Lori Hursh
APES 2B
10 Things to Know About Solid Wastes Management and Landfills
A. 1. E-waste is electronic waste like discarded computers and cell phones. Most of it goes
to landfills and incinerators. 70% of e-waste is shipped to China. Laborers (usually
children) are paid very little to remove precious metals. In the process they are exposed to
toxins.
2. Solid waste can be broken into two categories: industrial solid waste and municipal
solid waste. Industrial solid waste is created by mines, factories, and agriculture.
Municipal is created in homes or offices.
3. A material is classified as hazardous if it is poisonous, chemically reactive, corrosive,
or flammable. An example is a car battery.
4. Two ways to deal with waste are waste management and waste reduction. Management
is deciding what to do with the waste produced where reduction is decreasing the amount
produced.
5. Plastic, glass, metal, and paper should be recycled. Food and yard waste should be
used to make compost or used as fertilizer. Hazardous wastes should be discarded safely.
The rest goes to a landfill.
6. Two types of recycling are primary and secondary. Products that are recycled are made
into the same thing in primary recycling. Recycled products are turned into something
different in secondary recycling.
7. Composting is a form of recycling where food scraps and yard trimmings are gathered
and broken down by decomposer bacteria.
8. Open dumps are mainly used in third world countries. They are just pits where people
throw their trash. Sanitary landfills
9. We can take care of hazardous waste using physical, chemical, and biological methods.
One cleanup approach is called phytoremediation. It is where genetically engineered
plants absorb the toxin from polluted soil and water.
10. Hazardous waste can be stored in deep-wells or in surface impoundments. Surface
impoundments are pits or ponds covered with a liner where hazardous wastes can be
stored (one risk of these is overflow from flooding).
B.
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C. N/A
D.
1. Ways people and corporations can reduce waste include all of the following except:
a. Develop products that are easy to repair, reuse, remake, or compost
b. Redesign manufacturing processes to use less energy
c. Use fee-per-bag waste collection
d. Create cradle-to-grave responsibility laws
e. Recycle goods
2. Advantages of recycling include all of the following except:
a. It saves energy
b. It helps protect biodiversity
c. Increases profits for landfill owners
d. It reduces mineral demand
e. It reduces pollution
3. All are advantages of incineration except:
a. They are inexpensive to build
b. They lower water pollution
c. Facilities can recover metals
d. They reduce trash volume
e. The hazardous material is concentrated making burial easier
4. The following are all techniques to deal with hazardous waste except:
a. Phytoremediation
b. Surface Impoundments
c. Polymer Inoculation
d. Deep-Wells
e. Plasma Arc
E. FRQ’s
1. List five different products that you could find in your home that contain harmful
chemicals.
2. Describe phytoremediation and its benefits and drawbacks.
3. What is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
and what has been one positive outcome because of it? What us a brownfield?
4. How has grassroots action led to better disposal of hazardous waste? What is
environmental justice?
Answers
M.C.
1. E
2. C
3. A
4. C
FRQ
1. Disinfectants, pesticides, wood preservatives, glues/cements, gasoline, battery acid, weed
killers, paint thinners
2. Phytoremediation is where genetically engineered plants are used to absorb toxins in the
soil and air. Advantages are that it is easy to establish, it isn’t very expensive, and it is
low energy use. Disadvantages are that it is slow, only effective where the plant roots can
reach, and the plants can poison some animals.
3. CERCLA is a program designed to find hazardous waste sites and clean them up based
upon greatest need. The act has wiped out illegal dumping. It forces polluters to pay the
cost of cleaning up the land. Brownfields are abandoned industrial and commercial sites.
Examples include factories, old landfills, and gas stations.
4. Grassroots movements put pressure on the government and also on the corporations who
manage the waste. Environmental justice is the idea that everyone should be protected
from dangers in the environment despite their race, gender, income, et.