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| 266253512 | Love Canal | location of one of the worst toxic waste sites in U.S. history; toxic chemicals dumped into open canal and buried, sold to Niagara Falls school district, school and neighborhood built, toxic leachate accumulated and many people - especially young children began having health problems; lead to passing of CERCLA (Superfund) | |
| 266253513 | Solid Waste | any unwanted or discarded material we produce that is not a liquid or a gas | |
| 266253514 | Hazardous / Toxic Waste | threatens human health or the environment because it is toxic, chemically active, corrosive, or flammable; ex: medical waste, solvents, batteries, etc. | |
| 266253515 | MSW | municipal solid waste; garbage or trash produced directly by homes and workplaces | |
| 266253516 | Industrial Solid Waste | produced indirectly by mining, factories, refineries, food growers, and businesses | |
| 266253517 | Electronic Waste / E-waste | fastest growing type of waste in the U.S. and world; disposed of tv's, cell phones, computers, e-toys, and other electronic devices | |
| 266253518 | Waste Management | also called high-waste approach; trying to deal with waste once it has already been created so that it has less of an impact on human health and environmental health | |
| 266253519 | Waste Reduction | also called low-waste approach; views waste as a potential resource that should not have been produced in the first place and seeks ways to avoid producing solid and hazardous wastes | |
| 266253520 | Integrated Waste Management | variety of strategies used to accomplish waste management and waste reduction | |
| 266253521 | bottle laws | consumers pay small deposit when purchasing beverages sold by bottles/cans - consumers get the deposit back when bottles/cans are returned to the store; encourages recycling | |
| 266253522 | Primary Recycling / Closed-Loop Recycling | materials are recyled into new materials of the same type; ex: paper being recyled to make new paper | |
| 266253523 | Secondary Recycling | materials are recyled into new materials of a different type; ex: newspapers being recycled into cellulose insulation for a house | |
| 266253524 | MRF's | Materials Recovery Facilities; machines or workers separate mixed waste to recover valuable materials | |
| 266253525 | PAYT / Fee-Per-Bag | Pay As You Throw; charges houses and businesses a fee for the amount of mixed waste picked up and does not charge for materials separated for recycling | |
| 266253526 | Composting | recylcing yard waste, food waste, and other biodegradable organic materials that we produce | |
| 266253527 | WTE / Incineration | Waste-To-Energy; burning trash - allows trash volume to be greatly reduced and can be used to create energy or heat nearby buildings; causes air pollution; expensive to build | |
| 266253528 | Open Dumps | fields or holes in ground where garbage is disposed of; most commonly found in developing countries | |
| 266253529 | Sanitary Landfills | newer landfills common in developed countries where solid wastes are spread in thin layers, compacted, covered daily with fresh layer of clay or plastic foam to keep dry and reduce production of leachate | |
| 266253530 | Leachate | contaminated water that results when precipitation and moisture travel down through the contents of a landfill | |
| 266253531 | Hazardous Waste | discarded solid or liquid material that is toxic, ignitable, corrosive, or reactive enough to explode or release toxic fumes; ex: organic compounds (solvents, pesticides, PCB's, dioxins) and heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic) | |
| 266253532 | Heavy Metals | type of hazardous material; often found in e-waste; are neurotoxins that can bioaccumulate and biomagnify up the food chain; ex: lead, mercury, arsenic) | |
| 266253533 | RCRA | Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976; requires chemical manufacturers to have permits for creating and disposing of wastes and they must complete "cradle-to-grave" to show point of generation for all chemicals produced as well as approved offsite disposal | |
| 266253534 | Cradle-to-Grave | part of RCRA of 1976 to require manufacterers of chemicals to show where and how much of a chemical is produced and sold and then where and how much of that chemical is disposed of or used | |
| 266253535 | CERCLA | Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980; Commonly referred to as "Superfund"; identifies abandoned hazardous waste disposal sites, makes priorities list to clean up sites (National Priorities List - NPL), allows federal governement to hold companies liable for such waste sites and require them to pay for clean-up costs | |
| 266253536 | NPL | National Priorities List; part of CERCLA; requires that all hazardous waste sites identified be put on a list that ranks them in order of their importance/priority for clean-up and funding | |
| 266253537 | Brownfields | abandoned industrial and commercial sites that are often contaminated with hazardous wastes; ex: factories, junkyards, older landfills, gas stations, etc. | |
| 266253538 | Pollution Prevention / Waste Reduction | priority should be given to this concept where we look for substitutes for toxic or hazardous materials, reuse or recycle them within industrial cycles, or use them as raw materials for making other products | |
| 266253539 | Physical Methods | way to remove or reduce toxic materials using some device (often charcoal or resin filters) to separate out materials; sometimes materials can be encapsulated in glass, cement, or ceramics and put in secure storage sites | |
| 266253540 | Chemical Methods | way to remove or reduce toxic materials using chemical reactions that can convert hazardous chemicals into less harmful chemicals; ex: cyclodextrin (type of cornstarch sugar) used to remove solvents and pesticides from soil | |
| 266253541 | Biological Methods | way to remove or reduce toxic materials using living organisms; examples include bioremediation and phytoremediation | |
| 266253542 | Bioremediation | example of biological method used to convert hazardous waste into less harmful chemicals; bacteria and enzymes often used to break down chemicals | |
| 266253543 | Phytoremediation | example of biological method used to convert hazardous waste into less harmful chemicals; using natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb, filter, and remove contaminants from polluted soil and water | |
| 266253544 | Incineration | way to remove or reduce toxic materials by burning them | |
| 266253545 | Plasma Torch | way to remove or reduce toxic materials by passing electrical current through gas to generate electric arc and very high temperatures = plasma; also called Plasma Arc | |
| 266253546 | Deep-Well Disposal | way to dispose of liquid hazardous waste by pumping them underground into porous rock layer (beneath aquifers and source areas of drinking water); also called Dee-Well Injection and Deep Underground Wells | |
| 266253547 | Surface Impoundments | way to dispose of liquid hazardous waste by excavating a large depression (pond, pit, lagoon), lining the depression and filling with liquid waste | |
| 266253548 | Long-Term Retrievable Storage | putting hazardous waste materials that cannot be destroyed or detoxified into metal drums or containers and placing those into specially designed buildings, salt mines, or bedrock caverns where they can be inspected on a regular basis | |
| 266253549 | Secure Landfills | liquid and solid hazardous waste put into drums or other containers and buried in carefully designed and monitored secure hazardous waste landfills | |
| 266253550 | NIMBY | "not in my back yard" - sentiment shared by most indicating they do not want waste sites placed near their neighborhoods and homes | |
| 266253551 | Environmental Justice | every person is entitled to protection from environmental hazards regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, income, social class, or any other factor |
