Solid Waste Management

ENV 5302, Solid Waste Management 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Assess the fundamental principles of solid waste management. 1.1 Characterize the components comprising solid waste.

4. Summarize the regulatory environment related to solid waste management.

4.1 Explain the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's impact on landfill design.

7. Examine the impact of solid waste on human populations. 7.1 Summarize problems of not properly managing solid waste.

Course/Unit Learning Outcomes

Learning Activity

1.1

Unit Lesson Preface, pp. xiv–xviii About the Authors, pp. xix–xx Forward, pp. xxi–xxii Chapter 1, pp. 1–30 Chapter 2, pp. 35–72 Unit I Essay

4.1

Unit Lesson Preface, pp. xiv–xviii About the Authors, pp. xix–xx Forward, pp. xxi–xxii Chapter 1, pp. 1–30 Chapter 2, pp. 35–72 Unit I Essay

7.1

Unit Lesson Preface, pp. xiv–xviii About the Authors, pp. xix–xx Forward, pp. xxi–xxii Chapter 1, pp. 1–30 Chapter 2, pp. 35–72 Unit I Essay

Required Unit Resources Preface: A Tale of Two Barges and Birds Dying from Plastics, pp. xiv–xviii About the Authors: pp. xix–xx Forward: pp. xxi–xxii Chapter 1: Integrated Solid Waste Management, pp. 1–30 Chapter 2: Municipal Solid Waste Characteristics and Quantities, pp. 35–72

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE

Solid Waste Management Fundamentals, Regulations, and Impact on Human Populations

ENV 5302, Solid Waste Management 2

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Unit Lesson

Introduction Welcome to the course. We cover a lot of material on solid waste management in this course. We will start with the fundamental principles of solid waste management, the regulatory environment related to solid waste management, and the impact of solid waste on human populations.

Fundamental Principles of Solid Waste Management Solid waste management is fundamentally about what happens to the waste that is generated by human populations. In the 1800s, many U.S. city residents tossed their trash out of their windows and let varmints (animals) take it away as food. This was not a sustainable practice. Eventually, centralized dumps were created, which is where the solid waste could be taken out of the way. Though dumps solved the problem of having solid waste in streets, yards, and public places, dumps did not have any environmental protections. Eventually, this led to groundwater and surface water contamination. Before we discuss the solution to dumps, let's discuss what materials go into a modern landfill. Portions of municipal solid waste go into municipal solid waste landfills. Such solid waste includes household waste, community litter and waste from community trash cans, recyclables (e.g., paper, board, glass), yard waste, household hazardous waste (HHW), bulky items (furniture), and construction and demolition waste (Worrell et al., 2017). Municipal solid waste landfills do not necessarily take all municipal solid waste. Most cities have programs to divert some municipal solid waste away from the landfill; this can either increase the lifetime of the landfill because items still have a beneficial use, or it can reduce the amount of hazardous materials in the landfill. Though HHW is technically classified as solid waste versus hazardous waste, most communities have special drop-off locations or collection days so that residents have an alternative to putting HHW in the landfill waste. Construction debris, demolition debris, and household waste (i.e., certain plastics, glass, and metals) can be recycled. Recycling offers a beneficial post-use of these materials and extends landfill life.

Regulatory Environment Related to Solid Waste Management In 1976, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA, often pronounced reck-ruh) was passed by the U.S. Congress. This act provided engineering specifications for solid waste landfill construction. The United States would no longer have dumps. Per RCRA, landfills would have clay and geosynthetic liners around the sides and on the bottom to keep any liquids from migrating offsite. Leachate collection pipes would be installed along with pumps so that leachate (liquid) that would otherwise accumulate at the bottom of the landfill would flow into these perforated pipes and be pumped out. Then, the leachate could be treated onsite or sent to a municipal wastewater treatment plant for further treatment. Example of Leachate Production Continuing the discussion of leachate production, consider the following example. According to Worrell et al. (2017), leaves typically contain about 30% moisture by weight. Suppose that a group of homeowners decided to collectively stuff 1000 pounds (i.e., 1000 lbs.) of leaves into trash bags for weekly pickup by a garbage truck during the months of September and October for 10 years (after which the homeowners were informed that it is actually illegal in their city to place leaves in the garbage). What volume of leachate would be produced in the landfill by those leaves?

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Landfills generally do not accept leaves. Landfills are not designed for the volume required by a readily compostable material, such as leaves, which produces a significant quantity of leachate. Compared to leaves, typical landfilled materials, such as glass, metal, and plastic, have less than 5% moisture content. Further, note that recycling programs successfully remove glass, metal, and plastic from the landfill, further extending landfill life and providing a beneficial recycled product. In addition to leachate collection, RCRA required the installation of gas wells in landfills. Since gases are formed by reactions of materials in the landfill and cause the landfill materials to move around to accommodate the gas burping, the gas collection wells collect the gas and either burn it for energy or vent it to the atmosphere. Landfill gas typically contains combustible methane and carbon dioxide (among other gases). RCRA also instituted the concept of a daily cover of waste. Every day before closing, the solid waste deposited in the landfill that day would be covered by soil. The soil cover keeps birds and other animals from digging into the waste, carrying it away as litter, and causing sickness to other animals (due to pathogens in the waste). Further, upon reaching capacity, RCRA requires capping of the landfill. The landfill cap consists of clay and geosynthetic liners covered with topsoil and vegetation. Also, monitoring wells are required to allow water and vapor sampling to make sure nothing unusual is going on inside the landfill in terms of undesirable chemical reactions and unexpected settling. Reducing Waste In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA). It built upon RCRA by encouraging industry and homeowners to be more efficient. For industry, it encouraged source reduction. For industries to implement source reduction, companies would take a big-picture look at their production processes. Analyzing their entire production sequence enables companies to identify where waste is produced. Then, the companies can trace back to see what processes are producing the waste. Often, an excess of chemicals or raw material inputs can be identified. Using better instrumentation, fewer source materials may be used, resulting in less waste production with no loss of product quality. Implementing source reduction can result in companies sending less solid waste to landfills. Figure 1 indicates that solid waste production leveled off within about a decade after the passage of the PPA.

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Figure 1 indicates that around the year 2000, total solid waste production leveled off. Around 2015, recycling, composting, combustion, and landfilling all leveled off to fairly constant rates per year. Returning to the PPA, the PPA encouraged source reduction, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, and landfilling in the most desirable to least desirable order. Cities began instituting recycling programs with the impact demonstrated in Figure 1.

Impact of Solid Waste on Human Populations The old ways of waste disposal, such as dumping on city streets and later using central dumps, had unfavorable impacts on human health due to sickness being transmitted in the environment by animals and unhealthy people. The advent of engineered landfills in 1976 vastly improved human health as well as aesthetics. With a daily cover of waste, landfills eliminate the blowing debris and animal-transport of waste associated with dumps. Leachate collection in landfills significantly reduces offsite migration of liquids that used to contaminate groundwater and surface waters, including those used for drinking water supply. Example of Impact of Solid Waste on Human Populations The following example demonstrates the computation of the impact of industry on landfill lifetime in a town. The town has a landfill that began to accept municipal solid waste in 2010. The landfill has a usable design volume for waste of 4 million cubic feet (i.e., 4x106 ft3). The landfill was designed to last 20 years based on the town's solid waste generation rate. In 2018, a furniture manufacturing company approached the town about building a manufacturing facility in the town, which had a completion date of 2020. The company would produce 10 cubic feet of compacted solid waste per day. If the furniture waste is added to the landfill beginning in 2020, how many years (or months) would the landfill life be reduced?

Figure 1. Solid waste management in the U.S. from 1960 through 2017 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], n.d.)

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Conclusion In this first lesson, you jumped right into solid waste management. You learned the fundamental principles, including historical developments and the components of solid waste. Following the fundamentals, you learned about the regulatory environment focusing on the RCRA’s specifications for modern, safe landfills. You also learned about the PPA’s impact on recycling and reuse and its impact on the leveling off of solid waste production in the United States. Finally, you learned about the impact of solid waste on human populations with an example of a furniture company wishing to locate in a town, and you evaluated the company's solid waste impact on the existing landfill.

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References U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). National overview: Facts and figures on materials, wastes and

recycling. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national- overview-facts-and-figures-materialshttps:/www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste- and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials

Worrell, W. A., Vesilind, P. A., & Ludwig, C. (2017). Solid waste engineering: A global perspective (3rd ed.).

Cengage Learning. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781305888357

Suggested Unit Resources In order to access the following resources, click the links below. To learn more about solid waste, review the resource below. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Criteria for the definition of solid waste and solid and hazardous

waste exclusions. https://www.epa.gov/hw/criteria-definition-solid-waste-and-solid-and-hazardous- waste-exclusions

To learn more about facts and figures about solid waste, explore the webpage below. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). National overview: Facts and figures on materials, wastes and

recycling. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national- overview-facts-and-figures-materials