Chapter 12 Waste NotesGuiding Questions

p. 303-309
(1) What is solid waste? Any discarded material that is not a
liquid or a gas
How much of it do we produce in the U.S. each year?
10 billion tons
(2) Why has the amount of waste produced doubled in the
U.S. since the 1960s? Many products are designed to use
once
(3) Compare and contrast biodegradable versus non
biodegradable materials. Provide an example of each as
well.
Biodegradable Non Biodegradable



Can be broken Both are waste cant be broken by
by living things products living things




(4) Where does most of our solid waste come from (about
70%)? Manufacturing and mining
(5) What is municipal solid waste? Trash produced by
households and businesses
What makes up the largest portion of this waste (Figure
12-8)? Paper and cardboard
(6) What percentage of our trash is recycled? 25%
(7) Where does our trash that is not recycled go (you can
use Figure 12-9)? Stored in landfills or incinerated
(8) Describe three problems with storing waste in landfills.
1. Leachates
2. Methane
3. expensive
(9) When is NC estimated to run out of landfill space (use
Figure 12-12)? 5-10 years
(10) Describe two problems with incinerating waste.
- Some of the waste ends up in the air as polluting gases
and rest is converted into ashes that must be disposed of in
landfills
- communities that incinerate arent usually motivated to
recycle