Deck 22: Managing Our Waste

Question 1

The first bottle bills were ______________.

A)a consequence of landfill regulations
B)designed to provide glass for road construction
C)initiated in the 1990s
D)designed to provide incentives to industry
E)designed to cut down on litter

Answer 1

designed to cut down on litter

Question 2

Heavy metals ______________

A)are not harmful unless they are directly ingested
B)become less hazardous over time as they degrade chemically
C)are unregulated by the U.S.government
D)become less hazardous after incineration
E)bioaccumulate in animal tissues

Answer 2

bioaccumulate in animal tissues

Question 3

Industrial ecologists ______________

A)urge an emphasis on internal manufacturing costs rather than external costs
B)redesign industrial systems to maximize physical and economic efficiency
C)primarily analyze industrial inputs
D)advocate taxes on green industries
E)favor an economy that moves linearly rather than circularly

Answer 3

redesign industrial systems to maximize physical and economic efficiency

Question 4

Which of the following is produced by anaerobic decomposition in landfills?

A)nitrogen oxides
B)ozone
C)carbon dioxide
D)methylmercury
E)methane

Question 5

To safeguard against groundwater contamination,sanitary landfills are ______________

A)located in unpopulated areas
B)lined with cement
C)located on industrial sites where groundwater is not used for drinking or agriculture
D)located on slopes so water runs downhill
E)lined with plastic and compacted clay

Question 6

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is a U.S.law enacted in the 1970s that ______________

A)restricts use of off -road vehicles in national parks
B)requires states to enact strict recycling standards
C)regulates how hazardous waste is managed
D)reduces environmental levels of the 12 most toxic chemicals,called the "dirty dozen"
E)requires states to pass bottle bills

Question 7

______________ is/are the intercollegiate recycling competition that began in Ohio in 2001.

A)Go Green
B)The Recycle -or -Die games
C)The 3R games
D)The Green Giant challenge
E)Recyclemania

Question 8

The average American generates approximately __________ lbs. of solid waste per day.

A)4)4
B)1)5
C)40
D)9
E)13.7

Question 9

Life -cycle analysis ______________

A)examines the life of a product to increase efficiency
B)is an environmental movement designed to reduce municipal traffic and encourage alternative forms of transport
C)examines the cycling of carbon in the environment
D)defines how different organisms interact within ecosystems
E)is the study of statistical changes in the human population

Question 10

Lining a landfill with a thick tough plastic barrier is a strategy to address problems related to ______________

A)leachate
B)methane production
C)mudslides and trash slides
D)settling
E)incomplete decomposition

Question 11

Recycling aluminum cans saves ______________ % of the energy needed to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin bauxite.

A)50
B)70
C)80
D)25
E)95

Question 12

Over half of all U.S.MSW consists of ______________

A)plastics,metals,and glass
B)plastics and metals
C)toxic waste
D)paper,food waste,and yard waste
E)glass,rubber,and wood

Question 13

E -waste often leaches hazardous levels of which of the following metals?

A)gold
B)platinum
C)uranium
D)silver
E)lead

Question 14

The Fresh Kills Landfill ______________

A)is being converted into a public park
B)is New York's first and only modern sanitary landfill
C)is a Superfund site located in Philadelphia
D)collapsed onto a residential neighborhood because it had been filled to too great a height
E)will remain open until late 2020

Question 15

The amount of e -waste being produced in the U.S ______________ is ,and the amount of e -waste being recycled is ______________.

A)decreasing; increasing
B)increasing; decreasing
C)decreasing; decreasing
D)increasing; increasing
E)increasing; leveling off

Question 16

What do the town of Times Beach,Missouri,and the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls,New York,have in common?

A)Both have municipal programs for dealing with e -waste.
B)Both recently won presidential recycling awards.
C)Both have banned the use of plastic grocery bags.
D)Both were built on closed municipal landfills.
E)Both were evacuated because of contamination by toxins.

Question 17

Which of the following represent the categories of hazardous waste?

A)municipal,industrial and agricultural
B)nonbiodegradable and biodegradable
C)inorganic and organic
D)ignitable,corrosive,reactive,and toxic
E)solid,liquid,and gaseous

Question 18

In the United States today,the approach that best reduces the volume and weight of municipal solid waste is ______________

A)incineration
B)composting
C)recycling
D)compaction
E)sanitary landfills

Question 19

In the U.S.,which of the following produce(s)the largest amount of unregulated hazardous waste?

A)agriculture
B)households
C)utilities
D)military
E)industry

Question 20

E -wastes are a source of ______________

A)heavy metals
B)compostable organic compounds
C)acid corrosives
D)ignitables
E)radioactive materials

Question 21

In regard to the current state of e -wastes in the U.S., ______________

A)because the EPA has classified e -wastes as toxic,more than 95% are being recycled
B)by EPA mandate,all metals in electronics have been replaced by biodegradable materials
C)only because of the actions of charitable organizations,the recycling rate is 5%
D)although the recycling of e -wastes has improved,60% of e -wastes are still being landfilled and incinerated
E)the recycling rate has dropped significantly between 1999 and 2010

Question 22

Describe the advantages of composting.

Question 23

The EPA is charged with cleaning up brownfields,which are ______________

A)urban areas contaminated by acid drainage from mining
B)desert regions used for unsafe nuclear waste disposal
C)agricultural lands polluted by acid and heavy metals
D)lands whose reuse or development is complicated by the presence of hazardous materials
E)coastal seagrass beds damaged by industrial dumping

Question 24

Deep -well injection ______________

A)is the EPA -approved method of disposing of low -level radioactive wastes
B)has been banned as unsafe by the Dept.of the Interior
C)involves putting hazardous wastes into layers of porous rock deep beneath human water supplies
D)is a method of disposing of hazardous wastes in deep aquifers
E)is a pool of strong acids on the land surface used for breaking down e -waste

Question 25

There are three main disposal methods for hazardous waste.One is landfills.Describe how hazardous waste landfills differ from ordinary sanitary landfills.Briefly discuss the other two ways that hazardous waste is contained.

Question 26

Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of modern -day landfills in the United States.

Question 27

The Superfund,established to clean up hazardous waste sites in the United States,is a part of what legislation?

A)Superfund Management and Liability Act
B)Superfund Authority Act
C)The Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation,and Liability Act
D)Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
E)Hazardous Waste Management Act

Question 28

If reducing waste can increase efficiency,why is the output of industrial waste still so great? What is the application of industrial ecology and life -cycle analysis to these problems?

Question 29

______________ pay for the cleanup of Superfund sites.

A)State and local governments
B)The Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation,and Liability (CERCLA)Act of 1980 and the EPA
C)U)S.and Canadian governments
D)The EPA and the Department of the Interior
E)Polluters and taxpayers

Question 30

What are the benefits and drawbacks of incinerating trash? How have these problems been dealt with in most developed countries?

Question 31

Decomposition in a landfill will happen faster if there is more ______________

A)natural gas
B)methane
C)garbage
D)moisture
E)sunlight

Question 32

In general,buying in bulk is environmentally friendly because it ______________

A)allows consumers to save money by purchasing larger amounts of an item for less
B)encourages people to eat or use just a little bit more than smaller sizes
C)recycles materials that would otherwise wind up in a landfill
D)reduces packaging waste
E)encourages people to eat less or use less of a product

Question 33

Identify steps that can be taken to reduce the size of the waste stream.

Question 34

Describe the growing problems in dealing with e -waste.