Six questions 175 words minimum each, APA Format Two Citations for each question -Environmental

BEM 3601, Waste Management 1

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

2. Describe the major categories of waste. 2.1 Discuss the management of used or fired military munitions. 2.2 Describe the composition and management issues of space waste.

3. Assess the major regulatory developments surrounding waste management.

3.1 Summarize the regulations that govern medical waste in the United States.

6. Discuss waste disposal techniques and technologies. 6.1 Describe the pollution prevention methods for the incineration of medical waste. 6.2 Summarize the impacts of agricultural waste on water quality. 6.3 Analyze methods for controlling agricultural runoff.

Reading Assignment Chapter 23: Medical Waste Chapter 24: Agricultural Waste and Pollution Chapter 25: Military Solid and Hazardous Wastes—Assessment of Issues at Military Facilities and Base Camps Chapter 26: Space Waste

Unit Lesson Medical Waste We have all seen the red biohazard bins in the doctor’s office. Where does the waste in that bin go from there? Medical waste is defined somewhat differently on a state-by-state basis, but it generally consists of infectious agents, discarded vaccines, blood and blood products, body fluids, pathological waste, needles and syringes, and contaminated waste from animals subjected to pathogens in lab research (Shannon & Woolridge, 2011). Given the potential danger of such waste, proper disposal is essential. In 1988, the EPA instituted the Medical Waste Tracking Act. This act defined medical waste, created a tracking system, required management standards, and established record-keeping requirements (Shannon & Woolridge, 2011). There are several ways in which medical waste can be treated. These include Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWI), autoclaves, microwaves, chemical treatments, pyrolysis, and dry heat treatments. Many states require that medical waste be incinerated in an HMIWI. However, due to increasingly stringent regulations, the number of HMIWI decreased from 2300 in 1997 to 57 in 2009 (U.S. EPA, 2009).

UNIT VI STUDY GUIDE

Medical Waste, Agricultural Waste, Military Waste, and Space Waste

BEM 3601, Waste Management 2

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New treatment technologies are allowing some medical waste to be diverted from landfills. One company, SRCL, runs a sharps management service. In the past, when SRCL collected the sharps bin, the contents, along with the bins themselves, would be incinerated or treated in some other manner. Now, a new process that uses robot arms to handle the bins results in disinfecting the bins, which allows SRCL to use the bins several times. The containers are bar coded so that the waste management and disinfection process can be thoroughly documented (Warburton, 2013). Agricultural Waste It is easy to think of agriculture as being more natural and less polluting than manufacturing facilities or chemical plants. Modern agriculture, however, involves high inputs of fossil fuels, pesticides, and fresh water. In fact, in the United States, agriculture uses 80% of all freshwater resources (USDA, Economic Research Service, 2013). The water inputs are contaminated with fertilizer and pesticides. Although fertilizers and pesticides have allowed us to increase our agricultural productivity immensely, they also cause serious environmental issues. Recall that you learned in Unit V that dead zones are formed when excess nutrients cause algal blooms. When the algae die, the dissolved oxygen in the water is depleted during the decomposition process. The excess nutrients come largely from agricultural runoff, which is contaminated with nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer. Through runoff management, biocapturing of nitrogen and phosphorus, and optimal dosing of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer, this agricultural waste problem can be minimized (Nagendran, 2011). Pollution from agriculture is a global problem. For example, algal blooms may cost up to $155 million in Australia and $1.4 billion in France. The source of these pollutants can be difficult to control because the sources are diffuse (Patel, 2012). In addition to fertilizer pollution, pesticides that are applied to crops can run off and contaminate surface water, or they can percolate into groundwater. The pollution from pesticides in water can affect not only human health but also the health of other organisms. According to a study by Beketov, Kefford, Shafer, and Liess (2013), pesticides caused losses in stream invertebrates of up to 42% of the recorded species in the study. In addition to pollution from pesticides and fertilizers, agriculture also contributes to global warming through fossil fuel emissions from machinery in developed countries. In undeveloped countries, however, agriculture’s contribution to global warming comes from activities such as biomass burning. Potential solutions for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions include effective land and crop management, ecological forestry, and better water management practices (Nagendran, 2011). Military Solid and Hazardous Waste Just as municipalities have to make decisions about their solid waste management activities, military bases must decide how to handle their waste streams. Military bases produce solid waste and hazardous waste streams. However, with several different types of facilities, the military has some unique waste management challenges. For example, the housing areas of a military base will produce much the same solid waste as a typical community. Office areas on the base will produce waste that is similar to a civilian commercial area. However, these two waste streams can vary significantly in volume if the base serves as a training facility. For training facilities, there is an influx of people, and then a decrease when personnel are deployed. Hazardous waste streams can come from sources that are similar to municipal sources, such as motor pools, industrial shops, paint shops, photography facilities, hospitals, clinics, and laboratories (Medina & Waisner, 2011). However, one military waste stream that is different from civilian waste streams is that of training ranges. The Military Munitions Rule (MMR) regulates munitions waste. According to Latham (2000), in the abstract to his article “The Military Munitions Rule and Environmental Regulation of Munitions,”

Military training sites across the nation are littered with spent munitions and unexploded ordnance, the result of decades of weapons development and training exercises. The problem is that these military munitions contain materials and chemicals which are potentially hazardous to the environment, and their destruction and cleanup post special environmental and safety concerns.

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Eventually, munitions age and no longer meet specifications. The safest way to dispose of such munitions is to destroy them, which is often done through open burning/open detonation (Medina & Weisner, 2011). Space Waste Space Waste is something that most of us don’t think about on a regular basis. Although it seems that we should perhaps concentrate on dealing with the waste we must dispose of on the Earth, the more we send spacecraft and satellites into orbit around the Earth, the more important it becomes that we manage this waste stream properly. It is very expensive to launch a satellite or spacecraft, only to have it smashed to pieces when it collides with debris orbiting the planet. The U.S. Strategic Command’s Space Surveillance Network estimates that there are 21,000 artificial objects within 40,000 km of the Earth’s surface, half a million objects between 1 and 10 cm, and millions of objects smaller than 1cm (Stansbery, 2011). Most of these objects are space debris. Despite these large numbers, the probability of a satellite or spacecraft launched from Earth colliding with one of these objects is currently low. However, a NASA study indicated that an average of 18.2 collisions would be expected in the next 200 years (Stansbery, 2011). Each time one of these collisions occurs, it will increase the debris field, further increasing the chances of more collisions. For example, a Russian satellite collided with a U.S. commercial satellite in 1996. In that collision, more than 2,000 pieces of debris were added to the space debris field (NASA, 2013). Removing space debris is the only way to reduce the number of collisions that will occur, but it is not currently economically feasible to do so. Therefore, right now, no such action is being taken. However, future technological advances will hopefully make it possible for the removal of debris to become an economically feasible endeavor. In the meantime, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee created space debris mitigation guidelines, which were accepted by the United Nations in 2007.

References Beketov, M. A., Kefford, B. J., Schafer, R. B, & Liess, M. (2013). Pesticides reduce regional biodiversity of

stream invertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,110(27),11039-11043.

Latham, J. E. (2000). The Military Munitions Rule and environmental regulation of munitions. Boston College

Environmental Affairs Law Review, 27(3), 467-518. Medina, V. F., & Waisner, S. A. (2011). Wastes—assessment of issues at military facilities and base camps.

In T. M. Letcher, & D. A. Vallero (Eds.), Waste: A handbook for management (pp. 358-376). Burlington, MA: Academic Press.

Nagendran, R. (2011). Agricultural waste and pollution. In T. M. Letcher, & D. A. Vallero (Eds.), Waste: A

handbook for management (pp. 341-391). Burlington, MA: Academic Press. NASA. (2013). Space debris and human spacecraft. Retrieved from

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html#.VCxGMUtN1Zg Patel, T. (2012, March 12). Water pollution from farming is worsening, costing billions. BloombergBusiness.

Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-12/water-pollution-from-farming-is- worsening-costing-billions.html

Shannon, A. L., & Woolridge, A. (2011). Medical waste. In T. M. Letcher, & D. A. Vallero (Eds.), Waste: A

handbook for management (pp. 377-339). Burlington, MA: Academic Press. Stansbery, G. (2011). Space waste. In T. M. Letcher, & D. A. Vallero (Eds.), Waste: A handbook for

management (pp. 265-279). Burlington, MA: Academic Press.

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U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2013).Irrigation & water use. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water- use.aspx#.VCLGF0tN1Zg

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2009). Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and

Emissions Guideline for Existing Sources, Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators (40 CFR 60).

Warburton, N. (2013). Robot world. Local Authority Waste & Recycling, 22(1), 10-11.