Re-Think Unit-CHAPTER 2 - SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Re-Think
An educational Unit for children up to Grade 4
Written by Valerie Thom, B.Ed. and edited by Allard W. van Veen, APR, Fellow, CPRS

For many years, certain assumptions about our solid waste problems have existed in the books, pamphlets, films and teaching units produced about garbage. Some of these ideas seem to be just plain common sense, based on our everyday observations. However, research has proven some of these to be false – you might be surprised!

Myth: We can recycle our way out of an ever-increasing waste stream.	Fact: Even those communities with a curbside collection recycling system in place recycle only 10% or less of their waste. Even if a much higher rate of recycling could be achieved, most communities would have difficulty keeping up with the rate by which waste generation is increasing.
Myth: Garbage biodegrades in a landfill.	Fact: After 30 years, some newspapers, one of the most easily biodegradable products under the right conditions of moisture and temperature, have been found intact and readable in landfill excavations.

North Americans produce the largest amount of household garbage per capita of any people in the world, producing approximately 2.2 kilograms per person per day. But the total amount of garbage produced is more than just household garbage. It also includes manufacturing, construction and commercial wastes.

The constituents of garbage can be measured by weight and volume; each method is valid when considering various factors. For instance, heavier garbage costs more to transport, thereby causing more air pollution and using up more of a non-renewable resource because more gasoline is required in its transportation. More voluminous garbage requires greater landfill space, a dwindling resource, which is causing a garbage disposal crisis in many more densely populated communities.

Concern about our garbage, what it represents in terms of resource depletion, environmental costs and attitudes and how we dispose of it, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Historically, garbage has been treated in one of four ways: burning, dumping, reclaiming, or reducing at source. Dumping was (and is) the most popular method.

Since ancient times, man has dumped his garbage on the floors or out of the windows of his dwellings. Domestic animals roaming streets and homes scavenged the edible remains, and human scavengers hunted for reusable and/or resalable items; disposal systems which are still in use today in many developing countries.

Today, most municipal garbage collected by truck is disposed of in one, or a combination, of three ways. In urban areas, the garbage is transported either directly or via collection stations to a landfill, which is called a sanitary landfill site. This is a large area of land dedicated to the specific use of storing garbage. The site is often an area determined to be undesirable for development, such as a bog or swamp, an old quarry, non-arable land, etc… The garbage dumped is then regularly compacted and covered with dirt. Eventually, when the mass is settled, the area may be reclaimed for housing or parkland.

Landfills cause environmental problems, including the production of potentially explosive methane gas and other air pollutants, and leachates, which can pollute groundwater and thus adjacent water bodies. Recently, liners of clay or plastic have been used in landfills to try to prevent the escape of pollutants into the surrounding land and/or water, but these are not guaranteed solutions.

In a landfill site there is little decomposition of wastes, even largely biodegradable wastes such as paper, because the specific moisture, PH, nutrient, bacterial and temperature conditions required for decomposition are not present in landfills. Since landfill sites are covered by dirt, photodegradable items do not breakdown either, as they do not receive enough light to decompose.

In some rural areas, garbage can be taken to a dump. A garbage dump operates without the environmental controls used at a sanitary landfill, such as high and strong fencing, regular compaction and covering with earth, leachate controls, etc… dumps are eyesores, providing a source for wind blown litter and groundwater pollution.

In some municipalities in Canada, the collected garbage (with or without an accompanying curbside recycling program) is processed at a Resource Recovery Plant. Certain recyclable resources such as paper, plastics, metal and glass may be removed and the remainder is incinerated or landfilled. In some plants, the remaining garbage is first converted into refuse derived fuel (rdf) for use in incinerators.

Municipal garbage may also be burnt in an incinerator without the recyclable portion being claimed. Modern incinerators are equipped with emission abatement devices to control air pollutants, including combustion gases and unburned combustion products. The remaining ash and non-combustibles, often containing chemical pollutants, still have to be disposed of. Heat produced during incineration can be converted to provide electricity.

Incineration requires a steady and considerable volume of garbage in order to run efficiently, and at sufficiently high heat to minimize the toxic effects of combustion. Maintaining these large volumes of garbage may divert money and effort away from the development of more environmentally friendly disposal efforts, such as waste reduction and recycling.

Hazardous waste, such as some industrial, chemical, and pharmaceutical wastes, and clinical hospital wastes, is handled independently of municipal solid waste.

Recycling, for years a minor alternative to post-consumer garbage disposal, has recently become the most popular alternative, with a rapidly increasing number of communities in Canada setting up recycling systems to help reduce the amount of garbage going into landfills or being incinerated. Largely in response to public pressure, manufacturers of materials previously considered not post-consumer recyclable (many manufacturing industries recycle production scraps in-house) are now recycling consumer-provided wastes, most notably in the plastics industry. The combined effects of consumer pressure for more responsible ways of handling our wastes and non-renewable resources, and legislative action at all levels of government, are helping to make the recycling of many products both more cost-effective and socially acceptable.

Almost half of the household garbage we now produce can be diverted from going to a landfill site, or an incinerator, if we reuse and recycle some of the wastes we produce. Non-meat food wastes, for example, account for up to one-third of our total garbage by volume, and are entirely reusable by composting. In addition to non-meat food wastes, we can also compost other nitrogen rich materials such as fresh grass clippings, houseplants and manure as well as carbon rich materials such as dry leaves, straw and dry seaweed.

In addition to composting, we can also reuse some containers and other items, such as reusable shopping bags (if you do not already own your own reusable shopping bags), thereby reducing the waste produced in our homes.

Recycling is becoming increasingly popular in many parts of Canada, as many communities initiate organized household (curbside) recycling programs and as more and more community recycling centres are established. However, even with the introduction of "blue box" and other programs, present efforts at recycling in Canada will only just keep up with the projected increase in the production of garbage, and will not significantly decrease the amount of garbage going to landfills and incinerators.

Materials, which can now be recycled in most urban areas in Canada, include paper (various grades, most commonly newspapers and high grade paper such as computer paper), glass, metal, some plastics and used motor oil.

Recent changes in attitudes and behaviour towards our garbage problem have shown that the aware, informed citizen who is prepared to take environmentally positive actions can make a difference. Your students can help to educate their parents and their community about what else can be done to help improve environmental quality and to conserve our resources through better solid waste management.

Some of the activities in this Primary Unit ask the students to examine their attitudes to such things as disposables (RECYCLING: ACTIVITY 9), wearing/using second-hand items (RECYCLING: ACTIVITY 11), scavenging (RECYCLING: ACTIVITY 11) and littering (LITTER: ACTIVITY 6). It is accepted by all those concerned about our environment, and the quality of the environment for our children, and our children’s children, that we have to change our attitudes to wasteful, endless consumption.

The activities in this unit were designed to help students work together as a group to realize the necessity of more environmentally aware attitudes and thus decisions for the good of all. It is very difficult for the individual to stand alone in his/her attitudes and beliefs. We hope that through activities such as these, when today’s student is tomorrow’s adult, he/she will realize that he/she is not alone when making environmentally positive decision, but will have the support and encouragement of his/her peers who learned the same lessons when they were young.

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