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28 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are the 3 categories of Solid Waste? |
Municipal Solid Waste ("non hazardous") Special waste (medical waste, construction, seweage) Hazardous waste (harmful) |
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What drives waste production? |
Rising Incomes Fewer people per household Preference for disposable items Technological obsolescence (cheaper to buy new products than to repair old ones) |
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What are the four ways of waste disposal? What is waste diversion? |
-Open dumping (uncommon in high-income countries) -Landfills (same as open dumping but is an area that is specifically for open dumping) -Incineration (reduces volume, produces air pollution, requires technology, toxic ash) -Composting Waster diversion = recycling |
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In Canada how much waste goes to landfills? Incineration? |
95% landfill, 5% incineration |
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What do we throw away most? |
Compostable Organics (46%) then plastics (about 13-18%) |
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Where is the waste-to-energy incinerator? Landfills? |
Burnaby, Vancouver (delta) and Cache Creek |
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What is the problem with open dumping? |
It is an unlined Landfill that can cause contamination into ground water called leachate |
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What do we need to take into account when creating a land fill? (3 things) |
Site considerations: adequate area, availability of top soil for coverage req., proximity to surrounding populations Design: liner (barrier between landfill and underlying soil/ground water) leachate collection system Monitoring: groundwater contamination methane gas |
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Incinerators are common in locations with major _______ limitations? |
space |
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What does waste-to-energy mean? |
that incinerators are used to produce energy/electricity from burning |
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What are the goals of Incinerators? |
To reduce the volume of waste and reduce hazardous characteristics ofthe waste |
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What is the main concern of incinerators? |
Air pollution: combustion of some organics in presence of chlorine can produce dioxins |
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What are some potential environmental and health concerns from solid waste facilities? |
-Infectious disease (rats, flies, mosquitoes) -Drinking water contamination (Leachate) -Air pollution from landfills/incinerators -Odours |
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What is a general definition of hazardous waste? |
Waste with properties that make it capable of harming human health or the environment |
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Hazardous waste has one of four properties, what are these properties? |
Corrosive, Flammable, Toxic, Reactive |
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What are two ways Hazardous waste is disposed of? |
Secure Chemical Landfill (cheapest method, possible future contamination) Deep well injection (liquid waste): pumping of waste into porous rock underground, well below groundwater aquifers |
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What is E-waste? |
Electronic waste: Computers, televisions, cellphones, etc |
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E-waste from high-income countries ends up where? why? |
to the developed world, time consuming to take apart of e-waste, and e-waste can contain valuable components such as copper (cu) ~70% of global e-waste |
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Why is it a problem to have workers to recycle e-waste? |
There is a lot of harmful materials in e-waste, such as lead. |
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Inequality vs Injustice |
Inequality: refers to two things that are unequal, differences in individuals or groups (income, health, pollution exposure, etc) but does not imply justice or fairness Injustice: implies a lack of fairness/justice |
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What did the study on proximity of schools to major roads show? |
Schools found in high income neighbourhoods are less likely to be closer to major roads, where lower income neighbourhoods are more likely to be closer to a major road |
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What are 4 Environmental Justice Concerns? |
1. Distribution of environmental hazards 2. Distribution of the effects of environmental hazards 3. Access to the policy-making process 4. Administration of environmental protection programs |
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Where was the origin of environmental justice concern? |
Warren County, NC ~65% african american population |
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What happend in Warren County, NC? |
PCBs were disposed by a company with contaminated oil with PCBs, contaminated 32,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and chose warren county as the site of disposal
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What is leachate? |
Water that trickles through waste and accumulates at the bottom of the landfill, it can pollute groundwater if there is not an adequate barrier |
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What are criticisms of Environmental Justice research? |
Exposure vs Health -easier to demonstrate differences exposure than to demonstrate differences in health effects resulting from the exposure Chicken or the egg -Did the residents come to the nuisance or was the nuisance imposed on them (problem in a cross-sectional study) mobility differences: rich people will just move away from the hazardous waste, so the inequality will persist |
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What are some examples of environmental justice examples? |
Warren County, E waste to low-income countries (Khian Sea), Petrochemical waste dumped in Ivory coast |
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What is an Environmental Justice problem in Canada? (There are 3 examples in this answer) |
Proportion of dwellings in need of major repairs, first nation problems live in poor conditions In ontario, first nations people live surrounded by the largest petrochemical complex in Canada, researchers found that this caused gender imbalances (less males) High levels of E.coli detected in drinking water in First nation community in Northern Ontario |
