Waste and Recycling
Wise Use of Resources
Pre-cycling
• Not allowing something to be wasted
• Could involve reuse or simply using
something wisely as to not allow it to
become trash
Reuse, Composting and
Recycling
Two of the 3 Rs of Waste Prevention
Reuse
• A form of waste reduction that keeps high
quality resources from becoming waste
Composting
• Sweet-smelling, dark brown humus-like
material that is rich in organic matter and
soil nutrients
Composting
• Advantages • Disadvantages
• Could reduce up to 35% • Excludes toxic materials
of waste • Odor (enclosed facility;
• Can be used as fertilizer near landfill; or be careful
or landfill cover to get only biodegradable
• Helps rebuild eroded soil waste and put in closed
container with air
circulation
• Can be expensive to set
up
Reccling
The last of the 3 Rs of Waste Prevention
Recycling comes in two types
• Primary
• Secondary
Primary Recycling
• Also called closed-loop recycling
• Recycles the same product
• Aluminum cans form new aluminum cans
• Newspaper becomes newspaper
Secondary Recycling
• Also called Open Loop Recycling
• Waste is converted to new products
• Jeans into carpet
• Plastic into lumber
How much paper is really
recycled?
• 40-50% of all paper products are estimated
to be recycled
Plastics Recycled
• What % of plastics do you think get
recycled?
• About 5% of plastics are recycled
• Why?
• Low cost resin except for the drinking bottle
which is most likely type of plastic to be
recycled
Post-consumer recycling
• Waste that could have been put into a
landfill because it had been already used
for its original purpose but was instead
recycled into either the same product or a
different product that its original use
Pre-consumer Recycling
• Material was not used for its original
purpose. In the manufacturing process this
material was excess and did not make it
into the original product; therefore, the
manufacturer recycled it back into its own
manufacturing process
• Can you think of an example of this?
How is recycling done?
• Centralized recovery areas are where
mixed urban waste is transported to this
type of facility
• Recovery implies recycling
• Rest of the waste is burned
• There are roughly 250 of these facilities in
the US
What factors limit recycling?
• The environmental cost is not included in
the purchase price
• Tax breaks for manufacturers but not for
individual recyclers
• Lack of market for recycled materials
Traditional waste management
• Trash is presorted into recyclables and
trash
• Recyclables go one route
• Trash is taken to sanitary landfill
Land Disposal
• 57% of waste goes to a landfill
• Sanitary Landfill: garbage graveyard where
solid waste is spread out in thin layers and
compacted daily with fresh layers of clay or
plastic foam
Landfill Liners
• Landfills need to have thick layer of
concrete separating them from the nearby
material
• The concrete layer is covered over with a
thick liner which is thicker than the shingles
on your roof
Other ways of dealing with
waste
Detoxification & Incineration
Incineration
• 7-15% of US waste is incinerated
• Process by which combustible waste is
burned and ash is buried
Incineration
• Advantages • Disadvantages
• Reduces waste • Fire and associated
• Most things are threat of explosive
combustible substances getting
• Cheap once set up into incinerator
• Separation of items
• Expense of incinerator
• Air pollution
• Smoke
Detoxification
• Some waste can be disposed of in other ways if it
was detoxified.
• This can be done by toxic-degrading bacteria
• Also substances can be watered down
• Finally, some substances like heavy metals
cannot be dealt with in this way
• Heavy metal poisoning is very difficult to manage
b/c body’s tissues pick up the metal and is not
easily removed