Exam 17: Managing Our Waste

Of the following, ________________ produce(s) the largest amount of hazardous waste.

Choose the item that best matches each item in the following: -Include mercury, lead, cadmium, and chromium

Read the following scenario and answer the question below. The prevalence of ʺthrowaway mentalitiesʺ and increased packaging has amplified the consumption of paper and plastic in our society. Disposable plates, cups, and utensils are convenient, sanitary, and inexpensive. Further packaging also preserves freshness, prevents breakage, protects against tampering, provides information to consumers, and allows shipment of products over long distances. However, paper and plastic do not degrade readily in sanitary landfills. Garbologist William Rathje found legible newspapers in landfills decades after disposal. Because trees used to make virgin paper and petrochemicals used to make plastics may soon become depleted, source reduction is the best solution to the waste dilemma. Denmark has banned the use of non -refillable beverage containers and McDonaldʹs restaurants in Austria and Sweden have been using biodegradable, compostable cutlery. Recycling has value as well, as long as the recycling loop is closed and people purchase recycled items. Bottle bills and municipal curbside collection provide recycling incentives. Paper recycling is profitable if waste is properly sorted. All kinds of paper and cardboard are recyclable. Food and paperboard (uncorrugated thin coated board) can contaminate collections, however, reducing their value. After processing, paper and cardboard are used to make paper towels and paperboard for packaging cereal, shoes, and toys. Decapped, washed, and squashed plastic is recycled into carpets, pillows, and new bottles. Although low -density polyethylene, or LDPE (recycling symbol #4), from grocery bags is the most widely used plastic, beverage bottle polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE (symbol #1), and high-density polyethylene, or HDPE (symbol #2), are the most widely recycled plastics. Containers from toxic substances such as motor oil, pesticides, and solvents are not usually accepted with collected plastic because of contamination. Methods to reuse and recycle polystyrene are in development, although presently, Styrofoam is not collected with other plastics and so it is considered a contaminant as well. -LDPE is __________.

Read the following scenario and answer the question below. The prevalence of ʺthrowaway mentalitiesʺ and increased packaging has amplified the consumption of paper and plastic in our society. Disposable plates, cups, and utensils are convenient, sanitary, and inexpensive. Further packaging also preserves freshness, prevents breakage, protects against tampering, provides information to consumers, and allows shipment of products over long distances. However, paper and plastic do not degrade readily in sanitary landfills. Garbologist William Rathje found legible newspapers in landfills decades after disposal. Because trees used to make virgin paper and petrochemicals used to make plastics may soon become depleted, source reduction is the best solution to the waste dilemma. Denmark has banned the use of non -refillable beverage containers and McDonaldʹs restaurants in Austria and Sweden have been using biodegradable, compostable cutlery. Recycling has value as well, as long as the recycling loop is closed and people purchase recycled items. Bottle bills and municipal curbside collection provide recycling incentives. Paper recycling is profitable if waste is properly sorted. All kinds of paper and cardboard are recyclable. Food and paperboard (uncorrugated thin coated board) can contaminate collections, however, reducing their value. After processing, paper and cardboard are used to make paper towels and paperboard for packaging cereal, shoes, and toys. Decapped, washed, and squashed plastic is recycled into carpets, pillows, and new bottles. Although low -density polyethylene, or LDPE (recycling symbol #4), from grocery bags is the most widely used plastic, beverage bottle polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE (symbol #1), and high-density polyethylene, or HDPE (symbol #2), are the most widely recycled plastics. Containers from toxic substances such as motor oil, pesticides, and solvents are not usually accepted with collected plastic because of contamination. Methods to reuse and recycle polystyrene are in development, although presently, Styrofoam is not collected with other plastics and so it is considered a contaminant as well. -__________ are wastepaper contaminants that cannot effectively be recycled.

Choose the item that best matches each item in the following: -The largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste

As of 2008, the average American generates about ________________ pounds of solid waste per day.

Briefly describe the pros and cons of curbside recycling.

The EPA is charged with cleaning up brownfields, which are ________________.

RCRA is a U.S. law enacted in the 1970s to ________________.

Choose the item that best matches each item in the following: -The second-largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste

Use the figure above to answer the following question -The year __________________ demonstrated the greatest volume of recycling.

Deep inside landfills, bacteria decompose organic wastes in a low oxygen environment. This anaerobic decomposition results in a mix of gases called landfill gas, which consists of about 50% ________________.

Recycling aluminum cans saves ________________% of the energy needed to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin bauxite.

Choose the item that best matches each item in the following: -Waste that has taken up a substantially greater share of the waste stream since 1970

What are the three basic steps in the recycling loop? What is the step that needs the most attention if the recycling loop is going to work?

Discuss the benefits and environmental disadvantages of modern-day landfills in the United States.