Nothing can be forgotten,Only left behind.

When you “throw it away”, Where does it go? Where is “away”?

In 1987, a barge loaded with garbageSailed for 5 months looking for

A place to dump it all!

Solid waste is any discarded materialThat is not a liquid or a gas.

Americans generate more than 10 Billion tons of solid waste each year.

Its not just the amount of wasteThat causes a problem, it’s also

The kind of waste.

There are basically 2 kinds:Those made of biodegradable

materialsAnd those that are not.

A biodegradable material is a materialThat can be broken down by living

Things into simpler chemicals that canBe consumed by other living things.

Examples of a biodegradable materialMay be; paper, cotton, or leather.

Some nonbiodegradable materials May include; polyester, nylon, and

Most all plastics.

Most of what we throw away as a Nation comes from manufacturing

And mining.

United States Solid Waste

Only about 2% is municipal solid waste,This is the trash produced by

Households and small businesses.

United States Municipal Solid Waste

Paper and cardboard make up a huge Part of what we throw away, mostly

Because everything that we buyComes in at least one layer of

Paper or cardboard.

The amount of municipal waste producedEach year is enough to fill a convoy of

Garbage trucks that would stretch Around the world 6 times!

More than 50% of our waste is storedIn a landfill. That is a facility

Where garbage is placed in the Ground and then covered with a

A layer of dirt at the end of Each day.

Only about 25% of our trash isRecycled.

Landfill

One major problem with landfills isLEACHATE.

Leachate is water that contains Toxic chemicals dissolved in itFrom wastes in the landfill.

This happens when water seeps downThrough the landfill and dissolves

Junk from batteries, paints,Pesticides, cleansers, etc.

Modern landfills also do not allowFor things to biodegrade!

A benefit of landfills is that theyCan be used to create methane gas

Which can be used to create electricity.

One option for garbage is to take itTo incinerators.

An incinerator burns the garbageUntil it is ash, which is then trucked

Away to a landfill.

This reduces the amount of solid Waste, but pollutes the air.

An Incinerator

There are basically 3 options forDealing with solid waste…

Producing less wasteRecycling

Changing materials used

If we produce less waste, we will Reduce the expense and difficulty

Of collecting and disposing it.

Many ideas are common sense:Reusing shopping bags,

Using both sides to paper,Use metal eating utensils,

Pick products with less packaging,etc.

Making products from recycled Materials usually saves water,

And energy.

Like making steel from scrap usesOnly 25% of the energy as making

New steel.

In order for recycling to workEveryone must take part.

After materials are recycled, and Remanufactured, they must be

Sold again.

You actually have to buy recycledProducts for the process to continue.

There are 7 different types ofPlastic, some can be recycled,

and some can’t.

Unfortunately, not all plastic can be recycled. Most recycling

centers accept types one and two, types four and five are less

commonly recycled, and types six and seven are rarely, if not virtually never, recycled.

Type 1 (PETE): Polyethylene Terephthalate. Soft drink and

water bottles, some waterproof packaging. Commonly recycled.

Type 2 (HDPE): High-Density Polyethylene. Milk, detergent, and oil bottles, toys, and some plastic

bags. Commonly recycled.

Type 3 (V): Vinyl/Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Food wrap,

vegetable oil bottles, construction materials, shower curtains. Not

recyclable, can leach chemical additives and is known to offgass in the air!

Type 4 (LDPE): Low-Density Polyethylene. Many plastic bags,

squeezable bottles, garment bags. Recycled at most centers

but not curbside programs.

Type 5 (PP): Polypropylene. Refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops, some

carpets, some food wrap. Recycled at most centers but

not curbside programs.

Type 6 (PS): Polystyrene. Throwaway utensils, meat-

packing, take-out containers, protective packing. Recycled at

some centers but not curbside programs, and banned in some cities.

Type 7 (OTHER): Composite plastic. Nalgene bottles, milk

cartons, toothpaste tubes. Can't be recycled, must be landfilled.

There are a few new kinds of Plastics that biodegrade quickly.

One of them is made with cornstarchAnd a few special chemicals

That allow it breakdown In a matter of weeks.

Hazardous waste are wastes that Are toxic or highly corrosive or

That explode easily.

These wastes can be any state of Matter, some examples…

Dyes, cleansers, solventsHeavy metals like mercury

PesticidesAnd radioactive wastes.

The methods used to dispose ofHazardous wastes often are not

Carefully thought out.

One example of a huge screw upOccurred at Love Canal, inNiagara Falls, New York.

What happened was that a chemicalCompany buried hazardous wastes

And then sold the land to the Local school district.

A school and many houses were builtAnd eventually all had to be abandoned.

The wastes were oozing into the Buildings and many people were gettingCancers, many other diseases and dying.

Now, because of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,

All companies have to keep recordsOf all the wastes they

Create and dump.

If the wastes ever cause a problem,Then the company is liable.

Because the safe disposal of hazardousWastes is very expensive, the

Government created the Superfund Act.

This created a fund of money to Pay for cleaning up abandoned

Hazardous waste sites.

Most hazardous wastes produced in The US today are disposed of

By some form of land disposal.

The 2 major ways are deep-well injection

And surface impoundment.

Deep-well injection is when wastesAre pumped deep into the ground,Where they are absorbed into a

Dry layer of rock below the Level of ground water.

Surface impoundment is when a Pond is built that has a sealed

Bottom so that the waste Cannot leak out.

The biggest issue is for radioactiveHazardous wastes.

It takes thousands of years for theRadioactivity to decrease enough to

Be handled again.

So engineers must figure out a place To put it all so that it doesn’t get

Disturbed by groundwater or Earthquakes.

At the moment, the government wantsTo have it all shipped to Yucca Mt.

In Nevada.

But people in Nevada don’t want it There, they are afraid that if Things go wrong, then people

Might get hurt.

But the current method of storingRadioactive waste is on the site

whereIt was used, which makes Hundreds of unsafe places.

Lastly motor oil…

One gallon of motor oil could Contaminate up to 1 000 000

Gallons of water.

The Exxon Valdez oil tanker that Spilled 185 million gallons of oil wasOnly 1/15 of the amount of oil that

Is thrown away each year.

RECYCLE IT!!