Waste

1. Waste All information provided in this presentation courtesy of www.epa.gov

2. Solid waste MSW – Municipal Solid Waste includes residential waste (including waste from apartment houses) and waste from commercial and institutional locations, such as businesses, schools, and hospitals.

3. Msw We analyze waste by material, such as paper and paperboard, yard trimmings, food waste, and plastics, and by major product categories, which include durable goods (such as furniture), nondurable goods (such as paper or clothing), containers and packaging (such as milk cartons and plastic wrap), and other materials (such as food waste).

4. msw • Total MSW generation in 2011 was 250 million tons. • Organic materials continue to be the largest component of MSW. • Paper/Paperboard - 28 % • Yard Trimmings/Food Waste - 28 % • Plastics -13 % • metals -9 % • Rubber/Leather/Textiles – 8 %. • Wood - 6 % • Glass - 5 % • Misc. Wastes – 3 % These materials made up the MSW generated in 2011

5. Waste hierarchy

6. Reduction/Reuse - also known as waste prevention, means reducing waste at the source. It can take many different forms, including reusing or donating items, buying in bulk, reducing packaging, redesigning products, and reducing toxicity. Source reduction also is important in manufacturing. Lightweighting of packaging, reuse, and remanufacturing are all becoming more popular business trends. Purchasing products that incorporate these features supports source reduction. Source reduction can: • Save natural resources • Conserve energy • Reduce pollution • Reduce the toxicity of our waste • Save money for consumers and businesses alike

7. Recycling/composting • Recyclingis a series of activities that includes the collection of used, reused, or unused items that would otherwise be considered waste; sorting and processing the recyclable products into raw materials; and remanufacturing the recycled raw materials into new products. Consumers provide the last link in recycling by purchasing products made from recycled content. Recycling also can include composting of food scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic materials. • Recycling prevents the emission of many greenhouse gases and water pollutants, saves energy, supplies valuable raw materials to industry, creates jobs, stimulates the development of greener technologies, conserves resources for our children's future, and reduces the need for new landfills and combustors.

8. Recycling/composting • Compost is organic material that can be used as a soil amendment or as a medium to grow plants. Mature compost is a stable material with a content called humus that is dark brown or black and has a soil-like, earthy smell. It is created by: combining organic wastes (e.g., yard trimmings, food wastes, manures) in proper ratios into piles, rows, or vessels; adding bulking agents (e.g., wood chips) as necessary to accelerate the breakdown of organic materials; and allowing the finished material to fully stabilize and mature through a curing process. • Natural composting, or biological decomposition, began with the first plants on earth and has been going on ever since. As vegetation falls to the ground, it slowly decays, providing minerals and nutrients needed for plants, animals, and microorganisms. Mature compost, however, includes the production of high temperatures to destroy pathogens and weed seeds that natural decomposition does not destroy.

9. Recycling/composting Benefits of Composting • Reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers. • Promote higher yields of agricultural crops. • Facilitate reforestation, wetlands restoration, and habitat revitalization efforts by amending contaminated, compacted, and marginal soils. • Cost-effectively remediate soils contaminated by hazardous waste. • Remove solids, oil, grease, and heavy metals from stormwater runoff. • Avoids Methane and leachate formulation in landfills. • Capture and destroy 99.6 percent of industrial volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in contaminated air. See Innovative Uses of Compost: Bioremediation and Pollution Prevention on EPA website. • Provide cost savings of at least 50 percent over conventional soil, water, and air pollution remediation technologies, where applicable. See Analysis of Composting as an EnvironmentalRemediation Technology on EPA website. • Reduces the need for water, fertilizers, and pesticides. • Serves as a marketable commodity and is a low-cost alternative to standard landfill cover and artificial soil amendments. • Extends municipal landfill life by diverting organic materials from landfills.

10. Energy recovery • Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into useable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolization, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas (LFG) recovery. This process is often called waste-to-energy (WTE). • Energy recovery from waste is part of the non-hazardous waste management hierarchy. Converting non-recyclable waste materials into electricity and heat generates a renewable1 energy source and reduces carbon emissions by offsetting the need for energy from fossil sources and reduces methane generation from landfills.

11. Energy recovery • 1Defined as separated yard waste or food waste, including recycled cooking and trap grease, and materials described in §80.1426(f)(5)(i). Final regulations allow separated municipal solid waste (after all recyclable materials have been removed) to qualify as "separated yard or food waste. • Currently there are 86 facilities in the United States for combustion of municipal solid waste (MSW), with energy recovery. These facilities are located in 25 states, mainly in the Northeast. No new plants have been built in the US since 1995, but some plants have expanded to handle additional waste and create more energy. The 86 facilities have the capacity to produce 2,720 megawatts of power per year by processing more than 28 million tons of waste per year. • According to Municipal Solid Waste in the US: Facts and Figures, in 2011 we combusted about 29 million tons of MSW (about 12 percent) for energy recovery. After energy is recovered, approximately ten percent of the volume remains as ash. This ash is generally sent to a landfill. Please visit EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program for additional information on how energy is recovered from landfills.

12. Treatment/Disposal • Landfills are the most common form of waste disposal and are an important component of an integrated waste management system. Landfills that accept municipal solid waste are primarily regulated by state, tribal, and local governments. • EPA, however, has established national standards these landfills must meet in order to stay open. The federal landfill regulations have eliminated the open dumps of the past. Today’s landfills must meet stringent design, operation, and closure requirements. • Methane gas, a byproduct of decomposing waste, can be collected and used as fuel to generate electricity. After a landfill is capped, the land may be used for recreation sites such as parks, golf courses, and ski slopes.

13. Read the information at the following links. Landfills vs Dumps http://www.guyenterprisegy.com/solidwaste/dumpvslan.htm Recycling Plastics http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321#slide-1 EPA MSW – read 2011 facts and figures PDF http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/msw99.htm