User:Connordanielle/finalarticle

These are my recommendations for revising the article.Waste

• I added a citation in the subsection 'Environmental costs' under section Costs
• I added the results to frequent exposure to hazardous waste
• I added a citation in the subsection of 'Social costs under section Costs
• I added the the minimization of social costs of the two most common waste disposal methods
• I added a citation in the Reporting section
• I added statistics of plastic waste in coastal countries.
• I added a citation in the energy recovery section.
• I added an additional benefit of using pyrolysis.

Copied content from Waste see that pages history for attribution.

Costs

Environmental costs

Inappropriately managed waste can attract rodents and insects, which can harbour gastrointestinal parasites, yellow fever, worms, the plague and other conditions for humans. Frequent exposure to hazardous wastes, can cause genetic defects, reproductive abnormalities,congenital anomalies,carcinogenesis, disorders within the central nervous system, and alteration of imunnobiological homeostasis. Toxic waste materials can contaminate surface water, groundwater, soil, and air which causes more problems for humans, other species, and ecosystems. Waste treatment and disposal produces significant green house gas (GHG) emissions, notably methane, which are contributing significantly to global warming. As global warming and co2 emission increase, soil begins to become a larger carbon sink and will become increasingly volatile for our plant life.

Social costs

Waste management is a significant environmental justice issue. Many of the environmental burdens cited above are more often borne by marginalized groups, such as racial minorities, women, and residents of developing nations. NIMBY (not in my back yard) is the opposition of residents to a proposal for a new development because it is close to them. However, the need for expansion and siting of waste treatment and disposal facilities is increasing worldwide. There is now a growing market in the transboundary movement of waste, and although most waste that flows between countries goes between developed nations, a significant amount of waste is moved from developed to developing nations. At the margin landfilling is the most minimizing social cost in comparison to incineration based on the gross private cost even in densely populated countries such as the Netherlands.

Reporting

Waste generation, measured in kilograms per person per day.

There are many issues that surround reporting waste. It is most commonly measured by size or weight, and there is a stark difference between the two. For example, organic waste is much heavier when it is wet, and plastic or glass bottles can have different weights but be the same size. On a global scale it is difficult to report waste because countries have different definitions of waste and what falls into waste categories, as well as different ways of reporting. Based on incomplete reports from its parties, the Basel Convention estimated 338 million tonnes of waste was generated in 2001. For the same year, OECD estimated 4 billion tonnes from its member countries. In 2010 there was 275 million metric tons of plastic waste that was generated in 192 coastal countries, with 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons entering the ocean. Despite these inconsistencies, waste reporting is still useful on a small and large scale to determine key causes and locations, and to find ways of preventing, minimizing, recovering, treating, and disposing waste.

Energy recovery

Energy recovery from waste is using non-recyclable waste materials and extracting from it heat, electricity, or energy through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolyzation, and anaerobic digestion. This process is referred to as waste-to-energy.

There are several ways to recover energy from waste. Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occurring process of decomposition where organic matter is reduced to a simpler chemical component in the absence of oxygen. Incineration or direct controlled burning of municipal solid waste to reduce waste and make energy. Secondary recovered fuel is the energy recovery from waste that cannot be reused or recycled from mechanical and biological treatment activities. Pyrolysis involves heating of waste, with the absence of oxygen, to high temperatures to break down any carbon content into a mixture of gaseous and liquid fuels and solid residue, which can also be used for nutrient recovery. Gasification is the conversion of carbon rich material through high temperature with partial oxidation into a gas stream. Plasma arc heating is the very high heating of municipal solid waste to temperatures ranging from 3,000-10,000 °C, where energy is released by an electrical discharge in an inert atmosphere.

Using waste as fuel can offer important environmental benefits. It can provide a safe and cost-effective option for wastes that would normally have to be dealt with through disposal. It can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by diverting energy use from fossil fuels, while also generating energy and using waste as fuel can reduce the methane emissions generated in landfills by averting waste from landfills.

There is some debate in the classification of certain biomass feedstock as wastes. Crude Tall Oil (CTO), a co-product of the pulp and papermaking process, is defined as a waste or residue in some European countries when in fact it is produced “on purpose” and has significant value add potential in industrial applications. Several companies use CTO to produce fuel, while the pine chemicals industry maximizes it as a feedstock “producing low-carbon, bio-based chemicals” through cascading use.