Put on your hazmat suit and get out paper for today’s notes!

1. Put on your hazmat suit and get out paper for today’s notes! Protect yourself from hazardous situations – read the board!

2. A little Love Story

3. Love Canal • Abandoned hydroelectric canal sold to Hooker Chemical Co. • 22,000 tons • 200+ chemicals including dioxins • Wastes covered, site sold to Niagara Falls school board 1955

4. Love Canal • Birth defects • Dark liquids seeped into basements through walls • Noxious chemical smells • Trees and shrubs died • Mid-1970’s heavy rains caused groundwater levels to rise • Resident Louis Gibbs begins campaign to get authorities interested • 1978 – EPA begins testing • 1990 – massive cleanup began

5. A recently discovered hazmat site: The San Jacinto Waste pits

7. Paper mill wastes • Paper mill wastes containing dioxins dumped in 1960’s and 70’s • Land subsided, pits disappeared • Crabs, fish have been showing high levels of dioxins and PCB’s for decades • Dioxins biomagnify ; measured here at 70,000 parts per trillion; 95% of fish and crab dangerously contaminated • “Dioxins can alter the fundamental growth and development of cells. In humans, adverse effects include suppression of the immune system, a variety of reproductive effects from reduced fertility to birth defects, chloracne, and cancer.” • Dioxin limit in seafood: .47 pptrillion • Catfish – 8pptrillion • Blue crab – 6 pptrillion!

8. So how did we let this happen? What the paper mill did was not illegal – at the time!

9. RCRA - Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 • Required all landfills to be designed to “sanitary” standards • Defined hazardous waste: (toxic, flammable, reactive, corrosive) • Required cradle to grave management of hazmat • 95% of materials are still “linguistically detoxified”

10. Household hazardous wastes are not regulated

11. So what do I do with batteries and CFLs? Houston South Hazardous Waste facility ESC South11500 South Post OakZIP Code 77035 Harris county facility 6900 N Gessner/290 CFLs contain a small amount of Hg

12. Compare Hazmat landfill to MSW landfill: Similarities? Differences?

13. OK, but what about the wastes dumped before RCRA or illegally? • CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Better known as Superfund) • Identifies and prioritizes hazmat sites • Seeks responsible parties for payment • Remediates sites

15. Superfund sites in Harris County

16. EPA manages Superfund • National Priorities list

17. How can these sites be cleaned up? • Mechanical remediation • Phytoremediation • Bioremediation

18. Love Canal today

19. Abandoned industrial or commercial sites. New owners must often clean up wastes before new development can begin Remediation of Brownfields

20. Mechanical remediation • Material incinerated and interred in haz waste landfill • Can get down to deepest contamination • Exposed soil (and contamination) may erode

21. Phytoremediation • Sunflowers – Lead • Mulberry bush – industrial sludge • Canola plants – selenium

23. The trade offs of phytoremediation • Less disturbance of area reduces risk of spreading contaminant • Inexpensive • Reduces material sent to landfill • Can be slow acting • Can only effect soil levels which roots can reach • Must match plant to pollutant • Animals could feed on plants – heavy metals could bioaccumulate

24. Bioremediation • Yeast, fungi, bacteria • Digest organic compounds into CO2 and H2O • Sites that are unable to be cleaned with microbes include those with high metal concentrations (i.e. mercury), highly chlorinated organics (compounds with many chlorine elements attached), and inorganic salts. These types of compounds are toxic to the microbes.

25. Bioremediation ex situ

26. What are the tradeoffs? • Mechanical remediation • Phytoremediation • Bioremediation • San Jacinto Waste pits - what are our options?

27. Can you hear me now? E-waste

28. US Geological survey estimates that in 2005 there were already more than half a billion old phones witting in American drawers. That added up to more than $300 million worth of gold, palladium, silver, copper and platinum.

29. An emerging concern: Electronic waste (e-waste)

30. toxic components in a pc

31. National Geographic - High Tech Trash January 2008

32. Pairs - • Apply the concept of product of service to the e-waste dilemma • What would manufacturers have to do to make this Product of Service idea a reality?

33. Think it’s a pipe dream? • Xerox – • Solid ink – ships in block, no packaging, melts in copier • Copiers designed to be disassembled when outdated. Components are refurbished and included in newer models where possible. • Toner cartridges – returned to be refilled, not thrown out.

34. Xerox • “Before is was categorized as green, we thought of it as just being efficient.” –Ursula Burns, Xerox President • “I’m in a funny business – I’m looking for ways that companies can print less. Printing is not going to go away, but we think you have to print more efficiently . . .We know that if we do that we can continue to grow.” – John Kelly, president of global services at Xerox

35. Note Check! • How is bioremediation different from phytoremediation? • How are bioremediation and phytoremediation similar? • What is an advantage of mechanical remediation that might explain why it is the most common method used? • List three toxic materials commonly found in ewaste. • List two precious materials commonly found in ewaste. • What objectives will be covered on the quiz tomorrow? • When is the test on STUFF? • When is the “complete the loop” extra credit due? • When is the recycling picture assignment due?