Environmental Science
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Section 1: Solid Waste
Objectives:
 Name one characteristic that makes a material biodegradable.
 Identify two types of solid waste.
 Describe how a modern landfill works.
 Name two environmental problems caused by landfills.
A. Definitions:
1. solid waste: a discarded solid material, such as garbage, refuse, or sludge
2. biodegradable material: a material that can be broken down by biological processes
3. municipal solid waste: waste produced by households and businesses
4. landfill: an area of land or an excavation where wastes are placed for permanent
disposal
5. leachate: a liquid that has passed through solid waste and has extracted dissolved or
suspended materials from that waste, such as pesticides in the soil
B. The Generation of Waste
1. Every year, the United States generates more than 10 billion metric tons of solid
waste.
2. Solid waste includes everything from junk mail to coffee grounds to cars.
3. Today, many towns are running out of space to dispose of the amounts of waste that
people create.
(Ex.: In 1987, the barge Mabro from Islip, NY, sailed up and down the East Coast
and to the Gulf of Mexico for 5 months looking for a place to dump its load of
garbage.)
4. While the Earth’s human population and the amount of waste we produce grow
larger, the amount of land available per person becomes smaller.
5. The average person living in the U.S. produces 4.4 pounds of solid waste per day.
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6. The total amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in the U.S. has more
than doubled in the past 50 years.
C. Not All Wastes Are Equal
1. Biological processes can break down materials that are biodegradable, such as
newspapers, paper bags, leather, and cotton fibers. (made of naturally from plant
and animal matter)
2. Materials that are not biodegradable such as plastics, polyester, and nylon are a
major cause of disposal problems. (made from synthetic materials)
3. Plastics are molecular chains of carbon and hydrogen that aren’t found naturally in
nature and therefore aren’t easily broken down by microorganisms.
D. Types of Solid Waste
1. Some types of solid waste are:
 municipal solid waste (2%),
 manufacturing waste (56%),
 mining waste (33%), and
 agriculture waste (9%).
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2. Municipal solid waste makes up only a small fraction of the total solid waste
generated, but it still amounts to over 210 million metric tons per year.
3. The amount of municipal solid waste is growing much faster than the amount of
mining or agricultural waste.
4. From the chart above, what percentage can be composted?
yard trimmings 13.4% + food scraps 13.9% = 27.3%
5. From the chart above, what percentage can be recycled?
paper 28.5% + metal 9.0% + glass 4.6% = 42.1%
6. Solid waste from manufacturing includes items such as scrap metal, plastics, paper,
sludge, and ash.
7. Waste from mining consists of the rock and minerals that are left over from
excavation and processing.
8. Agricultural waste includes crop wastes, manure, fertilizers, and pesticides.
E. Solid Waste Management
1. Landfills and incinerators are two facilities used for disposing solid waste.
2. Problems with landfills are leachate and methane.
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3. Leachate forms when water seeps down through a landfill and contains dissolved
chemicals from decomposed garbage that can contain chemicals from paints,
pesticides, cleansers, cans, batteries, and appliances.
4. This landfill generates electricity by burning methane gas that is produced by
decomposing garbage.
5. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976, updated 1984) requires that
new landfills be built with safeguards to reduce pollution problems.
 must be lined with clay and a plastic liner
 must have collection and treatment systems for leachate
 must have vent pipes to carry methane out of the landfill
6. A solid-waste incinerator reduces the amount of trash that goes to landfills and can
be used to generate electricity. However, the material that is created by the
incinerator can be toxic.
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Environmental Science
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Section 2: Reducing Solid Waste
Objectives:
 Identify three ways you can produce less waste.
 Describe how you can use your consumer buying power to reduce solid waste.
 List the steps that an item must go through to be recycled.
 Name one advantage and one disadvantage to producing degradable plastic.
F. Definitions:
1. source reduction: any change in the design, manufacture, purchase, or use of
materials or products to reduce their amount or toxicity before they become
municipal solid waste; also the reuse of products or materials
2. recycling: the process of recovering valuable or useful materials from waste or scrap;
the process of reusing some items
3. compost: a mixture of decomposing organic matter, such as manure and rotting
plants, that is used as fertilizer and soil conditioner
G. Reducing Solid Waste
1. Source reduction is a method by which we can produce less waste, recycle, and reuse
materials.
2. Landfills and incinerators are pollute the environment and are expensive to operate.
(If we produce less waste, we will reduce the expense and difficulty of collecting and
disposing of it.)
3. As consumers, we can influence manufacturers to reduce solid waste by buying
products with less packaging, products that last longer, or products that can be used
more than once. (Ex. – dish towels instead of paper towels, rechargeable batteries
instead of regular batteries, glass bottles instead of plastic bottles)
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H. Recycling
1. Recycling is the process of reusing materials or recovering valuable materials from
waste or scrap.
2. Making products from recycled materials usually saves energy, water, and other
resources.
 95% less energy – aluminum from recycled aluminum instead of ore
 75% less energy – steel from scrap instead of ore
 70% less energy – paper from recycled paper instead of trees
3. Steps of recycling include:
 collecting and sorting discarded materials by type,
 taking the materials to a recycling facility,
 cleaning the discarded materials so they can be shredded or crushed, and
 reusing the shredded or crushed material to manufacture new products.
4. Plastic Recycling designation system:
 1 – PET (polyethylene terepthalate) – soda, water, and juice bottles
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 2 – HDPE (high density polyethylene) – milk jugs, detergent bottles, grocery
bags
 3 – PV (polyvinyl chloride) – shrink wrap, shower curtains, siding/piping
 4 – LDPE (low density polyethylene) – garbage/sandwich/dry cleaning bags,
six-pack rings
 5 – PP (polypropylene) - margarine tubs, yogurt cups, screw-on lids/caps for
bottles, straws
 6 – PS (polystyrene) – styrofoam egg cartons/cups, plastic cutlery, packing
pellets/peanuts
 7 – Mixed Plastics 5. Types 1 and 2 are most commonly recycled by most communities.
6. Type 4 is less commonly recycled, and types 3, 5, 6, and 7 are most likely not to be
recycled.
7. Yard waste makes up 15% of a communities solid waste. Yet it is biodegradable and
doesn’t need to be in landfills.
8. A compost pile made from plant and animal matter can be spread on gardens and
fields to enrich the soil.
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9. Benefits of Composting:
 keeps organic wastes out of landfills
 provides nutrients to the soil
 increases beneficial soil organisms, such as worms and centipedes
 suppresses some plant diseases
 reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides
 protects soil from erosion
I. Changing the Materials We Use
1. Simply changing the materials we use could eliminate much of the solid waste we
produce. (Ex. – Drink boxes made of a combination of foil, cardboard, and plastic
are hard to separate, so are not recyclable. Should use either recyclable glass,
cardboard or aluminum containers).
2. Recycle common household items into new usable products:
 newspaper – to make cardboard, egg cartons, and building materials
 telephone books, magazines, & catalogs – to make building materials
 aluminum cans – new beverage cans, lawn chairs, aluminum siding, and
cookware
 glass – to make new glass jars/bottles
 plastic beverage bottles – to make nonfood containers, insulation, carpet
yarn, textiles, fiberfill, scouring pads, toys, plastic lumber, and crates
3. Degradable plastic is a type of plastic that is partially made from living things.

Photodegradable plastic – when left in the sun for many weeks, it will
become weak, brittle, and eventually break into pieces

Green plastic – made by blending sugars in plants with a special chemical
agent to make plastic
4. The problem with degradable plastics is that even though the organic parts can be
degraded, the plastic parts are only reduced to smaller pieces.
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Environmental Science
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Section 3: Hazardous Waste
Objectives:
 Name two characteristics of hazardous waste.
 Describe one law that governs hazardous waste.
 Describe two ways in which hazardous waste is disposed.
J. Definitions:
1. hazardous waste: wastes that are a risk to the health of humans or other living
organisms
2. deep-well injection: deep-well disposal of hazardous waste
3. surface impoundment: a natural depression or a human-made excavation that serves
as a disposal facility that holds an accumulation of wastes
K. Types of Hazardous Waste
1. Hazardous wastes may be solids, liquids, or gases.
2. Hazardous wastes often contain toxic, corrosive, or explosive materials.
3. Examples of hazardous wastes:
 dyes, cleansers, and solvents
 PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) from older electrical equipment, such as
heating systems and television sets
 plastics, solvents, lubricants, and sealants
 toxic heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and zinc
 pesticides
 radioactive wastes from spent fuel that was used to generate electricity
4. The methods used to dispose of hazardous wastes often are not as carefully planned
as the manufacturing processes that produced them. Example: careless hazardous
waste disposal that occurred at Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, NY.
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5. Federal laws were passed to clean up old waste sites and regulate future waste
disposal.
6. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Superfund Act were
established to regulate solid and hazardous waste disposal and to protect humans
and the environment from waste contamination.
7. RCRA requires producers of hazardous waste to keep records of how their wastes are
handled from the time the wastes are made to the time the wastes are placed in an
approved disposal facility.
8. Under RCRA, the producer is legally responsible for problems caused by their waste.
9. The 1980 Superfund Act gave the USEPA the right to sue the owners of hazardous
waste sites who had illegally dumped waste and force the owners to pay for the
cleanup.
10. This map shows the number of approved and proposed Superfund sites as of 2001.
These sites are some of the most hazardous areas in the US.
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L. Hazardous Waste Management
1. Each year, the US produces about 252 million metric tons of hazardous waste.
2. Ways to prevent hazardous waste:
 redesign manufacturing processes to produce less or no hazardous waste
 find a way to use the hazardous waste
 convert hazardous waste into nonhazardous substances
3. Land disposal facilities:
 deep-well injection – pumped deep into the ground, under the level of
groundwater, then covered with cement
 surface impoundment – basically a pond that has a sealed bottom; waste
settle to bottom and water evaporates off the top
 hazardous waste landfills – hold barrels of waste
M
enu Lesson Print
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4. Some hazardous wastes can be absorbed, broken down, or their toxicity can be
reduced when they are treated with biological and chemical agents. Examples:
 bacteria – crude oil, PCBs, and cyanide
 flowering plants and trees – heavy metals
 chemicals – neutralize and absorb hazardous waste
5. Some hazardous wastes are disposed of by burning, often in specially designed
incinerators.
6. Incinerators are generally the most expensive form of waste disposal because they
require a lot of energy to operate.
7. The only way to make the radioactive wastes nonhazardous it to let them sit for
thousands of years until the radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
8. Hazardous waste is also exported through international trade agreements to another
country that specializes in treating, disposing of, or recycling a particular hazardous
waste.
M. Hazardous Wastes at Home
1. Common household waste products:
 motor oil

paints

batteries

computers

mobile phones

pesticides

fertilizers

cleaners

antifreeze
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2. Local governments have hazardous waste collections for many of the household
wastes.
3. Motor oil should be recycled at local service stations.
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