What options do we have for dealing with solid waste...?
Interactive Study Guide
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Guiding Question 17.2
What options do we have for dealing with solid waste, and what are the trade-offs for each option?
Why You Should Care
Just as MSW contains a variety of different wastes, we dispose of MSW in a variety of different ways. The simplest disposal digs open dumps where we pack in MSW. These dumps allow waste to blow away and rain to trickle through, dissolving the MSW into a cocktail of liquid wastes.
In countries with more advanced disposal regulations, dumps become sanitary landfills that are lined with plastic to contain leachate. They can accept all manner of MSW, but cannot separate recyclable wastes (such as compost or recyclable glass, metals, or plastics). In urban areas, they take up valuable land and often tower over nearby, lower-elevation land. If there is some interest, yard and food wastes are separated and composted on-site.
More dangerous wastes (those that are health hazards) are separated and sent to special landfills. These landfills may send some wastes to incinerators that use high temperatures to destroy the wastes and then landfill the remaining ash. Destruction is almost 100% in an incinerator, but air pollutants are released that can carry other toxins downwind.
There is no perfect solution to storing our wastes; even specialized disposal creates some waste that must still be landfilled.
Test Your Vocabulary
Choose the correct term for each of the following definitions:
Term
Definition
Places where trash, both hazardous and nonhazardous, is simply piled up.
Disposal sites that seal in trash at the top and bottom to prevent its release into the atmosphere; the sites are lined on the bottom, and trash is dumped in and covered with soil daily.
Water that carries dissolved substances (often contaminated) that can percolate through soil.
Waste that is toxic, flammable, corrosive, explosive, or radioactive.
Facilities that burn trash at high temperatures.
Unwanted computers and other electronic devices such as televisions and cell phones that are discarded.
Providing good conditions for the decomposition of biodegradable waste, producing a soil-like mulch.
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1.
Why does the EPA rank landfilling as the last option for disposal?
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2.
What is the source of the liquid that forms leachate?
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3.
In urban and suburban areas, where land is more expensive, why are composting programs more popular than incinerating?
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Composting programs require less money and land to set up. Also, incineration’s toxic ash is still unpopular, especially in areas with upper-income neighborhoods.
4.
Which disposal option makes the most sense for e-waste?
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E-waste contains so many precious metals that recycling is the best way to dispose of any of it. Incineration and landfilling are second-best choices since both remove the precious metals from usable forms.
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Where does the incinerator burn the fuel?
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Why does incineration make more sense than landfilling?
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What do incinerators produce?
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What kinds of waste are NOT sent to incinerators?
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Why are incinerators more expensive to build and run than landfills?
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What do composting piles NOT require in order to break down biodegradable materials?
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What MSW category cannot be broken down by composting?
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12.
What barriers do people have to composting their own biodegradable wastes?
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Consumers could easily compost their food waste inside an apartment or house and compost lawn wastes outside in a corner of a small lot. The challenge lies in getting people over the view that composting is “smelly” or “gross” and instead get them to see decomposition as a process that helps everyone involved (recycling materials, decreasing landfills costs, etc.).
