WASTE

Methods of waste disposal Open Dumping

Ocean Dumping

Incineration

Recyclicing

Open Dumping Advantages

Convenient (dump anywhere)

Cheap Fast

Disadvantages

Causes pollution in air, ground, and water

Easy for diseases to spread

Ocean DumpingAdvantages

Source of nutrients for plants

Cheap to get Convenient

Disadvantages

Dumping of waste will cause danger to marine life.

IncinerationAdvantages

Reduces volume of waste

Produces odourless stable waste

Disadvantages

Expensive to build, and generate the heat energy required for incineration.

Produces dioxins if burnt properly.

RecyclingAdvantages

No waste produced

Disadvantages

Expensive Difficulty in separation Time consuming

Recycling

Metals Metals such as aluminium and steel cans c

an be collected and melted. As Aluminium takes a lot of energy to make,

recycling would be less costly.

Recycling

Paper

It is sorted into grades, and then made into toilet and newspaper

Paper can also be made into compost, acting as a fertilizer with rich minerals for the soil.

RecyclingGlass

Glass is sorted according to colors, and melted. They are then shaped and molded into other

useful objects such as beer bottles and jugs. It is very costly however, to make generate

energy required to melt the glass.

RecyclingPlastics

Plastic can be broken down by different processes: Pyrolysis Hydrogenation Gasification Thermal cracking Repolymerisation One disadvantage is that plastic are very hard to separate.

Nuclear Waste They are mainly from hospitals, power

stations and labs.

They can be sorted into low and high levels

Low Level Usually short half life

Kept in steel and concrete containers

Low level disposal methods Stored in cooled water as the waste gives o

ff heat where it loses its activity Filtered with an ion exchange resin to remo

ve strontium and Caesium. Discharged in to the sea where radioactivity

is diluted

High level long half life from spent fuel rods

The radioactivity may last for a few thousand years

High level disposal method About 3% is high level liquid waste The liquid is dried in a furnace and then

mixed with glass It solidifies in steel tubes, allowing air to

flow around, keeping the tubes cool.