Solid, Toxic and Hazardous Waste

1. Solid, Toxic and Hazardous Waste Chapter 23 Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

2. Outline: • Solid Waste • Waste Disposal Methods • Shrinking the Waste Stream • Recycling • Hazardous and Toxic Wastes • Federal Legislation • RCRA • CERCLA • Management Options Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

3. SOLID WASTE • According to EPA, US produces 11 billion tons of solid waste annually. • About half is agricultural waste. • More than one-third is mining related. • Industrial Waste - 400 million metric tons. • Hazardous/Toxic - 60 million metric tons. • Municipal Waste - 200 million metric tons. • Two-thirds of a ton per person. • Waste Stream Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

4. US Domestic Waste Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

5. WASTE DISPOSAL METHODS • Open Dumps • Open, unregulated dumps are still the predominant method of waste disposal in developing countries. • Most developed countries forbid open dumping. • Estimated 200 million liters of motor oil are poured into the sewers or soak into the ground each year in the US. • Five times volume of Exxon Valdez. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

6. Waste Disposal Methods • Landfills • Sanitary Landfills • Refuse compacted and covered everyday with a layer of dirt. • Dirt takes up as much as 20% of landfill space. • Since 1994, all operating landfills in the US have been required to control hazardous substances. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

7. Sanitary Landfills Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

8. Landfills • Historically, landfills have been a convenient, inexpensive waste-disposal option. • Increasing land and shipping fees, and demanding construction and maintenance requirements are increasing costs. • Suitable landfill sites are become scarce. • Increasingly, communities are rejecting new landfills. • Old landfills are quickly reaching capacity and closing. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

9. Waste Disposal Methods • Exporting Waste • Although most industrialized nations have agreed to stop shipping hazardous and toxic waste to less-developed countries, the practice still continues. • Garbage imperialism also operates in wealthier countries. • Indian reservations increasingly being approached to store wastes on reservations. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

10. Waste Disposal Methods • Incineration and Resource Recovery • Energy Recovery - Heat derived from incinerated refuse is a useful resource. • Steam used for heating buildings or generating electricity. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

11. Incinerator Types • Refuse-Derived Fuel - Refuse is sorted to remove recyclable and unburnable materials. • Higher energy content than raw trash. • Mass Burn - Everything smaller than major furniture and appliances loaded into furnace. • Creates air pollution problems. • Reduces disposal volume by 80-90%. • Residual ash usually contains toxic material. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

12. Incinerator Cost and Safety • Initial construction costs are usually between $100 and $300 million for a typical municipal facility. • Tipping fess are often much higher than tipping fees at landfills. • EPA has found alarmingly high toxin levels in incinerator ash. • Concentrated in fly ash. • Pollution control methods are not guaranteed to be 100% effective. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

13. SHRINKING THE WASTE STREAM • Recycling • Recycling is the reprocessing of discarded materials into new, useful products. • Currently, about two-thirds of all aluminum cans are recycled. • Half of all aluminum cans on grocery shelves will be made into another can within two months. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

14. US Recycling Rates Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

15. Recycling • Potential Problems • Market prices fluctuate wildly. • Contamination • Most of 24 billion plastic soft drink bottles sold annually in the US are PET, which can be melted and remanufactured into many items. • But a single PVC bottle can ruin an entire truckload of PET if melted together. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

16. Recycling • Benefits • Saves money, raw materials, and land. • Encourages individual responsibility. • Reduces pressure on disposal systems. • Japan recycles about half of all household and commercial wastes. • Lowers demand for raw resources. • Reduces energy consumption and air pollution. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

17. Recycling • Benefits Example • Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves 4 tons of bauxite, 700 kg of coke and pitch, and keeps 35 kg of aluminum fluoride out of the air. • Producing aluminum from scrap instead of bauxite ore cuts energy use by 95%. • Yet still throw away more than a million tons of aluminum annually. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

18. Shrinking the Waste Stream • Composting • Biological degradation of organic material under aerobic conditions. • Demanufacturing • Disassembly and recycling of obsolete consumer products. • Reuse • Reusable glass container makes an average of 15 round-trips between factory and customer before it has to be recycled. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

19. Shrinking the Waste Stream • Producing Less Waste • Excess packaging of food and consumer products is one of our greatest sources of unnecessary waste. • Paper, plastic, glass, and metal packaging material make up 50% of domestic trash by volume. • Increase use of photodegradable and biodegradable plastics. • Too much emphasis on recycling ? Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

20. HAZARDOUS AND TOXIC WASTES • EPA estimates US industries generate 265 million metric tons of officially classified hazardous wastes annually. • At least 40 million metric tons of toxic and hazardous wastes are released into the environment each year. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

21. Hazardous Waste • Legally, hazardous waste is any discarded liquid or solid that contains substances known to be: • Fatal to humans or laboratory animals in low doses. • Toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic to humans or other life-forms. • Ignitable with a flash point less than 60o C. • Explosive or highly reactive. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

22. Hazardous Waste Disposal • Federal Legislation • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) - 1976. • Comprehensive program requiring rigorous testing and management of toxic and hazardous substances. • Cradle to grave accounting. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

23. Cradle to Grave Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

24. Federal Legislation • Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). • Modified in 1984 by Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act. • Aimed at rapid containment, cleanup, or remediation of abandoned toxic waste sites. • Toxic Release Inventory - Requires 20,000 manufacturing facilities to report annually on releases of more than 300 toxic materials. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

25. CERCLA • Government does not have to prove anyone violated a law, or what role they played in a superfund site. • Liability under CERCLA is “strict, joint, and several”, meaning anyone associated with a site can be held responsible for the entire clean-up cost. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

26. Superfund Sites • EPA estimates 36,000 seriously contaminated sites in the US. • By 1997, 1,400 sites had been placed on the National Priority List for cleanup with with Superfund financing. • Superfund is a revolving pool designed to: • Provide immediate response to emergency situations posing imminent hazards. • Clean-up abandoned or inactive sites. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

27. Superfund Sites • Total costs for hazardous waste cleanup in the US are estimated between $370 billion and $1.7 trillion. • For years, most of the funding has gone to legal fees, but this situation has improved over past several years. • Studies of Superfund sites reveal minorities tend to be over-represented in these neighborhoods. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

28. How Clean is Clean • Brownfields - Contaminated properties that have been abandoned or are not being used up to potential because of pollution concerns. • Up to one-third of all commercial industrial sites in urban core of many big cities fall into this category. • In many cases, property owners complain that unreasonably high purity levels are demanded in remediation programs. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

29. Hazardous Waste Management Options • Produce Less Waste • Avoid creating wastes in the first place • Recycle and Reuse • Convert to Less Hazardous Substances • Physical Treatment (Isolation) • Incineration • Chemical Processing (Transformation) • Bioremediation (Microorganisms) Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

30. Hazardous Waste Management Options • Store Permanently • Retrievable Storage • Can be inspected and periodically retrieved. • Secure Landfills • Modern, complex landfills with multiple liners and other impervious layers and monitoring systems. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

31. Secure Landfills Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

32. Summary: • Solid Waste • Waste Disposal Methods • Shrinking the Waste Stream • Recycling • Hazardous and Toxic Wastes • Federal Legislation • RCRA • CERCLA • Management Options Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

33. Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.