416 CHAPTER 16 Solid and Hazardous Waste
© D A Barnes/Alamy © Radius Images/Alamymaterials. Recycling conserves natural resources and is more
environmentally benign than landfill disposal but requires a
market for the recycled goods.- Integrated waste management is a combination of the best
waste management techniques into a consolidated program
to deal effectively with solid waste.
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Hazardous Waste 409- Hazardous waste is a discarded chemical that threatens
human health or the environment. Hazardous chemicals may
be solids, liquids, or gases and include a variety of acids,
dioxins, abandoned explosives, heavy metals, infectious
wastes, nerve gas, organic solvents, PCBs, pesticides, and
radioactive substances. - Dioxins are hazardous chemicals formed as unwanted
by-products in industrial processes and incineration that
include organic compounds and chlorine or, less commonly,
bromine. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are hazardous,
oily, industrial chemicals composed of carbon, hydrogen, and
chlorine.
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Managing Hazardous Waste 412- The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
instructs the EPA to identify hazardous waste and to provide
guidelines and standards for states’ hazardous waste
management programs. The Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), or
Superfund Act, established a program whose goal is to
clean up abandoned and illegal toxic waste sites across the
United States. - The most effective approach to managing hazardous waste
is source reduction, reducing the amount and toxicity of
hazardous materials used in industrial processes. Source
reduction relies on green chemistry, a subdiscipline of
chemistry in which commercially important chemical
processes are redesigned to reduce environmental harm.
Summary
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Solid Waste 398- Municipal solid waste consists of solid materials discarded
by homes, office buildings, stores, restaurants, schools,
hospitals, prisons, libraries, and other facilities. Nonmunicipal
solid waste consists of solid waste generated by industry,
agriculture, and mining. - Use of sanitary landfills is the most common method of solid
waste disposal, involving compacting and burying waste under a
shallow layer of soil. Layers of compacted clay and plastic sheets
prevent leachate (liquid waste) from seeping into groundwater.
Problems with sanitary landfills include the potential for
methane gas to seep out and cause explosions, the accidental
leaking of toxic leachate, a lack of existing landfill space, and
resistance to new landfills near homes and businesses. - A mass burn incinerator is a large furnace that burns all solid
waste except for unburnable items such as refrigerators.
Problems associated with incineration of solid waste include
the potential for air pollution, difficulties in disposing of
the toxic ash produced, the high costs of the process, and
difficulties in choosing incinerator sites. - In composting, yard waste, food scraps, and other organic
wastes are transformed by microbial action into a material
that, when added to soil, improves its condition.
✓✓THE PLANNER
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Reducing Solid Waste 404- Reducing consumption is the surest way to reduce waste
production. In source reduction, products are designed and
manufactured in ways that decrease the volume of solid waste
and the amount of hazardous waste in the solid waste stream. - The volume of solid waste produced can be decreased
through source reduction, reuse of products, and recycling of
Key Terms
green chemistry 413
hazardous waste 409
integrated waste management 408
mass burn incinerator 402
municipal solid waste 398
nonmunicipal solid waste 399sanitary landfill 400
source reduction 405