Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
A treaty to ban moving hazardous waste across international borders.
|
The Basel Convention
|
|
Waste that includes paper, food wastes, cans, bottles, yard waste, glass, wood, and similar items.
|
Municipal solid waste
|
|
Waste that must be stored safely for many thousands of years
|
Hazardous waste
|
|
The vast majority of solid wastes in the United States is from
|
Mining
|
|
Of the municipal solid waste in the U.S., the greatest percentage is from
|
Paper
|
|
PCBs, dioxins, pesticides, and solvents
|
Examples of hazardous wastes
|
|
A way to deal with the creation of solid wastes by reducing the environmental impact without trying to reduce the amount of waste produced
|
Waste management
|
|
Focuses only on waste reduction
|
Integrated waste management
|
|
Saves energy, reduces carbon dioxide emissions, reduces water pollution, and reduces solid waste
|
Benefits of using PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles
|
|
The most efficient beverage container on the market
|
Refillable glass bottles
|
|
Charges for mixed wastes, but not for sorted recycleables
|
Fee-per-bag- waste collection
|
|
Reduces energy, mineral use, and air & water pollution, reduces solid waste, can save landfill space.
|
Advantages of recycling
|
|
More costly than buying areas with ample landfill space, reduces profits for landfill and incinerator owners, source separation is inconvenent for some
|
Disadvantages of recycling
|
|
Reduces trash volume, produces energy, concentrates hazardous substances into ash for burial, and the sale of energy reduces costs
|
Advantages of Waste-to-Energy Incineration
|
|
Expensive to build, produces hazardous waste, emits some CO2 and other air pollutants, and encourages waste production
|
Disadvantages of Waste-to-Energy Incineration
|
|
Low operating costs, can handle large amounts of wastes, filled land can be used for other purposes, and no shortage of locations.
|
Advantages of Sanitary Landfills
|
|
Noise, traffic, & dust, Releases methane and CO2 unless they are collected, encourages waste production, and eventually leaks and can contaminate groundwater.
|
Disadvantages of Sanitary Landfills
|
|
Using charcoal or resins to filter out solids, distilling liquids and separating harmful chemicals, and precipitating or allowing natural processes to separate chemicals.
|
Physical methods of detoxifying hazardous wastes
|
|
Deep well disposal, surface impoundments, and hazardous waste landfills
|
Methods of storing hazardous wastes
|
|
When households and businesses separate their trash into recyclable categories.
|
Source separation
|
|
Households and businesses send their mixed wastes to a centralized facility which only separates valuable materials; the rest of the paper, plastic, glass, and other materials are incinerated
|
Materials recovery facilities
|
|
Using cyclodextrin (sugar) and nanomagnets to remove contaminants from water.
|
Chemical methods of detoxifying hazardous wastes
|
|
Phytoremediation to destroy contaminants and bioremediation to absorb and filter contaminants.
|
Biological methods of detoxifying hazardous wastes
|
|
Using natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb, filter, and remove contaminants from polluted soil or water.
|
Phytoremediation
|
|
Using bacteria and enzymes to help destroy or convert toxic substances.
|
Bioremediation
|
|
Breaking down hazardous wastes using very high temperatures using an ionized gas (plasma) made up of electrically conductive ions and electrons.
|
Plasma arc torch
|
|
Liquid hazardous wastes are pumped under pressure through a pipe into dry porous rock formations beneath aquifers.
|
Deep well disposal
|
|
Lined ponds, pits, or lagoons,
|
Surface impoundments
|
|
Solid wastes are spread out in thin layers, compacted, and covered with a fresh layer of clay or plastic foam. Have strong double liners and have systems for collecting and burning methane.
|
Sanitary landfill
|
|
Also called the Superfund Act; identifies hazardous waste sites and cleans them up on a priority basis. Polluter pays, or superfund pays if polluter cannot be found.
|
CERCLA
|
|
Sets standards for the management of several types of hazardous wastes. Requires cradle-to-grave system. Only covers about 5% of hazardous wastes.
|
RCRA
|
|
Requiring companies to take back various consumer products instead of having them put in landfills or incinerated.
|
Cradle-to-grave
|
|
When cooling water from a paper mill process is then used to boil wood chips to make more paper.
|
Example of closed loop recycling
|
|
Shredding tires and using them for rubberized road surfacing material
|
Example of open loop recycling
|
|
Abandoned industrial and commercial sites such as factories, junkyards, older landfills and gas stations. Can be cleaned up and reborn.
|
Brownfields
|
|
Created the "dirty dozen" list of 12 widely used persistent organic pollutants that bioaccumulate & biomagnify to either phase out or ban them.
|
Stockholm Convention
|