Solid and Hazardous Waste

1. Solid and Hazardous Waste Chapter 21

2. Rapidly Growing E-Waste from Discarded Computers and Other Electronics

3. Core Case Study: E-waste—An Exploding Problem • Electronic waste, e-waste: fastest growing solid waste problem • Composition includes • High-quality plastics • Valuable metals – mainly copper • Toxic and hazardous pollutants – mainly air and water runoff • The U.S. produces almost half of the world's e-waste but only recycles about 10% of it.

4. Recycling E-waste Burn houses in distance and smoke where computer parts from the United States are burned. China 2008 Migrant workers from Hunan and Szechuan provinces cracking open charred components to remove the copper at the burn village. Guiyu, China. May 2008 Ghana 2009. Burning of plastics to get to metals.

5. Core Case Study: E-waste—An Exploding Problem • International Basel Convention click for link • Bans transferring hazardous wastes from developed countries to developing countries. U.S. has not ratified this treaty yet. • European Union • Cradle-to-grave approach

6. International Toxics Progress Report Card Grade based on ratification of four important Hazardous Material treaties. See link below for more information • Countries that rank excellent: (4 ratifications):-- Belgium-- Bulgaria-- China-- Denmark-- France-- Germany*-- Luxembourg-- Norway-- Slovenia-- Spain-- Sweden-- Switzerland-- United Kingdom Notable countries that are failing(0 Ratifications) include: -- Russia-- United States-- Israel-- Malta Click for link

7. Core Case Study: E-waste—An Exploding Problem • What should be done? • Recycle • E-cycle • Reuse • Prevention approach: remove the toxic materials

8. 21-1 What Are Solid Waste and Hazardous Waste, and Why Are They Problems? • Concept 21-1 Solid waste represents pollution and unnecessary waste of resources, and hazardous waste contributes to pollution, natural capital degradation, health problems, and premature deaths.

9. WASTING RESOURCES • Solid waste: any unwanted or discarded material we produce that is not a liquid or gas. • Municipal solid waste (MSW): produce directly from homes. • Industrial solid waste: produced indirectly by industries that supply people with goods and services. • Hazardous (toxic) waste: threatens human health or the environment because it is toxic, chemically active, corrosive or flammable.

10. WASTING RESOURCES • The United States produces about a third of the world’s solid waste and buries more than half of it in landfills. • About 97% (7.6 billion tons) is industrial solid waste. EPA 2008 data. • About 3% (250 million tons) is MSW. • Click for more info on waste from EPA

11. EPA data on waste production in U.S.

12. EPA waste generation by material U.S.

13. We Throw Away Huge Amounts of Useful Things and Hazardous Materials • 80–90% of hazardous wastes produced by developed countries • Why reduce solid wastes? • ¾ of the materials are an unnecessary waste of the earth's resources • Huge amounts of air pollution, greenhouse gases, and water pollution

14. What Harmful Chemicals Are in Your Home? Cleaning Gardening Disinfectants Pesticides Drain, toilet, and window cleaners Weed killers Ant and rodent killers Spot removers Flea powders Septic tank cleaners Paint Products Paints, stains, varnishes, and lacquers Paint thinners, solvents, and strippers Automotive Wood preservatives Gasoline Artist paints and inks Used motor oil General Antifreeze Dry-cell batteries (mercury and cadmium) Battery acid Brake and transmission fluid Glues and cements Fig. 21-2, p. 562

15. Natural Capital Degradation: Solid Wastes Polluting a River in Indonesia

16. Hundreds of Millions of Discarded Tires in a Dump in Colorado, U.S.

17. 21-2 How Should We Deal with Solid Waste? • Concept 21-2 A sustainable approach to solid waste is first to reduce it, then to reuse or recycle it, and finally to safely dispose of what is left.

18. Solutions: Reducing Solid Waste • Refuse: to buy items that we really don’t need. • Reduce: consume less and live a simpler and less stressful life by practicing simplicity. • Reuse: rely more on items that can be used over and over. • Repurpose: use something for another purpose instead of throwing it away. • Recycle: paper, glass, cans, plastics…and buy items made from recycled materials.

19. Integrated Waste Management Fig 21-5

20. Integrated Waste Management: Priorities for Dealing with Solid Waste Fig 21-6

21. We Can Cut Solid Wastes by Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling • Seven strategies: (1) Redesign manufacturing processes and products to use less material and energy (2) Redesign manufacturing processes to produce less waste and pollution (3) Develop products that are easy to repair, reuse, remanufacture, compost, or recycle (4) Eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging (5) Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems (6) Establish cradle-to grave responsibility (7) Restructure urban transportation systems

22. What Can You Do? Solid Waste Fig 21-7

23. 21-3 Why Is Reusing and Recycling Materials So Important? • Concept 21-3 Reusing items decreases the use of matter and energy resources and reduces pollution and natural capital degradation; recycling does so to a lesser degree.

24. Energy Consumption Involved with Using Different Types of 350 ml Containers Fig 21-8

25. What Can You Do? Reuse Fig 21-9

26. RECYCLING • Primary (closed loop) recycling: materials are turned into new products of the same type. • Secondary recycling: materials are converted into different products. • Used tires shredded and converted into rubberized road surface. • Newspapers transformed into cellulose insulation or pencils (City of Oxnard).

27. EPA data on recycling in U. S.

28. EPA recycling by product

29. EPA Discards per capita to landfill

30. Europe MSW per capita 2008 data U.S. equivalent in kg/yr in 2008 = 747 kg/person/yr Source Austrian consultancy firm TBU

31. We Can Separate Household Solid Wastes for Recycling • Materials-recovery facilities (MRFs) Click for Oxnard’s Del Norte MRF Recyclable Household Hazardous Waste Program"ABOP" Program: Antifreeze, Batteries, Oil and Paint Recycling For other HazMats call: 987-0717 for appointment

32. Recycling in Oxnard Click to City web page

33. EPA data management of MSW

34. Environmental Paper Network The Environmental Paper Network represents over 100 organizations working together to accelerate social and environmental transformation in the pulp and paper industry.  Our goals are to protect the world’s last endangered forests, safeguard our global climate, and ensure abundant, clean drinking water and respect for community and indigenous rights. Click for Environmental Paper Network

35. 90% of office paper has NO recycled content!

36. Virgin vs Postconsumer paper

37. Recycling Terms • POSTCONSUMER MATERIAL: Those end products generated by consumers that have been separated or diverted from the solid waste stream. The critical words here are "end products" and "consumers." Products, scraps and materials still in the production or value-added process do not qualify. Examples that do qualify include office wastepaper, junkmail and magazines from people's homes, undeliverable mail at the Postal Service's dead-letter office, office wastepaper, and shipping packaging from delivered products. • PRECONSUMER MATERIALS: Recovered materials other than postconsumer material. Preconsumer materials have not met their intended end-use by a consumer, and include allowable waste left over from manufacturing, converting and printing processes. Examples: mill converting scraps, preconsumer deinking material, pulp substitutes.

39. Backyard Composter Drum: Bacteria Convert Kitchen Waste into Compost

40. Biosolid digesters

41. Gill’s Onion Site Click for Gills Onions system

42. Discarded Solid Waste Litters Beaches

43. Bioplastics • Sources: Corn, Soy, Sugarcane, Switchgrass or any organic you can make monomer from. • Benefits: biodegradable. The basic ingredient of corn-based plastics is polylactide, or PLA. Most PLA has to go to a commercial composting plant to be decomposed • Cost to make PLA bottle 5-10% more than fossil fuel plastics • PLA can't be recycled along with regular petroleum-based plastics.

44. NatureWorks Bioplastics “Ingeo™ biopolymers are already proving themselves in success commercial applications in the areas of fiber and nonwovens, films, extruded and thermoformed containers, and extrusion and emulsion coatings.” Click for link to NaureWorks

45. Mirel Bioplastics • Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix has developed a brand of biodegradable plastic called Mirel that decomposes in soil, compost or even water. It's made from genetically engineered microbes that convert corn sugar into polymers in a fermentation process. -Film grade (for blown and cast film applications): Can be used for agricultural mulch film, compost bags, retail bags, and packaging. -Injection molding grade: Can replace polystyrene or polypropylene for use in many consumer retail products and high-performance applications.  -Extrusion sheet and thermoforming grade: Can be used for gift cards, large format graphics, and storage containers. -Developmental grades (for foam, blow molding, non-woven, and monofilament): Can be used for a variety of products, including containers and bottles, personal care and hygiene products, and safe shipping and packing materials. Click for link to Mirel

46. Trade-Offs: Recycling, Advantages and Disadvantages Fig 21-12

47. 21-4 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Burning or Burying Solid Waste • Concept 21-4 Technologies for burning and burying solid wastes are well developed, but burning contributes to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and buried wastes eventually contribute to pollution and land degradation.

48. Waste-to-energy incinerators • Incineration with energy recovery is one of several waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies such as gasification and anaerobic digestion. • Incinerators reduce the mass of the original waste by 80–85 % and the volume (already compressed somewhat in garbage trucks) by 95-96 % . • The highly toxic fly ash must be safely disposed of. This usually involves additional waste miles and the need for specialist toxic waste landfill elsewhere. • 87 MSW Incinerators in U. S. • No plans to build more • Burn around 13% of our MSW for energy • Hazardous waste incinerators = Click link

49. Solutions: A Waste-to-Energy Incinerator with Pollution Controls Fig 21-13