LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT, 18e

G. TYLER MILLER • SCOTT E. SPOOLMAN

21
Solid and Hazardous Waste
©©Cengage
CengageLearning
Learning2015
2015
Core Case Study: E-Waste – An Exploding
Problem

• Electronic waste (e-waste) is the fastest

growing solid waste problem
• Most ends up in landfills and incinerators
• Composition includes:
– High-quality plastics
– Valuable metals
– Toxic and hazardous pollutants

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Core Case Study: E-Waste – An Exploding
Problem (cont’d.)

• Shipped to other countries

• International Basel Convention
– Bans transferring hazardous wastes from
developed countries to developing countries
• European Union
– Cradle-to-grave approach

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Fig. 21-1, p. 576
21-1 What Are Solid Waste and Hazardous
Waste, and Why Are They Problems?

• Solid waste contributes to pollution and

includes valuable resources that could be
reused or recycled
• Hazardous waste contributes to pollution,
as well as to natural capital degradation,
health problems, and premature deaths

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We Throw Away Huge Amounts of Useful
Things

• Solid waste
– Industrial solid waste
• Mines, farms, industries
– Municipal solid waste (MSW)
• Trash
• Waste ends up in:
– Rivers, lakes, the ocean, and natural
landscapes

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Hazardous Waste Is a Serious and
Growing Problem

• Hazardous waste (toxic waste)

– Threatens human health of the environment
• Classes of hazardous waste
– Organic compounds
– Toxic heavy metals
– Radioactive waste

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Case Study: Solid Waste in the United
States

• Leader in solid waste problem

– In trash production, by weight, per person
• 98.5% of all solid waste is industrial waste
• Most wastes break down very slowly
– If at all

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Fig. 21-5, p. 579
21-2 How Should We Deal with Solid
Waste?

• A sustainable approach to solid waste is:

– First to reduce it
– Then to reuse or recycle it
– Finally, to safely dispose of what is left

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We Can Burn, Bury, or Recycle Solid
Waste or Produce Less of It

• Waste management
– Reduce harm, but not amounts
• Waste reduction
– Use less and focus on reuse, recycle,
compost
• Integrated waste management
– Uses a variety of strategies

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 Raw materials

Processing
and Products
manufacturing

Solid and hazardous Waste generated

wastes generated by households
during the
manufacturing process and businesses

Food/yard Hazardous Remaining

Plastic Glass Metal Paper waste waste mixed waste

To manufacturers for reuse Hazardous waste

Compost Landfill Incinerator
or for recycling management

Fertilizer

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Fig. 21-6, p. 581
We Can Cut Solid Wastes by Refusing,
Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling

• Waste reduction is based on:

– Refuse – don’t use it
– Reduce – use less
– Reuse – use it over and over
– Recycle
• Composting
– Using bacteria to decompose biodegradable
waste

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Refusing, Reducing, Reusing, and
Recycling (cont’d.)

• Six strategies:
– Change industrial processes to eliminate
harmful chemicals
– Redesign manufacturing process to use less
material and energy
– Develop products that are easy to recycle
– Eliminate unnecessary packaging
– Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems
– Establish cradle-to grave responsibility
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 What We Should Do What We Do

Reduce Bury (67%)

Reuse Recycle/Compost (23.7%)

Recycle/Compost Incinerate (9%)

Incinerate Reuse (0.2%)

Bury Reduce
(<0.1%)

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Fig. 21-7, p. 581
21-3 Why Are Refusing, Reducing,
Reusing, and Recycling So Important?

• By refusing and reducing resource use

and by reusing and recycling what we use,
we:
– Decrease our consumption of matter and
energy resources
– Reduce pollution and natural capital
degradation
– Save money

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There Are Alternatives to the Throwaway
Economy

• We increasingly substitute throwaway

items for reusable ones
• In general, reuse is on the rise
• One solution: taxing plastic shopping bags
– Ireland, Taiwan, the Netherlands

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Fig. 21-11, p. 583
There Is Great Potential for Recycling

• Primary, closed-loop recycling

– Materials recycled into same type
• Secondary recycling
– Materials converted to other products: tires
• Types of wastes that can be recycled
– Preconsumer, internal waste generated in
manufacturing process
– Postconsumer, external waste generated by
product use
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There Is Great Potential for Recycling
(cont’d.)

• With incentives, the U.S. could recycle and

compost 80% of its municipal solid waste
• Composting
– Mimics nature’s recycling of nutrients
– Resulting organic matter can be used to:
• Supply plant nutrients
• Slow soil erosion
• Retain water
• Improve crop yield
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We Can Mix or Separate Household Solid
Wastes for Recycling

• Materials-recovery facilities (MRFs)

– Can encourage increased trash production
• Source separation
– Pay-as-you-throw
– Fee-per-bag

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Recycling Paper

• Production of paper versus recycled paper

– Energy use – world’s fifth largest consumer
– Water use
– Pollution
• Easy to recycle
– Uses 64% less energy
– Produces 35% less water pollution
– Produces 74% less air pollution
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Recycling Plastics

• Plastics
– Composed of resins created from oil and
natural gas
• Currently only 7% is recycled in the U.S.
– Many types of plastic resins
– Difficult to separate

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Recycling Has Advantages and
Disadvantages

• Advantages
– Net economic health
– Environmental benefits
• Disadvantages
– Costly
• Single-pickup system
– No separation needed

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 Trade-Offs
Recycling
Advantages Disadvantages
Reduces energy Can cost more than
and mineral use burying in areas with
and air and water ample landfill space
pollution

Reduces Reduces profits for

greenhouse landfill and
gas emissions incinerator owners

Reduces solid waste Inconvenient for

some

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Fig. 21-14, p. 585
21-4 The Advantages and Disadvantages
of Burning or Burying Solid Waste

• Technologies for burning and burying solid

wastes are well developed
– However, burning contributes to air and water
pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and
buried wastes eventually contribute to the
pollution and degradation of land and water
resources

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Burning Solid Waste Has Advantages and
Disadvantages

• Waste-to-energy incinerators
– To heat water or produce electricity
• Landfills emit more air pollutants than
modern waste-to-energy incinerators
– Toxic chemicals that are filtered must be
disposed of or stored

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 Electricity

Smokestack

Furnace

Boiler

Waste
pit

Ash for treatment,

© Cengage Learning 2015 disposal in landfill, or
use as landfill cover Fig. 21-15, p. 588
Trade-Offs

Waste-to-Energy Incineration

Advantages Disadvantages

Reduces trash Expensive to build

volume

Produces energy Produces a

hazardous waste

Concentrates
hazardous Emits some CO2 and
substances into other air pollutants
ash for burial

Sale of energy Encourages waste

reduces cost production

Fig. 21-16, p. 588

Burying Solid Waste Has Advantages and
Disadvantages

• Sanitary landfills
– Compacted layers of waste between clay or
foam
– Bottom liners; containment systems
• Open dumps
– Widely used in less-developed countries
• Rare in developed countries
– Large pit
• Sometimes garbage is burned
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 When landfill is full, layers
Topsoil of soil and clay seal in trash
Sand
Electricity
Methane
generator
Clay storage and
building
compressor
Garbage building Leachate
treatment system
Probes to
detect
methane Pipes collect
leaks Methane gas explosive methane
recovery for use as fuel
well to generate
electricity Leachate
storage
tank
Compacted
solid waste

Garbage Leachate Groundwater

pipes Leachate pumped monitoring
Sand up to storage tank well
for safe disposal
Synthetic
liner
Groundwater Leachate
Sand monitoring
Clay and plastic lining to
Clay well
prevent leaks; pipes collect
Subsoil leachate from bottom of landfill Fig. 21-17, p. 589
 Trade-Offs

Sanitary Landfills

Advantages Disadvantages
Low operating Noise, traffic,
costs and dust

Releases greenhouse
Can handle large gases (methane and
amounts of waste CO2) unless they are
collected

Filled land can Output approach that

be used for encourages waste
other purposes production

No shortage of Eventually leaks and

landfill space in can contaminate
many areas groundwater

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Fig. 21-18, p. 589
21-5 How Should We Deal with Hazardous
Waste?

• A more sustainable approach to

hazardous waste:
– First, produce less of it
– Then, reuse or recycle it
– Then, convert it to less-hazardous materials
– Finally, safely store what is left

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We Can Use Integrated Management of
Hazardous Waste

• Integrated management of hazardous

wastes
– Produce less
– Convert to less hazardous substances
– Rest in long-term safe storage
• Increased use for postconsumer
hazardous waste

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Produce Less Convert to Less Hazardous or Put in
Hazardous Waste Nonhazardous Substances Perpetual Storage

Change industrial processes Natural decomposition Landfill

to reduce or eliminate
hazardous waste production Incineration Underground injection wells

Recycle and reuse hazardous Thermal treatment Surface impoundments

waste
Chemical, physical, and biological Underground salt formations
treatment

Dilution in air or water

Stepped Art
Fig. 21-20, p. 591
Case Study: Recycling E-Waste

• 70% goes to China

– Hazardous working conditions
– Includes child workers
• U.S. produces roughly 50% of the world’s
e-waste
– Recycles only 14%

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We Can Detoxify Hazardous Wastes

• Collect and then detoxify

– Physical methods
– Chemical methods
– Use nanomagnets
– Bioremediation
– Phytoremediation
• Incineration
• Using a plasma arc torch
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 Radioactive Organic Inorganic
contaminants contaminants metal contaminants
Poplar tree Indian Brake fern
Sunflower Willow tree mustard

Polluted
groundwater
Decontaminated
Soil in
water out
Groundwater
Rhizofiltration
Roots of plants such
as sunflowers with
dangling roots on ponds
or in greenhouses
can absorb pollutants
such as radioactive
strontium-90 and
cesium-137 and various
organic chemicals.
Landfill Oil
spill
Polluted
leachate Soil
Groundwater
Phytostabilization Phytodegredation Phytoextraction
Plants such as Plants such as poplars Roots of plants such as
willow trees and can absorb toxic Indian mustard and brake
poplars can absorb organic chemicals and ferns can absorb toxic
chemicals and keep break them down into metals such as lead,
them from reaching less harmful arsenic, and others and
groundwater or compounds which they store them in their leaves.
nearby surface store or release slowly Plants can then be recycled
water. into the air. or harvested and
incinerated.
Fig. 21-22, p. 593
We Can Store Some Forms of Hazardous
Waste

• Burial on land or long-term storage

– Last resort only
• Deep-well disposal
– 64% of hazardous liquid wastes in the U.S.
• Surface impoundments
– Lined pools for evaporation
• Secure hazardous waste landfills
– Expensive
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 Trade-Offs

Deep-Well Disposal

Advantages Disadvantages

Safe if sites are Leaks from corrosion

chosen carefully of well casing

Wastes can often Emits CO2 and

be retrieved other air pollutants

Output approach that

encourages waste
Low cost production

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Fig. 21-24, p. 594
 Trade-Offs

Surface Impoundments

Advantages Disadvantages

Low cost Water pollution

from leaking liners
and overflows

Wastes can often Air pollution from

be retrieved volatile organic
compounds

Can store wastes

indefinitely with Output approach that
secure double encourages waste
liners production

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Fig. 21-26, p. 594
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Fig. 21-28, p. 595
Case Study: Hazardous Waste Regulation
in the United States

• 1976 – Resource Conservation and

Recovery Act (RCRA)
– EPA sets standards and gives permits
– Cradle to grave
– Covers only 5% of hazardous wastes

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Case Study: Hazardous Waste Regulation
in the United States (cont’d.)

• 1980 – Comprehensive Environmental,

Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)
– National Priorities List
• 2013 – 1320 Superfund sites; 365 cleaned
– Pace of cleanup has slowed
– Superfund is broke
• Laws encouraging the cleanup of
brownfields
– Abandoned industrial sites
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Fig. 21-29, p. 596
21-6 How Can We Make the Transition to
a More Sustainable Low-Waste Society?

• Shifting to a low-waste society requires

individuals and businesses to:
– Reduce resource use
– Reuse and recycle wastes at local, national,
and global levels

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Grassroots Action Has Led to Better Solid
and Hazardous Waste Management

• Prevent construction of:

– Incinerators, landfills, treatment plants,
polluting chemical plants
• Something must be done with hazardous
wastes

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Providing Environmental Justice for
Everyone Is an Important Goal

• Environmental justice
– Everyone is entitled to protection from
environmental hazards
• Which communities in the U.S. have the
largest share of hazardous waste dumps?
• Environmental discrimination

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We Can Encourage Reuse and Recycling

• Factors that hinder reuse and recycling:

– Market prices do not include harmful costs
– Economic playing field is uneven
– Demand for recycled products fluctuates
• Governments can pass laws requiring
companies to reuse and recycle

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Reuse, Recycling, and Composting
Present Economic Opportunities

• Freecycle network
• Upcycling
– Recycling materials into products of higher
value
• Dual-use packaging

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International Treaties Have Reduced
Hazardous Waste

• Basel Convention
– 1992 – in effect
– 1995 amendment – bans all transfers of
hazardous wastes from industrialized
countries to less-developed countries
– 2012 – ratified by 179 countries, but not the
United States

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International Treaties Have Reduced
Hazardous Waste (cont’d.)

• 2000 – delegates from 122 countries

completed a global treaty
– Control 12 persistent organic pollutants
(POPs)
– DDT, PCBs, dioxins
– Everyone on earth has POPs in blood
• 2000 – Swedish Parliament law
– By 2020 ban all chemicals that are persistent
and can accumulate in living tissue
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We Can Make the Transition to Low-Waste
Societies

• Norway, Austria, and the Netherlands

– Committed to reduce resource waste by 75%
• Key principles
– Everything is connected
– There is no away
– Producers and polluters should pay
– We can mimic nature by recycling and
composting

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Case Study: Industrial Ecosystems:
Copying Nature

• Resource exchange webs

– Waste as raw material
– Ecoindustrial parks
• Two major steps of biomimicry
– Observe how natural systems respond
– Apply to human industrial systems

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Three Big Ideas

• The order of priorities for dealing with solid

waste should be to:
– Produce less of it
– Reuse and recycle as much of it as possible
– Safely burn or bury what is left

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Three Big Ideas (cont’d.)

• The order of priorities for dealing with

hazardous waste should be to:
– Produce less of it
– Reuse or recycle it
– Convert it to less hazardous material
– Safely store what is left

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Three Big Ideas (cont’d.)

• View solid wastes as wasted resources,

and hazardous wastes as materials that
we should not be producing in the first
place

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Tying It All Together: E-Waste and
Sustainability

• Reduce outputs of solid hazardous waste

• Mimic nature’s chemical cycling process
– Reuse and recycle
• Integrated waste management
• Include harmful environmental and health
costs in market prices

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