Chapter 22 Review Questions

  1. Summarize what happened at LoveCanal and the lessons learned from this environmental problem.
  2. Distinguish between solid waste and municipal solid waste. What are the major sources of solid waste in the United States? What happens to municipal solid waste in the United States? What are the major components of U.S. garbage?
  3. List five characteristics of a high-waste society.
  4. Distinguish between the high-waste and low-waste approaches to solid waste management. What are the four R’s of waste reduction?
  5. According to the U.SNationalAcademy of Sciences, what should be the five goals of solid waste management in order of their importance? According to some scientists, what percentage of solid and hazardous waste produced could be eliminated through a combination of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling (including composting)?
  6. What is the ecoindustrial revolution based on cleaner production? Describe the resource exchange system used in Denmark and the pollution prevention program implemented by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) company in the United States.
  7. What is a service of flow economy? What are economic advantages of such and economy?
  8. What are three advantages of using the reuse approach for waste reduction? List 3 ways to reuse some of the items you buy.
  9. Distinguish between primary and secondary recycling. What are the major environmental benefits or recycling? About what percentage of the municipal solid waste produced in the Untied States is recycled and composted? What percentage do experts believe could be recycled and composted?
  10. What is compost, and how is it used as a way to deal with solid waste?
  11. Distinguish between the centralized recycling of mixed solid waste and consumer separation of solid waste. Which seem to be the more effective way to deal with recycled materials?
  12. Describe how paper is recycled. Distinguish between preconsumer and postconsumer paper waste.
  13. What are plastics made from? List 3 reasons why so few plastics are recycled.
  14. What is life-cycle analysis? What 3 factors hinder recycling and reuse? Can you think of any methods that might encourage the average American to recycle more?
  15. Describe the major components of a mass-burn incinerator. List the advantages and disadvantages of burning solid (and hazardous waste) in incinerators.
  16. Describe the major components of a sanitary landfill. List the advantages and disadvantages of burying solid waste in sanitary landfills.
  17. What is hazardous waste? What percentage of the hazardous waste produced in the United States is regulated by laws?
  18. Describe the release of toxic chemicals from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.
  19. According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, what should be the three goals of hazardous waste management in order of their importance?
  20. Describe Denmark’s hazardous waste detoxification program.
  21. Distinguish between bioremediation and phytoremediation. Describe four types of phythoremediation. List the advantages and disadvantages of using phytoremediation for detoxifying hazardous waste.
  22. How is a plasma torch used to detoxify hazardous waste?
  23. List the advantages and disadvantages of storing hazardous wastes in (a) deep underground wells and (b) surface inpoundments.
  24. What are the brownfields, and what has been done to help redevelop such sites in the United States?
  25. Describe the hazards of lead exposure, and list some of the effects of lead. How can lead poisoning risk be minimized?
  26. What are the toxicological effects of mercury exposure? List two ways to prevent and two ways to control inputs of mercury into the environment from human sources.
  27. What are dioxins? How are they produced and what harm can they cause?
  28. How are the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act used to deal with the problem of hazardous wastes in the United States?
  29. What is the Superfund Act? Who do you think should be responsible for superfund cleanup costs?