning all lead solder in plumbing features and in food cans (Mexican
candy)
 Remove lead from piping
 Washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly to remove lead dust
 Testing ceramic ware for lead glazing (China and Mexico)

Testing toys for lead content (China)
What should we do about chlorine?
a. plastics
b. solvents
c. paper and pulp bleaching
How dangerous are dioxins?
-dioxins are a family of more than 75 different chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds form
along with toxic furans as unwanted by products in high temperature chemical reactions
involving chlorine and hydrocarbons. They stay in soil and fatty tissues for decades.
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
X.
Hazardous Waste Regulation in the United States
a. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)-1976
http://www.epa.gov/osw/inforesources/online/
b. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
(SUPERFUND) program of 1980
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/
Brownfields-industrial and commercial sites that have been abandoned and in most cases
contaminated. Many of them are in economically depressed areas of the US such as the
South Bronx, East LA, and South Chicago. Examples include empty factories, abandoned
junkyards, older landfills, and boarded-up gas stations.
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
XI.
Solutions: Achieving A Low-Waste Society
NIMBY (“not in my backyard”)
NIABY (“not in anyone’s backyard”)
NOPE (“not on planet Earth”)
The 5 R’s
RefuseReduceReuseRepurpose Recycle