GSCI1024 Environmental Science | Human and Animal Byproducts

List and explain how a landfill can affect water quality, air quality and soils?

 

Describe three ways in which we can reduce solid waste entering landfills?

Q1.

Landfill is a process of waste management undertaken by disposing the waste material into the pits constructed. The waste gets decomposed with time with the help of microorganisms present in the soil. The landfills create air pollution by releasing various toxic gases into air such as methane. These gases go straight up into the air causing global warming at a larger scale. Methane is one of the prominent greenhouse gases contributing to the increase in temperature of the earth. Landfills also affect the ground water purity by degrading it through the pollution by leachates. These are small particles that drain from top level to the ground level deteriorating the purity. These leachates consist of various toxins from different sources and get mixed with the ground water (Zhang, Dubey & Townsend, 2014). Furthermore, these leachates also affect the soil leading to the degradation in the optimal quality of it. Landfill creates soil pollution by deteriorating the fertility of the soil converting it into a bare and unripe land. Microorganisms and other source of fertility degrade with time and soil further cannot be used for agriculture, farming, horticulture and other purposes. Only organic waste upto a certain extent must be undertaken for disposing purpose through landfill method. Inorganic waste, plastic waste, battery waste, electronic waste and other non-biodegradable wastes must not be incorporated into the soil for landfills as they will net get decomposed and only contribute to the dead and decaying condition of the soil (Zhou et al., 2014).

Q2.

The first approach for the reduction of solid waste entering the landfill requires undertaking of reuse, recycle, reduce and recover steps. Reduction allows minimizing the extent of waste by undertaking different approaches based on minimal using, recycling and reusing the existing resources. Recycle allows changing the existing form of a non-biodegradable product into another one in order to reuse it for another purpose. Reuse of existing resources is a preliminary approach that allows resurges of existing resource in another form. Reduction undertakes minimal usage of the resources and using it efficiently in accordance with sustainable development (Uyguner et al., 2017). The second method includes separation of organic and inorganic components of the waste. Organic waste is also called as green waste that consists of vegetable waste, fruit waste, human and animal byproducts, garden litter, household garbage and others. While inorganic waste consist of metal, electronic waste, stones, cans, plastic, glass and others. The organic waste is biodegradable in nature and inorganic waste is non-biodegradable in nature making it inappropriate for the landfill method. Waste generated from home, industry, municipal or any other place must be divided and only organic waste must be considered for landfill upto an extent as it is biodegradable in nature. The third method includes switching to other methods of decomposition such as compost and incineration for the waste degradation based on organic and inorganic waste. Composting is an organic waste decomposition method in which waste is treated into high quality and fertility soil with the help of naturally available decomposers such as earthworms, millipedes, centipedes, sow bugs and many others. Furthermore, incineration is another decomposition method that undertakes burning of both organic and inorganic waste for the degradation of waste content. The flue gas is prepared after burning of inorganic waste and is first cleaned with industrial methods and is then released into the air (Seltenrich, 2016).

Q3.

Hazardous waste is a kind of waste that carries tremendous potential of causing large scale damage to the environment. A waste is considered as hazardous when carries high extremity towards corrosivity, ignitability, reactivity and toxicity. One of the most detrimental hazardous waste is oil. The oil is considered as waste when it becomes unsuitable and ineffective for the personal or commercial purposes.  The oil is of two types that are petroleum based or synthetic based. The petroleum is originally available from earth while the synthetic oils are artificially made and are also called as lubricants of engines (Tang, 2016). Oil pollution creates large scale destruction by oil spills, large scale burning and damage due to its indissolvable property. There are different methods by which optimal disposal of the waste oil can be undertaken. Prevention of the oil spill can be undertaken by using metallic sealed containers that can prevent spillage under any circumstances. Furthermore, disposal can be done by burning the oil at industrial level and further treating the gas to remove any impurities. Besides this, reduction in the extent of the concentration can be undertaken by recycling and reusing the existing quantities of oil at both household and industrial level, as these are effective measures for controlling the aggravated demand. Effective legislation is essential for controlling the consumption and optimal disposal of the oil along with a healthy cap on pollution created by it (Lam et al., 2016).

References:

Lam, S. S., Liew, R. K., Jusoh, A., Chong, C. T., Ani, F. N., & Chase, H. A. (2016). Progress in waste oil to sustainable energy, with emphasis on pyrolysis techniques. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 53, 741-753.

Seltenrich, N. (2016). Emerging Waste-to-Energy Technologies: Solid Waste Solution or Dead End?. Environmental health perspectives, 124(6), A106.

Tang, W. Z. (2016). Physicochemical treatment of hazardous wastes. CRC Press.

Uyguner-Demirel, C. S., Demirel, B., Copty, N. K., & Onay, T. T. (2017). Presence, Behavior and Fate of Engineered Nanomaterials in Municipal Solid Waste Landfills. In Nanotechnologies for Environmental Remediation (pp. 311-325). Springer International Publishing.

Zhang, J., Dubey, B., & Townsend, T. (2014). Effect of moisture control and air venting on H2S production and leachate quality in mature C&D debris landfills. Environmental science & technology, 48(20), 11777-11786.

Zhou, C., Xu, W., Gong, Z., Fang, W., & Cao, A. (2015). Characteristics and Fertilizer Effects of Soil?Like Materials from Landfill Mining. CLEAN–Soil, Air, Water, 43(6), 940-947.