Download Managing Our Trash

Minimizing and Managing Our Trash
Have you ever considered where the food we eat and the goods (stuff) we use come from, or where they go when you finish with
them? Everything we use goes through a life cycle, and each stage of the life cycle has environmental impacts, including climate
change. However, reducing the use of materials in every stage of the life cycle minimizes the environmental impact associated with
the stuff we use.
All products are made from materials found in or on the earth, “Virgin” or “raw” materials, such as trees or ore, are harvested directly
from the earth, then transported and processed. These activities use a large amount of energy, and burning fossil fuels to supply this
energy results in greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling generally uses less energy than extracting and processing raw materials, so
making new products from materials that have already been used (recycled materials) can save energy and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
Products often require a great deal of energy to create, which results in greenhouse gas emissions. When a product is made with less
material, or materials made with recycled content, less energy is needed to extract, transport, and process raw materials.
End-of-Life Management
End-of-life management is what happens to our stuff after it has been used. How we manage our goods at the end of their current life
can make a big difference in our environmental footprint.
 Reuse, or using a product more than once, prevents the need to create the product from scratch, which saves resources and
energy while also preventing pollution.
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Green Tip: Donate your used electronics and media. Old electronics (CD players, DVDs, VCRs) make great donations
to charitable agencies, such as Tech Connections, Shrewsbury, NJ who recondition & donate to needy families.
Before you throw away old CDs or DVDs, try trading them with friends, donating them to charitable organizations,
nursing homes, libraries, or hospitals.
 Recycle, it saves energy. Manufacturing goods from recycled materials typically requires less energy than producing goods
from virgin materials. Recycling paper products also preserves forests so they can continue to remove carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere.
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Compost, it diverts organic wastes from landfills. When organic materials like food scraps decompose in the anaerobic
conditions of a landfill, they produce methane, a greenhouse gas over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. During
composting, the material decomposes in the presence of oxygen, avoiding methane production.
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Green Tip: Remember to recycle. Learn how and where to recycle your electronics and other common recyclables like
paper, plastic, and glass.
Green Tip: Start your own compost pile. Learn how to create your own compost pile at home. Use food scraps, yard
trimmings, and other organic waste to create a compost pile. Compost can help increase soil water retention, decrease
erosion, and replace chemical fertilizers.
Landfill, contains Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) more commonly known as garbage. When organic materials go to a
landfill, they decompose and produce methane gas, a greenhouse gas over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
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Green Tip: Be waste conscious
*Today some landfills collect landfill gas and use it to generate electricity or as a fuel for equipment such as boilers. Energy
recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into useable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of
processes. Converting non-recyclable waste materials into electricity and heat – generally through combustion or landfill gas
recovery – generates a renewable energy source and reduces carbon emissions by avoiding the need for energy from fossil sources.
In addition, these methods reduce generation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from landfills.
Overview of Greenhouse Gases
Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases.
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Carbon dioxide: Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil), solid waste,
trees and wood products, and also as a result of certain chemical reaction (e.g., manufacture of cement). Carbone dioxide is
removed from the atmosphere (or “sequestered”) when it is absorbed by plants as part of the biological carbon cycle.
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Methane: Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also
results from livestock and other agricultural practices and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills.
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Nitrous oxide: Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of fossil
fuels and solid waste.
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Fluorinated gases: Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride are synthetic, powerful greenhouse gases
that are emitted from a variety of industrial processes. Fluorinated gases are sometimes used a substitutes for stratospheric
ozone-depleting substances (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and halons). These gases are typically
emitted in smaller quantities, but because they are potent greenhouse gases, they are sometimes referred to as High Global
Warming Potential gases (“High GWP gases).
How long do they stay in the atmosphere? Each of these gases can remain in the atmosphere for different amounts of time, ranging
from a few years to thousands of years. All of these gases remain in the atmosphere long enough to become well mixed, meaning that
the amount that is measured in the atmosphere is roughly the same all over the world, regardless of the source of the emissions.
How strongly do they impact global temperatures? Some gases are more effective than others at making the planet warmer and
“thickening the Earth’s blanket”.
Good Management of Landfills & Renewable Energy Benefits
Landfill Gas (LFG) energy emitted from decomposing garbage is a reliable and renewable fuel option that remains largely untapped at
many landfills across the United States, despite its many benefits. Generating energy from LFG creates a number of environmental
benefits and it directly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills the third-largest human-generated source of methane emissions in the United States; release
an estimated 84.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere in 2011 alone. Given that all landfills generate
methane, it makes sense to use them for the beneficial purpose of energy generation rather than emitting it to the atmosphere.
Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas that is a key contributor to global climate change (over 21 times stronger than carbon
dioxide). Methane also has a short (10-year) atmospheric life. Because methane is both potent and short-lived, reducing methane
emissions from MSW landfills is one of the best ways to achieve a near-term beneficial impact in mitigating global climate change.
It is estimated that an LFG energy project will capture roughly 60 to 90 percent of the methane emitted from the landfill, depending on
system design and effectiveness. The captured methane is destroyed (converted to water and the much less potent carbon dioxide)
when the gas is burned to produce electricity.
Carbon dioxide emissions from MSW landfills are not considered to contribute to global climate change because the carbon was
contained in recently living biomass. The same carbon dioxide would be emitted as a result of the natural decomposition of the
organic waste materials outside the landfill environment.
Monmouth County Reclamation Center (MCRC)
MCRC has a landfill located in Tinton Falls, NJ. It currently captures landfill methane gas and converts it into electricity and sells it.
MCRC currently operates two landfill waste-to-energy facilities and produces enough electricity to offset up to $1 million per year of
the county’s electricity costs. This reduces air pollution, including the thousands of pounds per day of greenhouse gas emissions.
MCRC is currently under contract to build a leachate (hazardous liquids created inside landfill) treatment facility. The new wastewater
treatment facility will remove over 500,000 pounds of nitrogen and over 1,000 pounds of heavy metals from the landfill waste stream
every year to protect the environment.
James Caratura, 2/24/2014