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biol 381 > Waste Management > Flashcards

Waste Management Flashcards

1
Q

What does the waste pyramid look light right now?
What do we want it to look like?

A

Right now:

Prevention- top (last resort)
Minimize
Reuse
Recycling
Energy Recovering
Disposal - bottom (first resort)

We want to invert this pyramid!
- prevention/ reduction should be the top priority, disposal should be a last resort

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2
Q

T/F
wealthy countries have the highest total waste

A

false

  • wealthy countries make the most waste per capita, but developing countries have more waste in total b/c rich countries export their waste there
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3
Q

The most effective way to reduce waste is:

A

minimize the amount of material that goes into products

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4
Q

Municipal waste=

A

waste produced by consumers, public facilities, and small businesses

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5
Q

municipal wastewater=

A

water that has been used by people in some way
inc:
- sewage
- water from showers sinks, washing machines, etc

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6
Q

____ are the most common disposal system

A

landfills

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7
Q

What are the 2 types of landfill systems?

A
  1. Bottom Liner System:
    - layers of impermeable materials seal off waste from contact with soils/ water
  2. Cap System
    - pipes at the bottom collect residues and methane which is used for energy
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8
Q

methane gas from landfills is a ___ energy source, but not ___

A

green (naturally occuring)
not clean (has emissions)

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9
Q

What’s the Freshkills Park Project?

A

New York City
- landfill was here, and closed in 2001 because it reached its limit
- city built a park over it, now has many uses

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10
Q

landfills are another example of the ____ movement
what’s their solution?

A

Not in my backyard (NIMBY)

they export their waste to less wealthy areas

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11
Q

The ___ ____ of _____ (date) was a treaty on control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal

A

Basel Convection of 1992

wanted to stop movement of waste around the world, esp to poorer countries without regulations

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12
Q

What’s e-waste?
Why is it so hard to deal with?

A

electronic waste (phones, fridges, etc)

contains metals
- can be toxic

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13
Q

Give 2 examples of unregulated or illegal sites where e-waste is sent to

A
  1. Guiyu, China
    - recognized disposal site, but not regulated
  2. Accra, Ghana
    - illegal site where they burn electronics

lots of mercury and lead poisoning in these areas

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14
Q

How do incinerators work to dispose of waste?

A
  • combust it at very high temps
  • reduces its volume by up to 90%
  • metals (which can be recycled) are removed before incineration
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15
Q

what’s the biggest problem with incinerators?

A

produce a lot of air pollution and secondary pollutants

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16
Q

T/F
some incinerators in waste-to-energy facilities use the heat from waste incinerators to produce electricity

A

true

17
Q

The Edmonton Waste Management Center (one of the best in the world) manages 4 waste streams:
1.
2
3
4

A

recycling
compost
biofuel production
landfill

18
Q

EWMC currently recycles or composts __% of all waste- goal is __%

A

50%
90%

19
Q

T/F
Edmonton has one of the few e-waste recycling facilities in canada

A

true!

20
Q

What happens to the compost sent to EWMC?

A
  • broken down anaerobically by organisms
  • biogenic natural gas emissions are collected

sold as “second nature” compost and topsoil around the city

21
Q

How does biofuel production work at EWMC?

A

biomass from livestock etc –> gasification (convert C-rich residues into synthetic gas)

then it’s cleaned and purified (ultraclean syngas)

this is very expensive, the city can only maintain it because they make a profit off energy production

22
Q

The landfill gas from our cloverbar landfill in edmonton can power ___ homes every year!
(don’t need to know this)

A

4600

23
Q

only __% of all plastic is recycled

it’s estimated that plastics will outweigh fish in the oceans by ___

A

14%

2050

24
Q

Planned Obsolescence=

A

designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, to force consumers to purchase new products in shorter intervals

  • achieved by making products difficult to repair (tech) excessively trendy (fashion) or programming them so they automatically shut off at a prescribed point (ink cartridges stop working when there’s 20% left)

this increases profit for companies

25
Q

What are the 5 municipal wastewater treatments?

A
  1. pretreatment
  2. primary treatment
  3. secondary treatment
  4. tertiary treatment
  5. quaternary treatment ?
26
Q

Municipal wastewater treatments:
Pretreatment=
(2 steps)

A
  1. aerated grit tank
    - remove large, heavy materials like rock
  2. bar screens
    - remove large, light material like plastic
27
Q

Municipal wastewater treatments:
Primary Treatment=
(1 step)

A

settling tanks
- heavier solids (sludge) settles at bottom of tank

Fate of sludge: fermented, digested, used as fertilizer (depends)

28
Q

Municipal wastewater treatments:
Secondary Treatment
(1 step)

A

air out to encourage growth of microbes which degrade organic pollutants

  • removes biological nutrients like P and N
29
Q

Municipal wastewater treatments:
Tertiary Treatment:
(3 steps)

A
  1. clarification
    - a second set of settling tanks: microbes floc
  2. UV disinfection
    - treat effluent w/ UV light to kill any remaining microbes
  3. membrane filtration
    - similar effect as UV disinfection
    - use micropore filters to remove microbes
30
Q

Municipal wastewater treatments:
Quaternary Treatment
(&issue)

A

removal of pharmaceutical pollutants, and other persistent compounds that survive the other treatments

issue= we don’t know how to do it efficiently yet

31
Q

What are 4 reasons that wastewater goes untreated?

eg=

A
  1. equipment malfunction
  2. overburdened systems like tanks overfilling
  3. too expensive to do properly
  4. non-compliance or lack of regulations

eg. Halifax was pumping raw sewage into Halifax harbor until 2008

32
Q

T/F
climate change does not have an effect on the amount of wastewater that goes untreated

A

false
- more stormwater= more wastewater

33
Q

Improperly treated wastewater can contain:

A
  • pathogens
  • excess P (eutrophication)
  • excess N (disrupts O2 transport in humans)
34
Q

what can disrupt biological treatment of wastewater?

A

flushing hazardous waste/ toxins
- disrupt or kill the microbes in secondary treatment

35
Q

fatbergs=

A

conglomerates of products that can’t degrade in sewage systems (oils, condoms, diapers, etc)

biol 381 (22 decks)

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