Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
Ecycling
A valuable resource from the EPA on recycling ewaste.
http://www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/materials/ecycling/index.htm
Urban Ore
Company in Berkeley, California that accepts and sells materials that would otherwise become trash.
http://urbanore.com/
Habitat for Humanity ReStore
Digital Integration
Correlation to Global Environment Watch
Consumption Human Health
E-Waste Industrial Ecology
Environmental Justice Precautionary Principle
European Union Recycling
Global Environmental Ethics Watch: Environmental Justice Solid Waste
Globalization Superfund
Green Chemistry U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency
Correlation to Explore More
Environment and Human Health Hazardous and Toxic Chemicals
Environmental History Solid Wastes
Suggested Answers to End of Chapter Questions
Answers will vary but these represent phrases from this chapter. The following are examples of the material
that should be contained in possible student answers to the end of chapter questions. They represent only a
summary overview and serve to highlight the core concepts that are addressed in the text. It should be
anticipated that the students will provide more in-depth and detailed responses to the questions depending
on an individual instructor’s stated expectations.
Chapter 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste
Review
Core Case Study
1. Explain how and why electronic waste (e-waste) has become a growing solid waste problem.
Electronic waste, or e-waste, consists of discarded television sets, cell phones, computers, and other
electronic devices (see chapter opening photo). It is the fastest growing solid waste problem in the
United States and in the world. Only about 14% of all U.S. e-waste is recycled. Most of the rest of it
Section 16-1
2. What are the two key concept for this section? Distinguish among solid waste, industrial solid waste,
municipal solid waste (MSW), and hazardous (toxic) waste, and give an example of each. Summarize
the types and sources of solid waste generated in the United States and what happens to it.
See pages 412–414.
• CONCEPT 16.1A Solid waste contributes to pollution and includes valuable resources that could
be reused or recycled.
• CONCEPT 16.1B Hazardous waste contributes to pollution, as well as to natural capital
degradation, health problems, and premature deaths.
• Solid waste is any unwanted or discarded material we produce that is not a liquid or a gas, such as
a box.
• Industrial solid waste produced by mines, agriculture, and industries that supply people with goods
and services, such as extra packaging.
Section 16-2
3. What is the key concept for this section? Distinguish among waste management, waste reduction, and
integrated waste management. Summarize the priorities that prominent scientists believe we should use
for dealing with solid waste and compare them to actual practices in the United States. Distinguish
among refusing, reducing, reusing, and recycling in dealing with the wastes we produce. Why are the
first three Rs preferred from an environmental standpoint? What is composting? List six ways
industries and communities can reduce resource use, waste, and pollution.
See pages 414–415.
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
• CONCEPT 16-2 A sustainable approach to solid waste is first to reduce it, then to reuse or recycle
it, and finally to safely dispose of what is left
• Waste management attempts to manage wastes in ways that reduce their environmental harm
without seriously trying to reduce the amount of waste produced. It typically involves mixing
wastes together and then transferring them from one part of the environment to another, usually by
burying them, burning them, or shipping them to another location.
• Waste reduction based on three Rs:
o Refuse: Don’t buy it
o Reduce: consume less and live a simpler lifestyle.
o Reuse: rely more on items that can be used repeatedly instead of on throwaway items, and buy
necessary items secondhand or borrow or rent them.
o Recycle: separate and recycle paper, glass, cans, plastics, metal, and other items, and buy
products made from recycled materials.
• Scientists suggest three priorities for dealing with solid waste. See Figure 16-4 Integrated waste
management: The U.S. National Academy of Sciences suggests these priorities for dealing with
solid waste.
o Primary pollution and waste prevention
Section 16-3
4. What is the key concept for this section? Explain why refusing, reducing and recycling materials are so
important and give examples of each. List five ways to reuse various items. What is the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch and how did it come to be? How does it harm marine life and how can the growth of
such patches be prevented?
See pages 416–419.
• CONCEPT 16.3 by refusing and reducing resource use and by reusing and recycling what we use,
we decrease our Consumption of matter and energy resources, reduce pollution And natural capital
degradation, and save money.
• Refusing to buy some things, especially those with a significant environmental impact, is one way
to use resources more sustainably.
Chapter 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste
• In 1997, ocean researcher Charles Moore discovered two gigantic, slowly rotating masses of
plastic and other solid wastes in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian Islands.
These wastes, mostly small particles floating on or just beneath the ocean’s surface and known as
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, are trapped there by a vortex where four rotating ocean currents
called gyres meet (Figure 16.9). Roughly 80% of this trash (much of it plastic bags and bottles)
comes from the land—washed or blown off beaches, pouring out of storm drains, and floating
5. Distinguish between primary (closed-loop) recycling and secondary recycling. What are three
important steps that must occur for any recycling program to work? What are some benefits of
composting? Explain how some plastics are being recycled and describe Mike Biddle’s contributions
to doing this. What are bioplastics? What are the major advantages and disadvantages of recycling?
• Recycling solid waste has advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include: reduces energy and
mineral use and air and water pollution, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, reduces solid waste,
and can save landfill space. Disadvantages include: can cost more than burying in areas with
ample landfill space, reduces profits for landfill and incinerator owners, and source separation is
inconvenient for some.
• Primary, or closed-loop, recycling involves materials being recycled into new products of the
Section 16-4
6. What is the key concept for this section? What are the major advantages and disadvantages of using
incinerators to burn solid and hazardous waste? Distinguish between sanitary landfills and open
dumps. What are the major advantages and disadvantages of burying solid waste in sanitary landfills?
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
• Concept 16-4 Technologies for burning and burying solid wastes are well developed, but burning
contributes to air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and buried wastes eventually
contribute to the pollution and degradation of land and water resources.
• Incinerating solid waste has advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include: reduces trash
volume, produces energy, concentrates hazardous substances into ash for burial, and sale of energy
Section 16-5
7. What is the key concept for this section? What are the priorities that scientists believe we should use in
dealing with hazardous waste? Summarize the problems involved in sending e-wastes to less–
developed countries for recycling. Describe three ways to detoxify hazardous wastes. What is
bioremediation? What is phytoremediation? What are the major advantages and disadvantages of
incinerating hazardous wastes? How can we use plasma gasification to detoxify hazardous wastes?
• CONCEPT 16-5 A more sustainable approach to hazardous waste is first to produce less of it, then
to reuse or recycle it, then to convert it to less hazardous materials, and finally to safely store what
is left.
• Scientists suggest three priorities for dealing with solid waste. See Figure 16-16 Integrated waste
management: The U.S. National Academy of Sciences suggests these priorities for dealing with
hazardous waste.
o Produce less hazardous waste
o Convert to less hazardous or nonhazardous substances
o Put in perpetual storage
Chapter 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste
• We can use a plasma arc torch to detoxify hazardous wastes at very high temperatures. This process
decomposes liquid or solid hazardous organic waste into ions and atoms that can be converted into
8. What are the major advantages and disadvantages of storing of liquid hazardous wastes in deep
underground wells and in surface impoundments? What is a secure hazardous waste landfill? List four
ways to reduce your output of hazardous waste. Summarize the story of regulation of hazardous wastes
in the United States.
• Burial on land is the most widely used method of storage of hazardous and toxic wastes in the
United States and in most countries, largely because it is the least expensive of all methods
• The advantages of deep-well disposal are that the cost is low and the wastes can often be retrieved
if problems develop. However, there are a limited number of such sites and limited space within
them. Sometimes the wastes can leak into groundwater from the well shaft or migrate into
Section 16-6
9. What is the key concept for this section? How has grassroots action led to improved solid and
hazardous waste management in the United States? What are three factors that discourage recycling?
What are three ways to encourage recycling and reuse? Give three examples of how people are saving
or making money through reuse, recycling, and composting. Describe regulation of hazardous wastes
at the global level through the Basel Convention and the treaty to control persistent organic pollutants
(POPs). What is biomimicry? What is an industrial ecosystem?
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
See page 420.
• Concept 16-6 Shifting to a low-waste society requires individuals and businesses to reduce
resource use and to reuse and recycle wastes at local, national, and global levels.
• In the United States, individuals have organized to prevent the construction of hundreds of
incinerators, landfills, treatment plants for hazardous and radioactive wastes, and polluting
chemical plants in or near their communities.
• Three factors hinder reuse and recycling.
o First, the market prices of almost all products do not include the harmful environmental
and health costs associated with producing, using, and discarding them—a violation of
the full cost pricing principle of sustainability.
o Second, the economic playing field is uneven, because in most countries, resource
extraction industries receive more government tax breaks and subsidies than reuse and
recycling industries get.
o Third, the demand and thus the price paid for recycled materials fluctuates, mostly
because it is not a high priority for most governments, businesses, and individuals to buy
goods made of recycled materials.
• How can we encourage reuse and recycling?
10. What are this chapter’s three big ideas? Explain how we can deal with the growing problem of e–
waste and other wastes (Core Case Study) by applying the six principles of sustainability.
• The three big ideas for this chapter:
o The order of priorities for dealing with solid waste should be to produce less of it, reuse, and
recycle as much of it as possible and safely burn or bury what is left.
Chapter 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste
o We need to view solid wastes as wasted resources and hazardous wastes as materials that we
should not be producing in the first place.
• One of the problems of maintaining a high-waste society is the growing mass of e-waste and other
types of solid and hazardous waste. We can reduce our outputs of solid and hazardous waste by relying
Critical Thinking
1. Do you think manufacturers of computers and television sets, cell phones, and other forms of
electronic products (Core Case Study) should be required to take them back at the end of their useful
lives for repair, remanufacture, or recycling in a manner that is environmentally responsible and that
does not threaten the health of recycling workers? Explain. Would you be willing to pay more for these
products to cover the costs of such a take-back program? If so, what percent more per purchase would
you be willing to pay for electronic products?
2. Think of three items you regularly use once and then throw away. Are there reusable items that you
could use in place of these disposable items?
3. Do you think that you could consume less by refusing to buy some of the things you regularly buy? If
so, what are three of those things? Do you think that this is something you ought to do? Explain.
4. A company called Changing World Technologies has built a pilot plant to test a process it has
developed for converting a mixture of discarded computers, old tires, turkey bones and feathers, and
other wastes into oil by mimicking and speeding up natural processes for converting biomass into oil.
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
Explain how this recycling process, if it turns out to be technologically and economically feasible,
could lead to increased waste production.
5. Would you oppose having (a) a sanitary landfill, (b) a hazardous waste surface impound, (c) a
hazardous waste deep-injection well or (d) a solid waste incinerator in your community? For each of
these facilities, explain your answer. If you oppose to having such facilities in your community, how
do you think the hazardous waste generated in your community should be managed?
6. How does your school dispose of its solid and hazardous waste? Does it have a recycling program?
How well does it work? Does your school encourage reuse? If so, who? Does it have a hazardous
waste collection system? If so, describe it. List three ways in which you would improve your school’s
waste reduction and management system.
The maintenance department oversees the wastes generated at the school. We have a number of
dumpsters that are used for general trash, cardboard, paper, and other recyclables. The general waste is
collected by a waste management company. Hazardous waste has to be disposed of under strict
7. List three ways you could apply Concept 16-6 to making your lifestyle more environmentally
sustainable.
8. Congratulations! You are in charge of the world. List the three most important components of your
strategy for dealing with: (a) solid waste, and (b) hazardous waste.
Chapter 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste
There are different ways to take care of this issue, as many people have different environmental
worldviews and environmental ethics. To find a solution that would please everyone would be very
hard.
(a) To deal with the solid waste, I would first want to find out how the waste is being produced and see
(b) On the other hand, the hazardous waste that is produced is something a little bit more complicated
to address. This affects the environment we all live in. As I think about my ethics, I ask myself whether
we should only think about our place in the world as humans and nothing else around us. No, we need
to consider every species around us, as they all have a purpose. Not only do we need other species, but
they need us to survive. Hazardous waste is difficult to deal with, and we need to consider its adverse
Global Environment Watch Exercise
Within the GREENR database, go to the E-Waste topic portal. Research and find statistics on how rapidly
the world’s production of e-waste (Core Case Study) is growing and how rapidly e-waste production is
growing in the United States. Write a brief report on what the United States and one other country of your
choice are doing to deal with this growing waste problem. Include statistics on how much e-waste is
generated in each country, on how much of it is recycled, and on how much of it goes to landfills. Compare
the two approaches in terms of how successful they are.
Ecological Footprint
The average daily municipal solid waste production per person in the United States in 2009 was 1.97
kilograms (4.34 pounds). Use the data in the figure above to get an idea of a typical annual MSW
ecological footprint for each American by calculating the total weight in kilograms and pounds for each
category generated during a year (1 kilogram = 2.20 pounds).
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
The average daily MSW production per person in the United States in 2006 was 2.1 kilograms (4.6
pounds). Use the data in the figure above to understand what makes up the annual MSW ecological
footprint of a typical American. For each category in the pie chart, calculate the total weight in
kilograms (and pounds) generated in 2006 by the average American. (Note: 1 kilogram = 2.20 pounds)
Total weight of municipal solid waste generated in 2006 by the average American by category.
Plastics (11.7%) Weight per day = total weight x % = 2.1 kilograms x 0.117 = 0.246 kilograms
Weight per year = weight per day x 365 = 0.246 kilograms x 365 = 89.8 kilograms
89.8 kilograms x 2.2 pounds/kilogram = 198 pounds
58.4 kilograms x 2.2 pounds/kilogram = 128 pounds
55.8 kilograms x 2.2 pounds/kilogram = 123 pounds
42.3 kilograms x 2.2 pounds/kilogram = 93.1 pounds
40.5 kilograms x 2.2 pounds/kilogram = 89.1 pounds