Chapter 22
Solid and Hazardous Waste
THINKING
Goals
See bulleted list of questions on p. 520 of text.
Objectives
1.
State the percentage of the world's solid wastes that is produced by the United States. State the percentage of
solid waste produced in the United States that is municipal solid waste. Define hazardous waste. State the
percentage of hazardous waste that is not regulated. List seven substances that are "linguistically detoxified."
2.
Compare waste management and pollution prevention approaches to solid and hazardous waste. List the
hierarchy of goals for a low-waste approach. Evaluate which approach makes the most sense to you. Give
reasons for your choice. List seven ways to reduce waste and pollution. List four goals of an ecoindustrial
revolution.
3.
List reuse strategies for refillable containers, grocery bags, and tires. Compare the costs and benefits of
disposable vs. cloth diapers. Define compost. Analyze the impact that widespread use of composting would
have in the United States.
4.
Describe each of the elements and priorities in an Integrated Waste Management system.
5.
Discuss the variety of environmental management methods to deal with solid waste and describe the attributes
and drawbacks of each of these methods.
6.
Summarize Denmark's experience with detoxification of hazardous waste. Assess the pros and cons of
incineration of hazardous and solid wastes. Compare U.S. incinerators with the Japanese fluidized-bed
incinerators.
7.
Describe a modern sanitary landfill. Summarize the benefits and drawbacks of burying solid wastes in sanitary
landfills. Summarize the benefits and drawbacks of deep-well disposal of hazardous wastes. Summarize the
status of export of wastes. Summarize the causes, effects, and ways to deal with lead, dioxins, and chlorine.
8.
Name and briefly describe two U.S. hazardous-waste laws. Describe how Superfund has been subverted and
how its enforcement can be improved.
9.
Summarize the goals of the ecojustice movement. Visualize a low-waste society. Describe the pieces that will
form the framework and fill in this picture.
Key Terms (Terms appear in the same font style as they appear in the text.)
Basal Convention (p. 544)
biological methods (p. 537)
bioplastic (p. 528)
bioremediation (p. 537)
brownfields (p. 535)
chemical methods (p. 536)
composting (p. 527)
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (p. 535)
Solid and Hazardous Waste
cradle-to-grave responsibility (p. 534)
cyclodextrin (p. 536)
deep-well disposal (p. 539)
dioxins (p. 522)
dirty dozen (p. 545)
electronic waste (p. 522)
environmental justice (p. 543)
environmental justice movement (p. 544)
fee-per-bag (p. 524, 529)
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garbage (p. 520)
hazardous (toxic) waste (p. 520)
hazardous waste (p. 533)
high-waste approach (p. 523)
industrial solid waste (p. 520)
integrated waste management (p. 523)
low-waste approach (p. 523)
materials-recovery facilities (MRFs) (527)
municipal solid waste (p. 520)
National Priorities List (NPL) (p. 535)
nonomagnets (p. 536)
open dumps (p. 531)
pay-as-you-throw (PAUT) (p. 527)
persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (p. 544)
physical methods (p. 536)
phytodegradation (p. 537)
phytoextraction (p. 537)
phytoremediation (p. 537)
phytostabilization (p. 537)
plasma torch (p. 538)
pollution prevention (p. 536)
post-consumer wastes (p. 527)
precautionary principle (p. 545)
preconsumer waste (p. 527)
primary (closed-loop) recycling (p. 527)
recycle (p. 524)
reduce (p. 524)
refuse (p. 524)
repurpose (p. 524)
reuse (p. 524)
recycling (p. 526)
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) (p. 534)
rhizofiltration (p. 537)
resource containers (p. 523)
sanitary landfills (p. 531)
secondary recycling (downcycling) (p. 527)
secure hazardous-waste landfills (p. 540)
solid waste (p. 520)
source separation (p. 527)
Superfund program (p. 535)
surface impoundments (p. 539)
throughput (p. 527)
trash (p. 520)
waste management (p. 523)
waste reduction (p. 523)
waste-to-energy incinerators (p. 530)
Outline
Wasting Resources
Solid waste is another kind of resource; the United States is not utilizing this resource well. The affluence of
the United States is reflected in the fact that less than 4.6% of the world’s population produces 33% of the
world’s solid waste.
A. Solid waste is unwanted/discarded material that is not liquid/gaseous.
1. For the most part, good and services produce this waste indirectly.
2. Municipal solid waste (garbage/trash) comes mostly from homes and workplaces.
B. Solid waste is a sign of a society’s waste of its resources: aluminum, tires, disposable diapers, e-waste,
plastic bottles, edible food, etc. Electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest growing type of solid waste.
Integrated Waste Management
A. One method to reduce waste and pollution is to implement waste management. This high-waste approach
accepts waste production as a result of economic growth.
1. It attempts to reduce environmental harm.
2. It transfers the waste from one part of the environment to another.
B. One method is waste reduction. This low-waste approach sees solid waste as a potential resource, which
should be reused, recycled, or composted.
1. It discourages waste production in the first place.
2. It encourages waste reduction and prevention.
3. Waste reduction saves matter and energy resources, reduces pollution, helps protect biodiversity, and
saves money.
4. Waste reduction is based on the five Rs:
a. Refuse
b. Reduce
c. Reuse
d. Repurpose
e. Recycle
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C. To cut waste production and promote sustainability, we must reduce consumption and redesign our
products. These are the eight priorities based on the five Rs.
1. Consume less.
2. Redesign manufacturing processes and products to use less material and energy.
3. Redesign manufacturing processes to produce less waste and pollution.
4. Develop products which are easily repaired, reused, remanufactured, composted, or recycled.
5. Shift from selling goods to selling or leasing the services they provide.
6. Eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging.
7. Fee-per-bag system of waste collection
8. Cradle to grave responsibility
Reuse
Reusing products helps reduce resource use, waste and pollution; it also saves money.
A. Developing countries reuse their products; but there is a health hazard for the poor.
B. U. S. e-waste goes to developing countries where workers are exposed to toxic metals, dioxins, etc.
C. Large city dumps expose scavengers to toxins and infectious diseases.
D. Refillable containers create jobs, costs less for the product, and lessen waste.
E. Shopping bags, food containers, pallets, and tools can be reused/borrowed.
Recycling
Recycling collects waste materials, turn them into useful products, and sells the new products.
A. Recycling is one of two types--it involves reprocessing discarded solid materials into new, useful products;
secondary recycling involves converting materials into different products.
B. Five types of materials can be recycled: paper products, glass, aluminum, steel, and some plastics.
C. Recycling saves money and creates jobs, more than burning or landfilling wastes.
D. Pre-consumer/internal waste is generated from a manufacturing process that is recycled. Postconsumer/external waste is generated by consumer use of products.
E. Composting biodegradable organic wastes is a great way to mimic nature.
F. 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.
G. Source Separation recycling relies on households and businesses to separate their trash; these are collected
and sold to other dealers.
1. This produces less air and water pollution.
2. This method has less startup costs and operating costs.
3. It saves more energy and provides more jobs than MRFs.
4. Pay-as-you-throw (PAUT) waste collection systems charge for the mixed waste that is picked up but
not for the recycled, separated materials.
H. Plastic recycling is not feasible because of these problems.
1. Plastics are difficult to isolate in different materials.
2. Not much individual plastic resin is recoverable per product.
3. Recycled resin is much more expensive than virgin plastic resin.
I. A new polymer, polyactide (ACT), made by Cargill and Dow is being used to produce plastic containers,
which can be composted for a soil conditioner.
J. The economics of recycling depends on the cost one counts.
1. The economic, environmental, and health benefits far outweigh the costs of recycling.
2. But some materials cost more than it is worth.
K. Factors, which hinder reuse and recycling, are:
1. The cost of a product does not include harmful environmental health costs in its life cycle.
2. Resource-extracting industries receive government tax breaks and subsidies while recycle and reuse
industries do not.
3. Landfill charges are low in the U.S.
4. The demand and price for recycled materials fluctuates so there is less interest in committing to this
method.
L. There are tradeoffs in recycling--both advantages and disadvantages to recycling solid waste.
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Burning and Burying Solid Waste
A. Municipal solid waste is burned in waste-to-energy incinerators, which produces steam for heating or
producing electricity.
B. The advantages and disadvantages of burning solid waste are: (given in Figure 24-13)
1. High operating costs
2. Air pollution concerns
3. Citizen opposition to the process
C. Most solid waste is buried in landfills, which will leak toxic liquids into the soil and water.
1. Open dumps in the ground hold garbage; sometimes it is 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;
rainwater is contaminated as it percolates through the solid waste. The leachate is collected, stored in
tanks and then sent to a sewage treatment plant. But all landfills will eventually leak contaminants.
D. There is a difficult dilemma in dealing with the more than 800 million used tires that have accumulated in
large dumps and vacant lots and the approximately 273 million more tires discarded each year
1. Tires and negative health and environmental effects
2. There are several methods being used to reuse and recycle used tires.
Hazardous Waste
Hazardous waste is discarded solid or liquid material that may explode and/or release toxic fumes. The two
largest classes of hazardous wastes are organic compounds (such as pesticides, PCBs and dioxins) and toxic
heavy metals (such as lead, mercury and arsenic)
A. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulates about 5% of the U.S. hazardous waste.
B. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERLA/Superfund
program) was passed in 1980.
1. The law identifies hazardous waste sites
2. The law provides for clean-up 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 brown fields, abandoned sites contaminated with
hazardous wastes like factories, gas stations, junkyards, etc.
C. Chemical and biological methods can be used to reduce the toxicity of hazardous wastes or to remove
them.
1. Treatment facilities can detoxify hazardous and toxic wastes.
2. One biological treatment, bioremediation, uses bacteria and enzymes to help destroy hazardous or toxic
substances. They are converted to harmless compounds in the process.
3. Phytoremediation uses natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb, filter and remove
contaminants from polluted water and soil. The advantages and disadvantages of phytoremediation are:
(Figure 22-17)
D. Hazardous waste regulation in the United States.
1. Both the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Superfund Act were supported to deal with
hazardous wastes.
2. Brownfields are contaminated industrial/commercial sites.
Dealing With Hazardous Waste
A. An Integrated Management of Hazardous Waste involves producing less and then recycling, reusing,
detoxifying, burnings and buying what is produced
B. Physical, chemical, and biological methods and incineration and the plasma torch can be used to remove
hazardous wastes or reduce their toxicity
C. Deep-well disposal pumps liquid hazardous waste into dry, porous geologic formations far beneath water
sources. Many scientists believe current regulations for deep-well disposal are inadequate.
D. Surface impoundments are depressions excavated into the earth, like ponds, pits or lagoons, which are used
to store liquid hazardous wastes. With evaporation, the wastes settle and become more concentrated. EPA
studies found this method inadequate.
E. In secure hazardous waste landfills, liquid and solid hazardous waste are stored in drums or other
containers and buried. Carefully designed aboveground buildings can be used to store hazardous waste; the
waste is contained in the upper floor; on the lower floor, leaks can, then, be easily identified.
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F. All of these methods have disadvantages and advantages and their ability to protect groundwater is
probably limited.
Toxic Lead and Mercury
A. Lead is a toxic metal and poses environmental threats in many countries, especially to the nervous systems
of children.
1. Lead poisoning can produce palsy, partial paralysis, blindness, mental retardation, hyperactivity,
hearing damage, and behavioral disorders. Such poisoning is a risk in many places of the world.
2. Methods to protect children from lead poisoning include: (figure 24-25).
B. Mercury is released through burning coal and incineration of wastes.
1. Mercury can be found in high levels in some types of fish.
2. In the US up to 300,00 babies born each year are in risk of cerebral palsy, delayed onset of walking and
talking, learning disabilities, loss of memory, and impaired coordination due to exposure to
methylmercury while still in the womb.
3. Methods of preventing mercury poisoning include: (figure 24-27).
Achieving a Low-Waste Society
Environmental injustice has been practiced by placing hazardous treatment plants, incinerators, and landfills in
communities populated by minority populations in the United States.
A. Opposition to such has grown so that local, grass-root 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.
B. Environmental Justice means that every person is entitled to protection from environmental hazards
regardless of race, gender, age, national origin income, social class or any other factors
C. In 2000, a global treaty to control twelve persistent organic pollutants (POPs) was developed. To be made
effective, fifty countries must ratify the treaty.
1. POPs are toxic chemicals stored in the fatty tissue of humans and other organisms.
2. Twelve chemicals, the dirty dozen, need to be phased out, detoxified and/or isolated.
D. There are four principles for transitioning to a low-waste society:
1. Everything is connected.
2. There is no place to send wastes “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.
5. It is necessary to detoxify the US economy.
Summary
1.
Solid waste is any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas. Thirty-three percent of the
world’s solid wasted is produced by one country – the United States – which represents 4.6% or the world’s
population.
2.
Waste management, waste reduction, reduced usage and pollution prevention can all be used to reduce, reuse,
or recycle solid waste.
3.
The advantages of burning waste include reduction of trash volume, minimizing the need for landfills, and
lowering water pollution. The disadvantages include high cost, air pollution, producing toxic ash, and
encouraging waste production. The advantages of burying wastes include safety, wastes can be retrieved, ease
of application, and low cost. Disadvantages include leaks and spills, existing fractures or earthquakes can
cause waste escape, and encouraging waste production.
4.
Hazardous waste is any discarded solid or liquid material that is toxic, ignitable, corrosive, or reactive enough
to explode or release toxic fumes. We can use a pollution prevention or waste reduction approach to reduce
production and manage existing hazardous waste mostly by burning or burying it.
5.
Physical methods such as filtering and distilling, chemical reactions, bioremediation, phytoremediation, and
plasma torches can all be used to detoxify hazardous waste.
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6.
Advantages of burning hazardous waste include reduction of waste volume, minimizing the need for storage
space and lowering water pollution. The disadvantages include air pollutants such as toxic dioxins and
production of toxic ash that must be stored. Advantages of burying hazardous waste include safety, wastes can
be retrieved, ease of application, and low cost. Disadvantages include leaks and spills, existing fractures or
earthquakes can cause waste escape, and encouraging waste production.
7.
We can prevent lead poisoning through reduces use of lead gasoline and waste incineration, testing blood by
age 1, and by banning lead solder, glazing, and candles containing lead. Mercury pollution can be prevented
by reducing waste incineration, removing mercury from coal, using natural gas in the place of coal, and
phasing out use of mercury in all products unless they are recycled. Dioxin pollution can be prevented by
reducing waste incineration, banning the use of chlorine for bleaching paper, eliminating chlorinated
hydrocarbon compounds burned in iron ore sintering plants and cement kilns, and testing of livestock forage
and feed.
8.
The United States regulates hazardous waste through the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recover Act that
was amended in 1984.
9.
Transition to a more sustainable low-waste society involves preventing the building of new incinerators,
landfills, and treatment plants, as well as a focus on pollution prevention and the use of the precautionary
principle.
More Depth: Conceptual Term Paper Topics
1.
Solid waste: what should NYC do with its solid waste?
2.
Epidemiology studies of different hazardous substances such as lead and dioxins.
3.
Alternatives to hazardous chemicals.
4.
The history of synthetic organic chemicals.
More Breadth: Interdisciplinary Activities and Projects
1.
Visit a community recycling center and observe its operations.
2.
Visit a municipal solid waste landfill and observe its operations or have the education coordinator of the
landfill visit your classroom.
3.
Does your state require refundable deposits on all beer and soft-drink containers? If so, investigate the extent to
which the program is living up to expectations. If not, invite spokespersons for both sides of the issue to debate
the matter for the benefit of your class.
4.
Invite a city or county official responsible for solid-waste disposal to discuss related economic, political, and
logistical problems. Ask about possible plans for future improvements in collection and resource recovery
plants.
5.
Invite public health officials to address your class on the subject of hazardous-waste risks to public health in
your community.
6.
Invite a manager of a hazardous site to describe to your class the type of hazardous wastes that are being
dumped, the origin of the wastes, the transportation routes to the dump, the emergency measures ready to go
into effect along the transportation route, and the precautions that are taken at the site in handling the waste.
7.
Invite a chemistry professor to talk to your class about the history of the development of synthetic organic
chemicals and to describe the chemical nature of many of these hazardous chemicals.
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Multisensory Learning: Audiovisuals
Solid Waste
Compost: Truth & Consequences. 1998. 16 min. BFF.
Dealing with Solid Waste; 1998; 29 min.; issues of solid waste and disease; FHS.
Down in the Dumps; 26 min.; running out of landfill space and a look at alternatives; FHS.
Fueling the Future: No Deposit, No Return; 1988; 58 min.; investigates how wastefulness carries energy costs,
depletes resources, and increases pollution; VP.
Solid Solutions: Rural America Confronts the Waste Crisis; 1994; 30 min.; how smaller and poorer communities are
creating strategies to deal with waste; VP.
Sowing the Seeds of Disaster; 26 min.; biotechnology to produce pollutant-eating organisms and frost-resistant plant
strains as well as a consideration of dangers of introduction of nonnatural substances into our ecosystem; FHS.
The Disposable Society; 26 min.; solid waste; FHS.
The Trash Monster and the Wizard of Waste; 12 min. film strips; CSWMB.
The W.O.W. Series of Video Tapes on the Solid Waste Crisis including Waste Management as if the Future
Mattered; 1989; VAP.
Up Close and Toxic. 2003. 45 min. CBC. BFF.
Waste Disposal; 1994; 23 min.; household recycling, medical wastes, animal wastes; FHS.
Waste Not, Want Not from Race to Save the Planet; 1990; 60 min.; potential solutions to waste problems; ACPB.
What About Waste? MDNR.
Hazardous Waste
Toxic Wastes. 41 min. DVD (part 1. A History of Toxic Wastes in the Biosphere; Part 2: Toxic Waste Today). 2004.
Hawkhill Associates, Inc.
Black Tide. 50 min. DVD/VHS. FHS.
Drugs and Poisons; 1994; 23 min.; drugs the human body, toxics and the biosphere; FHS.
Global Dumping Ground; 60 min.; investigative reporting by Bill Moyers; SLP.
PCBs in the Food Chain; 18 min.; how marine pollution moves through the food chain from plankton through
dolphins; FHS.
Poisonous Currents of Air and Sea; 18 min.; focus on PCBs moving globally; FHS.
The Toxic Goldrush; 26 min.; growth of the waste cleanup industry; FHS.
Times Beach, Missouri; 1994; 57 min.; residents of a small town learn their community has been extensively
contaminated with dioxin; VP.
Toxic Racism; 1994; 56 min.; poor and minority populations suffering disproportionately from industrial and toxic
pollution; VP.
Toxic Waste; 60 min.; development, effects, and control of organic chemicals; BFF.
Witness to the Future: The Legacy of "Silent Spring" & A Call for Environmental Action; 1996; 50 min.; citizens in
Hanford, WA, San Joaquin Valley, Louisiana's Cancer Alley; VP.
Reduction and Recycling
Going Green: How to Reduce Your Garbage. 1992. 22 min. BFF
Self-help Solutions to Poverty in the U.S. and Africa. 1997. 28 min. BFF.
Recycling: The Endless Circle; 1992; 25 min.; NG.
Recycling: Waste into Wealth; 1984; 29 min.; state-of-the-art techniques; BFF.
Recycling; 21 min.; EPA with a variety of municipal solid waste treatments; FDC.
Re-use It or Lose It; 1991; 20 min.; Sierra Club film explaining how individuals, communities, and businesses can
recycle to decrease the amount of waste they produce; CMS.
There's More to Mining Than Meets the Eye; 25 min.; mining processes and reclamation; AMC.
Tunnel Visions: Into the Sea of Uncertainty. 56 min. VHS. VP.
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Incineration
Europeans Mobilizing Against Trash Incineration; 1990; VAP.
Restoring the Environment; 26 min.; incineration of hazardous wastes; FHS.
ATTITUDES/VALUES
Assessment
1.
Have you visited a landfill? How did you feel during your visit?
2.
Should industries and other producers of hazardous waste be allowed to inject such waste into deep
underground wells?
3.
Have you visited an incinerator which handles solid or hazardous waste? How did you feel during your visit?
4.
Have you visited a recycling center? How did you feel during your visit?
5.
Do you feel that natural ecosystems can continue to absorb the wastes from human activities?
6.
Do you feel that new technologies will be able to eliminate our current solid-waste problems?
7.
Do you feel that solid-waste issues are one of the top three environmental concerns?
8.
Are you willing to separate your trash, carry reusable shopping bags, and purchase products with reduced
packaging?
9.
Are you willing to purchase goods based on lifetime costs rather than just the initial cost?
10. Would you favor a nationwide law requiring a 25¢ refundable deposit on all bottles and cans to encourage their
recycling or reuse?
11. Would you support a law requiring separation of trash into paper, bottles, aluminum cans, steel cans, and glass
for recycling and to separate all food and yard wastes for composting?
12. Would you support a law that bans all throwaway bottles, cans, and plastic containers and requires that all
beverage and food containers be reusable (refillable)?
13. Would you support a law requiring that at least 60% of all municipal solid waste be recycled, reused, or
composted?
14. Would you support a law banning the construction of any incinerators or landfills for disposal of hazardous or
solid waste until at least 60% of all municipal solid waste is recycled, reused, or composted and industrial
hazardous waste has been reduced by 60%?
15. Would you support a law banning the emission of any hazardous chemicals into the environment, with the
understanding that many products you use now would cost more and some would no longer be made?
16. Would you support a law banning the export of any hazardous wastes and pesticides, medicines, or other
chemicals banned in your country to any other country? Would you also support a law banning export of such
wastes from one part of a country to another so that each community is responsible for the waste it produces?
More Depth: Discussion and Term Paper Topics
1.
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Trace the roots of the throwaway mentality.
Instructor's Manual: Chapter 22
2.
Should disposable goods and built-in obsolescence be discouraged by legislation and economic means (such as
taxes)?
3.
Are solid waste landfills the least desirable solution to our solid waste disposal problem?
4.
Should urban incinerators be encouraged as an alternative to sanitary landfills?
5.
Should more substances be regulated as hazardous wastes?
6.
What benefits did we gain as a society for the lead effects we have suffered?
7.
Should the precautionary principle prevail?
(Also, see text, Critical Thinking, p. 546 and Critical Thinking and the Environment.)
PARTICIPATION
Lifestyle and Campus Community
See Green Lives/Green Campuses, Chapter 7: Solid Wastes; Chapter 8: Hazardous Wastes.
More Depth: Action-oriented Term Paper Topics
1.
Individual: reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink; garage sales; source separation of household wastes; appliances
built to last; what consumers can do about excessive packaging; recycling centers; resource recovery plants:
the Saugus model; reduction of lead exposure; reduction of dioxins in the environment; businesses which have
invested in pollution prevention.
2.
City/County: municipal resource recovery plants; recycling industrial wastes; scrapyards; antilitter campaigns;
hazardous-waste landfills; hazardous-waste incineration; deep-well disposal.
3.
State: bottle bills.
4.
National Policy: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Superfund; strategies for treating hazardous
chemicals; strategies for recycling hazardous chemicals; strategies for preventing hazardous chemicals; the
ecojustice movement; Not On Planet Earth.
5.
International: recycling programs in Sweden and Switzerland; Germany's tough packaging law; the
international hazardous-waste trade.
SKILLS
Environmental Problem-Solving Skills: Projects
1.
If possible, take a class field trip to an open dump, a sanitary landfill, a secured landfill, and an incinerator.
Observe problems associated with each approach to waste management.
2.
Encourage your students to find out how your school and community dispose of wastes. Are recycling centers
available? Are they conveniently located? What materials do they accept? Do any local factories or other
industries accept wastes for recycling? How much is recycled? Would a source separation program be feasible?
3.
Have students who live at home maintain a record of solid wastes discarded by their families in the course of
one week. What percentage of this material could actually be recycled?
4.
As a class, survey excess packaging in various products at local supermarkets. (Ask permission first; many
supermarket managers are cooperative, but some are not.) Make up ecological ratings for each category based
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211
on the concept that packages inside of packages are very undesirable. Write manufacturers about the results of
your findings. See if store managers would make your results available to customers at an environmental
education stand or bulletin board.
5.
As a class, investigate disposal of household hazardous wastes in your community. Is there a program to pick
up household hazardous wastes yearly?
6.
As a class, investigate any particular hazardous-waste problems in your area. Have there been leaks from
underground tanks? Have there been highway accidents involving hazardous wastes? Have spills accidentally
gone into waterways? Have buried wastes leached into water supplies? What efforts have been made to treat
these problems? What efforts have been made to prevent these problems? What further actions, if any, would
your class recommend?
7.
As a class project, evaluate community awareness of alternative substances that can be used as substitutes for
hazardous chemicals.
8.
As a class, investigate the recycling practices of businesses in your area: dry cleaners, businesses that maintain
air conditioning systems and refrigeration equipment, and businesses that change oil.
Laboratory Skills
Laboratory Manual for Miller's Living in the Environment and Environmental Science.
Lab 20: Solid Waste Prevention and Management.
Computer Skills
See Introduction to the Internet.
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