Waste and Recycling

Wise Use of Resources

Pre-cycling

• Not allowing something to be wasted • Could involve reuse or simply using something wisely as to not allow it to become trash

Reuse, Composting and Recycling

Two of the 3 Rs of Waste Prevention

Reuse

• A form of waste reduction that keeps high quality resources from becoming waste

Composting

• Sweet-smelling, dark brown humus-like material that is rich in organic matter and soil nutrients

Composting

• Advantages • Could reduce up to 35% of waste • Can be used as fertilizer or landfill cover • Helps rebuild eroded soil • Disadvantages • Excludes toxic materials • Odor (enclosed facility; near landfill; or be careful to get only biodegradable waste and put in closed container with air circulation • Can be expensive to set up

Reccling

The last of the 3 Rs of Waste Prevention

Recycling comes in two types

• Primary • Secondary

Primary Recycling

• Also called closed-loop recycling • Recycles the same product • Aluminum cans form new aluminum cans • Newspaper becomes newspaper

Secondary Recycling

• Also called Open Loop Recycling • Waste is converted to new products • Jeans into carpet • Plastic into lumber

How much paper is really recycled?

• 40-50% of all paper products are estimated to be recycled

Plastics Recycled

• What % of plastics do you think get recycled? • About 5% of plastics are recycled • Why? • Low cost resin except for the drinking bottle which is most likely type of plastic to be recycled

Post-consumer recycling

• Waste that could have been put into a landfill because it had been already used for its original purpose but was instead recycled into either the same product or a different product that its original use

Pre-consumer Recycling

• Material was not used for its original purpose. In the manufacturing process this material was excess and did not make it into the original product; therefore, the manufacturer recycled it back into its own manufacturing process • Can you think of an example of this?

How is recycling done?

• Centralized recovery areas are where mixed urban waste is transported to this type of facility • Recovery implies recycling • Rest of the waste is burned • There are roughly 250 of these facilities in the US

What factors limit recycling?

• The environmental cost is not included in the purchase price • Tax breaks for manufacturers but not for individual recyclers • Lack of market for recycled materials

Traditional waste management

• Trash is presorted into recyclables and trash • Recyclables go one route • Trash is taken to sanitary landfill

Land Disposal

• 57% of waste goes to a landfill • Sanitary Landfill: garbage graveyard where solid waste is spread out in thin layers and compacted daily with fresh layers of clay or plastic foam

Landfill Liners

• Landfills need to have thick layer of concrete separating them from the nearby material • The concrete layer is covered over with a thick liner which is thicker than the shingles on your roof

Other ways of dealing with waste

Detoxification & Incineration

Incineration

• 7-15% of US waste is incinerated • Process by which combustible waste is burned and ash is buried

Incineration

• Advantages • Reduces waste • Most things are combustible • Cheap once set up • Disadvantages • Fire and associated threat of explosive substances getting into incinerator • Separation of items • Expense of incinerator • Air pollution • Smoke

Detoxification

• Some waste can be disposed of in other ways if it was detoxified. • This can be done by toxic-degrading bacteria • Also substances can be watered down • Finally, some substances like heavy metals cannot be dealt with in this way • Heavy metal poisoning is very difficult to manage b/c body’s tissues pick up the metal and is not easily removed