The weight or volume of materials and products that enter the waste stream before recycling, composting, landfilling, or combustion takes place. Also can represent the amount of waste generated by a given source or category of sources is all about Waste generation. enjoy the slides..

1. Introductory Presentation

2. Upon successfully completing this chapter, you will be
able to:
• Summarize and compare the types of waste we generate
• List the major approaches to managing waste
• Delineate the scale of the waste dilemma
• Describe conventional waste disposal methods: landfills and incineration
• Evaluate approaches for reducing waste: source reduction, reuse, composting,
and recycling
• Discuss industrial solid waste management and principles of industrial ecology
• Assess issues in managing hazardous waste
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3. Central Case: The Beare Road Landfill
• 1968 - 1983: The Beare Road pit received municipal garbage for
Toronto’s ever-increasing garbage
• 1983: landscape restoration was undertaken
• 1996: began to collect the methane-rich gas being generated by the
decomposting garbage (LFGTE, landfill gas-to-electricity)
“We can’t have an economy that uses our air, water, and soil as a
garbage can.”
–David Suzuki
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4. Approaches to Waste Managment
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5. Approaches to waste management
• Municipal solid waste = non-liquid waste that comes
from homes, institutions, and small businesses
• Industrial solid waste = waste from production of
consumer goods, mining, agriculture, and petroleum
extraction and refining
• Hazardous waste = solid or liquid waste that is toxic,
chemically reactive, flammable, or corrosive
• Wastewater = water used in a household, business, or
industry, as well as polluted runoff from our streets and
storm drains
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6. We have several aims in managing waste
• Three main components of waste management
– Minimizing the amount of waste we generate (source
reduction)
– Recovering waste materials and finding ways to recycle them
– Disposing of waste safely and effectively
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7. 18-7

8. We have several aims in managing waste (cont’d)
• Waste stream = flow of waste as it moves from its sources
toward disposal destinations.
– More efficient use of materials, consume less, buy goods with
less packaging, reusing goods
• Recovery (recycling, composting) = next best strategy in
waste management.
– Recycling = sends used goods to manufacture new goods
– Composting = recovery of organic waste
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9. Municipal Solid Waste
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10. Patterns in the municipal solid waste stream vary from
place to place
• Municipal solid waste is also referred to as trash or garbage
• In Canada, paper, organics, and plastics are the principal components of
municipal solid waste
– Even after recycling, paper is the largest component of solid waste
– In 2008, 2.2 kg per person per day
• In developing countries, food scraps are the primary contributor to solid
waste
– Wealthy nations invest more in waste collection and disposal
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11. 18-11

12. 18-12

13. Waste generation is rising in all nations
• Since 1960, waste generation has increased in North America by
300%.
• Plastic has accounted for greatest relative increase.
• Waste generation in Canada has kept pace with population
growth.
• In many industrialized nations, per capita waste generation rates
have leveled off or decreased in recent years.
• Increase popularity of recycling.

14. Open dumping in the past has given way to
improved disposal methods ...
• Historically people dumped their garbage
wherever it suited them
• Most industrialized nations now bury
waste in lined and covered landfills or
burn it in incineration facilities
• Diversion rates are increasing in Canada
– Recycling or composting increased from
21% to 27% in 2008

15. Waste disposal is regulated by three levels of
government
• Municipal:
– Collection, diversion, and disposal of solid waste
– Drop-off facilities for hazardous waste
• Provincial and territorial:
– Movement of waste materials within the jurisdiction
– Licensing of treatment facilities
– Legislation and guidelines for landfill sites
• Federal government:
– International agreements about waste
– Transboundary movements of waste materials

16. Sanitary landfills are engineered to minimize leakage of
contaminants
• Sanitary landfills = waste buried in the ground or piled in large,
engineered mounds
• Leachate = liquid that results when trash dissolves in water as rainwater
percolates downward
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18. Landfills can be transformed after closure
• Many landfills lie abandoned.
• Managers closed smaller landfills and made fewer larger
landfills.
• Decommissioning = shutting down an industrial site
and getting it ready for cleanup and repurposing.
• Growing cities converted closed landfills into public
parks
– Rouge Park in Toronto
– Fresh Kills in New York
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19. Landfills have drawbacks
• Experts believe that leachate (toxic fluid) will eventually
escape
– The liner will become punctured
– Leachate collection systems eventually aren’t
maintained
• It is hard to find places suitable for landfills
– The Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome
• The “garbage barge” case
– 1987: Islip, New York’s landfills were full, and a barge
traveled to empty the waste in North Carolina, which
rejected the load, as did Louisiana and Mexico
– It returned to Queens to incinerate the waste, after a
9,700 km journey 18-19

20. Incinerating trash reduces pressure on landfills
• Incineration = a controlled process in which mixed
garbage is burned at very high temperatures; often
used in Europe to also generate energy; proposed
for Duke Point.
• Incineration in specially constructed faculties can be
an improvement over open-air burning of trash
– But, the remaining ash must be disposed of in a
hazardous waste landfill
– Hazardous chemicals are created and released
during burning
• Scrubbers = chemically treat the gases produced in
combustion to remove hazardous components and
neutralize acidic gases 18-20

21. 18-21

22. Many incinerators burn waste to create energy
• Waste-to-energy facilities (WTE) = use the
heat produced by waste combustion to create
electricity
– Waste generates about 35% of the energy
generated by burning coal
• Companies contract with communities to
guarantee a minimum amount of garbage
– Long-term commitments interfere with the
communities’ later efforts to reduce waste
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23. Landfills can produce gas for energy
• Bacteria can decompose waste in an oxygen-deficient
environment
• Landfill gas = a mix of gases that consists of roughly
half methane
– Can be collected, processed, and used like natural gas
– When not used commercially, landfill gas is burned off in
flares to reduce odors and greenhouse emissions
• More than 40 operational projects in Canada collect
landfill gas and convert it into energy
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24. Garbage justice?
• Do you know where your trash goes?
• Where is your landfill or incinerator
located?
• Are the people who live closest to the
facility wealthy, poor, or middle class?
• What race or ethnicity are they?
• Do you know whether the people of this
neighbourhood protested against the
introduction of the landfill or incinerator?
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25. Reducing waste is a better option
• Source reduction = preventing waste generation in
the first place
• Avoids costs of disposal and recycling
• Helps conserve resources
• Minimizes pollution
• Can save consumers and businesses money
• Strategies
– Reduce packaging
– Ban or per-bag charges for plastic grocery bags
– Increase the longevity of goods
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26. Reuse is one main strategy for waste reduction
• Donate used items to charity
• Reuse boxes, paper, plastic, wrapping paper, and
so on
• Buy groceries in bulk
• Decline bags at stores and bring cloth bags
shopping
• Bring your own cup to coffee shops
• Buy rechargeable batteries
• Select goods with less packaging
• Compost kitchen and yard wastes
• Rent or borrow items instead of buying them 18-26

27. Reducing Packaging: Is It A Wrap?
Reducing packaging cuts down on the waste stream, but
how, when, and how much should we reduce? Packaging
can serve very worthwhile purposes, such as
safeguarding consumer health and safety.
• Can you think of three products for which you would not
want to see less packaging?
•Can you name three products for which packaging could
easily be reduced without ill effects to the consumer?
•Would you be any more or less likely to buy these
products if they had less packaging?
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28. Composting recovers organic waste
• Composting = the conversion of organic waste
into mulch or humus through natural biological
processes of decomposition
• There are now more than 350 centralized
composting programs in Canada
• 28% of the Canadian solid waste stream is made
up of materials that can easily be composted
• 57% of Canadian households do some form of
composting
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29. 18-29

30. Recycling has grown rapidly and can expand
further
• 95% of Canadian households have access to recycling
programs
• Recycling rates vary from one product or material type
to another and from one location to antoher
• Increase has been driven by
– Economic forces
– Desire to reduce waste
18-30

31. Financial incentives can help address waste
• Pay-as-you-throw = uses financial
incentives to influence consumer behavior
– The less waste a house generates the less it
is charged for trash collection
• Return-for-refund = consumers pay a
deposit, and receive a refund for returning
used bottles
– Greatly reduced beverage container litter
– All provinces and territories in Canada except
for Nunavut
18-31

32. Costs of Recycling and
Not Recycling
• Should recycling programs be subsidized by
governments even if they are run at an economic loss?
• What types of external costs—costs not reflected in
market prices— do you think would be involved in not
recycling, say, aluminum cans?
• Do you feel these costs justify sponsoring recycling
programs even when they are not financially self-
supporting? Why or why not?

33. Edmonton showcases reduction and recycling
• Edmonton, Alberta, has created
one of the world’s most
advanced waste management
programs
– Waste: 35% sanitary landfilled,
15% is recycled, 50% is
composted
– 88% of the people participate in
curbside recycling
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34. Industrial Solid Waste
18-34

35. Industrial solid waste
• Industrial
waste = waste
from factories,
mining,
agriculture,
petroleum
extraction, etc.
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36. Regulation and economics each influence
industrial waste generation
• Most methods and strategies of waste disposal, reduction,
and recycling are similar to municipal solid waste
• The amount of waste generated by a manufacturing process
is one measure of its efficiency
• Physical efficiency is not equal to economic efficiency
– It can be cheaper to generate waste than to avoid waste
• The rising cost of waste disposal encourage industries to
decrease waste and increase physical efficiency
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37. Industrial ecology seeks to make industry
more sustainable
• Industrial ecology = redesigning industrial systems
to reduce resource inputs and to minimize physical
inefficiency while maximizing economic efficiency
• Life cycle analysis = examine the life cycle of a
product and look for ways to make the process more
ecologically efficient
• Pollution prevention (P2) strategies = aimed at
reducing waste and preventing pollution at its source
18-37

38. Businesses are adopting industrial ecology
• Interface
– Modified tile design and production methods to reduce waste
– Cut waste generation by 80%, fossil fuel use by 45%, and water
use by 70%, while raising profits by 49%
• Canadian Tire
– Auto parts return initiatives
• Xerox
– Take-back/lease programs
• ENVIRx program
– Return unused medications to pharmacies for disposal
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39. Waste exchanges are an offshoot of
industrial ecology
• Concept of industrial ecology is based on a “closed loop”
– Wastes are recycled back through the system
• Waste exchange = a network service with the goal of
linking producers of waste with industries or individuals
that can make use of the waste as raw materials
• The Waste Exchange of Canada www.recyclexchange.net
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40. Hazardous Waste
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41. Hazardous waste
• 1999: Canadian Environmental Protection Act:
– Flammable = substances that easily catch fire
– Corrosive = substances that corrode metals in storage
tanks or equipment
– Reactive = substances that are chemically unstable and
readily react with other compounds, often explosively or by
producing noxious fumes
– Toxic = substances that harm human health when they
are inhaled, are ingested, or contact human skin
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42. Hazardous wastes have diverse sources
• Households currently are the largest source of unregulated hazardous
waste
– Household hazardous waste (HHW)
– Paints, batteries, oils, solvents, cleaning agents, pesticides
• Canadians improperly dispose of 27 000 tonnes of HHW each year
– Average home has close to 45 kg of hazard wastes
– Two classes are particularly hazardous
– Organic compounds
– Heavy metals
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43. Organic compounds and heavy metals can be
hazardous
Organic compounds
– are particularly hazardous because their toxicity persists over time
and synthetic organic compounds resist decomposition
• Keep buildings from decaying, kill pests, and keep stored goods
intact
• Their resistance to decay causes them to be persistent pollutants
• They are toxic because they are readily absorbed through the skin
• They can act as mutagens, carcinogens, teratogens, and
endocrine disruptors
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44. Organic compounds and heavy metals can be
hazardous (cont’d)
• Heavy metals
– Lead, chromium, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, tin, and copper
– Used widely in industry for wiring, electronics, metal plating,
pigments, and dyes
– They enter the environment when they are disposed of
improperly
– Heavy metals that are fat soluble and break down slowly are
prone to bioaccumulation
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45. “E-waste” is a new and growing problem
• Electronic waste (e-waste) = waste involving electronic devices
– Computers, printers, VCRs, fax machines, cell phones
– Disposed of in landfills, but should be treated as hazardous
waste (6% of a typical computer is composed of lead)
– Some people and businesses are trying to use and reuse
electronics to reduce waste
– Serious concerns about health risks to workers
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46. Several steps precede the disposal of
hazardous waste
• For many years, hazardous
waste was discarded without
special treatment
– Public did not know it was
harmful to human health
– Assumed the substances
would disappear or be diluted
in the environment
– Since the 1980s, cities
designate sites or special
collection days to gather
household hazardous waste
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47. There are three disposal methods for
hazardous waste
• Secure landfills
• Surface impoundments
• Deep-well injection
• These methods do nothing to lessen the
hazards of the substances but do keep the
waste isolated
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48. Secure landfills
• Must have several impervious liners and
leachate removal systems
– Design and construction standards are
stricter than for ordinary sanitary landfills
– Must be located far from aquifers
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49. Surface impoundments
• Surface impoundments =
store liquid hazardous
waste
• Shallow depressions are
lined with plastic and clay
• Residue of solid hazardous
waste is transported
elsewhere
• The underlying clay layer
can crack and leak waste
• Rainstorms cause overflow,
contaminating nearby areas
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50. Deep-well injection
• Deep-well injection
= a well is drilled deep
beneath the water
table and waste is
injected into it
– Long-term disposal
– The well is intended to
be isolated from
groundwater and
human contact
– Wells become
corroded and leak 18-50

51. Radioactive waste is especially hazardous
Radioactive waste is particularly dangerous and
persistent
Geologic isolation = using the absorptive capacity
and impermeability of naturally occurring rock to
block contaminants
Multiple-barrier approach = engineering the
facility to place as many barriers as possible, both
physical and chemical, in the pathway of any
escaping contaminants
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52. Contaminated sites are being cleaned up, slowly
• 18,000 Canadian contaminated sites, including
priority sites for cleanup activities:
– Faro Mine, Yukon ($14.6 million)
– Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, British
Columbia ($4.56 million)
– Port Radium Mine, Northwest Territories ($7.1
million)
– Belleville Small Craft Harbour, Ontario ($6.8
million)
• Brownfields = sites that have been contaminated
but have the potential to be cleaned up and
remediated
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53. Conclusion
• Modern methods of waste management are far safer for
people and gentler on the environment
• Recycling and composting are making rapid progress
• Canada has changed from virtually no recycling to
diverting nearly 25% of all solid waste
• Our prodigious consumption habits have created more
waste than ever before
• Finding ways to reduce, reuse and efficiently recycle the
materials and goods that we use stands as a key
challenge for this century
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