Pg. 520: Treasures of the Cell Phone 1: What are the reasons why e-waste is not recycled more?

We dont have a simple inexpensive way to do it 23.1: The Importance of Resources to Society 1: Define the following: * Renewable Resources: a resource that can be recycles and used again * Non-Renewable Resources: Resources that cant be used again What differentiates renewable and non-renewable resources? Renewable resources are air, surface water, plants, animal and energy sources. Non-renewable resources are soil, oil, 2: How many tons of non-fuel minerals does the typical American use per year? 10 tons 1: Define Materials Management: be able to manage renewable and non-renewable resources 2:What are 5 ways that this can be pursued? Eliminate subsidies for extracting virgin materials Establish "Green-building" incentives Assess financial penalties for production that uses poor materials management Provide incentives for industrial practices that benefit environment 3: How does the idea of materials management and recycling changing where paper mills are located? Paper mills are located in the cities with large amounts of recycled paper 23.3: Mineral Resources 1: When metals are concentrated in such high amounts by geologic processes, ore deposits are formed. 2: In the Earths crust, which element makes up the most % by composition? What is 2nd? Oxygen and 2nd is silicon 3: How are sedimentary processes and weathering involved in mineral deposits? Sedimentary processes transport sediment by wind, water and glaciers and often concentrate materials in amounts sufficient for extraction. Weathering concentrates minerals in soil like gold and oxides of aluminum and iron. 23.4: Figuring Out How Much is Left 1: What is the difference between a mineral resource and a mineral reserve?

Mineral resource are defined as known concentrations of elements, minerals or rocks. Mineral reserves are concentrations that at the time of evaluation can be legally extracted as a commodity that can be sold as a profit. 2: Earths mineral resources can be divided into which broad categories? technology 3: When the availability of a particular mineral becomes limited, there are four possible solutions: 1: Find more sources 2: Recycle and reuse what has already been obtained 3: Reduce consumption 4: Find a substitute 23.5: Impact of Mineral Development 1: What are some of the environmental impacts of surface mining (open-pit mines)? Environmental degradation, changing topography, release of harmful trace elements. 2: What are some of the social impacts of large scale mining operations? Stress on local services, like water supplies, sewage, and solid-waste disposal systems, reduced water quality and increased runoff. 3: What can be done to minimize the environmental effects of mining? Environmental regulations at the federal, state and local levels. Reclaiming areas disturbed by mining, stabilizing soils, controlling air emissions, treating waste on and offsite. 4: What are the 3 Rs of waste management? Reduce, reuse, recycle 23.6: Materials Management and Our Waste 1: Compare dilute and disperse to the contemporary method of concentrate and contain. Dilute and disperse means to get rid of waste easily, it was sufficient to remove the waste from the immediate environment. Concentrate and contain means to hold chemicals in drums or tanks that may leak. 2: In the next few years, how many U.S. cities will run out of landfill space? Half of the cities in the U.S 3: What is NIMBY? 'Not in my back yard'

4: Describe the concept of industrial ecology and how it will be essential in the future. The study of relationships among industrial systems and their links to natural systems. It is essential in the future, because it would prevent more waste from happening by having waste in one place be a resource in another. 5: What is your opinion of pay as you throw? Defend your opinion I think that pay as you throw is a good idea, because it would reduce the waste that people put out into the Earth. Having to pay for throwing out items makes people want to keep their items for longer which means they won't be in landfills 23.7: Integrated Waste Management 1: Define Integrated Waste Management (IWM): composting, landfill and incineration 2: What is waste stream? The waste produced is waste stream 3: What is single-stream recycling? Paper, glass, plastic and metals are no separated before collection to make it more convenient for homeowners. 4: What are some creative ways that industry are encouraging recycling? Restaurants are using less packaging and providing onsite bins for recycling paper and plastic. Motor vehicles design cars that have parts that are easily disassembled 5: How can human waste (night soil) be re-used and recycled? What are some drawbacks? It can be used to spread in agricultural fields. Drawbacks are that it can cause disease from contaminated food 23.8: Municipal Solid-Waste Management 1: Which product comprises the largest percentage of waste dumped in the United States? Is this surprising? Paper is the largest, it isn't surprising because paper is used for almost everything in everyday life. 2: Define Composting: (What are the pros and cons?) A biochemical process in which organic materials, decompose to a rich, soil-like material. The pros are that you can compost in your backyard or also in large scale. Drawbacks are that you need to separate organic material from waste and is only advantageous when organic material is collected separately from other waste. 3: What are the pros and cons of incineration?

Pros- may reduce volume of waste by 75 to 95 percent. It can be used to supplement other fuels and generate electrical power Cons- not a clean process, may produce air pollution and toxic ash. 4: What is a sanitary landfill and how is it accomplished? How is a sanitary landfill selected? What things need to be considered? Sanitary landfill is designed to concentrate and contain refuse without creating a nuisance or hazard to public health and safety. Sanitary landfill is selected by topography, location, amount of precipitation, types of soil and rock. Things that need to be considered are the local resistance, and places where residents tend to have low socioeconomic status. 5: What is environmental justice? Study of social issues in siting waste facilities, chemical plants and other such facilities 6: What is leachate? noxious, mineralized, liquid capable of transporting bacterial pollutants 7: How can pollutants enter the environment from sanitary landfills? Heavy metals can be retained in soil Wind can transport toxic materials to other areas 8: What are the federal mandates for sanitary landfills? RCRA is a federal mandate for sanitary landfills. It is intended to strengthen and standardize the design, operation and monitoring of sanitary landfills. 9: What are some actions you can take to reduce the waste you generate? Reduce packaging, reuse products, recycle as much as is possible and practical, purchase products designed for ease in recycling 23.9: Hazardous Waste 1: Where is most of the hazardous waste generated in the U.S.? What are the sources of hazardous waste in the United States? The most hazardous waste generated in the U.S is east of Mississippi River. Sources of hazardous waste are chemical products, electronics, petroleum and coal products industries 2: Summarize (in 3-4 sentences) the story of Love Canal. A canal in New York was abandoned and waste was dumped there. More than 80 chemicals were dumped there. This affected homes in that area 23.2: A Closer Look: e-waste: A Growing Environmental Problem 1: Summarize the problem with e-waste in the United States.23.10: Hazardous-Waste Legislation

In the United States, e-waste recycling actually is transporting the electronic parts to places like Nigeria and China. People in those places scavenge for e-waste raw materials. When they do this they are exposing themselves to a variety of toxins and potential health problems. The United States has not made a proactive attempt to regulate the computer industry so less waste is produced. 1: What is the purpose of RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)? Act as an identification of hazardous wastes and their life cycles. To issue guidelines and assign responsibilities to those who manufacture, transport and dispose hazardous waste. 2: What is the purpose of CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act)? Policies and procedures for release of hazardous substances into the environment. It mandated development of list of sites where hazardous substances were likely to produce or already had produced the most serious environmental problems. 23.11: Hazardous-Waste Management: Land Disposal 1: Look at the chart on pg. 541- List the PROS/CONS of each of the Hazard Reduction Technologies Landfill Pro- low to moderate cost Landfill con- no resource recovery, highly toxic and persistent chemicals Injection pro- low cost Injection con- reactive, corrosive, highly toxic, no resource recovery Incineration pro- recovery or energy and acids Incineration con- high cost, high toxic organics and heavy-metal concentration High temp Decomp pro- Energy recovery, metal recovery High temp decomp con- high cost and inorganics 23.13: Ocean Dumping 1: What are some of the ways that ocean pollution has affected ocean life? caused death, retarded growth, reproductivity of marine organisms. 2: Why are the marine waters of Europe in trouble? Urban and agriculture pollutants have raised concentrations of nutrients in seawater. Blooms of toxic algae are becoming more common. 3: Why is the microlayer of the ocean considered to be so important? The microlayer has 10 to 10,000 times higher heavy metal concentrations than the deep oceans. 23.14: Pollution Prevention 1: What are the steps of ocean pollution prevention? Purchasing proper amount of raw materials, exercising better control of materials, improving engineering and design of manufacturing processes are steps to prevent ocean pollution prevention.

23.15: Sustainable Resource Management 1: What is the R to C Ratio- What does it tell us? The ratio of reserves to the rate of consumption. It tells us how much time we have for finding solutions to the depletion of nonrenewable reserves. Read: Can We Make Recycling a Financially Viable Industry? Answer the following: 1: What can be done about the global problem of e-waste? Could more be recycled safely? Prevention of the transportation of the e-waste to other countries could be done. It could save lives of people from different countries. More can be recycled safely if we found new ways to recycle products that haven't been recycled before 2: What can be done to assist recycling industries to become more cost-effective? Incentives could assist recycling industries to become more cost-effective 3: What are some of the indirect benefits to society and the environment from recycling? Cleaner air, cleaner water are some of the indirect benefits to society and the environment from recycling. 4: Define or criticize the contention that if we really want to do something to improve the environment through reduction of waste, we have to move beyond evaluating benefits of recycling based simply on the fact that it may cost more than dumping waste in a landfill. I think that you should try to buy stuff that is beneficial and not worry that much about the price 5: What are the recycling efforts in your community and university, and how could improvements be made? Recycling paper and cans, improvements can be made by making people get more involved Summary: Suppose you found that the home you had been living in for 15 years was located over a buried waste disposal site. What would you do? What kinds of studies could be done to evaluate the potential problems? I would ask if there are any health risk I should be aware of. You can test the water nearby to see the concentrations of toxic materials