Chapter 21 Flashcards
Waste is put on or in the ground and is covered with at least 6 inches of earth
Landfill
The total of all the materials (commonly called trash, refuse, or garbage) thrown away from homes and small businesses
Municipal solid waste (MSW)
Water percolating through the trash and picking up pollutants
Leaching
The water with various pollutants
Leachate
The federal program with the responsibility for cleaning up sites that are in imminent danger of jeopardizing human health through groundwater contamination
Superfund
Two-thirds methane and the rest is hydrogen and carbon dioxide, a highly flammable mixture
Biogas
Contains most of the toxic substances and can be safely put into a landfill
Fly ash
From the bottom of the boiler; can be used as fill in some construction sites and roadbeds
Bottom ash
Defined by the EPA as “the practice of designing, manufacturing, purchasing, or using materials in ways that reduce the amount of toxicity of trash created
Source reduction
A process in which the original waste material is made back into the same material (newspaper recycled to make newsprint)
Primary recycling
Waste materials are made into different products that may or may not be recyclable (cardboard from waste newspapers)
Secondary recycling
The glass in MSW is primarily in the form of containers, most of which held beverages
Glass Recycling and Bottle Laws
Facilitate the recycling or reuse of beverage container
Bottle laws
Turned into carpets, jackets, film, strapping, and new bottles
Polyethylene terephthalate (PETE; code 1).
Becomes irrigation drainage tiles, sheet plastic, and recycling bins
High-density polyethylene (HDPE; code 2)
The purpose is to sort a mixed stream of waste materials (cans, bottles, newspapers, etc.) for eventual recycling. In 2010, there were 633 MRFs operating in the United States, handling over 98,000 tons of MSW a day.
Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs)
This act gave jurisdiction over solid waste to the Bureau of Solid Waste Managemen
Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
This act gave jurisdiction over waste management to the newly created EPA and directed attention to recycling programs
Resource Recovery Act of 1970
This act gives the EPA the power to close local dumps and set regulations for landfills
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976
This act addressed abandoned hazardous-waste sites
Superfund Act of 1980
This gave the EPA greater responsibility to set solid-waste criteria for all hazardous-waste facilities
Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984
A system that uses several approaches to deal with our nation’s solid waste problems; it focuses on source reduction, recycling, materials recovery facilities, waste-to- energy combustion, composting, and landfill performance
Integrated Waste Management
Program which focuses on waste reduction and recycling
Waste Wise
A program for bringing about waste reduction. EPR is a concept that involves assigning some responsibility for reducing the environmental impact of a product at each stage of its “life cycle,” especially the end
Extended Product Responsibility (EPR)
Introduced by Congress giving local and state governments the authority to limit or prohibit out-of- state wastes transported to landfills
Solid Waste Interstate Transportation Act of 2009
