Six ways to go wrong when recycling
• Single polyethylene plastic shopping bags, while recyclable, can clog sorting machines. They are picked out as garbage. Toronto advises stuffing many bags into one, and tying it shut.
• Toronto has no current recycling market for plastic overwrap and plastic clamshell food containers, which differ from recycling-ready plastic items such as ice cream tubs or pop bottles. Clean polystyrene (Styrofoam) food containers are blue bin worthy.
• Propane cylinders, of whatever size, will explode if processed at a recycling plant. Cylinders should be taken to a household hazardous waste depot.
• Loose shredded paper cannot be sorted efficiently with other fibre products. Toronto asks recyclers to bag shredded paper before the blue bin.
• Liquid and food residue contaminates otherwise recyclable containers. While trace amounts of waste can be extracted during the sorting process, a half-full bottle of soap, for example, will be sent to garbage. Scrub down liquid residue from food and detergent containers.
• Glass from mirrors, windows, light bulbs and eye glasses have a different melting point than glass from food containers and jars, and cannot be processed by Toronto’s recycling facilities.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Arts gal goes Engineer: Treatment of Hazardous Waste
I don't know how I've done it but I've found myself tutoring math and taking an engineer course. Not bad for the gal that scraped by math in high school!
This class tackled different forms of treatment of hazardous waste... The big thing I noticed was how complex handling both hazardous and solid waste is. I've always known waste management was within the scope of engineering, but it was really nice to see how it is applied. As a social scientist, I feel somewhat limited with my knowledge of waste management, it's really nice that I've found a Professor who has so warmly welcomed me into his class. Given, I am auditing, it's kind of a nice way to listen in on class lectures without the stress of performing will.
That said instructor is Professor Brajesh Dubey, a Civil Engineer born in India and has bounced from New Zealand to Florida to East Tennessee, finally meeting me here in Guelph. His research has recently focused on e-waste and landfills of many sorts. It's really interesting to hear the technical side and Professor Dubey definitely has a few tid bids he can share.
Engineers seem to make the choice that I have come to study. Pretty jazzed.
I just started auditing the class, they're just over a quarter of the way through the course. Sadly, I missed a lot of waste management policy content, basically the stuff that I could really hang on to. I however walked in on the wealth of different methods of handling waste. We tackled a multitude of different methods such as neutralisation, precipitation, oxidisation/reduction. Additionally, we addressed some biological change methods such as stabilisation and solidification, aerobic and anerobic, thermal and chemical bio treatment. I find myself a little confused with the processes, but for the most part, feel pretty at ease with what was presented at the lecture because of my studies on this field to date.
I personally found his talk on incineration to be most fascinating. He stated that there was a lot of resentment towards waste-to-energy methods of handling rubbish. This came as no surprise to me from my research on the recent approval of an incinerator in the Durham Region. However, Professor Dubey emphasised these risks very explicitly in stating that the process of burning waste is very sensitive and needs to be agitated often to ensure that pockets of trash are not being neglected. He stresses the practical role of turbulence for proper air distribution.
I also find it funny that he cited Toy Story 3 and Wall-E as pop culture visuals of incinerators. He validatated that they were real.
Land Disposal Restrictions or LDR were highly being abused by US-Canada transfer... Between 2003-2004, just over twelve years ago, the US were heavily shipping waste to Canada because Canada's land disposal restrictions were significantly more lax than Canada.
He also dropped the name superfund, which I recently encountered from putting together my context paper. Superfunds are sites where waste has been improperly disposed of.
We also broke down the construction of the different layers that a landfill is composed of... There are five or six very complex layers that make up the barrier between the waste and the ground.
He also mentioned soil and optimum moisture content or OMC, which is a measure of disposal of water to best compact it.
Adsorption - the accumulation of molecules of a gas to form a thin film on the surface of a solid.
This class tackled different forms of treatment of hazardous waste... The big thing I noticed was how complex handling both hazardous and solid waste is. I've always known waste management was within the scope of engineering, but it was really nice to see how it is applied. As a social scientist, I feel somewhat limited with my knowledge of waste management, it's really nice that I've found a Professor who has so warmly welcomed me into his class. Given, I am auditing, it's kind of a nice way to listen in on class lectures without the stress of performing will.
That said instructor is Professor Brajesh Dubey, a Civil Engineer born in India and has bounced from New Zealand to Florida to East Tennessee, finally meeting me here in Guelph. His research has recently focused on e-waste and landfills of many sorts. It's really interesting to hear the technical side and Professor Dubey definitely has a few tid bids he can share.
Engineers seem to make the choice that I have come to study. Pretty jazzed.
I just started auditing the class, they're just over a quarter of the way through the course. Sadly, I missed a lot of waste management policy content, basically the stuff that I could really hang on to. I however walked in on the wealth of different methods of handling waste. We tackled a multitude of different methods such as neutralisation, precipitation, oxidisation/reduction. Additionally, we addressed some biological change methods such as stabilisation and solidification, aerobic and anerobic, thermal and chemical bio treatment. I find myself a little confused with the processes, but for the most part, feel pretty at ease with what was presented at the lecture because of my studies on this field to date.
I personally found his talk on incineration to be most fascinating. He stated that there was a lot of resentment towards waste-to-energy methods of handling rubbish. This came as no surprise to me from my research on the recent approval of an incinerator in the Durham Region. However, Professor Dubey emphasised these risks very explicitly in stating that the process of burning waste is very sensitive and needs to be agitated often to ensure that pockets of trash are not being neglected. He stresses the practical role of turbulence for proper air distribution.
I also find it funny that he cited Toy Story 3 and Wall-E as pop culture visuals of incinerators. He validatated that they were real.
Land Disposal Restrictions or LDR were highly being abused by US-Canada transfer... Between 2003-2004, just over twelve years ago, the US were heavily shipping waste to Canada because Canada's land disposal restrictions were significantly more lax than Canada.
He also dropped the name superfund, which I recently encountered from putting together my context paper. Superfunds are sites where waste has been improperly disposed of.
We also broke down the construction of the different layers that a landfill is composed of... There are five or six very complex layers that make up the barrier between the waste and the ground.
He also mentioned soil and optimum moisture content or OMC, which is a measure of disposal of water to best compact it.
Adsorption - the accumulation of molecules of a gas to form a thin film on the surface of a solid.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Class time: (over) population thoughts and thinkers
It took three years of post-secondary schooling for me to realise that I can study things I'm passionate about. For some odd reason I started in history, probably because it's a "hard" discipline we are trained to think will take you somewhere. By "hard" discipline I mean that most, if not all schools teach some form of history and additionally, maths and sciences. These are methods of study we are expected to know some form of.
My point here is in my fourth year of post-secondary education and my first year in environment-related studies, I got to thinking about human impact and population levels. My undergrad was a time for me to have simplistic thoughts about very complex issues, I looked at ideas with a lens that I would refer to as "my own ideal world." Now, three years later, a little jaded, but in all honesty no less hopeful. The only real difference is I am a little more hesitant to throw down any of my very bold statements.
In my fourth year of undergrad, I started to subscribe to ideas that paralleled Thomas Malthus and Paul Ehrlich - the world was going to face devastating consequences if population levels continued to rise. I would throw out bold comments stating that people shouldn't live in areas that were simply not sustainable, usually alluding to those who live in the Global South. Again, not so simple.
It's seems like a real economic crunch, although, I really don't want that to be the focus about what I took away from Dr. Evan Fraser's lecture today. I really walked away with a well-rounded perspective on the different interpretations of the population problem. I academically met a fellow by the name of Julian Simon, a Professor of Business administration in the US. He sadly kicked fourteen years ago at the tender age of sixty five. Simon challenged American Biologist Paul Ehrlich in 1980 to a bet that contested resource scarcity over the span of ten years. Simon asked Ehrlich to choose five metals that they would purchase, in turn they would allow their value to mature. Simon claimed that the value would decrease, while Ehrlich believed they would rise. The winner was to receive the profits of the metals, whatever it may be. In those ten years, the world's population grew an astounding 800 million and the price of the select metals dropped significantly. In October 1990, Ehrlich mailed Simon a cheque for $576.07.
The span of this humourous debate is not an accurate capture of the flux of the value of the select metals. The time span really doesn't give justice to value. Not much more to say about it, just good academic chatter.
Cassandra metaphor is a concept that is applied in situations in which valid warnings or concerns are dismissed or disbelieved.
I=PAT does not resonate with me. I have many criticisms that I wish I had the time to drop down on here!
I feel the more I study over-population the more I stray away from fatalism. I am however very afraid of overpopulation and exponential population growth. It's on the back burner for certain.
My point here is in my fourth year of post-secondary education and my first year in environment-related studies, I got to thinking about human impact and population levels. My undergrad was a time for me to have simplistic thoughts about very complex issues, I looked at ideas with a lens that I would refer to as "my own ideal world." Now, three years later, a little jaded, but in all honesty no less hopeful. The only real difference is I am a little more hesitant to throw down any of my very bold statements.
In my fourth year of undergrad, I started to subscribe to ideas that paralleled Thomas Malthus and Paul Ehrlich - the world was going to face devastating consequences if population levels continued to rise. I would throw out bold comments stating that people shouldn't live in areas that were simply not sustainable, usually alluding to those who live in the Global South. Again, not so simple.
It's seems like a real economic crunch, although, I really don't want that to be the focus about what I took away from Dr. Evan Fraser's lecture today. I really walked away with a well-rounded perspective on the different interpretations of the population problem. I academically met a fellow by the name of Julian Simon, a Professor of Business administration in the US. He sadly kicked fourteen years ago at the tender age of sixty five. Simon challenged American Biologist Paul Ehrlich in 1980 to a bet that contested resource scarcity over the span of ten years. Simon asked Ehrlich to choose five metals that they would purchase, in turn they would allow their value to mature. Simon claimed that the value would decrease, while Ehrlich believed they would rise. The winner was to receive the profits of the metals, whatever it may be. In those ten years, the world's population grew an astounding 800 million and the price of the select metals dropped significantly. In October 1990, Ehrlich mailed Simon a cheque for $576.07.
The span of this humourous debate is not an accurate capture of the flux of the value of the select metals. The time span really doesn't give justice to value. Not much more to say about it, just good academic chatter.
Cassandra metaphor is a concept that is applied in situations in which valid warnings or concerns are dismissed or disbelieved.
I=PAT does not resonate with me. I have many criticisms that I wish I had the time to drop down on here!
I feel the more I study over-population the more I stray away from fatalism. I am however very afraid of overpopulation and exponential population growth. It's on the back burner for certain.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Judith Petts on Garbage Mining
So, to continue on, I just figured I had to better explain what GARBAGE MINING is because it's so amazing!!! For my one reader (Thanks for reading this, Jane):
"Management of MSW raises questions about the capacity of future generations to reduce some of the intergenerational risk sources. For example, will future generations be able to find more benign ways to treat waste, come up with methods to make land safe for any future use, or develop recycling technologies that can expand the range of materials treated? Landfill mining -- whereby waste is abstracted from closed landfills for recycling, usually to extend void space capacity -- is already a reality. If such an argument can be sustained, basic storage of present waste might become an acceptable option, although this does not prevent intragenerational risks in the even of storage failure, institutional failure, or both." (Petts 2000:825)
"Management of MSW raises questions about the capacity of future generations to reduce some of the intergenerational risk sources. For example, will future generations be able to find more benign ways to treat waste, come up with methods to make land safe for any future use, or develop recycling technologies that can expand the range of materials treated? Landfill mining -- whereby waste is abstracted from closed landfills for recycling, usually to extend void space capacity -- is already a reality. If such an argument can be sustained, basic storage of present waste might become an acceptable option, although this does not prevent intragenerational risks in the even of storage failure, institutional failure, or both." (Petts 2000:825)
ACADEMIC CRUSH: Judith Petts
Alright, I know I'm a complete dork, but I think I'm in love with a new scholar in my field. Meet Judith Petts - she's a scholar in the field of risk management. I'm slowing becoming better acquainted with risk assessment as I do more and more readings. It's pretty interesting stuff.
In her article written in 2000 titled "Municipal Waste Management: Inequities and the Role of Deliberation" she discusses Environmental Justice and the process of siting a waste facility. She dips into optimising profitability, functionality, safety and legality, but doesn't even brush up against anything Robert Bullard would associate siting a landfill with. It's absolutely astounding! I'm so happy to have found contrasting ideas in this field. I was getting a little down about the social justice field, thinking it was so idealistic and cynical at the same time. Perhaps I'm just sick of Ro Bull. He's is actually kind of passe in this field!!! No disrespect thought because he did start the whole social justice movement in the eighties and nineties and he isn't white and bearded like the other civil rights folk that started it out (John Muir...etc.)
But back to Petts - she also talks about GARBAGE MINING in this 2000 article. When I visited New York a month ago, I started talking to a guy who lived with my friends that I was staying with. He suggested garbage mining as a feasible economic opportunity in the future. I kind of shrugged him off because the idea was completely new to me and I remember him looking at me saying "Kim, this has been studied, I didn't make this up." I was floored, I had been schooled in my own field. I thought he was the coolest and I had a big hate for the guy to. I am however incredibly proud to say that I have found an article that talks about garbage mining (for potentially recyclable resources) and I have to send all my love and praise towards the powerhouse garbage queen Judith Petts.
In her article written in 2000 titled "Municipal Waste Management: Inequities and the Role of Deliberation" she discusses Environmental Justice and the process of siting a waste facility. She dips into optimising profitability, functionality, safety and legality, but doesn't even brush up against anything Robert Bullard would associate siting a landfill with. It's absolutely astounding! I'm so happy to have found contrasting ideas in this field. I was getting a little down about the social justice field, thinking it was so idealistic and cynical at the same time. Perhaps I'm just sick of Ro Bull. He's is actually kind of passe in this field!!! No disrespect thought because he did start the whole social justice movement in the eighties and nineties and he isn't white and bearded like the other civil rights folk that started it out (John Muir...etc.)
But back to Petts - she also talks about GARBAGE MINING in this 2000 article. When I visited New York a month ago, I started talking to a guy who lived with my friends that I was staying with. He suggested garbage mining as a feasible economic opportunity in the future. I kind of shrugged him off because the idea was completely new to me and I remember him looking at me saying "Kim, this has been studied, I didn't make this up." I was floored, I had been schooled in my own field. I thought he was the coolest and I had a big hate for the guy to. I am however incredibly proud to say that I have found an article that talks about garbage mining (for potentially recyclable resources) and I have to send all my love and praise towards the powerhouse garbage queen Judith Petts.
Friday, December 2, 2011
MORE FAB ACRONYMS!
AHP Analytic Hierarchy Process
ASSURRE Association for the Sustainable Use and Recovery of Resources in Europe
BANANA Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything
BPEO Best Practicable Environmental Option
CBA Cost Beneļ¬t Analysis
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
EEWC European Energy from waste coalition
ELECTRE Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (multicriteria method)
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
ERRA European Recovery and Recycling Association
EUROPEN European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment
Monday, November 14, 2011
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
I just found the article that has all the elements that I like about waste management. Trouble is my degree is a Masters in Geography, this seems a little more anthropological. I hope I can make this work. You can even read this article from where ever you are for free! It's ten years old, but I think it really tackles issues that are still of great interest to bringing people to recycle more often and better.
There are really two elements to recycling (of many!) that stick out to me:
There are really two elements to recycling (of many!) that stick out to me:
- Participation and Program Involvement (Getting people to recycle)
- Recycling properly
The second point I strongly believe is often abolished to make way for public participation.
The article I just linked you to raises a really good point and that's "recylcing, as a structured activity, is undertaken on a more frequent basis than waste reuse or reduction." Plain and simple, perhaps that's where we need to devote more of our effort!!!
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