1.7 Urban waste Flashcards
What are the 3 main reasons for the growth of waste
Global waste increases 7% every year due to
1. Increasing population
2. Economic growth (increased demand)
3. Built in obsolescence
What are the sources of waste in urban areas
Residential
Industrial
Commercial (stores, offices etc)
Institutional (schools, hospitals)
Construction
Urban services (street cleaning)
Give examples of waste in urban areas
Food waste, paper, plastic, textiles, e-waste, wood, bricks, essentially anything
What are the impacts of to much waste generation
Expensive - (can cost up to 50% of LIC’s city budget in some cases)
Polluting - (waste is a large producer of methane)
Harmful to life - (health problems like cholera and fever)
Give an example of an area, which really struggles with coping with waste, with context
Smokey Mountain, Manilla
Over 2 million tonnes of waste was stored here
7,000 families, 80% of which rely on scavenging and tourism, relying on just $2 a day
What are the opportunities and disadvantages in Smokey Mountain
The people have adapted to their environment and are using it to make money from Ethical Tourism
The waste often catches fire, causing a risk to human life, eye irritation and skin infections
What are the 4 main methods of waste disposal
Reduce, Reuse, Compost, recycle
Incineration
Landfill
Trade
What are some methods of recycling and recovery
- Be sent to recycling plants, which use magnets to separate and recycle materials starting at the UK bin system (government)
- Upcycle products and don’t waste (local)
What are the advantages and disadvantages of recycling and recovery
- Can take less energy to recycle something than it does extract new (takes 90% less energy in the case of aluminium)
- It is expensive and often not done sustainably, the recovery of materials releases CO2
What are the advantages and disadvantages of incineration (when done sustainably)
Incinerators can destroy solid, liquid and gaseous waste efficiently, and any emissions/ left over waste can be converted into energy or used as building materials
If not done sustainably, the combustion of waste and plastic can release harmful pollutants into the atmosphere and tarnish local water supplies, effecting human life and biodiversity
Give an example of a sustainable incinerator with context
The Tysley incinerator , Birmingham
Burns 350,000 tonnes a year
Powers 41,000 homes with energy
Leftover ash is used to make cement
What are the advantages and disadvantages of landfill (burial of waste)
They can hold lots of waste, away from the human population, hiding the problem. Any methane gas which is produced, can be caught and converted into renewable energy
They release lots of methane , are toxic, ugly and smelly
Hazardous materials such as lead from batteries, can be washed into the water supply as a LEACHATE, contaminating it and attracting vermin
Give an example of a sustainable landfill with context
Semakua, Singapore
Built in 1995, 2 islands Singapore were connected by filling a submergence landfill. The landfill was then covered in layers of earth, which has grown into a biodiverse area, attracting tourism and Scientific interest
The sides of the landfills has been walled off by concrete, impermeable membranes to stop leachates
What is the global waste trade
Rich countries don’t want to dispose of the problem in their own country, so they pay poorer countries to process it for them, particularly E-waste
It is extremely unfair, as it is often not dealt with in LIC’s, damaging the environment and the local people
Give an example of a LIC which takes in a lot of the global waste trade
Guiyu China is the worlds largest E-waste site, featuring over 6,000 workers , who process 100 truckloads of waste every day
