hazardous waste anya, ariana, abby, and maddie. what is hazardous waste?
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Hazardous WasteAnya, Ariana, Abby, and Maddie
What is Hazardous Waste?
Definitions Corrosive: are acidic or alkaline wastes which can readily corrode or dissolve flesh, metal, or other materials -ex. Waste sulfuric acid from automotive batteries
Discarded Commercial Products: These lists include specific commercial chemical products in an unused form. -ex. Some pesticides and some pharmaceutical products become hazardous waste when discarded
Ignitable nonspecific source: Wastes from common manufacturing and industrial processes -ex. solvents that have been used in cleaning or degreasing operations
More definitionsReactive: wastes that are unstable under "normal" conditions. They can cause explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water. -ex. lithium-sulfur batteries and explosives
Source specific: includes certain wastes from specific industries, such as petroleum refining or pesticide manufacturing.
Toxic: wastes that are harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed. When toxic wastes are land disposed, contaminated liquid may leach from the waste and pollute groundwater. -ex. mercury and lead
Conversion Techniques● Physical Treatment
o Stabilization (Solidification) Sometimes used on incinerator ash or other haz.
material before landfilling or underground burial. Additives are combined with waste material to make
it more solid and prevent chemical reactions. Soil washing at dumpsites to filter haz. waste solids
out of liquids. Distillation
● Heated to a vapor and then condensed to liquid
Conversion Techniques Contd.● Chemical Treatment
o Materials are added or removed from the haz. material to produce new, less hazardous chemicals.
o Chemical Neutralization Like mixing a corrosive
acid with with carbonate lime or a different high p-H material until it isn’t acidic anymore.
Conversion Techniques Contd.● Biological Treatment
o Includes the utilization of microbes to break down wastes through a series of organic chemical reactions.
o New materials created by the microbe reactions can be recycled or reused.
o Future lies in genetic engineering
Conversion Techniques Contd.● Incineration
o Municipal solid wastes are burned at high temperatures to convert them to gaseous and residue products.
o Helps reduce the amount put in landfills by 20-30%.
● Thermal Treatmento Incinerators turn solid waste
material into heat, gas, steam and ash.
● Air pollution brings controversy
Perpetual Storage
● Long-term● Meant to survive ‘forever’
o Natural stresseso Eventually fail
● Heavily regulated by EPA● Some specific to liquid/solid wastes● Natural and manufactured
Examples of Perpetual Storage● Solid
o Landfillso Waste Piles
● Liquido Surface Impoundmentso Underground Injections
● Natural Storage o Salt Formationso Arid Region Unsaturated Zone
Solid Waste● Landfills
o Secure - Buriedo Double-layer plastic
protectiono Groundwater contamination
● Waste Pileso In drums in specified facilityo Easy to spot leakso Ship to facility
The Problem with Landfills
Liquid Waste
● Surface Impoundmentso Excavated lagoon/lake
● Underground Injectionso Shoot waste below cap-
rock zone● Groundwater● Earthquakes
Natural Storage
● Salt Formationso Salt = no flowing
watero Can be sealed
● Arid Region Unsaturated Zoneo Between land
surface and groundwater
Case Study: Love Canal● Intended to be the center of an industrial city the 19th
century, however it was never finished● 1942: became a garbage dump, as well as a location
where Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation began dumping their chemical waste
● 1946: Hooker bought the location to use as an industrial landfill
● 1953: Hooker sold the land to the city for $1.00 on the condition that the company be released from any liability for injury or damage caused by the dump's contents
Love Canal continued● The city filled in the landfill, and built houses adjacent to the
land, and a school/playground on top of the site● A survey taken by local mothers found:
o many birth defectso chronic medical problemso miscarriages/stillborns
● 1978: City purchased houses surrounding landfill and demolished them (239 houses)
● 1988: Occidental Petroleum (the parent company of Hooker Chemical and Plastics) agreed to pay some $250 million in damages to Love Canal residents
The Superfund Program● “Superfund is the federal government’s
program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.”
● It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups.
Superfund Program Contd.
● Processo Assess siteso Place on priority listo Establish and
implement cleanup plans
Superfund Program● A baseline risk assessment is used
to see if there would be potential threats to human health and the environment.
● Detailed analysis is completed for each site.o Looks at things like cost and
state acceptance, overall human and environmental health, implementability, effectiveness, and others.
● Each are ranked with importance.● Details are summarized to developed
a remedy.
Andover● Waste Disposal Engineering Site● Includes a 72 acre landfill● Early on there was risk of
groundwater contamination, so they implemented an extraction/treatment system.
● Have an enclosed flare system to deal with harmful gases.
● Also have piloted a treatment system for the hazardous waste pit.
E-Waste● Electronic products that have become unwanted or non-working and have
essentially reached the end of their useful life. ● Televisions, microwaves, computers, and cell phones are examples ● China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines handle anywhere from
50 percent to 80 percent of this e-waste, often shredding, burning, and dismantling the products.
● E-waste has a lot of health risks. For example, primary and secondary exposure to toxic metals, such as lead, results mainly from open-air burning used to retrieve valuable components such as gold. Combustion from burning e-waste creates fine particulate matter, which is linked to pulmonary and cardiovascular disease.
https://youtu.be/8ZBHOVYbOIA
Works Cited● http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/basicinformation.cfm● http://www.epa.gov/wastes//hazard/tsd/td/index.htm#inject_well ● http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/waste-management-and-waste-disposal-methods.php● http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/Issues/OtherIssues/perpetual-waste-storage-perpetuity.html ● http://science.jrank.org/pages/3235/Hazardous-Wastes-Treatment-disposal-technologies.html● https://books.google.com/books?id=cEcc9rnLGJEC&pg=PT546&lpg=PT546&dq=%22arid+region+unsaturated+
zone%22+%2B+waste&source=bl&ots=5OungSMy2T&sig=3_lOaGuON0oNcuCerbzAqqY0KDY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-n8RVbD-JoiayASdj4LABg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22arid%20region%20unsaturated%20zone%22%20%2B%20waste&f=false
● http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2013/e-waste.aspx● http://www.epa.gov/superfund/● http://www.mhhe.com/Enviro-Sci/CaseStudyLibrary/Topic-Based/CaseStudy_LoveCanal.pdf● https://www.youtube.com/user/wastemanaful