Solid, Toxic, and Hazardous Waste

Environmental management authorities and agencies, as well as conservationists and environmentalists in the world over, are constantly grappling with waste management. With the increasing industrialization, more and more waste is being released into the environment which if not checked will destroy the world’s ecosystem. These wastes which can either be solid, liquid or gaseous in nature is usually released into the air, the ground or water sources. The release of such toxic wastes can prove to be much of a challenge in the long run if proper measures are not put in place by the concerned governments as well as authorities. In the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has categories hazardous wastes which will be discussed later in the essay.

Hazardous Wastes According To EPA

Hazardous wastes as defined as the by- products of human beings activities which could cause harm to the environment or the human health if not managed properly. The United States Environmental Protection Agency categorizes, solid, liquid and gaseous materials as well as emissions on some characteristics. For materials to be referred to be hazardous, they must be poisonous or toxic, corrosive, flammable or chemically reactive as compared against some set safety thresholds by EPA (Gale Group Inc, 2004). In addition, hazardous wastes may generally refer to chemical compounds which are considered to be polluting or potentially dangerous. Such compounds extend to those found in the military, agricultural, industrial as well as in the municipal sources including biological contaminants as well as radioactive waste found in most electronic goods. 

Solid waste

Solid waste refers to any waste products that are in the form of solid which is derived from households, industries, health care institutions, agricultural fields as well as other sources. Examples of solid wastes include tires, electronic equipment, batteries, paper, plastics, wood, and diapers among others (The Gale Group Inc., 2004). The US Environmental Protection Agency separates solid wastes into various categories in terms of their durability or lifetime. Some solid wastes are classified as non-durable wastes since they have a lifetime of fewer than three years. They include newspapers, diapers, and wood pallets among others. Other solid wastes are classified as durable solid wastes since they tend to have a lifetime that is beyond three years (Alam &Ahmade, 2010). These wastes include tires, electronic equipment, batteries among other solid wastes. In addition, there are industrial solid wastes which emanate from the demolition of buildings, mining remains and other wastes from industrial processes.

Solid Waste Disposal Practices

There are several ways employed by municipals, industries as well as households in the disposal of their solid wastes as follows.

Recycling

Recycling usually refers to the reuse of solid waste materials after a comprehensive process of collection and separation of these solid wastes. Later these solid wastes go through a drastic transformation and remanufacturing which changes them into usable as well as marketable products (Ahsan et al., 2014) Recycling is essential since it decongests the landfills and combustors as well as reducing wastage of natural resource as well as raw materials. Furthermore, recycling of solid wastes helps a great deal in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity conservations as well as energy conservation. More so, recycling programs assist in the creation of jobs which in turn boost the US economy (Ahsan et al., 2014). Recycling is employed in the composting of food and yard wastes to produce yard manure which is very helpful in the agricultural settings.

Combustion

Burning of solid wastes is the most widely used method of solid waste management and disposal and has been around for centuries which help in reducing the solid waste volume as well as odor. Solid wastes which are combustible such as wood, clothing, plastic, leaves, grass and other are usually gathered together and torched in the open air. However, with the onset of the energy crisis in the 1970s as well as the passing of the Clean Air Act, open combustion is no longer encouraged. Instead, more sophisticated incineration systems have been developed which allows production of energy from burning the solid wastes (Gale Group Inc., 2004). These modern methods of combustion are widely accepted by a significant number of Americans since the combustion residues require less landfill space as compared to the traditional open-air burning of solid wastes.

Landfills

Disposal of solid wastes in landfills remains a primary method of solid disposal around the world. In the United States, statistics show that at least 57. Percent of the total solid wastes end up in the land -fills (The Gale Group, 2004). This is contributed by the fact that some solid wastes are neither recyclable nor combustible. However, over the years landfills are posing to be a threat to the environment as more space is being taken up for residential and commercial purposes. This has forced the EPA to consider better ways of managing the existing landfills’ capacity through manufacturing of plastics which are biodegradable (Powell et al., 2015). Furthermore, the EPA is considering the use of bioreactor landfills designed quickly transform and stabilize the organic constituents of waste products through injection of liquid which enhances the degradation process. These are aimed at ensuring that landfills continue to a major method of solid waste disposal which is also environmentally conscious.

Source Reduction

Source reduction is a solid disposal practice which is also referred to as waste prevention where there is a transformation in the way a product is made and used. This method is aimed at reducing the toxicity and quantity of the waste which is produced when these products come to an end of their usefulness (Gale Group Inc, 2004). These source reduction activities include reduction of a product’s material volume, product re-use, reducing product’s toxicity, decreasing consumption as well as designing products with extended useful life (Gale Group Inc, 2004). All these practices are aimed at ensuring that fewer waste products go into landfills, incinerators or recyclers.

Types of Hazardous Wastes

There are different kinds of dangerous wastes depending on their source as well as their chemical properties described earlier.

Industrial Hazardous Wastes

In the United States, industrial hazardous wastes contribute to about 90 percent of the total hazardous wastes. These industrial hazardous wastes mainly come from four types of industries namely the chemical manufacturing, metal fabrication industries, primary metal production industries, and petroleum processing industries (Alam &Ahmade, 2010). Oil processing industries and refineries, however, are the industries which contribute to the highest percentage of hazardous wastes which calls for more regulation by the EPA (Alam & Ahmade, 2010). Chemical manufacturing industries which produce chemicals such as pesticides also contribute to a lot of hazardous wastes with pesticides such as DDT and malathion which have been banned although some industries still manufacture them.

Military Hazardous Wastes

The US army is very sophisticated as it is endowed with weaponry which is non-comparable to any other around the globe. As so there is a higher risk of ineffective disposal of the military wastes such as bombs, grenades as well as other weapons which contain radioactive properties (Toxics Action Centre, 2015). Discoveries that have been made have revealed the presence of these military hazardous wastes in the soil as well as groundwater in the United States. Improper waste disposal of these military hazardous wastes may have lasting adverse effects on people’s health (Toxics Action Centre, 2015). Consequently, regulations have been passed to allow both the federal and state governments to levy fines if the military hazardous waste is not properly managed.

Mining Hazardous Wastes

Mining wastes which mostly are industrial wastes may include harmful elements since the mining operations require the utilization of dangerous compounds as well as explosives. As a result, toxic substances are consequently released to the surrounding environment in the event of mining and the eventual disposal of the mining waste materials (Grasso et al., nd). Gold mining, for example, has been found to be responsible for the releasing of many tons of mercury into water sources every year. Eventually, this mercury deposits gets into fish which when consumed affects the human health significantly with mercury poisoning resulting to severe congenital disabilities in the newborns (Grasso et al., nd). Furthermore, ore minerals require chemicals for their separation and purification with sulphuric acid, arsenic, mercury and lead being the preferred metals for such tasks. These metals which are considered hazardous, eventually find their way into water sources especially in West America where there has been a severe ecological damage as a result.

Household Hazardous Wastes

These are the discarded products which are used in homes and which contain hazardous products. Most of the hazardous wastes which come from industries, military, municipal and other sources find their way into the American homes in one way or another. Some of these hazardous wastes include motor oil, paint, and pesticides, drain cleaner, solvents, thinners, kerosene among others (Ojeda-Benitez, et al., 2013).

Other Hazardous Wastes

Other hazardous wastes include health-care hazardous wastes which comprise of pathological waste, human blood and contaminated needles which are emanate from medical laboratories, dentists and morticians among other sources. In addition, there are commercial perilous wastes which principally originate from dry cleaners, automobile repair shops and gas stations among others (Grasso et al., nd). Moreover, agricultural hazardous wastes include veterinary medicines, fertilizers and pesticides. 

In conclusion, it is clear that wastes are a great concern for all persons since these wastes come from every sphere of individual life. It is important to manage solid wastes efficiently through recycling, combustion, landfills as well as source reduction. It is imperative to note that the US Environmental Protection Agency has made significant steps to ensure proper waste disposal be it the solid waste or hazardous waste. This then calls for combined effort to make sure that their efforts are complemented through responsible handling and disposal of waste for a healthier nation and environment.

References

Ahsan, A. et al. (2014). Assessment of municipal solid waste management system in a developing country. Chinese Journal of Engineering , 1-11.

Alam, P. & Ahmade, K. (2010). Impact of solid waste on health and the environment. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 21 (2), 165-168

Grasso, D, Kahn, D, Kaseva, M.E, & Mbuligwe, S.E. (n.d). Hazardous Waste Management. Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Retrieved from http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c09/e1-08-00-00.pdf.

Ojeda-Benitez, S., Aguilar-Virgen, Q, Taboada-Gonzalez, P & Cruz-Sotelo, S.E. (2013). Households’ hazardous wastes as potential source of pollution: A generation study. Sage Journals.

Powell, J. T., Townsend, T. G. & Zimmerman, J. B. (2015). Estimates of solid waste disposal rates and reduction targets for landfill gas emissions. Nature Climate Change 6 , 162-165

The Gale Group Inc. (2004). Solid waste. Encyclopaedia.com . Retrieved from:http:www.encyclopaedia.com/science-and –technologybiology-and-genetics/environmental-studies/solid-waste References.

Toxics Action Centre. (2015). The problems with waste. Retrieved from http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/waste.