Deck 13: Urbanization and Solid and Hazardous Waste

Question 1

Some governments legally recognize slum areas of the urban poor in developing countries. On reason for this is that people living in slums tend to

A)utilize discarded building materials supplied by the government.
B)work to improve their living conditions if they know they can stay in an area.
C)rely on government subsidies for access to clean water, sewers, electricity and roads.
D)picket for basic services on government property, thereby creating a distraction.
E)occupy other legal properties nearby when their properties are illegal

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The concept of an ecocity revolves around

A)sustainability and livability.
B)rapid urban development.
C)government subsidies and grants.
D)mass transportation services.
E)upper to middle class populations.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Sanitary landfills are most likely to result in

A)open dumps.
B)the release of methane.
C)better ecocities.
D)reintroduction of wildlife habitats.
E)less urban sprawl.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

____ represents the second largest proportion of solid waste produced in the United States.

A)Industrial solid waste
B)Municipal solid waste
C)Electronic waste
D)Toxic waste
E)Integrated waste

Question 5

What is one advantage of urbanization?

A)easier access to medical care and social services
B)increased attention to wildlife habitats
C)stricter regulation of pollution
D)better water quality
E)more stable climate control

Question 6

What would be the top priority in a pollution prevention approach to solid waste?

A)recycling
B)reusing
C)reducing
D)burning
E)burying

Question 7

With about 4.6% of the world's population, the United States produces ____ of the world's solid waste.

A)15%
B)25%
C)35%
D)45%
E)55%

Question 8

The U.S contains ____ of the world's population but consumes ____ of the world's gasoline.

A)4.4%; 43%
B)4.4%; 25%
C)25%; 10%
D)43%; 5%
E)85%; 2%

Question 9

What are the top four components of municipal solid waste that are buried in U.S. landfills, listed from highest to lowest?

A)paper, food waste, yard waste, and plastics
B)plastics, paper, yard waste, and food waste
C)paper, yard waste, food waste, and plastics
D)yard waste, paper, food waste, and plastics
E)plastics, food waste, yard waste, and paper

Question 10

Today, ____ of the world's population and ____ of the U.S. population live in urban and suburban areas.

A)52%; 82%
B)20%; 75%
C)82%; 52%
D)90%; 87%
E)100%; 100%

Question 11

What is an advantage of sanitary landfills for the disposal of solid waste?

A)discouragement of waste production
B)low operating cost
C)containment of greenhouse gases
D)less contamination of groundwater
E)better traffic ad air pollution controls

Question 12

Urbanization is best defined as the

A)decline of suburban populations.
B)creation and growth of urban and suburban areas.
C)homogenization of ecocities.
D)replacement of hypercities with megacities.
E)migration of the U.S. population to less populated states.

Question 13

____ represents the largest proportion of solid waste produced in the United States.

A)Industrial solid waste
B)Municipal solid waste
C)Electronic waste
D)Toxic waste
E)Integrated waste

Question 14

Which of the following strategies for dealing with e-wastes fits best with at least one of the three principles of sustainability?

A)Help children learn to earn money by scavenging for scrap metal.
B)Ship e-wastes to developing countries.
C)Burn e-wastes periodically.
D)Dispose of e-wastes in landfills.
E)Give used electronics back to manufacturer for remanufacturing, repair, or recycling.

Question 15

Hazardous waste is best defined as waste that threatens human health or the environment because it

A)is devoid of any nutrients
B)is poisonous, dangerously chemically reactive, corrosive, or flammable
C)an unwanted or discarded material that is not liquid or gas.
D)is in violation of anti-pollution laws
E)has been disposed of improperly

Question 16

Primary, or closed-loop recycling,

A)recycles used materials into new products of the same type.
B)recycles used materials into new product of a different type.
C)recycles materials for use in secondary recycling.
D)requires a fee-per-bag collection system.
E)involves postconsumer waste.

Question 17

Which of the following statements about landfill processes is false?

A)Open landfills are common near major cities in many developing countries.
B)Contaminated leachate can seep from the bottom of landfills.
C)Contaminated groundwater is a problem at some landfills.
D)Fly ash created in landfills is a useful by-product.
E)Older, unlined landfills may have particularly bad water pollution problems.

Question 18

Smart growth is a form of urban planning that

A)uses laws and other tools to channel urban growth into less harmful areas
B)relies on current statistics rather than on future population growth trends
C)encourages resource consumption
D)facilitates urban sprawl on a rapid scale
E)focuses on the social consequences of urban land use planning

Question 19

What is one disadvantage of urbanization?

A)lack of transportation options
B)higher infant mortality rates
C)less access to medical care and social services
D)fragmentation of wildlife habitats
E)less recycling alternatives

Question 20

Solid waste is best defined as any unwanted or discarded material that

A)is partially reusable because of its nutrients
B)threatens human health or the environment because of its toxicity
C)is not liquid or gas
D)is not biodegradable
E)cannot be converted to a liquid

Question 21

The fly ash waste produced by the electric power plant in the industrial ecosystem in Kalundborg, Denmark is used by

A)greenhouses.
B)pharmaceutical plants.
C)cement manufacturers.
D)fish farms.
E)area homes.

Question 22

Currently, about ____ by weight of the municipal solid waste produced in the United States is buried in sanitary landfills.

A)29%
B)39%
C)49%
D)59%
E)69%

Question 23

____ regulates about 5% of all hazardous waste produced in the United States.

A)Surface impoundments
B)CERCLA
C)Environmental justice
D)RCRA
E)Superfund

Question 24

The term POPs refers to

A)persistent producers of waste.
B)persistent disposers of waste.
C)persistent recyclers of waste.
D)persistent transporters of waste.
E)persistent organic pollutants.

Question 25

Some European countries have established cradle-to-grave responsibility laws that require companiesto

A)keep track on all of its hazardous waste.
B)bury their waste in hazardous waste landfills.
C)take back the consumer products they sell.
D)use only new materials in manufacturing.
E)exchange their wastes with other companies.

Question 26

What is one advantage of liquid hazardous waste disposal by deep-well injection?

A)little chance of leakage
B)no emission of air pollutants
C)discouragement of waste production
D)low cost
E)ease of incineration

Question 27

An advantage of materials recovery facilities (MRFs) is that they

A)encourage a low throughput of garbage.
B)have low operation and maintenance costs.
C)eliminate the production of toxic ash
D)do not emit carbon dioxide and methane.
E)recover valuable materials for resale.

Question 28

Incineration of hazardous wastes

A)is widely accepted as the best way to dispose of all hazardous wastes.
B)results in the production of high-level hazardous wastes.
C)may be performed at considerably less expense than landfills.
D)increases the total volume of trash.
E)is not yet technologically feasible.

Question 29

Recycling rates for some MSW categories have increased in the U.S. partly because of

A)inclusion of environmental costs in market prices.
B)the prevalence of MRFs.
C)tax breaks for mining virgin materials.
D)fluctuations in the price of recycled materials.
E)a rise in the number of curbside recycling programs.

Question 30

Which country burns about 54% of its municipal solid waste in incinerators?

A)United States
B)Japan
C)Switzerland
D)Great Britain
E)Denmark

Question 31

Sanitary landfills typically have problems with

A)rodents and insects.
B)spreading odors.
C)open, uncovered garbage.
D)traffic, noise, and dust.
E)spread of disease.

Question 32

In 2000, the parliament of which country enacted a law that by 2020 will ban all chemicals that are persistent and can bioaccumulate in living tissue?

A)England
B)France
C)Switzerland
D)Sweden
E)Denmark

Question 33

Phytoremediation

A)involves using natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb pollutants from soil and water.
B)results in the production of high-level hazardous wastes.
C)involves a faster and more efficient approach to waste management
D)is accepted as the best method of dealing with hazardous wastes.
E)is currently in widespread use in large urban areas.

Question 34

How much of the hazardous and toxic waste produced in the United States is unregulated?

A)100%
B)95%
C)50%
D)5%
E)1%

Question 35

Enforcement of Superfund and cleanup of polluted sites has slowed because

A)responsible parties have been quick in cleaning up pollution.
B)pollution is no longer a major concern for waste producing industries.
C)local governments and small businesses willingly take on the responsibility for cleanup.
D)the U.S. Congress refused to renew the tax on oil and chemical companies that funded the program.
E)most of the waste sites in the U.S. have already been cleaned up.

Question 36

Bioremediation of hazardous waste uses ____ to detoxify hazardous waste.

A)charcoal filters
B)cement kilns
C)plants
D)bacteria and enzymes
E)combustion

Question 37

Physical methods for detoxifying hazardous wastes include

A)filtering with charcoal or resins to remove harmful solids.
B)isolating the materials and placing them in safe storage.
C)destroying toxic substances with bacteria and enzymes.
D)activating chemical reactions to convert hazardous chemicals into harmless ones.
E)using deep-well disposal.

Question 38

____ waste makes up more than 75% of the total waste that scientists have distinguished as recyclable.

A)Household
B)Postconsumer
C)Primary or closed-loop
D)Preconsumer
E)Secondary

Question 39

Brownfields are

A)deep-well injection sites.
B)state-of-the-art landfills.
C)surface impoundments.
D)abandoned industrial and commercial sites.
E)above-ground waste storage sites.

Question 40

Which of the following statements is false?

A)It is more economical to have consumers separate trash before pickup than to use materials recovery facilities.
B)Glass, iron, and aluminum can be recovered from solid wastes.
C)The source-separation approach usually involves consumers separating trash into four collections: glass, paper, plastic, and metal.
D)Materials-recovery facilities provide many more jobs than low-technology recycling.
E)Materials-recovery facilities need a large input of garbage to be financially successful.

Question 41

____________________ approaches attempt to reduce the environmental impact of solid waste without reducing the amount of waste produced; ____________________ approaches attempt to reduce waste and use what we do produce as resources.

Question 42

____________________ are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk to human health and the environment.

Question 43

The energy from the combustion of municipal solid waste in an incinerator can be used to boil water to make steam for heating water or space, or for producing electricity.

Question 44

The principles of new urbanization try to discourage mixed-use city neighborhoods in an effort to maximize economic sustainability.

Question 45

In Europe, car-sharing networks have increased the average drover's carbon dioxide emissions.

Question 46

Incineration is a sustainable way to manage hazardous wastes.

Question 47

Materials-recovery facilities discourage consumers from producing trash.

Question 48

Charging a fee or tax on gasoline is an ineffective way to phase in full-cost pricing to offset the environmental and health costs caused by automobile use.

Question 49

The use of DDT is banned worldwide.

Question 50

The city government of ____________________ has taken measures that reduced the percentage of days each year in which air pollution standards are violated from 50% to 20%. The government banned cars from the central city area; phased in cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles; and planted more green space.

Question 51

Resource exchange webs use resources similarly to natural food webs.

Question 52

People in urban areas tend to have better access to medical services, family planning and recycling facilities than people in rural areas.

Question 53

Most of the world's cities are not self-sustaining systems.

Question 54

Instead of being sent to landfills, containers made from bioplastic could be composted to produce a soil conditioner.

Question 55

The United States legally exports its e-waste under the Basel Convention.

Question 56

Ecocities do not yet exist; they are futuristic plans for sustainable urban growth.

Question 57

Urbanization affects local climates and causes light pollution.

Question 58

Some rural people are ____________________ to urban areas in search of a better life or ____________________ by poverty, famine, war or job insecurity.

Question 59

The fastest growing solid waste problem in the United States and the world is ____________________.

Question 60

Resource exchange webs function by using the waste of one process as the raw materials for another.

Question 61

Does the 1992 Basel Convention advance or hinder environmental justice? Explain your reasoning.

Question 62

Describe how the three principles of sustainability can be applied to create a successful ecocity.

Question 63

____________________ ideals promote protection from environmental hazards regardless of race, gender, age, nationality, income, social class or political factor.

Question 64

Discuss three challenges faced by cities as urbanization expands.

Question 65

____________________ is the term for rainwater that is contaminated as it percolates through the solid waste in landfills.

Question 66

Labeling

On the hazardous waste landfill figure, choose the letter that identifies the location of the leak detection system.

Question 67

The ____________________ bans participating countries from shipping hazardous wastes to or through other countries without their permission.

Question 68

In order of decreasing priority by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, discuss ways to implement integrated hazardous waste management.

Question 69

____________________ involves using natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb, filter and remove contaminants from polluted soil and water.

Question 70

____________________ are excavated depressions such as ponds, pits, or lagoons into which liquid hazardous wastes are stored.

Question 71

List four smart growth tools and give an example of how each tool may be used in controlling urban sprawl.

Question 72

What are some of the challenges faced by the urban poor who live in slums or squatter settlements? What arguments can you make for and against some governments decision to recognize existing slums?

Question 73

Labeling

On the hazardous waste landfill figure, choose the letter that identifies the location of the gas vent.

Question 74

Labeling

On the hazardous waste landfill figure, choose the letter that identifies the location of the groundwater monitoring well.

Question 75

What are the four stages of population shift from rural to urban areas in the United States of America over the last 200 years?