Waste Management Industrial and agricultural waste Municipal solid

Waste Management Ø Industrial and agricultural waste Ø Municipal solid waste Ø Hazardous wastes

Solid Waste in U. S. >100 lbs/person/day Ø Agriculture - 51% Ø Mining wastes - 38% Ø Industries - 8% (fly ash) Ø Municipal - 3% (70% paper, food, yard wastes)

U. S. Municipal Wastes Ø Multi-billion dollar industry Ø Resource Conservation and Recovery Act - 1976 - outlawed open dumping

Managing Today’s Wastes Ø Sanitary landfill - 80% Ø Recycling - 10% Ø Incineration - 9% (dioxin) Ø Composting - 1%

Sanitary Landfill 1) Synthetic liner 2) 2) Earth cover 3) 3) Leachate 4) collection system 5) 4) Methane venting

Changing Landfills Ø Filling up rapidly Ø Difficult finding new sites - restrictions - NIMBY - NOT IN MY BACK YARD!

Recycling Ø Easily isolated from other wastes Ø Large quantities Ø Valuable

Recycling Aluminum, Wastepaper, and Plastics Ø 40% of aluminum recycled in US Ø Recycled aluminum uses over 90% fewer resources Ø Paper: pre-consumer vs. post-consumer recycling Ø 10% or less of plastic recycled in US Ø Plastics can be very difficult to recycle

Burning Wastes Ø Mass burn incineration Ø Air pollution Ø Waste to energy

Hazardous Wastes Ø U. S. - >1 ton/person/year

Today’s Management 1) reduce, reuse, recycle (5%)

Today’s Management 2) detoxification, incineration (5%) Ø Physical reactions Ø Chemical reactions Ø Land-farming Ø Burning

Today’s Management 3) Land disposal (90%) Ø Landfills, pits, lagoons, injection wells, “midnight dumping”, sewage systems, surface waters

Hazardous Waste Regulation in the United States Ø Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Ø EPA identifies hazardous wastes, sets standards for management Ø Superfund - established to clean up hazardous waste sites Ø Love Canal - Hooker Chemical plant in suburban Niagara Falls, NY