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Unit 13: Waste Table of Contents

• 13.1: Waste & Landfills

• 13.2: Hazardous Waste

• 13.3: What is Superfund?

• 13.4: Nuclear Waste

• 13.5: Recycling

Waste /Person

• The average person in the U.S. creates 4.3 lbs

of trash

• This totals 1,570 lbs of trash each year

13.1 Waste & Landfills

Sewage

• Wastewater is used water.

– It often contains suspended or dissolved materials

• Domestic wastewater (sewage) is from the

daily activities of people

– Needs to be removed before reused


Solid Waste

• Solid waste is garbage,

refuse, sludge, and

discarded material

– Management deals with

collection and disposal

of materials

– Recycling is reusing the

material


Landfills

• A landfill is an excavated area of land for the permanent disposal of wastes – Plastic liners are used to

prevent leachate from soaking in the soil

– Hazardous materials should not be in landfills

• Landfill gas results from the decomposition of cellulose contained in municipal and industrial solid waste.


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Biomass: Landfill Gas

• Efficiency depends on waste composition moisture content, cover material, temperature and other factors. – The energy content of landfill

gas is 400 to 550 Btu per cubic foot.

• Capturing landfill gas before it escapes to the atmosphere allows for conversion to useful energy.


Landfill Gas

• Generation from municipal solid waste and

landfill gas is projected to increase by nearly

9 billion kilowatthours, to about 31 billion

kilowatthours in 2025.


Incineration

• Incineration uses high

temperatures to destroy

waste materials


Treatment Methods for Waste

• Solidification processes can be used to treat non-solid

radioactive waste taking liquid waste or semi-solid

sludge and convert it to a solid waste.

• Vitrification is a process that mixes highly radioactive

liquid with glass particles and is then poured into

stainless steel canisters.

• Compaction is a means of reducing the volume of

noncombustible waste by compressing it into a

smaller, denser waste form.


TAKS Review 1

Hazardous Waste

• Hazardous wastes are handled differently

from typical solid wastes

– Solid/liquid that is a danger to humans or

environment.

– Examples: unused paint, pesticides, batteries,

household bleach, nail polish remover, petroleum

products, lead, mercury, and cadmium

13.2 Hazardous Waste

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Background Information

• In 1999, over 20,000 hazardous waste generators produced over 40 million tons of hazardous waste just in the United States.

– 71% of all U.S. hazardous waste comes from chemical and petroleum industries.

– 22% of all U.S. hazardous waste comes from metal processing and mining.

• Most of the hazardous waste comes from point sources.

– The ten most superfund-hazardous materials are lead, trichloroethylene (TCE), toluene, benzene, PCB’s, chloroform, phenol, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium.


Types of Hazardous Waste

• Not Included

– Radioactive waste

– Hazardous and Toxic

materials from households

– Mining Waste

– Oil and Gas-drilling wastes

– Liquid wastes containing

hydrocarbons

– Cement Kiln dust

– Businesses that produce less

than 220 lb per month.

• Included

– Dry cleaners

– Auto repair shops

– Hospitals

– Exterminators

– Photo processing centers

– Chemical manufacturers

– Electroplanting

companies

– Petroleum refineries.


Household Wastes

• Some main examples of common household

items that are hazardous are paints, cleaners,

oils, batteries, and pesticides.

– Most household items have labels that warn about

the risk.

– Examples of these are – explosive, oxidizer,

flammable gas, poison, corrosive, and dangerous

when wet.


Disposal of Hazardous Materials

• Discharge into streams and “dilute it”.

• Locate the material to deep wells, salt caverns, or specially designed landfills.

• Process it, detoxify it, recycle it, and so on.

• Store the material in pits, but 70% of contaminate ponds do not have liners.

• Incinerate it.

• Store it in sealed drums, and the drums are placed in hazardous waste landfills.


The Improper Dumping of

Hazardous Waste… • It is estimated that there

are over 400,000

seriously contaminated

sites in the United

States.

• Only 100 of the 1400

sites on the National

Priority List have been

handled.


Environmental Protection

Agency • Environmental Protection Agency or a state

hazardous waste agency enforces the

hazardous waste laws in the United States.

– The EPA encourages states to assume primary

responsibility for implementing the hazardous

waste program through state adoption,

authorization and implementation of the

regulations.


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Niagara Falls, New York (Love

Canal) • In the 1940s and 50s the empty

canal was used to dump 20,000 tons of toxic waste. – The waste was sealed in metal drums

in a manner that has since been declared illegal.

– The canal was then filled in and the land given to the expanding city of Niagara Falls.

– Housing and an elementary school were built on the site.

• By the late 1970s several hazardous chemicals had leaked through and risen to the surface.


What is a Superfund?

• The purpose of a superfund is to identify and

clean up abandoned hazardous waste dump

sites and leaking underground tanks that

threaten human health and the environment.

– The cleanup is not paid for by taxpayers, instead

they use the polluter-pays-principle.

• Meaning the potential liable culprit for the pollution

has to pay for the entire cleanup.

13.3 What is a Superfund?

How Was Superfund Started • Created by the Comprehensive

Environmental response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 – $1.6 billion dollar program to contain

the damage and eventually clean up the nation’s most dangerous abandoned toxic waste sites.

• Not much done about hazardous waste until 1978.

• 7.5 billion dollars spent since 1986 – 163 of 1,204 sites have been cleaned of

hazardous wastes.

– Average cleanup cost it 25 million dollars


How Superfund Works

• Superfunds are meant to make the people

responsible for the waste pay

– Avg. cost is $25,000,000, and it usually takes 7 to 10

years

– Many people have been dragged into superfund cleanups

through legal responsibility

• Some people are hurt by superfunds

– Many towns, businesses, and families

– Takes place in low income areas

– Surrounding areas may be polluted by old waste


What Superfund Has Become…

• It has evolved into an open-ended and costly crusade to return potentially thousands of sites to a near-pristine condition.

• This is resulting in a large and unjustifiable waste of the nation’s resources at the expense of other critical societal needs.

• Estimates for cleanup

– The 1,200 sites on the EPA’s “national priority list” range from $32 billion to $60 billion

– These estimates are well below what the actual price for funding would be due to the fact that more than 30,000 sites are being considered for cleanup.


Skewed Priorities

• A key flaw in the

Superfund is that most

of its effort and money

are directed to a

relatively small number

of “priority” sites,

while thousands of

others are ignored and,

in most cases, not even

sampled or studied.


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The Ranking Scheme

• The EPA created a ranking scheme that was not

geared to actually finding the riskiest sites to clean,

yet it was made to satisfy the letter of the CERCLA

law.

– Once a site makes the NPL, money is supposed to be no

object in the remediation process.

– SARA (Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act)

increased funding for the program to $8.5 billion and

ordered action to begin at more sites but to give

preference to those that were in the worst conditions and

could be helped permanently.


SARA’s Flaws

• Forced EPA to continue remedial action even

after all realistic risks were eliminated.

– ex. Swope Superfund site

• Excluded the use of other far less costly

remedies that would give the public the same

or at least acceptable protection from harm

– Ex. Bridgeport Rental and Oil Services Superfund

site


Superfund’s Misleading Info.

• The existence of toxic wastes at a site does

not necessarily mean that they pose a threat to

nearby residents.

• Safety is not the focus of Superfund. It makes

no rational attempt to link costs with benefits.


The Liability Mess

• The Superfund tab will have to be picked up by

industry, taxes, out-of-pocket, or settlements with

insurance companies.

– CERCLA dictated a “polluter-pays” philosophy to deal

with what had largely been lawful disposal of wastes.

• The provisions have a negative effect on new

investment at sites in older urban areas. The reason

is that any party that buys such a property would be

caught in Superfund’s liability web.


What Could Happen…

• The liability mess could get completely out of hand if Congress goes along with a proposal to exempt municipalities from liability.

• Attempts are being made to improve the Superfund Act without seriously weakening it.

– EPA should first define the sites that may present real health risks.

– Remedy decisions must be based on the expected future on the land, cost, and practicality of the solution.

– The Liability scheme must be changed so that prospective owners of older urban sites are not deterred from making new investments.


Other Problems With Superfund

• EPA must hire subcontractors.

– Subcontractors can spend money frivolously

– Cost taxpayer dollars

• 28% of the $265 million dollar budget has been spent on wasteful administrative costs.

• Many small businesses charged

– They pay unnecessary amounts of money and are tricked into thinking that they are responsible for pollution


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Other Problems With Superfund

• Polluters turn to insurance to pay for

cleanup costs

– Insurance companies want to change laws, and

make taxpayers pay for it.

• Idea of Superfund law is a good one. Has

good intentions

– Law had to be enacted by people who lobbied

against it.

– This has scared companies into being more

careful about their waste

– Cost of cleanup is too high for companies to

risk


What is Nuclear Waste?

• Often radioactive

material

– It is the leftover material

which is unwanted

– Is produced by nuclear

reactors and

repossessing plants

• Low-level wastes

• High-level wastes

13.4 Nuclear Waste

Low-Level Wastes

• Must be stored safely for 100-500 years

• Includes radioactive material:

– From research activities

– Medical wastes

– Contaminated machinery from nuclear reactors

• From the 1940’s to 1970, most waste produced was put into steel drums and dumped into the ocean

– Since 1970, the wasted have been buried in commercial, government-run landfills

– Today, waste materials from nuclear power plants, hospitals, and industries are put in steel drums and shipped to the two remaining regional landfills.

13.4 Nuclear Waste

Low-Level Wastes

• Attempts to build new

regional dumps have

met fierce public

opposition

– All landfills eventually

leak

– It would pose a bigger

problem for taxpayers

and future generations

13.4 Nuclear Waste

High-Level Wastes

• Give off large amounts of radiation for a short time and small amounts for a long time

• Must be safely stored for thousands of years

• Comes from: – Spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants

– Assortment of wastes from plants that produce nuclear weapons

• Ancient glasses hint at how the modern packaging might fare over the thousands of years it will take for nuclear waste to decay to safe levels of radioactivity

13.4 Nuclear Waste

Methods for High-Level Storage

• Bury it deep underground

– Favored strategy

• Shoot it into space or into the sun

– Costs would be very high

• Bury it under the Antarctic or Greenland ice cap

– Long-time stability of the ice sheets is not known

• Dump it into subduction zones in the deep ocean

– Containers might leak and contaminate

• Bury it in deposits of mud on the deep ocean floor

– Containers would eventually corrode and release the contents

13.4 Nuclear Waste

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Hanford, Washington

• Hanford was the site of plutonium

production during World War II

• During this project, tanks leaked

– This caused fears about possible

contamination of underground water

supplies and the Columbia River

– These storage tanks at the Hanford

Site in Washington were constructed

to store liquid, high-level waste. After

construction was completed, the earth

was replaced to bury the tanks

underground.

13.4 Nuclear Waste

Three Mile Island

• The number 2 reactor at the plant in Pennsylvania

lost its coolant water because of a serious of

mechanical failures and human operator errors

• The core became partially uncovered

– 50% of it melted and fell to the bottom of the reactor

– Unknown amounts of radioactive materials escaped into

the atmosphere

• Partial cleanup of the damaged reactor, lawsuits and

payment of damage claims has cost $1.2 billion so

far

13.4 Nuclear Waste

Examples of Waste Management

• 1988: U.S. government chose

Yucca Mountain, a Nevada desert

site as the nations first permanent

underground repository for nuclear

waste

• Study by a U.S. department

detected water in several mineral

samples taken at the site. Water

samples show that it may have once

risen up through the mountain and

later subsided thus jeopardizing the

safety of a nuclear waste repository.

13.4 Nuclear Waste

Environmental Quality

• Environmental quality is the condition of

natural resources and other factors where we

live

• Everything we do affects the environment

13.5 Recycling

Bioremediation

• Bioremediation is using biological processes

to solve environmental problems

• Biodegradation is the process of bacteria,

fungi,and other organisms breaking material

into other substances

• Composting promotes biological

decomposition of materials

13.5 Recycling

Background To Waste

Management • Recycling is a series of activities that includes

collecting recyclable materials that would

otherwise be considered waste, sorting and

processing recyclables into raw materials

such as fibers, and manufacturing raw

materials into new products.

13.5 Recycling

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3 Steps to Recycling

• Step 1. Collection and Processing:

– There are four primary methods: curbside, drop-off

centers, buy-back centers, and deposit/refund programs.

• Step 2. Manufacturing

Once cleaned and separated, the recyclables are

ready to undergo the second part of the recycling

loop.

• Step 3. Purchasing Recycled Products

Purchasing recycled products completes the

recycling loop.

13.5 Recycling

How to Reduce Waste

• The best way to manage waste is to not produce it.

– Buy products in bulk and avoid disposable goods, such as

paper plates, cups, napkins, razors, and lighters.

– Buy durable goods - ones that are well-built or that carry

good warranties.

– At work, make two-sided copies whenever possible.

– Use electronic mail or main bulletin board.

– Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.

13.5 Recycling

Ideas for Reusing

• Use a ceramic coffee mug instead

of paper cups.

• Reuse grocery bags or bring your

own cloth bags to the store.

• Reuse products for the same

purpose.

• Reuse products in different ways.

Use re-sealable containers

rather than plastic wrap.

13.5 Recycling

Recycling

• Buy products made from recycled material.

• Check collection centers and curbside pickup services to see what they accept

• Consider purchasing recycled materials at work when purchasing material for office supply

• Use recycled paper for letterhead, copier paper, and newsletters.

13.5 Recycling

Recycling Seems to be an Answer

• Recycling has wide-spread public support and

because of this societies have tolerated many

glitches in the recycling program

– Recycled material has grown much faster than the

capacity for converting them to useful products

– The economics of recycling are not necessarily

beneficial to the United States

13.5 Recycling

What About the Environment?

• We have discovered that recycling is much

more expensive than landfilling, however the

primary motivation is not to save money, but

to save the environment. In this case these

two things may coincide with each other

– Costs stem from additional trucks, fuel, and

sorting facilities, and these are the same things

that harm the environment

13.5 Recycling

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The End.

Be prepared for Unit 13 Test!

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