Solid and Hazardous Wastes: What to Do with the Garbage? Flashcards
Problems before on Solid Waste:
what year was it how much garbage? where was it banned from? what time span was it reported? what what happened to it after 5 months? where did it go?
“garbage barge”
- 1987 - more than 3000 tons of commercial trash, banned from the local landfill in Islip,New York - was reported for 5 months - incinerated in New York after going through other places in 5 months
greatest portion of Municipal solid waste is from?
Paper
Composition of Municipal Solid Waste
1) Paper - 27%
2) Food - 15%
3) Yard Trimmings - 14%
5) Plastics - 13%
6) Metals - 9%
7) Rubber, Leather, and Textiles - 9%
8) Wood - 6%
9) Glass - 5%
10) Other - 3%
Waste disposal methods
before:
1) Disposed in open dumps
2) incinerated
3) Poured in bodies of water
Drawbacks on disposal methods before?
1) increased volume
2) water contamination
- river dumping
3) air pollution - incineration
4) produced toxic leachates
and vermin
what did laws do to improve waste disposal methods
1) Clean Air Act -
illegalization of incineration
2) Clean water act - outlawed river dumping
3) Marine protection, research, and sanctuaries act of 1972
- prohibited ocean dumping
4) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA0
of 1976
– open dumps restriction
- set standards for sanitary landfills, which have replaced dumps as the most common method of municipal waste disposal
Sanitary landfills necessities
1) sealed area
2) dry, with impervious clay soil
3) plastic lining is used in the hole
3) Refuse is spread in thin layers, compacted by bulldozer, and covered each day with a thin layer of soil
4) vents and drains for liquids
5) must be covered in 2-foot layer of soil after maximum capacity
biggest drawback in sanitary landfills
Needs a lot of space -
Tipping fee
availability of landfill space, when there is more then the fee is higher
Mist known landfill
it was also called as? how many tons of garbage was it? from when to when? it was closed on? by? it was then turned into?
Fresh Kills landfill - Staten Island,
- “worlds largest dump”
- started 1948, by 1996 reached 17k tons of garbage
- closed on March 2001, by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
- turned into a park
percentage of municipal solid waste is disposed in landfills
53%
Alternatives to landfills
how much percentage of municipal waste was done with it?
1) Three R’s - reduce, reuse, recycle
- Reduce - most efficient approach
- reuse - became a
favorable trend
- recycle - “resource recovery”
- 2013, 34% recycled
2) Waste-to-energy incineration - reduces solid waste and produces heat and energy but still poses risks for health safety and pollution - 13% of garbage is incinerated
what is the most efficient approach on taking care of garbage
reducing
Greatest obstacle on
recycling is
lack of market for used glass, metals,
plastic, and paper.
Hazardous wastes
- materials that are toxic to humans, plants, or animals; are likely to explode; or are corrosive and thus likely to burn through containers or human skin.
Two categories of hazardous waste
1) radioactive waste
2) infectious medical wastes
Hazardous waste problems before
1) 1978, Love Canal
2) 1971, Missouri horse arena/ times Beach
3) 2008, wet cool ash spill in Tennessee river
Love Canal problem
it was on? it was a? it resulted to? how many chemicals were there? in the year? in the year \_\_\_ it was declared as what by Pres. Carter? long term effects?
1) 1978
– abandoned industrial dump
- resulted to: bubbling of chemicals after heavy rains, rashes and eye irritation in children
- found 200 different chemicals, including benzene, dioxin, pesticides, and a number of other known carcinogens
and teratogens.
- declared a federal disaster are in1978 by President Carter
- long term effects: low birth weight, preterm birth, congenital malformation of infants, and lung cancer
Missouri horse arena problem
it was on? what happened? how much dioxin was in? it caused what? what caused it?
2) 1971,
- had high level concentration of dioxin (31,000 parts per billion)
- caused chloracne, severe-flu symptoms, death of horses and birds that came in contact with the dirt
- The hauler was mixing this waste oil (from Agent Orange, a herbicide used in the Vietnam War) with used crankcase oil
wet coal ash spill in Tennessee river
what happened?
it affected how much area? where?
it poisoned the river with?
3) 2008, wet coal ash spill
- Tennessee River tributary broke, spilling a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee
- polluted the river with arsenic, lead and other toxic and carcinogenic metals
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of ___
scope?
a federal legislation first enacted in 1976 to deal with solid waste disposal, included special regulations on handling of wastes that potentially posed a hazard to health and the environment
- “cradle to grave”
The The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) elements:
1) Tracking - that paperwork document the progress of hazardous waste from its site of generation through treatment, storage, and disposal
2) Permitting - facilities must have a permit that prescribes standards for management of waste from EPA or the state
Comprehensive Environmental response, compensation, and liability Act
also known as?
how much was the budget?
until when?
- “Superfund”
- priority list of waste sites that threatened the public health or environ mental quality, and it authorized $1.6 billion over a 5-year period for emergency cleanup
of these sites.
- priority list of waste sites that threatened the public health or environ mental quality, and it authorized $1.6 billion over a 5-year period for emergency cleanup
Drawbacks on Superfund law
1) Cost - the fund was exhausted as the number of places increased, plus it was slow
- to cope, 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated $600 million to facilitate further cleanup of Superfund sites
2) Shortage of clean-up options
- what can be done after the toxic materials are removed from the site
