CHAPTER 21SECTION 21-5SECTION 21-6

HOW SHOULD WE USE INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF HAZARDOUS WASTE• US national Academy of Sciences that establishes three

levels of priorities for dealing with hazardous waste• Produce less of it• Convert as much of it as possible to less hazardous substances • Put the rest in long term safe storage

INTEGRATED HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT

WE CAN DETOXIFY HAZARDOUS WASTES

• Collect and then detoxify • • Physical methods • • Chemical methods • • Use nanomagnets • • Bioremediation • • Phytoremediation • Incineration • Using a plasma arc torch

TRADE-OFFS: PHYTOREMEDIATION, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

WE CAN STORE SOME FORMS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE • Burial on land or long-term storage • Deep-well disposal • Surface impoundments • Secure hazardous landfills

SURFACE IMPOUNDMENT IN NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK, U.S.

21-6HOW CAN WE MAKE THE TRANSITION TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE LOW-WASTE SOCIETY?

GRASSROOTS ACTION HAS LED TO BETTER SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT.

• Individuals have organized to prevent the construction of incinerators, landfills, and treatment plants.• Waste industries point out that something should be

done with the toxic/hazardous and that citizens should adopt a NIMBY approach although some waste will end up in backyards.• Citizens rather adopt a NIABY and a NOPE approach to

the situation and reduce the waste entirely.

PROVIDING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOR EVERYONE IS AN IMPORTANT GOAL• Environmental Justice: an ideal where every person is entitled to protection

from environmental hazards regardless of race, gender, age, ect.• Studies have shown that polluting sites such as landfills and incinerators

are more abundant in communities largely populated with minority groups.• This discrimination has lead to a growing grassroots movement known as

Environmental Justice Movement.

COUNTIES HAVE DEVELOPED INTERNATIONAL TREATIES TO REDUCE HAZARDOUS WASTE

• Environmental Justice also applies to other countries.• In 1989 the UNEP made a treaty known as the

Basel Convention.• The treaty banned developing counties that

participate in the treaty from shipping hazardous waste to or through other countries without permission.

WE CAN MAKE THE TRANSITION TO LOW-WASTE SOCIETIES• In order to cut down on waste we must understand and follow several key principals:

• Everything in connected• There is no away in throw away• Dilution is not the solution to pollution• Polluters and producers should pay for the wastes they produce• Different categories of hazardous waste and recyclable waste should not be mixed • We should mimic nature by reusing, recycling, or composting at least 75% of the

solid wastes we produce• The best and cheapest way to deal with solid and hazardous wastes are waste

reduction and pollution prevention