Garbage Problem

?

Composting: Recycling Biological Material to Soil

What is composting?

A natural process in which organic material such as yard waste and food scraps are turned into a rich, soil-like material that can be used as a fertilizer

It’s organic, it’s biodegradable, but is it compostable?!

Historical Changes

• Quantity

• Quality

• Disposable

• Durable

The average useful life of a plastic carrier bag is 12 minutes yet they take 500-1000 years to break down in a landfill site.

7 billions disposed plastic bags every year in UK only

Quantity• The EU produces 1.3 billion tonnes of waste each year. In other

words, 3.5 tonnes of refuse and liquid or solid waste per European citizen. It is estimated that 40 - 45 million tonnes of this are classed as hazardous, or particularly dangerous.

• Each day the United States throws away enough trash to fill 63,000 garbage trucks.In fact, in 2006, U.S. residents produced more than 251 million tons of municipal solid waste, which is approximately 2kg of waste per person per day. In addition, American industrial facilities generate and dispose of approximately 7.6 billion tons of industrial solid waste each year.

• In EU - of the 3.5 tonnes of total waste per person per year, 535kg is domestic waste, ie, what individuals put in their bins. This has increased from around 325kg twenty years ago, and is still on the way up

The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year.

This rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London

in less than 2 hours.

Garbage: Where does it go?

• Most garbage in the U.S. goes to landfills.

• A landfill is a specially designed site that must hold lots of garbage without letting solid material, liquids, or odors seep into nearby air, water, and soil

• What might be some ways to reuse a landfill once it is capped and closed?

Fresh Kills Municipal Landfill, Staten Island

Picture of Fresh Kills taken c.1990, operated 1948-2001

Landfill Operations

Daily Production & Compaction

Gas Treatment

Gas Flaring

Leachate Treatment

Daily Cover

Gas/Condensate Monitoring & Collection

Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) or solid recovered fuel/ specified recovered fuel (SRF) is a fuel produced by shredding and dehydrating municipal solid waste (MSW) in a converter or steam pressure treating in an autoclave.

WTE OperationsSorting Refuse Derived Fuel

Ash Management

Wastes Management Options

The Three Rs Principle

ReduceR

ecy

cle Reu

se

What can be recycled? Metal

• Aluminum cans• Steel cans• Automobiles• Scrap metal• Precious metals (gold,

silver, platinum, etc.)• Recycling metal is a

high priority because almost all metals have strong market value!

Recycling metal saves energy and reduces the need for future mining!

Metal recycling…

• Americans throw away enough aluminum cans to rebuild USA commercial air fleet every three months, and enough iron and steel to supply all US automakers every day

What can be recycled: Paper

• Office Paper• Cardboard• Paper bags• Packaging• Newspaper• Magazines

One ton of paper from recycled pulp saves 17 trees, 2.3m3 of landfill volume, 27m3 of water, 4,200 kilowatt hours (enough to heat your home for half year), 1.5m3 of oil, and prevents 27kg of air pollutants.

Consuming and recycling…

• The average American, in one lifetime, uses: 18 tons of paper, 23 tons of wood, 16 tons of metal, and 32 tons of organic chemicals.

• About 4,000 minerals have been identified, of these around 100 can be called common, another several hundred are relatively common, and the rest are rare. Without more recycling, zinc could be used up by 2037, both indium and hafnium could run out by 2017, and terbium could be gone before 2012.

• Sixty percent of U.S. municipal solid waste still gets Sixty percent of U.S. municipal solid waste still gets buried in landfills…buried in landfills…

What can be recycled: Some Plastics…

Many recyclers do not take plastic bags, styrofoam, and certain other plastics.Find out if your recycler accepts it before you toss it in the bin

Building Materials: Recycling Old to New

• Wood• Concrete• Brick• Asphalt• Ceramics• Steel• Glass• Flooring• Roofing• Insulation• Interior

From demolition…to construction!

More than 30 million inkjet cartridges are dumped each year in the UK alone, the equivalent weight

of 18 blue whales.

Mechanical-Biological Treatment

Wastes handling goes hi-tech

Main Problems

• Separation

• Hazardous Waste

• Radioactive wastes

• Ocean pollution

Household Hazardous Waste (HHW):Not Safe for Landfills

- Electronics (contain toxics)- Paint- Medical waste, including biomedical sharps (needles)- Pharmaceuticals- Batteries- Light bulbs- Mercury, other heavy metals (old thermometers, thermostats)- Household chemicals & cleaners: drain cleaner, detergent, antifreeze, motor oil, etc.

Over 40 million tons of hazardous waste is produced each year in the US only.

• Vitrification

• Bury

• …

• … and wait several thousand years

Of the 100 million tons of plastic produced annually, 10% ends up in the ocean

More than a million birds and marine animals die each year from consuming or becoming caught in plastic and other debris

Sewage include physical, chemical, and biological contaminants.Water pollution accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily.

…where does most litter end up? The ocean!!!

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch or Pacific Garbage Vortex is the world’s largest collection of waterborne plastic.

Not-so-fun facts about ocean plastic:-The Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas! And it is growing!-Plastic does NOT biodegrade and harms seabirds and ocean life when it accumulates in the water-There is 5x as much plastic in the patch as plankton (natural debris) by weight

Above: Harvesting plastic from the oceanBelow: The ocean currents that deposit plastic into the Pacific Garbage Patch

Chain Effect

Floating garbage is consumed by jelly fish and other organisms,

which in turn is consumed by the fish

that we eat.

• … Thy wrath came, and the time … for destroying the destroyers of the Earth(Revelation 11:18)

What You Can Do

• In Your Home

• In Your Community

• At the Office

• In Industry

• At the Store

Questions???

Thank you for your attention

Anar R Guliev