Nothing can be forgotten,Only left behind.
When you “throw it away”, Where does it go? Where is “away”?
In 1987, a barge loaded with garbageSailed for 5 months looking for
A place to dump it all!
Solid waste is any discarded materialThat is not a liquid or a gas.
Americans generate more than 10 Billion tons of solid waste each year.
Its not just the amount of wasteThat causes a problem, it’s also
The kind of waste.
There are basically 2 kinds:Those made of biodegradable
materialsAnd those that are not.
A biodegradable material is a materialThat can be broken down by living
Things into simpler chemicals that canBe consumed by other living things.
Examples of a biodegradable materialMay be; paper, cotton, or leather.
Some nonbiodegradable materials May include; polyester, nylon, and
Most all plastics.
Most of what we throw away as a Nation comes from manufacturing
And mining.
United States Solid Waste
Only about 2% is municipal solid waste,This is the trash produced by
Households and small businesses.
United States Municipal Solid Waste
Paper and cardboard make up a huge Part of what we throw away, mostly
Because everything that we buyComes in at least one layer of
Paper or cardboard.
The amount of municipal waste producedEach year is enough to fill a convoy of
Garbage trucks that would stretch Around the world 6 times!
More than 50% of our waste is storedIn a landfill. That is a facility
Where garbage is placed in the Ground and then covered with a
A layer of dirt at the end of Each day.
Only about 25% of our trash isRecycled.
Landfill
One major problem with landfills isLEACHATE.
Leachate is water that contains Toxic chemicals dissolved in itFrom wastes in the landfill.
This happens when water seeps downThrough the landfill and dissolves
Junk from batteries, paints,Pesticides, cleansers, etc.
Modern landfills also do not allowFor things to biodegrade!
A benefit of landfills is that theyCan be used to create methane gas
Which can be used to create electricity.
One option for garbage is to take itTo incinerators.
An incinerator burns the garbageUntil it is ash, which is then trucked
Away to a landfill.
This reduces the amount of solid Waste, but pollutes the air.
An Incinerator
There are basically 3 options forDealing with solid waste…
Producing less wasteRecycling
Changing materials used
If we produce less waste, we will Reduce the expense and difficulty
Of collecting and disposing it.
Many ideas are common sense:Reusing shopping bags,
Using both sides to paper,Use metal eating utensils,
Pick products with less packaging,etc.
Making products from recycled Materials usually saves water,
And energy.
Like making steel from scrap usesOnly 25% of the energy as making
New steel.
In order for recycling to workEveryone must take part.
After materials are recycled, and Remanufactured, they must be
Sold again.
You actually have to buy recycledProducts for the process to continue.
There are 7 different types ofPlastic, some can be recycled,
and some can’t.
Unfortunately, not all plastic can be recycled. Most recycling
centers accept types one and two, types four and five are less
commonly recycled, and types six and seven are rarely, if not virtually never, recycled.
Type 1 (PETE): Polyethylene Terephthalate. Soft drink and
water bottles, some waterproof packaging. Commonly recycled.
Type 2 (HDPE): High-Density Polyethylene. Milk, detergent, and oil bottles, toys, and some plastic
bags. Commonly recycled.
Type 3 (V): Vinyl/Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Food wrap,
vegetable oil bottles, construction materials, shower curtains. Not
recyclable, can leach chemical additives and is known to offgass in the air!
Type 4 (LDPE): Low-Density Polyethylene. Many plastic bags,
squeezable bottles, garment bags. Recycled at most centers
but not curbside programs.
Type 5 (PP): Polypropylene. Refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops, some
carpets, some food wrap. Recycled at most centers but
not curbside programs.
Type 6 (PS): Polystyrene. Throwaway utensils, meat-
packing, take-out containers, protective packing. Recycled at
some centers but not curbside programs, and banned in some cities.
Type 7 (OTHER): Composite plastic. Nalgene bottles, milk
cartons, toothpaste tubes. Can't be recycled, must be landfilled.
There are a few new kinds of Plastics that biodegrade quickly.
One of them is made with cornstarchAnd a few special chemicals
That allow it breakdown In a matter of weeks.
Hazardous waste are wastes that Are toxic or highly corrosive or
That explode easily.
These wastes can be any state of Matter, some examples…
Dyes, cleansers, solventsHeavy metals like mercury
PesticidesAnd radioactive wastes.
The methods used to dispose ofHazardous wastes often are not
Carefully thought out.
One example of a huge screw upOccurred at Love Canal, inNiagara Falls, New York.
What happened was that a chemicalCompany buried hazardous wastes
And then sold the land to the Local school district.
A school and many houses were builtAnd eventually all had to be abandoned.
The wastes were oozing into the Buildings and many people were gettingCancers, many other diseases and dying.
Now, because of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
All companies have to keep recordsOf all the wastes they
Create and dump.
If the wastes ever cause a problem,Then the company is liable.
Because the safe disposal of hazardousWastes is very expensive, the
Government created the Superfund Act.
This created a fund of money to Pay for cleaning up abandoned
Hazardous waste sites.
Most hazardous wastes produced in The US today are disposed of
By some form of land disposal.
The 2 major ways are deep-well injection
And surface impoundment.
Deep-well injection is when wastesAre pumped deep into the ground,Where they are absorbed into a
Dry layer of rock below the Level of ground water.
Surface impoundment is when a Pond is built that has a sealed
Bottom so that the waste Cannot leak out.
The biggest issue is for radioactiveHazardous wastes.
It takes thousands of years for theRadioactivity to decrease enough to
Be handled again.
So engineers must figure out a place To put it all so that it doesn’t get
Disturbed by groundwater or Earthquakes.
At the moment, the government wantsTo have it all shipped to Yucca Mt.
In Nevada.
But people in Nevada don’t want it There, they are afraid that if Things go wrong, then people
Might get hurt.
But the current method of storingRadioactive waste is on the site
whereIt was used, which makes Hundreds of unsafe places.
Lastly motor oil…
One gallon of motor oil could Contaminate up to 1 000 000
Gallons of water.
The Exxon Valdez oil tanker that Spilled 185 million gallons of oil wasOnly 1/15 of the amount of oil that
Is thrown away each year.
RECYCLE IT!!