Download - Today’s Topic Minimizing Solid Waste
Today’s TopicMinimizing Solid Waste
Learning Goal:
SWBAT explain how they can reduce their daily
contribution of solid waste.
Please take out your notes, as we will
continue with yesterday’s notes.
We will also give out the study guide for
the final now.
RecapWhat are the two ways in which people
can lessen their personal impact on the
waste they create?
Reduce and Reuse.
What is source reduction?
ReduceWhen we reduce the amount of waste we
produce, we lower the costs of disposal and
recycling.
We also conserve resources and produce less
pollution.
The act of reducing the volume or toxicity of
waste generated, including designing and
manufacturing products with minimal volume
of material and longer useful life is known as
source reduction.
Source Reduction
Source
Reduction
Goods with
Longer
Lives
Less
Packaging
Banning
Certain
Plastics
Consume
Less
ReusingIn addition, you could be reusing,
repurposing, or selling items when you’re
finished with them.
Reduce PackagingAlthough packaging has its function:
Preserving freshness
Preventing breakage
Preventing tempering
Providing information
Too much packaging is harmful.
Reduce PackagingYou can make a difference by purchasing
items with minimal packaging, buying
food in bulk, and buying unwrapped
foods and vegetables.
You can also opt to
purchase items that
are made from
recyclable materials.
Reduce Use of Nonbiodegradable Plastics
Is this a familiar scene on grocery day?
Reduce Use of Nonbiodegradable Plastics
While you may use plastic bags for one
day, some creatures have to deal with it
for years.
Reduce Use of Nonbiodegradable Plastics
Each year, Americans discard 100 billion
plastic grocery bags.
Because most plastic
is not biodegradable
Biodegradable means an object will
decompose or break down naturally.
Reduce Use of Nonbiodegradable Plastics
Because plastic has only been widely
used for a few years, it is unknown how
long it takes for plastic to truly break
down.
As a result, creatures
may get trapped,
disfigured, or die
from plastic exposure.
Fighting BackSome places around the world have
taken steps to minimize the use of plastic
bags.
Ireland has placed taxes on plastic bags.
San Francisco, CA has
banned nonbiodegradable
plastic bags.
Design Goods to LastAnother thing we can do in order to
reduce the number of items we dispose
of is to purchase items with a long
lifespan.
However, due to planned obsolescence
(the practice of designing a project with
an artificially limited useful life), this can
be very difficult.
Planned ObsolescenceThink about technologies you use:
Playstation 1
1995 – 2000 (5 years)
Playstation 2
2000 – 2006 (6 years)
Playstation 3
2006 – 2013 (7 years)
Playstation 4
2013 - ????? (8 years?)
Financial IncentivesTo help limit the amount of garbage that
people throw away, some states or towns
utilize a “pay-as-you-throw” approach.
Municipalities will charge residents for
home trash pickup
according to how much
trash they put out.
Bottle BillsAnother program to encourage recycling is the
“bottle bill”.
In some states, consumers can return empty
bottles and cans to stores or collection
facilities and receive a refund of 5 cents per
bottle or can.
Participating states have
reported that the program
has reduced beverage litter has decreased by
69 – 84%, and total little by 30-64%!
Waste RecoveryIn addition to cutting our consumption of
goods, we can also turn to composting
and recycling to reuse used materials.
According to the EPA, in 2007 we
recovered almost one third of our
municipal solid waste by
recycling or composting!
Waste RecoveryNot only does this give our waste a
second life, but in recycling and
composting we saved energy equal to
more than 10 billion gallons of gas!
We also prevented the release of more
than 190 million metric tons of CO2,
which is equal to the amount that
35 million cars release each year!
CompostingAs we know, composting is the
conversion of organic waste into mulch or
humus through natural biological
processes of decomposition.
This compost can then be used to enrich
soil and used throughout municipalities or
in your own garden.
Some towns have a compost pick-up,
alongside their normal garbage/recycling.
RecyclingWe can also recycle much of our municipal
solid waste.
Recycling is the collection of materials that
can be broken down and reprocessed to make
new items.
How It Works
Once your recyclables are picked up (or
dropped off), they travel to a material
recovery facility.
Here’s a video explaining how recycling
and a material recovery facility works.
Limits of RecyclingRecycling rates vary from product or
material to another, and even from state
to state.
Recycling rates in the USA range from
5% - 50% material recycled.
In NJ: 30% - 40%
In PA: 20% - 30%
In NY: 67%
RecyclingNot all material can be perfectly reused
again.
Aluminum cans can safely be reused as
another aluminum cans.
However, certain things, such as paper,
glass, cardboard, and plastic normally
turn into a product of lesser quality.
DowncyclingDowncycling is the process of
converting waste materials or useless
products into new materials or products
of lesser quality and reduced
functionality.
Paper, for example,
may get turned into
pulp, and then turn
into toilet paper.
DowncyclingNot all glass can be recycled properly.
In fact, only 25% of glass gets
downcycled into things such as fiber optic
cables or an additive in concrete.
The remainder winds up in a landfill, as
the glass gets crushed too much to be
used properly.
Downcycling
UpcyclingSome materials will get upcycled,
however.
Upcycling is the process of reusing a
material in such a way to create
something more valuable than the
original material.
Upcycling, however typically requires the
input of fresh material, so it can become
expensive.