Solid and Hazardous Waste Notes
- Hooker chemical sealed multiple chemical wastes into steel drums and dumped them into an old canal excavation which is now Love Canal
- The area was abandoned in 1980
- Waste is any discarded material for which no further sale or use is intended Example: residue
- Solid waste is waste that isn't liquid or gas
- Municipal solid waste is produced directly from homes
- Industrial Solid waste is produced indirectly by industries that supply people with good Waste stream is a flow of waste as it moves from its sources toward disposal destinations
- Recovery is the next best strategy in waste management
- Recycling: sends used goods to manufacture new goods
- Compositing: recovery of organic waste
- E-waste consists of toxic and hazardous electronic wastes
- We can manage the solid wastes we produce and reduce or prevent their production
- Open Dumps: are fields or holes in the ground where garbage is deposited and sometimes covered with soil. Mostly used in developing countries
- Sanitary landfills: Solid wastes are spread out in thin layers,compacted and covered daily with a fresh layer of clay or plastic foam
- Landfills are used for protect groundwater, protect air quality ...
- Leachate is the liquid that migrates from within a land disposal site which has come in contact with solid waste.
- Waste to energy incinerators boil water to make steam for heating for production of electricity
- Landfill gas: a mix of gases that consists of roughly half methane
- Refuse: to buy items that we don't need
- Reduce: consume less
- Reuse: rely more on items can be used over and over
- Repurpose: use something for another purpose instead of throwing it away
- Recycle: buy items made from recycled materials.
- Primary recycling: materials are turned into new products of the same type
- Secondary recycling: materials are converted into different products
- CERCLA operates under the polluter pays principle
- Bioaccumulators: chlorinated insecticides, metals, herbicides
- Hydrogen sulfide: decomposition product of organic matter
- Cyanides are commonly found in plating operations and sludge
- Lead is harmful to children and is still used in leaded gasoline.
- Mercury is released into the environment mostly by burning fuels
- PCBs are group of chlorinated hydrocarbons
- Waste minimization is required by all Large quantity generators
- Incineration is heating many types of hazardous waste to break them down and convert them to less harmful chemicals
- Plasma torch: passing electrical current through gas to generate an electric arc and very high temperatures can create plasma.
- Deep-well disposal is liquid hazardous wasted are pumped under pressure into dry porous rock far beneath aquifers.
- Surface impoundments are excavated depressions into which liners are placed
- Long term retrievable storage: used to store toxics in areas that can be inspected and retrieved
- Secure landfills: buried hazardous waste on monitored site