Ibrahima Diawara
Environment: Waste production must peak this century. The now-full Jardim Gramacho landfill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, received more than 10,000 tonnes of waste per day. Solid waste — the stuff we send down our chutes, discard at work and put on the curb every week — is a striking by-product of civilization. The average person in the United States throws away their body weight in rubbish every month. When waste management works well, we give it little thought: out of sight and, usually, quickly out of mind.
Discarded materials are collected, some are recycled or composted, and most are landfilled or incinerated. But the global view is troubling. In the past century, as the world's population has grown and become more urban and affluent, waste production has risen tenfold. By 2025 it will double again1. The waste problem is acute in emerging cities. As city dwellers become richer, the amount of waste they produce reaches a limit. Just when is difficult to predict. Urban problem Solid waste is mostly an urban phenomenon. Peak waste. Waste disposal facts, information, pictures. World of Earth Science COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group, Inc.
Waste management is the handling of discarded materials. Recycling and composting, which transform waste into useful products, are forms of waste management. The management of waste also includes disposal, such as landfilling. Waste can be almost anything, including food, leaves, newspapers, bottles, construction debris, chemicals from a factory, candy wrappers, disposable diapers, old cars, or radioactive materials.
People have always produced waste, but as industry and technology have evolved and the human population has grown, waste management has become increasingly complex. A primary objective of waste management today is to protect the public and the environment from potentially harmful effects of waste. Some waste materials are normally safe, but can become hazardous if not managed properly. The first humans did not worry much about waste management. The dumping of waste does not just take place on land. Why is nuclear waste bad?
Nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining and enrichment, to reactor operation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Much of this nuclear waste will remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years, leaving a poisonous legacy to future generations. Nuclear waste is often just dumped with little thought to safe storage. Decommissioning nuclear facilities will also create large amounts ofradioactive wastes. Many of the world's nuclear sites will requiremonitoring and protection for centuries after they are closed down. The global volume of spent fuel was 220,000 tonnes in the year 2000, and is growing by approximately 10,000 tonnes annually. Most of the current proposals for dealing with highly radioactivenuclear waste involve burying it in deep underground sites.
An example of where industry plans have been exposed as flawed is the proposed dump site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, US. Remember that renewables are the future! Criminal Probe Launched After Toxic Chemical Spill at Colorado Air Force Base. Get short URL Both the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the US Environmental Protection Agency are investigating the improper discharge, which was discovered on October 12. Officials have stated that the chemicals ended up in the wastewater treatment system, but did not make it into the city’s drinking water supply.
The water was contaminated with perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, which is used the firefighting foam used on military bases. The chemicals have been linked to prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers — as well as other illnesses. Officials have not revealed the levels of PFCs that were found in the water. Since the wastewater treatment system in the city is not outfitted for the removal of PFCs, the water remained contaminated as it was released into a creek.
The investigation is also trying to determine if Peterson Air Force Base is responsible for PFCs found in the well water of two other nearby communities, the Denver Post reports. What has the U.S. government been hiding about the Fukushima nuclear disaster? A massive ongoing gas leak in southern California is being compared to the 2011 Fukushima disaster. A recently declassified US government report found that the Fukushima catastrophe was far worse than had been originally reported, prompting many to wonder how severe the California gas leak really is. Methane, a greenhouse gas 70 times stronger than carbon dioxide, has been spewing into the air from a natural storage gas site in southern California for almost two months, and it isn’t expected to be fixed until this spring. An estimated 145,000 pounds worth of toxic chemicals are leaking from the site every hour. Approximately 700 households have been evacuated.(1) Officials put out a statement that noted, “SoCalGas began drilling a relief well on December 4.
Cementing the wall is the only plan officials have yet to offer. The federal government and mainstream media has been suspiciously quiet about the Fukushima disaster, claiming that it does not pose a threat to the American public. The Deathly Effects of E-Waste. Trashing our old electronics could be putting millions of people at risk. Photo: Shutterstock Many people in developed countries seem to think that the electronics they dispose of float up into the magical used-technology land in the sky.
Such is not the case. According to a recent report by the BBC, e-waste pollution is causing severe health concerns for millions of people around the world, mostly in the developing nations of Africa, Europe and Asia. Approximately 23 percent of deaths in these nations are linked to pollution and other environmental impacts. The report also concluded that more than 200 million people worldwide are at risk of exposure to toxic waste. Read the report. Related: Fix Gadgets Through iFixit.com.