Deck 11: Waste Management

Question 1

Which of the following would not be considered a waste product?

A) Old furniture
B) Food scraps
C) Dirty dish water
D) Used batteries
E) All of the above are considered waste products.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

How much waste does the average American generate per day?

A) 45 grams
B) 50 ounces
C) 4.5 pounds
D) 4 kilograms
E) 0.4 tons

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In the figure below, what percent of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) potentially could be recycled in some way?

A) 13%
B) 28%
C) 45%
D) 60%
E) More than 90%

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Due to technological advances and the standard of living in the US, the generation of municipal solid waste in the US is _______ compared to global averages.

A) more than 40% higher
B) the lowest in the developed world
C) about average
D) five times higher
E) None of the above

Question 5

In 2008, Americans recycled and composted 83 million tons of packaging waste. This is equivalent to a recycling rate of _______%.

A) 3
B) 10
C) 32
D) 67
E) 100

Question 6

In terms of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated every year, the most wasteful country in the world is _______ and the country in second place is _______.

A) United States; China
B) China; Canada
C) India; China
D) United Emirates; Austria
E) United States; Australia

Question 7

Among aluminum cans, auto batteries, and glass containers, the most recycled item is _______ and the least is _______.

A) glass containers; aluminum cans
B) auto batteries; glass containers
C) aluminum cans; auto batteries
D) auto batteries; aluminum cans
E) aluminum cans; glass containers

Question 8

A typical municipal solid waste facility is located near a city but outside the populated areas. This is a result of

A) the desire to provide a new habitat for wild animals.
B) access to roads for garbage trucks.
C) a compromise between social and economic costs.
D) wanting to keep MSW facilities under the protection of city fire and police departments.
E) the ease of violating laws and regulations when no one is watching.

Question 9

Land disposal has been the typical means of waste disposal for decades. One of the forms of disposal to greatly gain in popularity since the 1980s is

A) landfills.
B) recycling.
C) deep ocean dumping.
D) combustion.
E) selling waste to third world countries.

Question 10

The waste product that currently has the highest recycling rate (>95%) is

A) aluminum cans.
B) steel cans.
C) car batteries.
D) plastic (HDPE or PET) bottles.
E) tires.

Question 11

Which statement about hazardous waste generation is true?

A) Most radioactive waste is generated by the medical industries.
B) Typical households do not generate hazardous waste.
C) Hazardous wastes are treated exactly the same way as municipal solid waste.
D) Cost and convenience are not factors in hazardous waste disposal.
E) A corrosive substance, such as a discarded container of household drain cleaner, is a hazardous waste.

Question 12

An example of recycling is

A) waste mining.
B) dematerialization.
C) material substitution.
D) land filling.
E) combustion.

Question 13

In the context of "reduce, reuse, recycle", an example of reducing is

A) waste combustion for energy recovery.
B) dematerialization.
C) converting waste plastic bottles into packaging.
D) encouraging the use of glass bottle that can be refilled.
E) waste mining.

Question 14

Some forms of waste, particularly food waste, can be easily converted to methane and burned to generate electricity. This is an example of

A) recycling.
B) reuse.
C) dematerialization.
D) material substitution.
E) waste mining.

Question 15

The biggest challenge to the expansion of recycling programs is

A) most people are opposed to recycling.
B) very few communities have recycling centers.
C) there is no market for recycled materials.
D) recycling is viewed as economically inefficient.
E) steel and aluminum cannot be recycled.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about radioisotopes is true?

A) A radioisotope with a short half -life emits more radiation than the same mass of a radioisotope with a long half life.
B) Radioisotopes with long half-lives are considered dangerous because they may persist for millions of years.
C) Some radioactive elements are accumulated in food.
D) Radioactive radon gas is naturally occurring and presents a potential danger to occupants of homes with basements.
E) All of the above

Question 17

The radioactivity of 10 g of ³²P will be _______ than 1 g of ³²P.

A) 10 times greater
B) 5 times greater
C) 10 times smaller
D) 5 times smaller
E) None of the above; the two masses of ³²P will have equal radioactivity.

Question 18

Radioisotope Q has a half-life of 1 day and radioisotope J has a half life of 25 days. In comparing the radioactivity of 1 g of Q versus 1 g of J,

A) they have equal radioactivity.
B) Q has 1/25 the radioactivity of J.
C) Q has 2.5 times less radioactivity than J.
D) Q has 25 times more radioactivity than J.
E) A comparison cannot be made unless we know the temperature.

Question 19

Which of the following has been or is currently being used for disposal of high-level radioactive waste?

A) Underground storage at Yucca Mountain
B) Sending the waste into outer space on rockets
C) Deep sea injection
D) Burial in municipal solid waste landfills
E) Incorporation into foods, such as hamburgers and hotdogs

Question 20

Which of the following is not a form of nuclear radiation?

A) Alpha emissions
B) Beta emissions
C) Gamma radiation
D) Delta radiations
E) X-rays

Question 21

Alpha emission is _______ and gamma radiation is _______.

A) a particle; electromagnetic radiation
B) a particle; a particle
C) electromagnetic radiation; a particle
D) electrormagnetic radiation; electromagnetic radiation
E) made by humans; natural

Question 22

The US nuclear fuel share is approximately _______%.

A) 10
B) 20
C) 30
D) 40
E 50

Question 23

The country with the highest nuclear fuel share percentage is

A) Ukraine.
B) Japan.
C) Korea.
D) France.
E) China.

Question 24

The greatest amount of radioactivity in the oceans has come from

A) hospital waste.
B) natural sources.
C) cosmic radiation.
D) disposal of high level radioactive waste.
E) testing of nuclear weapons.

Question 25

The measure of the extent to which a radioisotope would be retained by sediment is called

A) equilibrium.
B) deposition.
C) partition coefficient.
D) infiltration.
E) imposition.

Question 26

Refer to the figure below showing the US MSW generation rates from 1960 to 2010. Explain the trend in per capita waste generation from 1960-1990 compared to 1990-2010.
(Source: http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/msw99.htm)

Question 27

Describe how McDonald's partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund altered McDonald's waste.

Question 28

Refer to the table below showing the generation, materials recovery, composting, combustion with energy recovery, and discards of MSW from 1960 to 2101 (in millions of tons). What is the most alarming trend in the table? What is the most promising trend?
(Source: http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/msw99.htm)

Question 29

What is material substitution? Give a simple but effective example.

Question 30

Compare and contrast waste mining and dematerialization.

Question 31

More than 90% of the radioisotopes on Earth are naturally occurring. Are these radioisotopes safe? Explain.

Question 32

Discuss partition coefficients (K_D) and how they help predict the geochemical behavior of radioisotopes in sediments.

Question 33

Suppose you have three unbreakable glass vials on a table in front of you, six inches away. Each vial is permanently and safely sealed. The first vial contains a powerful alpha emitter, the second contains a power beta emitter, and the third contains a gamma emitter. Each vial is equally radioactive; that is, each is producing the same number of Bq of its respective radiation. Which of these vials is the most dangerous to you? Why?

Question 34

Refer to the graph below showing the percentage of power generation that comes from nuclear energy for many countries. The US has by far the greatest production in the world of kilowatt hours of electricity from nuclear power plants, yet the U.S. does not rank in the top five in the world in nuclear fuel share. Explain.

Question 35

If Yucca Mountain were to open tomorrow and started accepting nuclear waste, it would have a capacity for about 75,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. The US has more than half that amount waiting for disposal, plus another 2,000 tons generated per year. What is the implication of this information in terms of radioactive waste disposal?