Chapter 23 Flashcards
Materials management
Obtaining and using renewable and non few able resources as sustainably as possible
Eliminate subsidies for extracting virgin materials
Establish green building incentives
Create financial penalties for production that uses poor materials management
Provide incentive for practices that enhance environment
Provide more incentives to people to reuse and recycle waste materials
Importance of resources to society
Availability a measure of he wealth of a society
Without resources, modern technological civilization not possible
Mineral deposits formed
Tectonic plate boundaries Igneous processes Sedimentary processes Streams Glaciers Biological processes Weathering processes Sedimentary enrichment
Considered nonrenewable resources
New deposits forming but two slowly to be of use to us today
Increasingly difficulty to find deposits
Recycling and conservation will help manage remaining supply
Environmental impacts
The trend in recent years has been away from subsurface mining and toward large, open-pit mines
Causes aesthetic degradation, dust pollution, topographic changes and potential water pollution
Another problem is release of harmful trace elements
Water resources are particularly vulnerable to such degradation
When leached from mining wastes and concentrated in water, soil, or plants, may be toxic or may cause disease
Direct impacts
Plants and animals killed by mining activity or contact with toxic soil or water
Indirect impacts
Changes in nutrient cycling, total biomass, species diversity, and ecosystem stability
Social impacts
Result from rapid influx of workers into areas unprepared for growth
Stress is placed on local services
Air quality is reduced as a result of more vehicles, dust from construction, and generation of power
Adverse social impacts also occur when mines are closed
Closure produces ghost towns
Minimizing environmental impact
Environmental regulations Reclaiming areas Stabilizing soils Controlling air emissions and water release On-site and off-site treatment of waste Three rs of waste management Reduce waste produced Reuse materials in the waste stream Recycle
Start of industrial revolution
The volume if waste produced in the US was relatively small
Managed through the concept of “dilute and disperse”
Factories located near water
East transport of materials by boat
Sufficient water for processing and cooling
Easy disposal of waste into the river
Method was sufficient to remove the waste reform the immediate environment
Industrial and urban areas expanded
Changed to “concentrate and contain”
Containment not always achieved
Industrial ecology
Study of relationships among industrial systems and heir links to natural systems
Waste from one part of the system would be a resource for another part
Management alternatives
Reuse Source reduction Recycling Composing Landfill Incineration
