Waste Management PowerPoint Presentation

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Waste Management “And willful waste, depend upon’t Brings, almost always, woeful want!” Ann Taylor

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Waste Management Sources of solid waste

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Waste Management We have a huge solid waste disposal problem: cities are producing far too much waste to dispose of 80% of US trash  landfills 70% of these will fill and close in next 15 yrs! ~ ½ of US cities will run out of landfill capacity in a few years (and $ skyrocketing) ½ of states in US will lose landfill capacity in 10 yrs

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Waste Management Early view: dilute and disperse Later  concentrate and contain Later yet  resource recovery Modern integrated waste management goal is to recycle, extract resources, and bury waste so as to create useable land 3 R’s: reduce, recycle, reuse

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Waste Management Solid waste disposal (an urban problem) US: > 400,000 tons of solid waste per day W. Germany recycles 15% converts 30%  energy 55%  landfills Japan 50% 23% 27% USA 11% incinerates 6% 83%

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Waste Management

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Municipal Industrial Waste Management Types of waste for the average site in 1986 (Municipal) note role of paper (36%) glass and wood are a shame Ave American  3.5 lbs of garbage/day NYC = 4 lbs Tokyo = 3 lbs Paris = 2.4 lbs Hamburg = 1.9 lbs Rome = 1.5 lbs

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Waste Management 1. On-site disposal By far the most common is kitchen disposal Incineration at apartments Some industries have stored and dumped on site (such as the infamous Love Canal, etc.) 2. Composting Biochemical process to produce humus-like material for soil fertilization Methods of disposal

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Waste Management 3. Incineration 900-1000oC will consume 75-90% of typical waste  ash and non-combustables Realistically at present  50% Problems with air pollution (N-O, S-O, CO, heavy metals) and toxic ash escaping 3R’s are cheaper and more effective Methods of disposal

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Waste Management 4. Open dumps Methods of disposal

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Waste Management 5. “Sanitary Landfills” Area landfill on flat land Depression landfill in hole (typically excavated) Methods of disposal

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Natural attenuation landfill uses soil processes to attenuate the impact of contaminants

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Containment-type landfill collects the leachate and pumps it for storage or treatment

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Waste Management Potential Hazards: Surface or groundwater pollution by leachate Methane gas Sanitary Landfills

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Waste Management Site selection: Location of groundwater table and flow regime with respect to site Climate (arid is best of course) Topographic relief Low relief is most stable, but groundwater also a factor in humid areas: want it above the water table Proximity to population and visual pollution (or air pollution if incinerate) Type of soil and rock (best if low permeablility) Sanitary Landfills

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The “bathtub effect” when too much leachate collects and overflows the container

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Waste Management Things to avoid Aquifers like limestone, fractured rock, sand, gravel… any permeable rock Swampy areas and wetlands Floodplains Things to look for Closer to gully heads where less accumulated water Clay pits Flat areas with poor porosity (at least near surface) Sanitary Landfills, Considerations:

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Waste Management the highest point between Maine and Florida Accepts 13,000 tons of trash/day 25X the volume of the Great Pyramid Fresh Kills landfill, Staten Island, NY Built on marshland Trash transported by barge Accepts toxic ash from incinerators

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Waste Management Sought a place to dump 3200 tons of trash from Islip, Long Island Refused permission to dump everywhere it tried After 164 days and 6000 miles it returned to NYC where it was barred from docking After sitting in harbor for 3 months the trash was incinerated in Brooklyn, leaving 400 tons of ash The voyage of the Mobro, 1987

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Waste Management The negative publicity catalyzed Islip to develop a recycling program By 1989 the town recycled 35% of its solid waste This has saved Islip $2,000,000/yr and extended the life of the landfill The voyage of the Mobro, 1987 Greenpeace boards the Mobro

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Waste Management Interstate traffic in garbage Couldn’t show New York and New Jersey (largest exporters) New York ships as far as New Mexico

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Waste Management Huge proliferation in new chemicals without much knowledge of effects 1000 new chemicals marketed annually in USA Even beneficial chemicals may not be so in all ways Amounts also are often huge US  150 million tons of hazardous waste annually Used to be quite indiscriminate, so now have unknown quantities of dumps Hazardous chemical waste management

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Breakdown by category of the 40,000,000,000 gallons of toxic waste generated by US industries in 1981 (total > 40 Ggal due to overlap)

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Waste Management Barrels stored at surface or buried in shallow pits now corroded and leak Liquid waste poured in shallow unlined pits and pools Liquid waste carried out and dumped in fields or along roads Hazardous chemical waste management

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Waste Management Cows and maximum individual income, whereas commons share expense Also works for dumping: individual savings and shared degradation Tragedy of the Commons

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Waste Management Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Identifies hazardous wastes and its life cycles Toxic Flammable or explosive Corrosive Unstable Regulates handling and record-keeping Mandates for Responsible Management

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Waste Management Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) Recognizes past dumps = hazards Established Superfund to clean up hundreds of the worst known ones Changed real estate business: owners liable Mandates for Responsible Management

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Waste Management 1986 Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA) Provided some protection for purchasers by allowing an environmental audit at sale time Required all companies to report all releases (“Toxic 500 list”) in hope that publicity would shame/inhibit them Mandates for Responsible Management

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Waste Management Concern because often handled so badly in the past 1) Secure Landfill Management of hazardous waste:

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Waste Management Concern because often handled so badly in the past Management of hazardous waste: Location of the first 951 proposed Superfund sites Completed removals in first decade of Superfund 1980-1990.

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Waste Management The international trade in hazardous wastes Management of hazardous waste:

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Waste Management 2) Land Application Used for biodegradable wastes (petroleum, some organics) where organisms in the soil can degrade Also must monitor groundwater 3) Surface Impoundment Lined or unlined: both less secure than (1) Hold and aerate Management of hazardous waste:

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Waste Management 4) Deep-well Disposal Management of hazardous waste:

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Waste Management

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Waste Management Minimize adverse effects by: Reducing volume by evaporation, treatment, etc. Treat waste so that it is compatible with reservoir rock and pre-existing fluids Take advantage of natural buffers: If acidic  limestone If oxidizing  carbonaceous Monitor at various levels Management of hazardous waste: 4) Deep-well Disposal

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Waste Management Management of hazardous waste: 5) Incineration

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Waste Management Actually partly = treatment, because still must dispose of solid ash residue (often toxic) This is the plan for the Umatilla nerve gas storage facility Possibility of air pollution, especially for heavy metals and ash Management of hazardous waste: 5) Incineration

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Waste Management

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Waste Management Some facts about recycling: Al Cans May be recycled indefinitely Every 3 months Americans throw away enough Al to completely rebuild the domestic airline fleet Saves 95% of energy that would have been required ore ® Al Glass 85 lbs of glass used per capita in US ~ 75% of glass in US ® packaging (bottles) Every glass bottle that is recycled can save enough E to light a 60 watt light bulb for nearly 8 hours Recycling 1 ton of glass saves the E of 9 gallons of fuel ~ 30% of today’s average glass bottle is recycled glass

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Waste Management Some facts about recycling: Plastic Americans throw away 2,500,000 plastic bottles each hour Plastic almost lasts forever, had the Pilgrims been able to enjoy Mayflower beer, the plastic 6-pack rings would still be around Plastic composes about 20% of US landfills Plastic production employs 5 of the 6 worst chemicals on the EPA list of “most hazardous waste” Only 1 and 2 recyclable in WW

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Waste Management Some facts about recycling: Paper Manufacturing recycled paper requires 64% less E that virgin paper, reduces air pollution by 74%, water pollution by 35% Paper industry is largest single user of fuel oil in US Every day US businesses generate enough scrap paper to encircle the Earth 20 times 70% of office trash is scrap paper Every ton of paper that is recycled saves ~ 17 trees and enough E to heat the average home for 6 months Paper composes ~ 40% of US landfills

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Waste Management Some facts about recycling: Scrap Metal Americans throw away enough steel and iron to continually supply all of the nation’s automakers Each year Americans abandon 3,000,000 cars Recycling iron and steel saves 74% of the E used to make them from iron ore and coal, while reducing mining waste by 96% Recycling iron and steel reduces air pollution by 86%, uses 40% less water, and produces 76% less water pollution

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Waste Management Some facts about recycling: Miscellaneous Recyclable Products Americans dump waste oil equivalent to 25 Exxon Valdez oil spills each year (all of which is recyclable) Every US family, on average, produces ~ 15 lbs. of hazardous household waste each year, most of which is disposed of improperly down drains or in landfills ~ 80% of auto batteries are recycled, byt the remaining 20% (containing ~ 330,000,000 lbs. of lead) end up in landfills Household batteries account for over 50% of Hg and Cd found in landfills Food = 8% and yard waste = 17% of US landfills. Composting is a far better disposal method

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Miscellaneous Recyclable Products ~250,000,000 tires are thrown out annually in US, but many landfills refuse to accept them. As a result they accumulate in mountainous tire graveyards (hazardous if ignited) Westerly, CA power plant heats 3500 homes using tires Tires outperform coal as a heat fuel source

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Waste Management Some facts about recycling: 1996 Prices for Recycled Materials Shredded Automobiles $ 135/ton Steel Cans $ 95/ton Aluminum Cans $ 50/ton Clear Glass Bottles $ 40/ton Newspaper $ 24/ton Car Batteries $ 15/ton Plastic Bottles $ 10/ton Colored Glass Bottles worthless in WW since Asian economic collapse

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Waste Management A study indicated that by 2000 with an integrated system of partial recycling: Better design of packaging can  10% (by weight) reduction Recycling programs reduce by 30% Composting reduce by 10% All 3 reduce trash by 50%, ~ same as incinerating all waste …and this is at a low intensity level, pilot of intensive management in East Hampton, NY  84% Seattle is now at 37% (highest of any large city in US)

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Waste Management Radioactive Waste Management

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Waste Management Unstable parent isotope (such as 235U)  daughter isotope(s) + (a, b or g) + neutrons + Energy-heat Radioactivity

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Waste Management Heavier radiation is more damaging, but penetrates less Radioactivity

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Waste Management Radiation measurement 1 curie = 37,000,000,000 disintegrations/minute 1 rad = 0.01 joule of E absorbed by 1 kg of tissue A rem is factored for the damage proportionality, so is the most directly applicable to dosages Radioactivity

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Waste Management Some breakdown schemes are complex  series of daughters and some are also unstable Example: among the products of U = unstable isotopes of I, Kr, Sr, Pt Pt extremely toxic and poisonous I  thyroid  thyroid cancer (I releases to the atmosphere at Hanford) Sr acts like Ca, so  grass  cows  milk  bones Radioactivity

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Waste Management Low-level waste Residual solutions from chemical processing Lab equipment Contaminated equipment and materials (including decommissioned and disassembled reactors) Don’t  much radioactivity or heat Nuclear Fuel Cycle

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Ideal sites have the characteristics listed in Fig 12.15

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Waste Management = Reactor fuel assemblies, some weapons by-products The BIG dilemma - very radioactive &/or toxic and long half-lives (239Pt = 24,000 yrs) May require depository that is very safe for > 200,000 yrs! … for whom or what? Where do we reprocess and store this stuff?? While we decide, we allow “temporary” storage in pools on site at reactors. The stuff is accumulating: ~ 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel alone stored on low-security sites Nuclear Fuel Cycle High-level waste

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Waste Management 1) In the geologic environment Stable bedrock Seismically stable and slow hydrologic flows Must be studied well and characterized (geolically and hydrologically) Predict behavior for future D climate, erosion, groundwater flow, etc. Political risk assessment Nuclear Fuel Cycle Methods of disposal of high-level radwaste:

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Yucca Mountain, Nevada

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Waste Management Yucca Mountain may be ready by 2010 (if it meets specifications and Nevada can’t beat it) Nevada is seismically active Who really knows how well it will work for 200,000 yrs??? Nuclear Fuel Cycle Methods of disposal of high-level radwaste: 1) In the geologic environment

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Waste Management Well, it can really dilute it But on the other hand the ocean is very important, and currents can carry it  ?? US prohibits radwaste, and many other wastes to  sea UK dumps it all in sea at Selefield Nuclear Fuel Cycle Methods of disposal of high-level radwaste: 2) Ocean dumping

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Waste Management Ocean dumping of all types of waste is a major concern: Tragedy of the Commons again. International areas. What happens when we actually pollute the oceans? Lose valuable spawning grounds, shellfish beds, marine life Already see loss of whole fishing fleets and industries: Mediterranean sardine went early, as did Scandinavian cod, herring N. Atlantic fishery nearly gone: Newfoundland fishermen laid off whole ways of life lost and major cultural shifts Nuclear Fuel Cycle Methods of disposal of high-level radwaste: 2) Ocean dumping

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Waste Management NIMBY Not In My Back Yard NIMFYE Not In My Front Yard Either PIITBY Put It In Their Back Yard NIMEY Not In My Election Year NIMTOO Not In My Term Of Office LULU Locally Unavailable Land Use NOPE Not On Planet Earth The ABCs of waste disposal