Chapter 16

1. Chapter 16 Municipal Solid Waste: Disposal and Recovery

2. Chapter Introduction Danehy Park- Cambridge, MA

3. Danehy Park • 50-acre park opened in 1990. • Built on a former city dump. • Light system in the restrooms to warn of evacuation in the case of methane buildup. • Many dumps since the “solid-waste crisis” of 1970s and 80s have been converted to parks, golf courses, and nature preserves.

4. The Ideal: When looking for sustainable solutions, the ideal would be to imitate the natural world and reuse everything.

5. The Solid-Waste Problem Lesson 18.1

6. MSW • MSW=Municipal Solid Wastes • The total of all materials from homes or commercial establishments thrown away and collected by local governments. • Commonly called trash, refuse, or garbage.

7. Types of Waste: Hazardous: made up of the HAZMAT materials: ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or toxic. Industrial: 7.6 billion tons generated annually. Composed of demolition and construction waste, agricultural and mining residue, combustion ash, sewage treatment sludge.

8. Factors Contributing to Increasing Amounts of MSW

9. The Story of Stuff: 21 minutes

10. Factors Contributing to Increasing Amounts of MSW • In part by: Increasing populations • More so by: Changing lifestyles, increased use of disposable materials*, excessive packaging* * = two largest contributors to waste volume

11. Compare the procedures: • 1960 the nation generated 2.7 pounds of MSW per person per day. Most was combusted in open landfills to reduce volume. Produced clouds of smoke, bad smell, and breeding ground for rats and flies. • Some cities turned to incinerators (combustion facilities). Produced large amounts of air pollution when not monitored correctly. • Open dumps turned to landfills. • 2003 the nation generated 4.5 pounds per person per day.

12. MSW Patterns of Disposal • US 1998: 55% disposed in landfills, 28% recovered for recycling and composting, 17% combusted. • US 2003: 55.4% landfills, 30.6% recycling, 14% combustion. • Over the past 10 years, the overall trend is landfill and combustion declining, recycling increasing. • Pattern not the same for highly populated areas like Japan (combusts 75%) and Western Europe (0ver 50%).

13. US: MSW Components **However the proportions can vary depending on the season, the affluence or the generator (commercial vs. home).

14. The US Fate of MSW In countries with large populations like Japan, these numbers change toward the direction of combustion…Japan combusts 80% of its MSW.

15. Who is in Charge? • Customarily the local jurisdictions have been in charge of waste collection. • Own their own trucks. • OR contracted out. • The cost is traditionally passed along to home owners via taxes or a PAYT system.

16. Landfills: waste put on or in the ground and covered with earth. • Problems with old landfill structures. • Leachate generation • Methane production • Incomplete decomposition • Settling

17. Leachate Generation • As water percolates through the refuse and ground, it carries contaminates with it to ground water. • Florida: Superfund helped to get landfills state-of-the-art liners to prevent ground water contamination • Much of the land is flat, only a few feet above sea level and rests on water-saturated limestone…big problem.

18. Methane Production • Natural Decomposition. • Buried wastes are anaerobicaly broken down by detritus feeders creating biogas. • Gases seeping to the surface kill vegetation, leading to erosion that exposes the unsightly wastes.

19. Biogas Exploitation • 390 commercial landfill gas facilities in the US • California has the largest facility • 1998: produced 108 trillion BTU’s of energy=20 million barrels of oil. • 2005: produced 9 billion kWh of electricity.

20. Riverview, Michigan • The city collaborates with DTE to “mine” the landfill gas under the 212-acre landfill (Mt. Trashmore). • Provides 3700 homes with energy. • Doubles as a ski and recreation area during winter months.

21. Incomplete decomposition • Materials don’t completely break down. • Paper makes up 35% of the MSW. If paper is recycled, it won’t become MSW. • Research out of the University of Arizona has shown that even materials previously thought to be biodegradable are often degraded at a very slow rate. • 30 year old papers have been recovered (readable).

22. Why do the papers not break down? • Not enough moisture. • The problem? • If you add more water to the landfills (which will make the papers degrade faster), more toxic leachate is produced.

23. Archer Daniels Midland • As oil prices rise, agricultural giant Midland, has created biodegradable plastics made of PHA (polyhydroxylalkanoate) based on corn sugars. • The growth rate of these products is expected to increase by 20% per year based upon two things. • High oil price • Demand for environmentally friendly packaging.

24. Settling • Buildings not built on landfills because of settling. • Causes a problem for playgrounds, golf courses that are converted landfills because it creates shallow depressions (or even deep holes) that hold water and seeps into ground water.

25. EPA: Improving Landfills • EPA has upgraded siting and construction regulations. • Sited on high ground. • Floor contoured. • Layering of materials, leachate draining system, and liners. • Ground water monitoring.

26. Siting: Public Reactions • LULU (locally unwanted landuse) • NIMBY (not in my backyard) • NIMTOO (not in my term of office)

27. Siting Problems • Drives up the cost of waste disposal. • Leads to inefficient and equally objectionable practice of long-distance transfer. • Table 18-1 p 470. • A positive of the landfill siting problem is that it encourages people to reduce their amount of MSW and recycle

28. Advantages of Combustion: waste to energy • Can reduce weight by 70% and volume by 90%. • Toxic/hazardous materials concentrated into two streams for easier handling and control. • Generate electricity. • No changes needed for collection procedures. • 2/3 of combustion facilities are WTE facilities (compliant with clean air act regulations). • Resource recovery.

29. Combustion: Drawbacks • Health affects: older, poorer managed facilities. • Expensive to build. • Ash loaded with heavy metals. • Must have continuing supply of MSW. • Impedes recycling (direct competition for same materials).

30. Waste to Energy facility (Figure 18-7 page 471) Steps to process p.471, #ed.

31. Cost of MSW disposal • Tipping fees: $30-$100 per ton. • Transportation costs. • Increasing expense has lead to illegal dumping.

32. Solutions Lesson 18.2

33. The Solutions • Reduction • Recycling • Reusing • Composting

34. Source Reduction • Definition: practice of designing, manufacturing, purchasing, or using materials in ways that reduce the amount or toxicity of the trash collected. • Accomplishes waste prevention • EPA measures it by the amount of consumer spending. • Accomplishes two goals: • Reduces amount of waste to be managed. • Conserves resources.

35. Source Reduction in Action • Lightening the weight of many items has reduced the amount of materials used. • Electronic communication lessens paper load. • Durable goods made reusable. • Lengthening product life. • Get off the bulk mail list • Begin composting

36. Recycling as a Solution • More than 75% MSW is recyclable. • Primary recycling: original waste material made back into same product. News papers to newsprint • Secondary recycling: waste made into a new product. Newspaper to cardboard

37. How does recycling help? Recycle steel saves 2500 lbs of iron ore, 1000 lbs of coal and more than 5400 BTU’s of energy One ton of paper saves 17 trees, 6953 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil and 4000 kWh of energy. Recycling paper decreases air pollution by 74%, and water pollution by 35%

38. Paper and paperboard (48%)- recycled paper or insulation. Most glass (19%)- new bottles or fiber glass. Some forms of plastics (5.2%)- carpet fiber, outdoor apparel, building materials. Metals (22%)- saves energy, creates jobs, and reduces trade deficit. Yard wastes (56%)- humus Textiles (14.4%)- strengthen recycled paper products. Old tires (36%)- asphalt Recyclable Materials Recyclable material (% recovery)-product it is made in to.

39. The Most Successful Recycling Programs • No cost to recycle but PAYT for MSW • Mandates • Make it curbside • Goals are ambitious but clear and feasible • Efforts made to involve industry • Municipality has hired a recycling coordinator

40. How popular is recycling? • Virtually every state has specific recycling goals. • EPA reports state that in 1960 only 6.7% MSW was recycled as compared to the 30.6% in 2003. • Mostly driven by economic savings and environmental concern. • All of the recycling is highly promotes by the Global Recycling Network.

41. “Experience has shown that at least two-thirds of households will recycle if presented with a curbside pickup program”

42. Critics of Recycling • Generally base their argument on economics. • If the costs of recycling are compared to the cost of combustion or landfills, recycling generally comes in second best. • Market for recyclable materials fluctuate greatly. • The shortfall between cost and market value is generally between $20-$135. • Garbage collection is a big business and those involved see recycling as cutting into their market.

43. International paper trade: • The market for recycled paper has fluctuated greatly over the years. • 1980’s- market saturated and municipalities had to pay to get rid of it. • 1995-paper was so valuable is was bought at about $160 a ton. • Forest-poor countries like Europe and Asia purchase paper from the US and other industrialized countries in the N hemisphere.

44. Fact: • A one meter stack of newspapers is equal to the amount of pulp from one tree.

45. Glass recycling: • 5.3% enter the solid waste stream. • 50% non burnable portion. • Large portion of the roadside litter. • Injuries, flat tires, pollution created to mine and manufacture. • Not al the cost shows in the price of the item, some appears in taxes to clean up the litter, as well as injuries, flat tire repair, environmental degradation…

46. Bottle Laws: Environmental and consumer groups have set some laws to promote recycling and reuse of beverage containers. The opposition comes from beverage and container industries who say that bottle laws result in loss of jobs and higher beverage costs for the consumer.

47. Bottle Laws Continued: 11 states as of 2006 have adopted some type of bottle law. The experience has been positive, proving the beverage companies wrong by providing more jobs and costs have not risen, higher percentage of bottles are being recycled and a marked reduction in bottle litter. In 2003 22% glass, 44% aluminum, 60% steel, 25% plastic bottles were recovered.

48. Bottle laws continued: Only two states have bottle laws with regard to non returnables such as water and other non-carbonated drinks. With the rising cost of petroleum and the many uses of plastic bottles, recycling them makes both economic and environmental sense.

49. Plastic Recycling • Code 2: HDPE-high density polyethylene. • Code 1: PETE-polyethylene terephthalate. • Use for recycled plastics is limited somewhat because of contamination in the cross over process. Ex: some may not be reused for food containers.

50. MRF’s- “murfs” • Materials recovery facilities. • 2001 there were 480 operating in the US. • Wastes are sorted and shipped to proper locations for reuse. • Advantages: • Economy of sale • High quality end products