ESPM 1011 Study Guide - Final Guide: Electronic Waste, Laptop, Life-Cycle Assessment

• School: UMN
• Department: Environment Sci, Policy, Mgmt
• Course: ESPM 1011
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Garbage: wet discards: food wate; green/fresh plant material; offal (entrails and waste from butchered animals); etc. Trash: dry discards: newspapers, boxes, cans, glass, plastics, etc. We can deal with our waste in five major ways: sanitary landfill, incineration, reuse, recycle, and compost. Sanitary landfills are cheaper than other ways of disposing trash, but landfills sometimes can leak leachate into groundwater supplies and contaminate them. They also take up large amounts of land, smell bad, and are unsightly for the eyes. Incineration is good because it reduces the volume and weight of trash, but also has negative sides because the ash must be disposed of. This ash can sometimes contain very toxic chemicals, and the smoke from incineration also contains toxic chemicals. Reuse is great because many things people throw out are still in working condition and do not need to be disposed of yet. This reduces the resources we consume as well as the waste we create.