Urban waste Flashcards
Waste
unwanted or unusable material, substances, or byproducts
* solid municipal waste services are provided within urban areas
* quantitiy of services and the way in which waste is handled varies massively (developing and developed countries)
Urban watse leads to
1. Air + water pollution- leads to health issues
2. Landfill sites- leads to a lack of space
3. Treatment and incineration- expensive
4. Waste
5. Recycling
Increasing urban waste
- as wealth increases the amount of waste increases
- average amounts of waste produed per person globally is increasing
- people in cities on average consume/produce more waste than rural areas
Impacts of increased urban waste
- high costs of collecting and treating waste
- environmental impacts of waste= source of methane, and contributes to water and air pollution
- untreated/uncollected waste can cause health problems
Types of waste
- Muncipal waste
- Commercial waste
- Domestic waste
- Aminal and vegetable waste
- Institutional waste
- Ashes
- Bulky waste
- Dead waste
- Construction and demolition waste
- Indulstrial waste
- Electrial waste
Domestic waste
residential waste generated from households
* plastics
* metal
* paper
* food
* wood
* (inorganic or organic waste)
Municipal waste
comes from activities such as street cleaning
* urban surfaces e.g. landscaping
* produces general waste and tree trimmings
Commercial waste
from businesses
* shops
* hotels
* restaurants
Animal and vegetable
from food
* organic waste
* compost
* easy to manage
Institutional waste
from schools and hospitals
*
Ashes
residue from burning materials
*
Bulky waste
furniture and white goods
* fridges
* sofas
Construction and demolition waste
- bricks
- dirt
- concrete
- steal
- wood
Industrial waste
from factories
* construction and demolition materials
* factories
Electrical waste
e.g. smart phones, laptops, tablets etc
* hazardous waste
* multi-laminates
* disposal problems
Municipal solid waste
MSW
* covers everyday household waste and waste similar in nature and composition to household waste consisting of everyday items discarded by the public
Cairo waste
- has more than 50,000 tonnes of hazardous waste/year
Unregulated waste disposal
where waste is dumped without any laws, rules or regulations covering its safe disposal
Waste management
management of garbage through a variety of methods including reduction, recycling, incineration and landfilling etc
Approaches to waste management
- Waste hierachy
- Unregulated
- Recycling
- Recovery
- Incineration
- Burial (landfill)
- Submergence
- Trade
Waste hierachy
- Reduce- amount of waste in first place
- Reuse
- Recycle and Compost- e.g. for electricity
- Create energy
- Disposal- landfill
Unregulated
waste is dumped without any laws, rules or regulations, covering its safe disposal
+ free, doesn’t cost anything
- lots of pollution (air, land and water)
-health problems
Recycling
materials are reprocessed and replenished into new products
* global market for recycables has increased
+ energy saving
+ reduces amount of waste in landfill
-better still to reduce
Recovery
selective extraction of disposed products for specific next use
* recycling
* composting
* energy generation
+ waste is reused- non-renewables (fossil fuels) are used less
- must be done carefully with organic waste as it can cause health problems
Incineration
waste is burned at high temperatures
+ reduces volume of waste by 90%
+ produces electricty and heat
-open burning of waste is discuraged
- air pollution
- common in LICs
Burial
landfill, waste dumped into old quarries and holllows
+ conveinent and cheap
- running out of space e.g. disposable nappies take 500 years to breakdown
- unsightly threat to groundwater supply and river quality
- contamination of water
- methane- greenhouse gas emitted
Submergence
burial of waste at the bottom of the sea
- Banned by international convention
Trade
international trade of waste between countries for further treatment, disposal or recycling
+ increase in recycled waste
+ international laws put in place
- toxic hazardous waste is exported from HICs to LICs
- contamination of environments in receiving countries
Urban mining
recovering compounds and elements from products and waste that would otherwise be left in the landfill
+ reduced quantities to disposed waste
+ return of materials to economy
- energy used in material recovery- GHG emissions
Waste stream
the flow of waste from the point of being created through domestic/ industrial activity to the point of its disposal
* journey of waste/product from production to disposal
* in HICs waste streams are regulated and frequently managed
