Waste Not Want Not: An Alternative Solution to Waste Dumping

Alexander Leo Jancosek

Purdue University Calumet

We live in a fast-paced world where our wants drive the lives we place ourselves in.

However all too often we tend to overlook the things around us and cause some damage in the

process. In one such case, our environment has come to suffer as we dump waste into our Great

Lakes. The ecosystem of the great lakes is already so fragile that it cannot withstand more than a

few more years of the constant strain that it is being subjected to. The factories around the Great

Lakes must implement a system to safely dispose of waste because dumping in the lakes

endangers wildlife and reduces the quality of the lakes in both the short term and the long term.

Lake Michigan is one of the most important bodies of water in the northwest Indiana

region. It supplies us with fish we can eat, water that we can drink, and of course is the biggest

shipping port for the northwest region to export the products made here. However, all that is in

danger as we keep recklessly dumping toxic waste into this great body of water. As I discussed

in my last paper, the addition of waste into the lakes have caused an increase in sediment and

while environmentalists have been able to reintroduce several wildlife species to their original

environment, countless more have not been able to survive in this changing ecosystem.

It is a widely known fact that cities are the most responsible for expelling pollutants into

the environment. All of this waste comes from the industrial sector, commuting around, and the

homes and businesses themselves (Kim, 2015, p.80). As a result, this puts the environment and

the climate in danger of even more damage. This problem will not simply disappear if we ignore

it due to the fact that it is impossible for cities to eliminate all their waste completely. However,

through the proper transportation and disposal of waste produced by cities and factory sectors we

can see a better solution for not just the environment, but the people who inhabit it as well.

The way I see it there are two different ways for us to create a system of waste disposal

that has a chance of becoming widely used. The first and most obvious choice would be to send

the quantities of waste to treatment facilities to be separated and processed before being turned

into some form of useable energy. The second would be to install incinerators on site at most of

the factories along the great lakes and directly burn both organic and inorganic waste to create a

massive amount of electricity. While both ideas have one or two flaws, they are the most viable

solutions for dealing with the current pollution problem and reduce the dumping of waste into

the great lakes altogether.

Let us start working toward the solution with the method of waste treatment facilities.

Nearly every city has one or more treatment plants designed to deal with the waste that in

produced on end within the confines of its metropolis. Transporting waste to these plants would

allow for the separation and safe disposal of organic and inorganic materials (Cherubini, 2009,

p.2119). Institutions like sorting facilities and treatments plants prevent the need for dumping

directly into the lake and provide a creative and effective way to dispose of waste. While it may

not come to anyone’s surprise that many executives may not want to dispense the extra money

required to transport the pollutants. However, as an added bonus most of the waste transport

rights can be bought from involved companies which gives them a particular reason to want to

properly dispose of waste.

A good example of an effective waste treatment plant is the Safety Kleen rerefinery in

Hammond Indiana. This facility not only takes in and purifies waste water, but also recycles used

oil and various fluids and manages to recycle them into new products for the public to use like

detergent or asphalt. They receive nearly 200 million gallons of waste and used oil every year

and 80 million of that goes to making new products while 120 million gallons of purified water

are released each year. With such a large amount of a positive output it becomes clear that waste

treatment plants are an effective method to dispose of pollutants properly. I personally took a

tour recently and saw the way the plant functions myself. It is these many treatment plants that

are slowly helping save our great lakes. In addition to the recycling of water and chemicals,

Safety Kleen also produces energy based on the excess undesirables that the plant is able to burn

off. This power is rerouted to the homes and business of Hammond as well as the plant itself and

provides a great source of energy for all that are connected to it.

While we’re on the topic of energy production, I believe it would be ideal to discuss the

second solution on the agenda, the installation of incinerators in all factories in the northwest

region. Before we go into why this would be an effective method, let’s talk a bit about what an

incinerator is. As the name suggests, an incinerator is a huge furnace that exists for the purpose

of burning both organic waste such as garbage, paper, and wood, and inorganic waste like rubber

and fabric. As the waste burns, it gives off a large amount of heat which can be harnessed and

turned into electricity. Incineration plants are not only an effective way to reduce the amount of

waste that is produced, but the creation of all the electricity benefits both the factory and the

people who live around it. Now it’s probably already possible that some of the factories around

the northwest region have incinerators, in fact it’s almost a certainty. However, these fiery

furnaces may be overlooked in favor of alternative methods of waste dumping. Incinerators are

environmentally friendly as the only excess emissions they produces are ashes and flue gas

which can be disposed of at a local garbage dump (Cherubini, 2009, p.2120). In addition to being

environmentally friendly, incinerators are some of the most cost effective machinery to run. By

producing such a massive amount of electricity, the factories that operate them can save

hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs. This not only makes up for the money spent to

power the incinerator, it makes a profit for the industry as well.

While incinerators are all well and good, in order for any new method of energy

conservation to be taken seriously there must be some example that the idea would work. In this

case, there are two examples. In the eastern country of China, nearly all of the nation’s factories

possess incinerators and use them as their primary method of waste disposal. Statistically

speaking roughly 90 percent of China’s waste mass is reduced thanks to incineration (Zhao,

2015, p.1). This is due to the high temperatures in the furnace leading to a higher reduction of

both organic and inorganic waste. While some of the incinerators in China cost something to

maintain, the amount of waste deposited in landfills has decreased significantly over the last

decade. Furthermore, the total output cost for the energy made from incinerators is much higher

than electricity made from regular power plants. China’s incinerator program has even been able

to be accepted for the clean development mechanism, which is a subsidiary of the Kyoto

Protocol, and reduce their pollutant output (Zhao, 2015, p.4). This makes incinerators a much

more stable and reliable energy source.

The second example comes from a bit farther east in Osaka, Japan. The Mashima

Incinerator plant was refurbished from an older plant and updated with newer technology and

appliances. Mashima is a very successful factory in many fields. It produces so much energy and

recycled resources that it has enough to power itself (Kim, 2015, p.3). The profits that the plant

produces help the company immensely.

Not only is Mashima an effective plant that produces well above it margin, it is one of

Osaka’s most popular tourist attractions. More than 15,000 students come to visit the plant a year

(Kim, 2015, p.3). The plant has a high educational value that teaches all who visit it to reduce the

amount of your waste as much as possible in order to preserve your environment. By giving back

a lesson to be learned to those who come to visit, the Mashima Incinerator Plant helps spread the

idea of not just protecting our waterways, but protecting our whole planet.

By showing the benefits of both waste treatment plants and incineration plants, I believe

that the necessity of these facilities are made clear. The factories around the great lakes must

implement one or more of these systems in order to protect the wildlife that abides in the lakes.

Even more so, these systems must be enforced to protect ourselves as well. While the current

pollution of the lake only effects the wildlife now, it will eventually spread to those of us who

rely on the lake for food, water and other necessities. I know it will be a difficult change that will

take a good deal of time, but I believe that it’s a change for the better. If we tackle the problem at

its source we can undo the damage done to our proud great lakes.

REFERENCES:

Cherubini, F., Bargigli, S., & Ulgiati, S. (2009). Life cycle assessment (LCA) of waste management strategies: Landfilling, sorting plant and incineration. Energy, 34(12), 2116-2123.

Jo, Y., Yu, I., Sohn, S., & Kim, D. (2015). Waste Management in the Age of Alternative Energy. International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, 7(1), 80.

Li, Y., Zhao, X., Li, Y., & Li, X. (2015). Waste incineration industry and development policies in China. Waste Management.