Deck 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste

Question 1

The recycling of plastic bottles to make fleece fabric for clothing is a type of secondary recycling.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The United State can export its electronic waste legally simply because it has not ratified the Basel Convention.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Enough diapers are thrown away in the United States each year that, if linked end to end, would reach to the moon and back approximately seven times.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In the natural world, where humans are not dominant, there is essentially no waste.

Question 5

Most of the solid waste in the United States comes from the industrial sector.

Question 6

Solid waste contributes to pollution and includes valuable resources that could be reused or recycled.

Question 7

Perpetual storage should be the last resort for dealing with hazardous wastes.

Question 8

In primary recycling, waste products are converted into new and different products.

Question 9

Some plants may act as pollution sponges that can help to clean up soil and water contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

Question 10

The highest priority "R" of waste reduction is "reuse."

Question 11

Some scientists and economists estimate that we could eliminate up to 80% of the solid waste by applying integrated strategies that reduce, reuse, and recycle waste.

Question 12

The United States contains only 4.3% of the world's people, but produces approximately 25% of the world's solid waste.

Question 13

People in many less developed countries make their living by removing and selling items from open-pit landfills.

Question 14

The availability of oil and petrochemicals effectively stalled the development of bioplastics.

Question 15

The cradle-to-cradle approach is the same as secondary recycling.

Question 16

Exchanging industrial hazardous wastes through clearinghouses might be a good way to reduce disposal of waste and pollution.

Question 17

New laws can be enacted to make it easier to recycle e-waste and plastics, but are not able to provide incentives that will encourage more people to do so.

Question 18

Every year, the United States generates enough municipal solid waste to fill a bumper-to-bumper convoy of garbage trucks long enough to circle the earth's equator almost six times.

Question 19

An estimated 82% of the Guiyu (China) area's children younger than age 6 suffer from lead poisoning as direct result of electronic waste.

Question 20

It is possible to contribute to health problems for people in China, India, or Africa when discarding a cell phone or other electronic device in the United States

Question 21

The fee-per-____ waste collection systems charge consumers for the amount of waste they throw away.

A) unit
B) product
C) material
D) energy
E) bag

Question 22

The Superfund Act was designed to make polluters pay for cleaning up hazardous waste, but taxpayers are now paying for their cleaning.

Question 23

What may have prevented the use of bioplastics in the past century?

A) The technology for mass production of bioplastics was not yet available.
B) The materials needed for bioplastics was used for food.
C) Bioplastics were viewed as inferior materials.
D) Oil became widely available and petrochemical plastics took over the market.
E) Synthetic plastic producers had a strong government lobby.

Question 24

What kind of waste is hospital medical waste?

A) E-waste
B) Biogenic waste
C) Solid waste
D) Toxic waste
E) Industrial waste

Question 25

Denmark has banned all ____ that cannot be reused.

A) batteries
B) plastics
C) packaging
D) grocery bags
E) beverage containers

Question 26

What approach do many analysts call for in approaching our waste problems?

A) Waste management only
B) Waste reduction only
C) Integrated waste management
D) Reusing only
E) Recycling only

Question 27

Why can the United States legally transport its electronic waste when many other countries cannot?

A) The United States can export its e-waste legally because it exports directly to recycling centers.
B) The United States can export its e-waste legally because it is exempted from most international laws.
C) The United States can export its e-waste legally because it can afford the safety measures needed for safe transport.
D) The United States can export its e-waste legally because it has not ratified the Basel Convention.
E) The United States can export its e-waste legally because it has previous trade agreements with some countries.

Question 28

It can take 400 to 1,000 years to break down ____ that end up in landfills or the ocean.

A) disposable coffee cups
B) batteries
C) glass bottles
D) plastic bags
E) aluminum cans

Question 29

What do workers in countries with cheap labor use to recover valuable metals from e-waste?

A) Lead
B) Sharp knives
C) Heat
D) Acid
E) Mercury

Question 30

Which country is the world's largest producer of solid waste?

A) United States
B) China
C) Russia
D) India
E) Brazil

Question 31

It is not surprising to find huge masses of plastic waste in the oceans because ____.

A) more plastic is dumped in the ocean than on land
B) most plastic sinks in water
C) plastics break down quickly
D) illegal dumping is rare worldwide
E) they are only carried into the ocean in runoff

Question 32

Which category most accurately describes waste such as food wastes, cardboard, cans, bottles, yard wastes, furniture, plastics, metal, glass, and e-waste?

A) E-waste
B) Municipal waste
C) Solid waste
D) Industrial solid waste
E) Municipal solid waste

Question 33

The fastest growing solid waste in the world is from ____.

A) automobiles
B) tires
C) diapers
D) carpet
E) electronics

Question 34

Where will your old cell phone likely end up if you were to throw it away today?

A) Landfill
B) China
C) India
D) Recycling center
E) Waterways

Question 35

According to some estimates, the North Pacific Garbage Patch occupies an area at least the size of ____.

A) Ireland
B) Europe
C) the Mediterranean Sea
D) Texas
E) Several square kilometers

Question 36

Which type of waste can a homeowner recycle in their backyard as part of a composting project?

A) Dead animals
B) Electronics
C) Plastics
D) Some metals
E) Vegetable food scraps

Question 37

When the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas, instituted a fee-per-bag waste collection program, the proportion of households recycling their trash plummeted from 85% to 21%.

Question 38

Since 1976, the EPA has used the Toxic Substances Control Act to ban only 5 of the roughly 85,000 chemicals in use.

Question 39

What variety of hazardous waste does not have a scientifically and politically acceptable way of disposal?

A) E-waste
B) Coal ash
C) Pesticides
D) Nuclear
E) Medical waste

Question 40

From an environmental standpoint, refusing, reducing, and reusing are preferred over recycling because they are ____ approaches that tackle the problem of waste production at the front end.

A) waste prevention
B) integrated
C) management
D) green
E) more feasible

Question 41

What process involves the use of plants to remove contaminants from polluted soil and water?

A) Phytoremediation
B) Plasma gasification
C) Bioremediation
D) Incineration
E) Composting

Question 42

In the United States, approximately 67% by weight of all municipal solid waste is ____.

A) shipped to foreign countries for disposal
B) recycled and reused
C) dumped in the ocean
D) sent to waste-to-energy incinerators
E) buried in sanitary landfills

Question 43

Recycling, reuse, and composting create many new ____.

A) problems
B) expenses
C) pollutants
D) jobs
E) landfills

Question 44

What is the result of using a pay-as-you-throw approach in San Francisco, California, USA?

A) The city lost 37 garbage pickup workers.
B) The city raised its taxes as a result of stringent recycling requirements.
C) The city recycled, composted, or reused 80% of its municipal solid waste (MSW).
D) The city created a severe littering problem.
E) The city became the most expensive place to live in the United States.

Question 45

Denmark ____ over half of its municipal solid waste in state-of-the-art facilities that exceed European air pollution standards.

A) buries
B) incinerates
C) recycles
D) reuses
E) composts

Question 46

Under what regulation are hazardous waste permit holders must use a cradle-to-grave system?

A) The Superfund Act
B) The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
C) The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
D) The Toxic Release Inventory Act
E) The Clean Air Act

Question 47

When using composting piles, it is important to _____.

A) fertilize the compost pile
B) mix or rotate them and avoid adding hazardous materials
C) dispose of the compost on a regular basis
D) avoid adding food products or similar items
E) avoid adding weeds and other plants

Question 48

What process involves the use of bacteria and enzymes to destroy hazardous substances?

A) Phytoremediation
B) Plasma gasification
C) Bioremediation
D) Incineration
E) Composting

Question 49

Large volumes of liquid hazardous waste, often injected into deep disposal wells, is produced by ____.

A) earthquakes
B) oil wells
C) petroleum production
D) fracking
E) bioremediation

Question 50

The bottoms and sides of ____ have strong double liners and containment systems that collect the liquids.

A) open dumps
B) recycling centers
C) waste incinerators
D) single-pickup systems
E) sanitary landfills

Question 51

Using charcoal or resins to filter out harmful solids is a ____ method.

A) chemical
B) physical
C) biological
D) geological
E) physiological

Question 52

Cities that make money by recycling and that have higher recycling rates tend to use a ____ for both recyclable and non-recyclable materials.

A) fee structure
B) subsidy incentive
C) multi-pickup system
D) single-pickup system
E) integrated-pickup system

Question 53

Plasma gasification is a technology that uses arcs of electricity in the absence of ____ to produce very high temperatures for vaporizing trash.

A) water
B) hazardous chemicals
C) coal
D) oxygen
E) carbon dioxide

Question 54

What is the primary reason many U.S. citizens, local governments, and environmental scientists oppose waste incineration?

A) It is more expensive than landfills.
B) It must burn a lot of trash to maintain profitability.
C) It is difficult to regulating incinerators.
D) It emits air pollutants.
E) It undermines waste reduction strategies like reduce and reuse.

Question 55

The U.S. EPA estimates that recycling and composting in the United States in 2010 reduced emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide by an amount roughly equal to that emitted by 36 million ____.

A) hydraulically fractured gas wells
B) barrels of oil
C) tons of coal
D) passenger vehicles
E) power plants

Question 56

Sanitary landfills typically have problems with ____.

A) high operating costs
B) odor
C) open, uncovered garbage
D) traffic, noise, and dust
E) spread of disease

Question 57

Of the two types of dumps utilized for solid waste, open dumps ____.

A) are rare in more developed countries
B) cover wastes with clay or plastic foam
C) have little odor
D) are vermin free
E) are the most environmentally friendly

Question 58

EPA studies have found that 70% of all U.S. hazardous waste ____ have no liners and could threaten groundwater supplies.

A) sanitary landfills
B) deep-well disposal sites
C) open pit landfills
D) storage ponds
E) storage tanks

Question 59

What was the Superfund Act designed to do?

A) To make polluters pay for cleaning up abandoned hazardous waste
B) To ensure the safety of chemicals used in the manufacture of many products
C) To identify sites where hazardous wastes have contaminated the environment
D) To generate funds for the EPA so that it can enforce environmental laws
E) To pay for the Toxic Release Inventory

Question 60

In the United States, almost two-thirds of all liquid hazardous wastes are ____.

A) recycled into useful materials
B) bioremediated
C) injected into deep disposal wells
D) incinerated
E) stored in guarded facilities

Question 61

Municipal solid waste can be burned in large ____________________ , which is used to boil water and make steam for heating water or interior spaces, or for producing electricity.

Question 62

Landfills that have mechanisms to reduce odors, attractiveness to pests, and fire risk are called ____________________ landfills.

Question 63

The process of ____________________ reduces the volume of a given amount of waste by 99%, produces a synthetic gaseous fuel, and encapsulates toxic metals and other materials in glassy lumps of rock.

Question 64

The Basel Convention was designed to ____.

A) promote international subsidies for reusing and recycling
B) curb greenhouse gas emission through reusing and recycling programs
C) ban participating countries from shipping hazardous waste to or through other countries without their permission
D) wipe out hazardous waste smugglers
E) regulate the 12 widely used persistent organic pollutants

Question 65

If you live in the United States, you can find out what toxic chemicals are being stored and released in your neighborhood by ____.

A) going to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory website
B) visiting the U.S. Library of Congress
C) calling your local Superfund council
D) obtaining a copy of the National Priorities List
E) asking local manufactures to comply with the Toxic Substances Control Act

Question 66

Some landfills have systems for collecting ____________________, the potent greenhouse gas that is produced when the wastes decompose in the absence of oxygen.

Question 67

In newer ____________________ landfills, solid wastes are spread out in thin layers, compacted, and covered daily with a fresh layer of clay or plastic foam.

Question 68

An important form of recycling is ____________________ , which mimics nature by using bacteria to decompose yard trimmings, vegetable food scraps, and other biodegradable organic wastes into materials than can increase soil fertility.

Question 69

The type of waste produced by mines, agriculture, and industries that supply people with goods and services is called _________________________.

Question 70

Tires being shredded and converted into surfacing for public roads is an example of ____________________ recycling.

Question 71

From an environmental standpoint, the "Refuse, Reduce, and Reuse" approaches to hazardous waste are preferred because they are ____________________ approaches that tackle the problem of waste production at the front end.

Question 72

Old dry-cell batteries are a type of ____________________ waste.

Question 73

In 2000, delegates from 122 countries completed a global treaty to control 12 persistent organic pollutants ( POPs) including ____.

A) DDT
B) ozone
C) chlorofluorocarbons
D) methane gas
E) mercury

Question 74

The primary role of hazardous waste ____ is to evade the laws by using an array of tactics, including bribes, false permits, and mislabeling of hazardous wastes as recyclable materials.

A) emitters
B) producers
C) manufacturers
D) smugglers
E) users

Question 75

Using blood tests and statistical sampling, medical researchers at New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that it is likely that nearly every person on the earth has detectable levels of ____ in their bodies.

A) hazardous chemicals
B) carcinogens
C) petrochemicals
D) DDT
E) persistent organic pollutants (POPs)

Question 76

Which country has passed a law that states all chemicals that are persistent and can accumulate in living tissue will be banned by the year 2020?

A) The United States
B) France
C) China
D) Norway
E) Sweden

Question 77

In nature, the waste outputs of one organism become the nutrient inputs of another organism, so that all of the earth's nutrients are endlessly recycled. Applying this concept to industry and manufacturing is called ____.

A) biomanufacturing
B) environmental sustainability
C) environmental economics
D) biomimicry
E) eco-industrialization

Question 78

What is a way that governments can encourage reuse and recycling?

A) Governments can set fair market prices for various products.
B) Governments can force people to recycle with negative incentives.
C) Governments could remove the harmful Superfund Act.
D) Governments could encourage the use of POPs in controlling waste.
E) Governments can increase subsidies and tax breaks for reusing and recycling

Question 79

Although ______ reduce trash volume and produce energy, they produce ash containing toxic chemicals.

Question 80

_____________________ are chemical substances that persist in the environment and accumulate in the fatty tissues of humans and other organisms.