Deck 22: Metric System

Question 1

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

Answer 1

A

Question 2

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

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In which of the following years was the greatest volume of material recycled?

A) 1970
B) 1980
C) 1990
D) 2000
E) 2010

Answer 3

E

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

According to the figure, which of the following trends has occurred since 1990?

A) an increase in the amount of waste being combusted
B) an increase in the amount of waste being composted
C) a decrease in the amount of waste being recycled
D) a decrease in the amount of waste produced
E) an increase in the amount of waste being landfilled

Question 6

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 7

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 8

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

Question 9

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 10

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

Question 11

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 12

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 13

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 14

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

Question 15

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

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

Question 16

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 17

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 18

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 19

Which decade was associated with the greatest percentage increase in the amount of waste disposed of in landfills?

A) 1960s
B) 1970s
C) 1980s
D) 1990s
E) 2000s

Question 20

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 21

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 22

E -wastes are a source of .

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

Question 23

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 24

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

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

Question 25

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 26

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

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

Question 27

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 28

can contaminate wastepaper and decrease the value of collected paper and cardboard.

A) Corrugated cardboard boxes
B) Paper shopping bags
C) Newspapers
D) Cereal boxes
E) Office papers

Question 29

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 30

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