section 3 hazardous waste...preventing hazardous waste one way to prevent hazardous waste is to...

Section 3 Hazardous Waste 493

Many of the products we use today, from laundry soap to com-puters, are produced in modern factories that use thousands ofchemicals. Some of these chemicals make up parts of the products,while other chemicals are used as cleansers or are used to generateelectricity for the factories. Large quantities of the chemicals usedare often leftover as waste. Many of these chemicals are classifiedas which is any waste that is a risk to the healthof humans or other living things.

Types of Hazardous WasteHazardous wastes may be solids, liquids, or gases. Hazardouswastes often contain toxic, corrosive, or explosive materials. Someexamples of hazardous wastes include substances such as cleansersused to disinfect surfaces or lubricants used to help machines runsmoothly. More examples of hazardous wastes are listed in Table 3.

The methods used to dispose of hazardous wastes often arenot as carefully planned as the manufacturing processes that pro-duced them. One case of careless hazardous waste disposal thathad horrifying results occurred at Love Canal, in Niagara Falls,New York. At Love Canal, homes and a school were built on landthat a chemical company had used as a site to dump toxic waste.Problems started when the toxic waste began to leak from the site.

The events at Love Canal shocked people into paying moreattention to how hazardous wastes were being disposed of andstored throughout the United States. In other places throughoutthe country, improperly stored or discarded wastes—such asthose shown in Figure 14—were leaking into the air, soil, andgroundwater. Federal laws were passed to clean up old waste sitesand regulate future waste disposal.

hazardous waste,

Objectives� Name two characteristics of

hazardous waste.� Describe one law that governs

hazardous waste.� Describe two ways in which

hazardous waste is disposed.

Key Termshazardous wastedeep-well injectionsurface impoundment

S E C T I O N 3

Hazardous Waste

Figure 14 � An improperly main-tained hazardous waste site can leaktoxic wastes into the air, soil, andgroundwater.

Types of Hazardous Waste

• dyes, cleansers, and solvents

• PCBs (polychlorinatedbiphenyls) from older electricalequipment, such as heatingsystems and television sets

• plastics, solvents, lubricants,and sealants

• toxic heavy metals, such as lead,mercury, cadmium, and zinc

• pesticides

• radioactive wastes from spentfuel that was used to generateelectricity

Table 3 �

Copyright© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Resource Conservation and Recovery ActThe Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requiresproducers of hazardous waste to keep records of how theirwastes are handled from the time the wastes are made to the timethe wastes are placed in an approved disposal facility. If thewastes cause a problem in the future, the producer is legallyresponsible for the problem. RCRA also requires all hazardouswaste treatment and disposal facilities to be built and operatedaccording to standards that are designed to prevent the facilitiesfrom polluting the environment.

The Superfund ActBecause the safe disposal of hazardous wastes is expensive, com-panies that produce hazardous wastes may be tempted to illegallydump them to save money. In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed theComprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liabil-ity Act, more commonly known as the Superfund Act. The Super-fund Act gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) theright to sue the owners of hazardous waste sites who had illegallydumped waste. Also, the EPA gained the right to force the owners topay for the cleanup. The Superfund Act also created a fund of moneyto pay for cleaning up abandoned hazardous waste sites.

Cleaning up improperly discarded waste is difficult andextremely expensive. At Love Canal alone, $275 million wasspent to put a clay cap on the site, to install a drainage systemand treatment plant to handle the leaking wastes, and to relocatethe residents. Now, more than 20 years after Love Canal wasevacuated, many Superfund sites still need to be cleaned up, asshown in Figure 15. Cleanup has been completed at only 75 ofthe roughly 1,200 approved or proposed Superfund sites.

494 Chapter 19 Waste

LawConnection to

Resource Conservation andRecovery Act The ResourceConservation and Recovery Act(RCRA) was passed by Congressin 1976 and amended in 1984.The RCRA created the first signifi-cant role for federal governmentin waste management. The actwas established to regulate solidand hazardous waste disposaland to protect humans and theenvironment from waste con-tamination.

The primary goals of the RCRAinclude protecting human healthfrom the hazards of waste dis-posal, conserving energy andnatural resources by recyclingand recovering, reducing oreliminating waste, and cleaningup waste, which may havespilled, leaked, or been improp-erly disposed of.

Figure 15 � This map shows thenumber of approved and proposedSuperfund sites as of 2001. Thesesites are some of the most hazardousareas in the United States.


Hazardous Waste ManagementEach year, the United States produces about 252 million metric tonsof hazardous waste, and this amount is growing each year. It is dif-ficult to guarantee that the disposal techniques used today will noteventually pollute our air, food, or water.

Preventing Hazardous Waste One way to prevent hazardouswaste is to produce less of it. In recent years, many manufacturershave discovered that they can redesign manufacturing methods toproduce less or no hazardous waste. For example, some manufac-turers who used chemicals to clean metal parts of machines havediscovered that they can use tiny plastic beads instead. The beadsact like a sandblaster to clean the parts, can be reused severaltimes, and are not hazardous when disposed. Often, such tech-niques save the manufacturers money by cutting the cost of materials as well as in cutting the cost of waste disposal.

Another way to deal with hazardous waste is to find a way toreuse it. In the United States, more than 50 programs have beenset up to help companies work with other companies that can usethe materials that they normally throw away. For example, acompany that would usually throw away a cleaning solvent afterone use can instead sell it to another company. The company thatbuys the used solvent may produce a product that is not harmedby small amounts of contamination in the solvent.

Conversion into Nonhazardous Substances Some types of wastescan be treated with chemicals to make the wastes less hazardous.For example, lime, which is a base, can be added to acids to neu-tralize them. A base is a compound that can also react with acidsto convert acids into salts, which are less harmful to the environ-ment. Also, cyanides, which are extremely poisonous compounds,can be combined with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and nitro-gen. In other cases, wastes can be treated biologically. Sludgefrom petroleum refineries, for example, may be converted by soilbacteria into less harmful substances.


Figure 16 � Safely transportinghazardous waste is an important partof hazardous waste management.

QuickLABNeutralizingHazardousWasteProcedure1. Using a measuring spoon,

obtain about a teaspoon ofbaking soda, and place it in a500 mL beaker. The bakingsoda will act as the base whichwill neutralize the acid.

2. In a separate 500 mL beaker,pour approximately 200 mLof vinegar. The vinegar is aweak acid.

3. Add the vinegar (acid) to thebaking soda (base).

Analysis1. What happened when you

added the vinegar to the bak-ing soda?

2. How is this lab similar to thetechnique used to convertsome hazardous wastes intononhazardous substances?

www.scilinks.orgTopic: Hazardous WasteSciLinks code: HE4054


Land Disposal Most of the hazardous waste produced in theUnited States is disposed of on land. One land disposal facility,illustrated in Figure 17, is called deep-well injection. During

wastes are pumped deep into the ground,where they are absorbed into a dry layer of rock below the levelof groundwater. After the wastes are buried below the level ofgroundwater, the wastes are covered with cement to preventcontamination of the groundwater. Another common land dis-posal facility is a which is basically apond that has a sealed bottom. The wastes accumulate and set-tle to the bottom of the pond, while water evaporates from thepond and leaves room to add more wastes.

Hazardous wastes in concentrated or solid form are oftenput in barrels and buried in landfills. Hazardous waste landfillsare similar to those used for ordinary solid waste, but theselandfills have extra safety precautions to prevent leakage.

In theory, if all of these facilities are properly designed andbuilt, they should provide safe ways to dispose of hazardouswastes. However, if they are not properly maintained, they candevelop leaks that may result in contamination of the air, soil,or groundwater.

surface impoundment,

deep-well injection,


ChemistryConnection to

Hazardous ChemicalReactions After a material isthrown away, it may becomemore hazardous as a result of achemical reaction with other dis-carded wastes. For example,metallic mercury is considered tobe toxic. Metallic mercury isoften used in thermometers andcomputers. If it is buried in alandfill, the bacteria in a landfillcan cause it to react with meth-ane to form methyl mercury.Methyl mercury, which is moretoxic than metallic mercury, cancause severe nerve damage.

Love Canal: A Toxic Nightmare

To someone who has never heard ofit, Love Canal may sound like apleasant place for a picnic. But in theminds of people familiar with theabandoned canal site in NiagaraFalls, New York, the area is synony-mous with chemicals, disease, andfinancial loss.

The problems began in 1942when a chemical company boughtthe area and used it as a dump fortoxic wastes. Over the next 11 years,the company buried almost 20,000metric tons of hazardous chemicalsin the canal. At the time, disposingof chemical wastes in this way waslegal. It was thought that the thickclay that lined the canal would pre-vent the wastes from escaping intothe surrounding soil.

By 1953, the site was full. It wascovered with a cap of clay and soiland was sold to the school board ofNiagara Falls. The school boardignored warnings from the chemicalcompany and built an elementaryschool and playgrounds on top ofthe canal. In addition, hundreds ofhomes were built on the canal.Roads and sewer lines were also con-structed across the site, which dis-turbed its clay cap and occasionallyexposed barrels of waste. The newhomes attracted many new resi-dents, who were not warned aboutthe hazardous waste dump nearby.

By the late 1950s, problemsstarted occurring. Children playingnear the school were burned bychemicals that leaked from the

� Toxic waste that leaked from thebarrels buried at Love Canal leakedinto this man’s basement.



ground. In the 1960s and 1970s thechemical leaks became moreobvious. Puddles of chemicalsappeared in backyards. Thick, blacksludge oozed into basements. Healthproblems, such as asthma, dizziness,blurred vision, seizures, miscarriages,stillbirths, and birth defects, becamemore common among the residents.

Local, state, and federal officialsbegan to take notice of the prob-

After years of protests and courtcases, a federal judge ruled that thechemical company was responsiblefor the Love Canal disaster. Thecompany agreed to pay $98 millionto the state of New York and agreedto reimburse the state and federalgovernments for the cleanup.

lems at Love Canal in the mid-1970s. Water-, soil-, and air-qualitytests showed chemical contamina-tion. In 1978, the governor of NewYork ordered the 239 families livingclosest to the chemical dump toevacuate. The state purchased theirhomes and paid for their relocation.In 1980, Love Canal was declared afederal disaster area, and another710 families were relocated.

� This chemical plant buried almost20,000 metric tons of hazardouschemicals in Love Canal.

CRITICAL THINKING

1. Analyzing Ideas Use the LoveCanal situation to explain whywhen we throw something away, itis never really gone.

2. Evaluating Conclusions Nowthat you have read about LoveCanal, how might you change theways in which we dispose of haz-ardous waste?

FIGURE 17 � One way to dispose ofhazardous waste is though deep-wellinjection, in which hazardous wastesare pumped deep into the ground.


Biologically Treating Hazardous WasteSome hazardous wastes can beabsorbed, broken down, or their toxic-ity can be reduced when they aretreated with biological and chemicalagents. Certain bacteria can be used toclean up an area in the environmentthat has been contaminated with haz-ardous substances, such as mercury,arsenic, and cyanide. Scientists cangrow bacteria in a lab and apply thebacteria to a contaminated area in theenvironment to break down the haz-ardous substances. Flowering plantsand trees that absorb heavy metals can

also be planted in contaminated areas. Chemicals can also beused to neutralize and absorb hazardous wastes. In Figure 18,chemicals were applied to an oil spill to help absorb the oil andhelp prevent harm to the plants and animals that live in andaround the beach by hazardous waste.

Incinerating Hazardous Waste Some hazardous wastes are dis-posed of by burning, often in specially designed incinerators.Incinerators can be a safe way to dispose of waste, but they haveseveral problems. Incineration is generally the most expensive formof waste disposal because they require a lot of energy to operate.Incinerators also need pollution-control devices and need to becarefully monitored so that hazardous gases and particles are notreleased into the air. Also, after hazardous waste is incinerated, theleftover ash needs to be buried. This ash is usually buried in a haz-ardous waste landfill.

When we put hazardous waste into disposal facilities forlong-term storage the wastes do not disappear. Instead, they mustbe closely monitored. For example, disposal of radioactive wastesfrom nuclear reactors is an especially difficult storage problem.The only way to make the radioactive wastes nonhazardous is tolet them sit for thousands of years until the radioactivitydecreases to safe levels. Therefore, engineers and geologists searchfor disposal sites that probably will not be damaged by move-ments of the Earth for thousands of years.

Exporting Hazardous Waste Until recently, only local laws regu-lated waste disposal in the United States. Companies would oftenget rid of hazardous wastes by sending them to landfills in otherstates, especially the less populated southern states. In the 1980s,as southern populations grew, these southern states began torefuse hazardous wastes from other states.

Hazardous wastes are also exported through international tradeagreements. Some hazardous wastes are exported to other countriesbecause there may be a facility in another country that specializes intreating, disposing of, or recycling a particular hazardous waste.


GeofactBiomining Bacteria are not onlyused to break down hazardouswastes, but they are also used toextract copper and gold from ore.This technique is called biomining.Currently, 25 percent of the world’scopper is produced through bio-mining. Today, scientists areattempting to bioengineer bacterialstrains that can mine poisonousheavy metals such as arsenic, cad-mium, and mercury from ore.

Figure 18 � Chemicals can be usedto clean up hazardous wastes. Thistractor is spreading chemicals to helpbreak down the oil from an oil spill ona beach in Wales, United Kingdom.


Hazardous Wastes at HomeYou may think of hazardous waste management as a problemthat only big industries face. However, everyday household prod-ucts can also create hazardous waste. Chemicals, including housepaint, pesticides, and batteries all create hazardous waste and areused in homes, schools, and businesses. Additional hazardoushousehold products are listed in Table 4. Hazardous materialspoured down the drain or put in the trash end up in solid-wastelandfills. These hazardous wastes should instead be disposed of ina specially designed hazardous waste landfill.

Disposing of Household Hazardous Waste To make sure thathousehold hazardous waste is disposed of properly, more andmore cities around the country have begun to provide collectionfor household hazardous waste. Some cities collect materialsonly once or twice a year, while other cities have permanentfacilities where residents can drop off hazardous waste.Trained workers sort the hazardous materials and send somematerials for recycling and pack other materials into barrelsfor disposal. Used batteries and motor oil are recycled. Paintmay be blended and used for city park maintenance or toclean up graffiti.

Motor Oil If you have ever changed the oil in your car your-self, you have probably wondered what to do with the old,dirty oil. It is illegal to pour it on the ground or throw it inthe trash. But, you may be surprised to find out that people inthe United States throw away about 700 million liters (185million gallons) of used motor oil every year. This amountdoes not include the oil disposed of by service stations andautomobile repair shops.

So what can people do with the oil? One option is to takeit to an automobile service station, where it will be turned infor recycling. Some cities have designated oil-collection recep-tacles as shown in Figure 19. These cities recycle the used oil turnedin by citizens. If you do not know what services your communityprovides, you can call your local city government and find out.


Table 4 �

1. Name two characteristics of hazardous waste.

2. Identify one law that governs hazardous waste.

3. Describe two common ways to dispose of hazardouswaste in the United States. What is one advantageand one disadvantage of one of these methods?

4. Describe how bacteria could be used to degradehazardous wastes. Write a short paragraph to explainyour answer.

CRITICAL THINKING5. Evaluating Ideas Suppose that a surface impound-

ment site for hazardous waste is planned for yourcommunity. Would you oppose locating the site inyour community? Explain your answer.

6. Applying Ideas Suppose someone dumped left-over motor oil on a driveway. Could this disposalmethod contaminate the air, water, or soil? Explainyour answer.WRITING SKILLS

S E C T I O N 3 Review

Figure 19 � Used motor oil shouldbe disposed of at an automobileservice station or in an oil-collectionreceptacle.

Common Hazardous Household Products

• motor oil

• paints

• batteries

• computers

• mobile phones

• pesticides

• fertilizers

• cleaners

• antifreeze


HighlightsC H A P T E R 19

1 Solid Waste

2 Reducing Solid Waste

3 Hazardous Waste

500 Chapter 19 Highlights

Key Termssolid waste, 481biodegradable, 483municipal solid

waste, 484landfill, 485leachate, 485

Main Ideas� Every year, people in the United States gen-erate more than 10 billion metric tons ofsoild waste.

� Materials that are biodegradable, such asnewspapers and cotton fibers, can be brokendown by biological processes. Materials thatare not biodegradable such as plastics, are amajor cause of disposal problems.

� Municipal solid waste makes up only a smallfraction of the total solid waste generated, butit still amounts to over 210 million metric tonsper year.

� Landfills and incinerators are two facilitiesused for disposing solid waste.

source reduction, 488recycling, 489compost, 490

� Source reduction is a method by which wecan produce less waste, recycle, and reuse materials.

� Recycling is the process of reusing materialsor recovering valuable materials from waste orscrap.

� A compost pile made from plant and animalmatter can be spread on gardens and fields toenrich the soil.

� Degradable plastic is a type of plastic that ispartially made from living things.

hazardous waste, 493deep-well injection,

496surface impound-

ment, 496

� Hazardous waste is any waste that is a riskto the health of humans or other living things.

� The Resource Conservation and RecoveryAct (RCRA) and the Superfund Act were estab-lished to regulate solid and hazardous wastedisposal and to protect humans and the envi-ronment from waste contamination.

� Activities at home can create hazardouswaste. Household hazardous wastes shouldbe properly disposed of at designated collec-tion sites.


Review

Chapter 19 Review 501

Using Key TermsUse each of the following terms in a separatesentence.

1. source reduction2. leachate3. municipal solid waste4. biodegradable5. recycling

Use the correct key term to complete each of thefollowing sentences.

6. __________ is any waste that is a risk to thehealth of humans or other living things.

7. A dark brown, crumbly material made fromdecomposed vegetable and animal matter iscalled _________.

8. A _________ is a waste disposal facility wherewastes are put in the ground and coveredeach day with a layer of dirt, plastic, or both.

STUDY TIP

Understanding Key Ideas9. Solid waste includes all of the following

excepta. newspaper and soda bottles.b. food scraps and yard clippings.c. ozone and carbon dioxide.d. junk mail and milk cartons.

10. If your shirt is made of 50 percent cottonand 50 percent polyester, what part isbiodegradable?a. cottonb. polyesterc. both (a) and (b)d. none of the above

11. Microorganisms are unable to break downplastics because plasticsa. are made from oil.b. are too abundant.c. are made of elements not found in any

other substance.d. do not occur in nature.

12. Municipal solid waste is approximately whatpercentage of all solid waste?a. 2 percentb. 20 percentc. 60 percentd. 90 percent

13. Leachate is a substance that a. is produced in a compost pile.b. is a byproduct of bacterial digestion.c. is produced by incinerators.d. contains dissolved toxic chemicals.

14. Which of the following is not a benefit of incinerating waste?a. It reduces the amount of material sent to

the landfill.b. It produces energy in the form of heat.c. It can be used to produce electricity.d. It neutralizes all of the toxic materials in

the waste.15. Manufacturers could reduce waste and con-

serve resources by making products thata. use more materials.b. are more durable.c. are difficult to repair.d. are disposable.

16. Which of the following is one way to reducean over-supply of recyclable materials?a. build more recycling plantsb. limit the amount of recyclable materials

that can be collectedc. increase the demand for products made

from recycled materialsd. put the excess materials in landfills

17. Most of the municipal solid waste in theUnited States isa. stored in landfills.b. recycled.c. incinerated.d. None of the above

C H A P T E R 19

Increase Your Vocabulary To learn and remem-ber vocabulary words, use a dictionary for wordsyou do not understand and become familiar withthe glossaries of your textbooks.

STUDY TIP


ReviewShort Answer18. Do you think incineration is an efficient dis-

posal method for glass and metal wastes?Write a short paragraph that explains whyor why not.

19. How do plastic liners and layers of clay helpprotect the environment around a landfill?

20. What are the materials that make up com-post? List at least three benefits of com-posting.

21. How does the Superfund Act allow the fed-eral government to ensure proper disposal ofhazardous waste?

Interpreting GraphicsThe graph below shows the number of landfillsin the United States from the year 1988 to theyear 1998. Use the graph to answer questions22–24.22. Approximately how many landfills existed in

1988? in 1998?23. During the span of 10 years, did the overall

number of landfills increase or did the num-ber decrease? What may have caused thischange? Explain your answer.

24. If this trend continues, what might the graphlook like for the year 2028?

WRITING SKILLS

Concept Mapping25. Use the following terms to create a concept

map: solid waste, hazardous waste, landfills,types of waste, surface impoundment, methods of waste disposal, incineration, and deep-well injection.

Critical Thinking26. Understanding Concepts During the 1970s,

the production of municipal solid wastedecreased. An economic recession was alsooccurring. How might the reduction in wastehave been related to the recession?

27. Making Comparisons Read the description ofrecycling in this chapter and compare the ben-efits of buying a product that has been recy-cled to the benefits of buying a brand newproduct. Which product would you prefer tobuy? Explain your answer.

28. Evaluating Information How would a banon the production of plastics affect both theenvironment and society?

29. Identifying Relationships When we pur-chase hazardous household products, such asmotor oil, bleach, and pesticides, what hap-pens to the containers when they are empty?What happens to the hazardous waste thatthese products create?

30. Predicting Consequences How might a per-son’s current shopping habits affect the qualityof the environment 100 years in the future?

Cross-Disciplinary Connection31. Social Studies Use an almanac to determine

which five states have the greatest number ofhazardous waste sites. What factors do youthink might account for the number of haz-ardous waste sites located in a state?

Portfolio Project32. Make a Display Do a special project about

recycling in your community. Determinewhat types of materials are collected, wherethey are taken for processing, how they arerecycled, and what products are made fromthem. Display your findings on a poster.

READING SKILLS

C H A P T E R 19N

umb

er o

f ac

tive

lan

dfi

lls in

th

e U

.S.

Year

Source: BioCycle.

1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998

8,000

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

502 Chapter 19 Review

?

? ?


Chapter 19 Review 503

Read the passage below, and then answerthe questions that follow.

All organisms need nitrogen to make proteinsand nucleic acids. The complex pathway thatnitrogen follows within an ecosystem iscalled the nitrogen cycle. Most living thingscannot use nitrogen gas directly from theatmosphere. The process of converting nitro-gen gas to compounds that organisms can useis called nitrogen fixation. Organisms rely onthe actions of bacteria that are able to trans-form and “fix” nitrogen gas into these com-pounds. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria convertnitrogen gas into ammonia, which plants canabsorb and use to make proteins. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria live in the soil and in the rootsof some kinds of plants, such as beans, peas,clover, and alfalfa.

Decomposers break down the wastes oforganisms and release the nitrogen they con-tain as ammonia. This process is known asammonification. Through ammonification,nitrogen that would otherwise be lost is rein-troduced into the ecosystem.

1. After nitrogen-fixing bacteria convert nitrogen gas into ammonia, a. nitrogen fixation occurs.b. plants can absorb the ammonia to

make proteins. c. nitrogen-fixing bacteria absorb the

ammonia.d. decomposers absorb the ammonia.

2. If decomposers did not break down thewaste that organisms create, a. nitrogen would be released into the

atmosphere as ammonia.b. ammonification would occur.c. nitrogen-fixing bacteria would not con-

vert nitrogen gas into ammonia.d. nitrogen would not be released into the

atmosphere as ammonia.

MATH SKILLS

Use the table below to answer questions 33–35.

33. Evaluating Data How many tons of paperproducts were generated according to thetable?

34. Making Calculations How many tons ofnewspapers were recycled? How many tonsof newspapers were not recycled?

35. Making Calculations How many tons of office papers were recycled? How many tonsof office papers were not recycled?

WRITING SKILLS

36. Writing Persuasively Pretend that youwork for a company that sells degradableplastics. Write an advertising campaign thatwould persuade consumers to buy materialsmade from your company’s brand ofdegradable plastic.

37. Outlining Topics Describe the various ways inwhich hazardous waste can be disposed. Listthe advantages and disadvantages of each way.

Paper Products in Municipal Solid Waste

Generation PercentageProduct (tons) recycled

Newspapers 13,620 56.4

Books 1,140 14.0

Magazines 2,260 20.8

Office papers 7,040 50.4

Now that you have read the chapter, take amoment to review your answers to the ReadingWarm-Up questions in your EcoLog. If necessary,revise your answers.

READING FOLLOW-UP


504 Chapter 19 Skills Practice Lab

Solid Waste in Your LunchAre you aware of how much waste you produce during onemeal? Various government and private agencies study the amountand types of food waste we produce and are continuously work-ing to solve the problems of waste disposal. In this lab activity,you will determine how much solid waste you produce during atypical lunch. You will also predict through calculations howmuch solid waste your school population produces during lunch.

Procedure1. Collect all your lunch waste on the day of the lab activity or

the day before the lab activity depending on whether yourclass meets before or after lunch. Put all of your lunch wastein a plastic bag, including leftover food items, wrappers, nap-kins, straws, unopened containers of condiments, and dispos-able trays.

2. Each lab group member should place his or her plastic bag ofwaste on the worktable. Each member should separate his orher waste on a paper towel into the following categories:paper and cardboard, plastic, metal, glass, wood, and food.

3. Determine the mass of the waste in grams produced for eachcategory for each person in the group. Create a data tablesimilar to the one shown below and record the masses.

4. Detemine the total mass for each category for the lab group.Then, determine the average mass of solid waste per studentfor each category. Finally, determine the overall total amountof solid waste produced for each student.

Objectives� Recognize various categories and

amounts of solid waste produced.� Compute percentages of waste,

by category, produced per personin a single meal.

� Generalize data from a smallsample for a large population usingcalculations.

� Infer fromsmall data samples the impact thatwaste production has on a largepopulation.

� Evaluatehow waste data can be used tocommunicate results and offer solutions.

Materialsbalance, triple beam or

electronic calculatorpaper towelsplastic bagsruler

USING SCIENTIFIC METHODS

USING SCIENTIFIC METHODS

Skills Practice Lab: CONSUMERC H A P T E R 19

Total mass Average Waste category Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 of lab group mass/student

Paper and cardboard

Plastic

Metal

Glass

Wood

Food

Total

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOK


2. Organizing Data Use the equation above to determine thepercentage for each waste category that makes up the totalwaste for your lab group. Divide the total waste for each cat-egory from the table on the previous page by the grand totaland multiply by 100. Add another column to your data tableto record these values.

3. Examining Data Compare your averages for each cate-gory and the total with other groups in the class. Howand why are the data different or similar?

4. Examining Data Which category of waste makes upthe greatest percentage of the total waste? Explainyour answer.

Conclusions5. Making Predictions How can you calculate the

lunch waste produced in each category and over-all by your entire school’s student body in a day?Use your equation to make this calculation.

6. Applying Conclusions How can you use theknowledge you have acquired by doing this cal-culation exercise to reduce the amount of wasteyou produce?

Chapter 19 Skills Practice Lab 505

Analysis 1. Organizing Data Use the equation below to determine the

percentage for each waste category that makes up your totalwaste as an individual. Add another column to your datatable to record this value.

Mass (in grams) of waste category

Mass (in grams) of total waste� 100 =

waste category’s percentage of total waste

� Step 4 Determine the mass of thewaste produced in grams for eachcategory of waste.

1. Research and Communications Write a letter to the editorof your school’s newspaper, the editor of the local news-paper, or your school’s principal or cafeteria manager shar-ing the data your class has gathered and calculated. Offercreative solutions to eliminate and reduce some of the waste.

Extension


SHOULD NUCLEAR WASTE BE STORED AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN?

506 Chapter 19 Points of View

Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, hasbeen chosen as the location for thenation’s first permanent storage sitefor nuclear waste. Nuclear fuel isused to generate electricity. Nuclearwaste is created after nuclear fuelcan no longer be used to generateelectricity. This waste is called high-level radioactive waste. High-levelradioactive waste includes solids,liquids, and gases that contain ahigh concentration of radioactiveisotopes that take thousands ofyears to decay. The idea is to seal77,000 tons of radioactive waste insteel canisters and store the canistersin underground tunnels designed tolast 10,000 years. Yucca Mountainis scheduled to receive its first ship-ment of nuclear waste by 2010.

Construction of the facility hasalready begun. But the debate con-tinues about whether it would besafer to store radioactive wastes atYucca Mountain or to keep themwhere they are now—in temporarystorage facilities at each nuclearpower plant.

For the Yucca Mountain SiteThose who support construction ofthe facility point out that there aretwo major advantages to the plan.First, Yucca Mountain is located ina remote region that is far fromlarge populations of people. Second,the climate is extremely dry. YuccaMountain usually receives less than20 cm of precipitation a year, mostof which evaporates before it cansoak into the ground. Therefore,this dry climate means that precipi-tation is unlikely to cause the watertable to rise and come in contact

with the stored nuclear waste.Water is the primary way by whichradioactive material could movefrom the storage facility.

Many opponents of the siteworry that changes in the climatemight cause the water table to rise.They say groundwater could thenreach the stored nuclear waste andbecome contaminated. However,supporters of the site point to several scientific studies, whichdetermined that no significant riseor fall of the water table hasoccurred in the past.

Operators of nuclear powerplants are anxious for the YuccaMountain facility to be completed.Currently, each power plant storesits nuclear waste near the plant.Many of these storage sites havebeen in use for decades and areapproaching their maximumcapacity.

Some people believe that storingwastes in one location will be saferthan storing them at the individualpower plants. In addition, some ofthe nuclear waste is contained inpools of water rather than in under-ground containers. Some people

fear that the hazardous wastescould leak into neighborhoodsaround the country.

Supporters of the Yucca Moun-tain storage facility think that thisisolated location in Nevada is a suit-able place for permanent nuclear-waste disposal.

Against the Yucca Mountain SitePerhaps the fiercest outcry againstthe Yucca Mountain site comesfrom Nevada residents. They fearthat if tons of highly toxic waste arestored in one place, some of itmight eventually leak. Because someof this waste is so toxic that a tinyamount could be lethal, a majorenvironmental disaster could resultif small quantities of waste reachthe environment.

Some people are concerned thatthe radioactive waste might leakinto the groundwater. The wastecontainers are expected to last 500to 1,000 years, but they will have toremain isolated and not come intocontact with water for 10,000years. Opponents of the plan say

� Supporters of the YuccaMountain storage facility think thatthis isolated spot in Nevada is asuitable place for permanentnuclear-waste disposal.


Chapter 19 Points of View 507

What Do You Think?There are over 100 nuclearpower facilities in the UnitedStates. Using the Internet,research to find a nuclear powerfacility near your community. Ifthere is not one near your com-munity, how close is the nearestnuclear power facility? Is thisnuclear power plant still in op-eration? After researching,would you be for or against theYucca Mountain site?

that nobody can guarantee that thecontainers will remain isolated forthat long.

If radioactive waste leaked outof the facility, the waste could con-taminate the water in wells, springs,and streams. In time, the contami-nation could spread from the siteand into the environment.

Another worry is that transport-ing nuclear waste across vast dis-tances to Yucca Mountain is riskierthan leaving the material near thefacilities where it is produced. Anyaccident along the way could releaseradioactivity into the environment.

Most opponents of the YuccaMountain site agree that currentmethods of storing nuclear wasteare dangerous and should be im-proved. They suggest that by trans-ferring the waste to solid steel andconcrete containers, the waste couldbe safely stored at each nuclearpower facility for 75 to 100 years.By that time, they suggest, more willbe known about how to store thewastes safely for thousands of years.

� This map shows the nuclear power plants around the country that arepossible sources of nuclear waste for the Yucca Mountain facility.

� The preliminary plan for the YuccaMountain nuclear-waste storage facil-ity shows radioactive materials care-fully packaged and buried in tunnelsdeep underground.


section 3 hazardous waste...preventing hazardous waste one way to prevent hazardous waste is to...

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