4.2.D.

= Management Alternatives Involved in Recycling and Solid Waste Management = =  and Solid Waste Management Practices. =

The five main management alternatives in waste management are recycling, source reduction, composting, landfills, and incineration. Three main management alternatives in recycling and solid waste management that are viewed as environmentally friendly are recycling, source reduction and composting. Each of these three alternatives have the least amount of negative affects towards our planet compared to other management alternatives and each method is most beneficial towards certain materials or products. Some of the alternatives with negative outcomes are disposing of waste in landfills and incineration. However, even though incineration and landfills create negative effects these alternatives are the best method of disposing of certain materials like household, commercial and industrial wastes that can not be recycled.

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Recycling is the process of manufacturing a recycled product, generally made from plastic, glass, metal, or paper, into a new product which can be sold again. The organic version of recycling is called composting which takes organic material such as food and yard waste and uses it to create fertile soil or make soil more fertile which can grow food or produce landscapes. A third alternative is source reduction, this alternative focuses on the consumers taking action by buying less products made of non recyclable material and helping recycle all recyclable products they dispose of. (U.S. Environmental, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW))



A study done by the environmental protection agency (EPA) determined the amount of trash disposed of and the rate of recycling from 1950 to 2006 (shown in diagram 1 & 2). They also studied the exact rate of recycling of multiple materials in 2006 (shown in diagram 3). These graphs show that from 1960 till now our recycling rates have continued to increase while unfortunately our amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) or trash disposed of has also increased. Although our overall trash disposal has gone from 88 million tons of MSW in 1960 to 251 million tons of MSW in 2006, the percentage of overall trash recycled has greatly increased from 6.4% of all MSW in 1960 to 32.5% of all MSW in 2006. (U.S. Environmental, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW))   = =         Disposing of waste in landfills has been a common way of waste management  for       many years. The two methods of landfills are landfilling and landraising, landfilling   is when<span class="wiki_link_ext"> waste is disposed into a hole dug in the ground, while<span class="wiki_link_ext"> landraising is when<span class="wiki_link_ext"> <span class="wiki_link_ext"> <span class="wiki_link_ext"> waste is disposed on top of the ground and <span class="wiki_link_ext"> built up. Landfills today are filled mainly by municipal solid waste, industrial waste, and construction and demolition debris.<span class="wiki_link_ext"> Today landfills are required to<span class="wiki_link_ext"> <span class="wiki_link_ext"> <span class="wiki_link_ext"> follow government laws which protect the <span class="wiki_link_ext">  safety of the areas affected by the landfills though gas emissions or leakage into rivers, streams or the ground. (U.S. Environmental, Wastes) Incineration, or combustion, is another method of waste management which harms the environment mainly through gas emissions that harm the atmosphere. Compared to landfills incineration creates a much smaller mass of waste once it's completed which is why it is used even though it creates harmful gas emissions. Today facilities which use incineration are equipped with scrubbers and filters to make the gas emissions less dangerous. The scrubbers are devices which spray a liquid to neutralize the acid gases. The other gas emissions are moved through filters which remove the ash particles created from the burning. (U.S. Environmental, Wastes)

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