Waste Management
Waste—discarded / unwanted material
Not liquid or gas
Produce waste all the time
Corporations founded to deal with all aspects of waste management—from reduction to destruction
Home, education, mining, industry, agriculture
Waste
Sources
Mining, oil and ng production: 75%
Agriculture: 13%
Industry: 9.5%
Municipal: 1.5%
Sewage sludge: 1%
Waste
Waste stream—steady flow of waste from particular area or activity
Urban residence stream differs from suburban waste stream
Industries and construction streams vary from group to group
Waste
Characterizing waste stream
Allows for efficient separation and recycling
Allows for efficient waste disposal or incineration
Waste Disposal
Open dump—dump it someplace
Uncontrolled—side of the road, backyard
Developing countries more common
Problems with vermin
Disease
Uncontrolled and dangerous
Sanitary Landfill
Sanitary landfill—covered waste
Complex siting and design process
Soils and faults
Proximity to groundwater
Solid waste spread out in thin layers
Compacted
Covered daily with clay soil
Landfill Design
Sited away from rivers and groundwater recharge
Lined with clay and plastic liners
Methane detection probes
Leachate collection system
Methane collection system
Leachate monitoring wells
Groundwater monitoring wells
Sanitary Landfills
Better than open dumps
Vermin and disease controlled
Can accommodate large volume
Odor minimized
Low tech, easy and cheap (once sited and permitted)
California—difficult to site
Sanitary Landfills
May have problems with fugitive emissions
Waste doesn’t disappear
Decreased land values
Land may be reclaimed after the landfill is at capacity
SouthCoastBotanic Garden
Recreation facilities
Incineration
Burn solid waste, usually municipal waste
Mass burn—mixed trash burned in large incinerators
Refuse-derived—remove noncombustibles and recyclables
Specific stream—only well-defined materials, hazardous waste, nerve gas
Incineration
Waste to energy—incinerate waste, use heat to boil water for steam
Steam for space heating
Steam for electrical power generation
Common in Europe & Japan
SERRF—Southeast Resource Recovery Facility, Long Beach
SERRF
Landfill closures
Source reduction and recycling—purple cans
Burn municipal wastes
368,000 tons of residential, commercial & industrial waste
825 tons of metal recycled from facility/yr
SERRF
Tipping hall—screened for radioactives and weighed
Screened for noncombustibles, pushed into refuse pit
5 ton capacity—runs for 3-4 days
SERRF
Furnace—refuse pushed into furnace
Moving grates move trash to be burned
Ash collected in quench tank
Thermal DeNox—ammonia used to control nitrogen oxides
SERRF
Dry scrubber—removes sulfur dioxide and hydrochloric acid
Baghouse—removes particulates and fly ash
Generator—steam drives turbines
Ash conveyors—get ash from furnace, dry scrubber and baghouse used as road base cover
SERRF
Supplies 35,000 homes with electricity
Processed 1,290 tons msw/day
Ocean and Henry Ford Way
Ocean Dumping
Common
No longer legal in US
White’s Point
Once covered by sediment, stable
However, bottom is destroyed
Common in developing nations
Waste Export
Ship trash elsewhere
City of New York—trash barge up and down east coast
Transfer trash to another country
Transfer trash to rural, poorer counties
Less Waste, How?
Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle
Refuse—overconsumption, overpackaging
Reduce—produce less waste
Packaging—use less of it, CD packaging: prime example
Biodegradable—cornstarch
Photodegradable—UV radiation
RRRR
Reuse—reuse beverage containers
Repair materials
Often, more expensive to recycle materials, not reuse them
Recycling
Recycle—reprocessing of materials
Production of new materials
Biggest success—aluminum, newsprint
Closed loop cycling—waste is recycled into like materials
Downcycling—waste turned into different material
Used athletic shoes, rubber tires
Recycling
Preconsumer waste—waste generated during manufacturing process
Reused rather than discarded
Postconsumer waste—generated by consumer use of product
Plastic Recycling
Many different types of plastics
Different resins
Composites of different resins
Stabilizers
Colors
Plastic Recycling
Must keep all batches free of contamination from other plastic types
Plastics made from petroleum products
Virgin resins cheaper than recycled resins
Composting
Recycle biodegradable organic waste
Compost—plant nutrients, mulch, improve soil texture
Christmas tree recycle
Southern CA should be hotbed of composting, SERRF facility
LA City—separate out green waste
Common Sense
Consume less—is purchase a need or a want?
My family—who is paying for it?
Reconfigure design and manufacturing to use less material and energy
Lighter aluminum cans
Common Sense
Redesign manufacturing processes for less waste and pollution
Manufacture products to last longer
Manufacture products that can be fixed
My husband and his garage—I can fix that
Decrease unnecessary packaging
Move toward more concentrated liquids—laundry detergent
Hazardous Waste
Waste that is
Fatal to humans & lab animals in low doses
Toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic
Ignitable, flash point less than 60°C
Corrosive
Explosive or highly reactive
RCRA
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Regulates 5% of hazardous waste generated in US
Many exemptions
Not regulated
Radioactives
Household hazardous
Oil & gas drilling
Mining waste
Cement kiln dust with toxic organic hydrocarbons
Generate less than 100 kg/month contaminated soil
Generate 1 kg commercial materials
Hazardous Waste
Before RCRA, materials dumped wherever-ponds, landfills, wells, deep well injection, sent overseas
Those not controlled by federal EPA, controlled by state EPAs
State controls may be more stringent
Hazardous Waste Management
Severe problems
LoveCanal
Federal regulations addressed management and cleanup of contaminated sites
RCRA and CERCLA
RCRA
1976, 1984 amendments
Identify haz waste and set standards for management
Store, treat dispose of >100 kg must have permit defining waste management
Permit holders must have cradle to grave tracking of waste from generation to disposal
CERCLA
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act—1980, 1984
Identification of hazardous waste site, leaking underground tanks, etc
Clean up sites, protect or clean up groundwater
Bill the responsible parties or use fund financed by oil and chemical companies
CERCLA
National Priorities List
Worst sites in the country for remediation
2004—11,300 sites need cleanup
1,250 on NPL
300 sites finished
Superfund NPL
CERCLA
How clean is clean?
General rule—clean up to drinking water standards or housing
Kids eat dirt for 70 years without risk
Take a more practical approach, clean up to standard that is applicable to intended use
Prevent waste movement off site
CERCLA
Increased use of brown fields—contaminated fields not used because of contamination
Corn Field—old railroad easement downtown LA
Interim use
Wait for land to become valuable—cleanup will then be worth it
Clean Up
Leave in place and encapsulate
Leave in place and bioremediate—
Bacteria and voc-contaminated soil
Plants (cattails and water hyacinth)—chemicals and heavy metals
Generate another waste, more concentrated
Clean Up
Remove soil and incinerate
Remove soil and bury
Pump groundwater and air strip or
Remove groundwater and activated charcoal filtration
After treatment, reinject
Permanent retrievable storage