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Solid Waste Management. Did you know??. One ton of recycled paper uses 64% less energy 50% less water Causes 74% less air pollution. Saves 17 trees Creates 5 times more jobs than one ton of paper product made from virgin wood pulp. Did you know??.
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Did you know?? • One ton of recycled paper uses • 64% less energy • 50% less water • Causes 74% less air pollution
Saves 17 trees • Creates 5 times more jobs than one ton of paper product made from virgin wood pulp.
Did you know?? • New York City alone throw out enough garbage each DAY to fill the Empire State Building. • In one day, Americans get rid of 20,000 cars and 4,000 trucks.
In the U.S. • Industry, people and institutions produced 230 million pounds of waste in 1999.
This amount of trash equals almost 4.5pounds of waste per person per day.
Four Main Categories of Waste • Municipal solid waste • Industrial waste • Hazardous waste • Wastewater
Municipal solid waste is waste that consists of paper, yard waste, food and plastic. Solid waste management can be handled in several ways.
Industrial waste comes from the production of consumer goods, mining, agriculture & petroleum extraction & refining.
Hazardous waste is solid or liquid waste that is toxic, chemically reactive, flammable or corrosive. This includes paint, batteries, household cleaners to medical waste.
Wastewater is another type of waste that includes the water that is used in our households, business, industries, or public facilitates. All the water that goes down the DRAINS!!
Waste Management • How we deal w/any unwanted material or substance
Sanitary landfills - A landfill is a regulated area where wastes are placed in the land.
Landfills are constructed in several layers to prevent contamination of the soil and water around them and to handle odor, gases and waste volume.
Examples: • Municipal Waste Landfill, • Construction and Demolition Waste • Resource Recovery (Waste-to-energy facilities)
Steps in creating a sanitary landfill 1. Landfill is lined with a plastic liner and several feet of clay on the bottom and sides of the hole.
This lining prevents most substances from leaking out of the landfill into the ground and water.
2. Wastes are compacted and covered with several inches of soil on a daily basis to help reduce odor, and to control litter, insects and rodents.
3. Landfills must be monitored in order to prevent the contamination of groundwater and other areas around the landfill.
4. Newer landfills have leachate collection systems. Collects water that has percolated through the landfill and contains contaminate substances (leachates/leeching).
5. Methane collection system. Landfill gas (LFG) forms when trash begins to decompose in an anaerobic environment. Landfill gas consists of 50 % methane and 50% carbon dioxide. Some landfills collect the gases and convert them to electricity.
6. The primary decomposers of garbage are bacteria and fungi. Decomposers – organisms that break down dead organic wastes.
7. The amount of moisture and air, temperature, light and the decomposing material all affect the rate at which microbes can digest the garbage.
8. According to the EPA, 25% of all monitored landfills in the US are leaking their contents into the groundwater.
Capturing Energy from Landfills • Deep inside the landfills, bacteria decompose waste in an oxygen-deficient (anaerobic) environment.
This decomposition produces landfill gas called methane. We collect this methane thru a network of pipes by vacuum pressure.
Landfill Construction Simulation • http://polaris.umuc.edu/mts/ENVM/newsimu/02-constr/constr.html
Incineration • One way in which we try and reduce the amount of waste is by combustion. Combustion is disposing of trash by controlled burning.
These stations are sometimes called WTE facilities because as the wastes burn energy is produced.
1. Combustion of trash reduces the volume of the wastes by 90% and the mass by 75%.
2. Burning at such high temperatures destroys harmful compounds and kills disease-causing bacteria.
3. Burning trash also creates energy and it can convert water into steam to generate electricity.
4.Combustion also pollutes the air. A scrubber uses a liquid spray to neutralize acidic gases in combustion smoke. Filters are also used to remove ash particles from the smoke.
5. Facilities are called Waste to Energy Facilities b/c we capture energy from the burning of trash to help create electricity.
Paper: 2-4 weeks Cotton rags: 1-5 months Orange peel: 6 months Wool sock: 12 months Plastic bags: 10-20 yrs. Leather shoes: 25-40 yrs. Aluminum cans: 200-500 yrs. Glass bottle: undetermined Cardboard box: 2 months Diapers – 450-550 years!! Kleenex – almost as soon as it gets wet Jeans – 7 years Rubber (sole of boot): 50-80 years….tire: 1000 years SOLID WASTE BREAKDOWN
Paper vs. Plastic • Plastics buried in a landfill can take an estimated time of up to 500 years to break down..
Plastic is made from long complicated chains of atoms called polymers. Bacterial and other decomposers do not find these polymers very appetizing.
Some plastics are photodegradable, which means they break down in the presences of light.
Other plastics are biodegradable, which means that they degrade by the action of microbes(bacteria/fungi)
Biodegradable plastic bags have been developed. They are made of plastic webbing and cornstarch.
Paper presents a space problem. There is more paper used than plastics but it does not compact. Paper will not rot when sealed air tight.
WASTE REDUCTION & RECOVERY • There are three goals of waste reduction & recovery.
Reduce the amount of waste • Reuse as much as possible • Recycle materials
REDUCE • We have many disposable materials in our society. We have been referred to as the “throw away society.”
Less consumption - only purchase what you need • Less packaging
