Green buildings waste: waste overview including land issues

are beginning to mandate construction and demolition waste recycling:
City of LA: As part of permitting process you need to show that you’ll recycle 75% of the waste
City of Santa Monica: Post a bond that you will recycle your waste
City of Pasadena: 75% of construction waste has to be recycled
EU has directives shooting for 70% recycling, though they include soil

The Public Sector Responding

tiles (of course select types and no asbestos)
Uses the collected tiles to manufacture new ones

linear

Clothing

Electronics

Communication

Solid
Liquid
Gas/Particulate
Heat
Radiation

Resources

Sun

multi-sectorial collaboration in policy development and governance

years

Food usually up to 15 days
Soaps and detergents 30-40 days
Household clean. agents 30 days
Clothing 1-??? Years

Life Expectancy of Products

Non-durables:

Durables:

Do these products stop having impact on the environment after they are created and used?

this lecture

We will discuss wastewater as part of our Water lectures

Particulate waste will be touched upon

Heat as waste will be discussed in the Energy lectures

HOW DO WE TREAT WASTE TODAY?

Solid waste ends up in landfills, incinerators, or some reprocessed

Wastewater ends up in natural water systems sometimes after passing through sewer treatment plants (if treated at all)

Particulate waste is generally released into the atmosphere, soil, or water with some limited attempts to capture it

includes medical and health care
(**) includes energy production (e.g., nuclear waste)

ton (UK) = 2,240 lbs = 101.605% of a tonne
Metric Ton or tonne or mt = 1,000kg = 2,204.623 lbs = 98.42% of long ton = 90.72% of short ton

1 pound (lb) = 0.454kg
1kg = 2.205 lbs

2.20 kg

1.22 kg

226.4 mt

79.9 mt

In addition, each year in the US ~7.6 billion tons (6.9billion mt) of industrial solid waste is generated (US EPA)

distribution)

Source: “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2008 ” (US EPA; 2009)

States: Facts and Figures for 2008 ” (US EPA; 2009)

US Recycling Rates for Selected Products, 2008*

products include CPUs, monitors, notebooks, keyboards, mice, and hardware peripherals
Source: US EPA 2007; www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/manage.htm

(billions)

Total Solid Waste/day (million mt)

Solid Waste/day/person (kg/day/person)

Source: Sandra Cointreau, Solid Waste Management Advisor, The World Bank (September 2007); presentation called “The Growing Complexities and Challenges of Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries.”

Note: (*) The World Bank divides economies using GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $975 or less; lower middle income, $976 - $3,855; upper middle income, $3,856 - $11,905; and high income, $11,906 or more. For the purposes of this exercise, the author of the above statistics has combined the 2 middle income categories into one.

Armenia throws away 1 million mt of solid waste every year
That’s about 350 kg per person per year
Or
Less than 1 kg per person per day

The World Bank (September 2007); presentation called “The Growing Complexities and Challenges of Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries.”

Hazardous Waste

Most excluded

Some excluded

Few excluded

Note: (*) The World Bank divides economies using GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $975 or less; lower middle income, $976 - $3,855; upper middle income, $3,856 - $11,905; and high income, $11,906 or more. For the purposes of this exercise, the author of the above statistics has combined the 2 middle income categories into one.

handled)

Collection

Safe Disposal

Source: Sandra Cointreau, Solid Waste Management Advisor, The World Bank (September 2007); presentation called “The Growing Complexities and Challenges of Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries.”

Note: (*) The World Bank divides economies using GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $975 or less; lower middle income, $976 - $3,855; upper middle income, $3,856 - $11,905; and high income, $11,906 or more. For the purposes of this exercise, the author of the above statistics has combined the 2 middle income categories into one.

of recycled materials) that employs people to separate bottles from cans from plastic. The workers are handicapped people, recent immigrants, alcoholics. Recovered materials are sold to local industries. Styrofoam is shredded to stuff quilt for the poor. The recycling program costs no more than the old landfill, but the city is cleaner, there are more jobs, farmers are supported and the poor get food and transportation. Curitiba recycles two-thirds of it garbage - one of the highest rates of any city, north or south.

COLLECTION & RECYCLING IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY CONTEXT
Curitiba's citizens separate their trash into just two categories, organic and inorganic, for pick-up by two kinds of trucks. Poor families in squatter settlements that are unreachable by trucks bring their trash bags to neighborhood centers, where they can exchange them for bus tickets or for eggs, milk, oranges and potatoes, all bought from outlying farms.

Source: http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=2236:

from the point of generation (e.g., household, commercial, or industrial sites) to recycling or to “final disposal” in landfills or incineration.
Landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial. It is considered the place where you put “final waste.”
Incineration is a disposal method that involves combustion (burning) of waste material, converting them into heat, gas, steam, and ash. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as “thermal treatment.”
Uncontrolled Dumping (illegal in most developed countries) is disposal of waste in an undesignated area. This is usually done to avoid paying costs associated with designated disposal sites, e.g., landfills, or to circumvent environmental laws. Waste is sometimes dumped across national boundaries.

regulate each stream using different rules.
Examples:
Daily household & commercial waste
Construction and demolition
Industrial
Biodegradable waste
Hazardous Waste (Chemical waste; Biomedical waste)
Bulky waste
Food service grease waste
Nuclear
Etc.
Many countries have laws governing hazardous waste streams. Most countries are also signatories to the Basel Convention.

Waste Assessment: Final Report” (IPTS, Joint Research Centre, European Commission; 2009); modified by Alen Amirkhanian for educational purposes

PRODUCTION & WASTE

Methane

Leachate

and Latin America” by Lars Mikkel Johannessen with Gabriela Boyer (World Bank: 1999)

LANDFILL TYPES

In most developed countries

What type is Nubarashen?

fossil fuel to get the waste to the landfill
Landfills generate greenhouse gases (GHGs), including methane, …
Landfills generate leachate, liquid that drains or 'leaches' from a landfill; its composition varies depending on the age of the landfill and the type of waste that the landfill contains. It can usually contain both dissolved and suspended materials.
Landfills take up land that is difficult to restore it to its original condition after the landfill is closed.
Landfills do a very poor job of returning natural resources back to nature.

get the waste to landfills
GARBAGE TRUCK FACTS1
An estimated 136,000 garbage trucks, 12,000 transfer vehicles, and 31,000 dedicated recycling vehicles haul away America’s garbage (179,000 vehicles in total).
An average garbage truck travels 25,000 miles (40,000 km) annually, gets less than 3 miles per gallon (79 liters per 100km), and uses approximately 8,600 gallons of fuel each year.
Over 40% of garbage trucks are over 10 years old, making it the oldest fleet in the US.
The average diesel-powered garbage truck costs over $170,000 and is not retired for 12 years.
The garbage truck sector alone is responsible for consuming approximately 1 billion gallons (or 3.8 billion liters) of diesel fuel annually, representing nearly 3% of total diesel fuel consumed in the US.

Sources:
Cannon, James, S., “Greening Garbage Trucks: Trends in Alternative Fuel Use, 2002 – 2005 (INFORM Inc., 2006)
US EPA citing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology: http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f05001.htm

CO2 emissions from a gallon of diesel =
2,778 grams x 0.99 x (44/12) = 10.1 kg/gallon = 22.2 pounds/gallon

US garbage fleet generates 10 billion kg (10 million mt) of CO2 every year

is methane (CH4), although some CO2 is also generated.
This happens because of the anaerobic digestion of the deposits by micro-organisms. (More on this later)
There have been a few cases of explosions at landfills but these have been very rare because most landfills manage their methane emissions by:
Venting
Flaring
Generating energy
Of these methane mitigation measures, venting is the worst option. Methane is 20+ times more damaging as a GHG than CO2.

Landfill Environmental Issues (2)

Its composition varies depending on the age of the landfill and the type of waste that the landfill contains.
It can usually contain both dissolved and suspended materials.

Landfill Environmental Issues (3)

The greatest environmental risks occur in the discharges from older sites constructed before modern engineering standards became mandatory and also from sites in the developing world where modern standards have not been applied.
There are also substantial risks from illegal sites and ad-hoc sites used by criminal gangs to dispose of waste materials.
Leachate streams running directly into the aquatic environment have both an acute and chronic impact on the environment which may be very severe and can severely diminish bio-diversity and greatly reduce populations of sensitive species. Where toxic metals and organics are present this can lead to chronic toxin accumulation in both local and far distant populations. Rivers impacted by leachate are often yellow in appearance and often support severe overgrowths of sewage fungus.

Example of modern leachate management in Cancun, Mexcio

the total number of landfills in 1999 was 2216 and in 2000 was 2142.1
Very few new landfills are opening up but the average size of landfills has gone up.
Incidentally: Waste has to travel longer distances (more GHG emissions).

Landfill Environmental Issues (4)

Source(s):
US EPA Memorandum (April 11, 2002)

Landfills take up land that is concerted effort restore or reclaim.
Landfills are among the largest human made structures. Fresh Kills, one of the largest was 890 hectares
In 1979, there were an estimated 18,500 landfills in the nation. In 1990 there were only about 6,300, and by 1995 it was estimated that only about 3,000 would still be open. In just 16 years the number of landfills dropped by 84%. During that same time there was an 80% increase in the amount of trash generated.1

natural resources back to nature.
In fact one might argue that most modern landfills in advanced economies are designed to isolate waste (aka materials and resources) from the nature’s nutrient cycles.
Nature breaks down matter in several ways:
Physical breakdown (crushing, breaking);
Chemical degradation; and
Biodegradation.

matter) are decomposed by micro-organisms into simpler substances such as carbon dioxide, water, ammonia, etc.*
Composting is a purposeful biodegradation of organic matter. When you compost, bacteria, ants, worms, flies, etc. breakdown into soil matter that is high-quality topsoil.
There are 2 ways in which biodegradation occurs: aerobically and anaerobically.

Aerobic
Decomposition of organic matter by organisms using oxygen

Source: (*) Glossary of Environment Statistics, Studies in Methods, Series F, No. 67, United Nations, New York, 1997.

Anaerobic
Decomposition of organic matter by micro-organisms without oxygen

in 1973 at the University of Arizona.
Rathje began applying archeological techniques to waste either in the form of fresh household discards or as placed in a landfill. He called this field “garbology.”
The Garbage Project explored fresh garbage and landfills across the United States and in Canada, Mexico City and Sydney, Australia.
His decades-long work on garbage has yielded some interesting findings:
In times of shortages, people actually waste more of the food in short supply than in normal times; he and his team were able to observe this in the early 70s with meat and sugar shortages
But most directly related to our current discussion, he came to realize that very little biodegradation is taking place in the landfills:
He found newspapers that were intact after 30 years or so
Pretty well preserved steaks with fat, bone, and lean that were 15 years old
Overall, the volume of organic material recovered from US landfills by the Project were very high: 32.5% of 15 year old garbage from Naples, Florida; 50% of 15 year old garbage from Mallard North in Illinois; and 66% of the 15 year old garbage from Rio Saldo in Arizona. The main exception was Fresh Kills in NY.

Source: Rathje, William and Cullen Murphy; “Rubbish!: The Archeology of Garbage” (2001)

landfills;
With the bottom layers being compacted and covered you are creating sealed conditions so aerobic degradation was ruled out.
But not even anaerobic biodegradation was taking place!
So much for biodegradable plastics; corn based utensils, bags, etc.
All becomes marketing fluff if the biodegradables aren’t sorted and composted properly
And once composted, the question of where it should be finally disposed is still open

to a fascinating aspect of their discovery:
It took them a long time to come to this conclusion and only when an outsider asked an unsuspecting, innocent question did it occur to them what is happening.
“Casting his eyes over a stack of newspapers [the visitor] said ‘I though newspapers were supposed to biodegrade.”
“Once broached, the subject of biodegradability became the topic of a major research program.” (Rathje, p. 113) …
This shows how a group of very intelligent and informed people can miss the obvious.
This delay in thinking is even more interesting when considering all the corroborating evidence that the researchers did already know:
Environmental consultants reported that even though more than half of municipal waste was theoretically biodegradable even after 20-30 years of a landfill closing, the soil settled no more than a few feet
Another clue: the methane production at a landfill in most cases no more than 50% of the theoretical amount expected
Rodolfo Lanciani, an archeologist in the 1880’s found and excavated an Ancient Roman landfill and after 20 centuries “the smell from that polluted ground … was absolutely unbearable …”
People were sure it was happening, they would even add sludge to expedite the process

Source: Rathje, William and Cullen Murphy; “Rubbish!: The Archeology of Garbage” (2001)

Waste
It is very human.
Human metabolism has been, for the most part, “linear.”
Nature, on the other hand, has “circular metabolism”
Nature has no waste.

practices.
Even at the beginnings of industrialization, in early 20th century, major figures spoke about it and acted on it:

George Washington Carver
One of the greatest American scientists wrote in 1893:
The earnest student has already learned that nature does not expend its forces upon waste material, but that each created thing is an indispensable factor of the great whole, and one in which no other factor will fit exactly as well.1

Henry Ford
The American automaker who singlehandedly changed the course of industry and consumption:
We treat each tree as wood until nothing remains which is serviceable as wood, and then we treat what remains as a chemical compound to be broken down into other chemical compounds which we can use in our business.
We save, not only lumber, but also we save transport by the carriage of wood instead of wood mixed with water—green wood. More than that, we carry only finished wood—parts all ready to go into assembly. Instead of paying freight on waste, we keep the waste and earn money from it. 1

Source: (1) Ferrell, John; “Carver and Ford: Pioneers of Zero Waste” (2002)

THE LIFE OF OUR CONSUMED MATERIALS: In the first half of today’s session we talked about landfills and how they take materials out of the planet’s circular metabolism.
OUR CREATED WORLD OF SYNTHETIC MATERIALS, WHICH WE DON’T EVEN FULLY UNDERSTAND: We’ve also achieved this linearity by the way we have manipulated natural materials to forms that damage nature or nature does not have evolved ways of re-integrating it into its cycles fast enough before a lot of damage is done.
“Of the approximately 80,000 defined chemical substances and technical mixes that are produced and used by industry today …, only about 3,000 has so far been studied for their effects on living systems.”1
POP problem
Recycling doesn’t address this issue; it simply transforms the problem from one product to another p. 56
WE HAVE MOVED AWAY FROM DESIGNING WITH NATURE; WE DESIGN AGAINST NATURE: ….
BY THE WAY, NATURAL DOES NOT MEAN “GOOD” ESP. GIVEN OUR POPULATION GROWTH RATES

past 2) there have been various movements:
Reduce consumption (for environmental reasons)
Recycle waste
Reduce emissions
Lean manufacturing
Eco Efficiency – reduce inputs and reuse industrial waste
Zero Waste

directions

- plus a 4th R …

Redesign

cattle live weight

And to feed all these animals, what do you need?

beef

more prevalent (e.g., reduce consumption of trans-fats, alcohol, smoking, etc.)
Environmentally oriented campaigns have been limited to, say, whales, dolphins, certain types of wood, certain types of pesticides, reduced electricity or water use, and the like
Only few leaders have come out against a culture of consumerism; these have been mostly religious figures:
"Reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth—erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources, in order to fuel an insatiable consumption …” Pope Benedict XVI addressing a crowd in Sydney, Australia. Quoted in the British daily The Independent (July 18, 2008).
No politician will risk advocating reduced consumption for environmental reasons. In fact most do exactly the opposite because they want to promote economic growth.

Consumer Behavior

is after all what we’re after).

Consumer Behavior

from 1 ton of ore

vs. inorganic
Pre-consumer vs. post consumer
Open-loop vs. closed-loop recycling

WASTE: fruits, vegetables, paper, yard trimmings, hair, wool, cotton, egg shells, meat, animal waste, animal grease, …

RECYCLING (1b)

ORGANIC WASTE:

is also ways of “recycling” particulate, liquid, and heat waste. But these for future sessions.

RECYCLING (2)

glass?, … hypothetical automobile)

of what we call recycling is actually downcycling.
After we use materials we convert them into “lesser” products. For instance:
A plastic computer housing becomes a plastic cup, which then becomes a park bench, eventually becoming waste
A soda can has two parts, the lower quality top and the higher quality body. In “recycling” both parts are smelted together to a lower quality product
High grade airplane aluminum is converted into wall covering.
Automobile bodies, made of high quality steel (high carbon content and high tensile strength) is melted down along with copper from wiring, plastic parts, and paints. The result is lower quality metals. In the meantime, some precious metals such as copper, manganese and chromium are lost in the process.

Photos: Metropolis Magazine (Jan. 2010); “Winging It: Coverings Etc finds a way to make tiles from recycled aircraft aluminum”

RECYCLING (3)

these practices only makes us “less bad.” We need to be 100% good.
These incremental strategies e.g., pollution control, source reduction of waste, recycling (even if downcycling) are important …
a) They buy us time and
b) They allow for learning
We have to redesign our products and practices so that we eliminate the concept of waste.
They posit that there are two types of metabolisms on the planet:
Biological metabolism
Technical metabolism
“With the right design all of the products and materials manufactured by industry will feed into one of these two metabolisms …” (c2c, p.104)
THERE HAS BEEN A FAILURE OF DESIGN:
Not intelligence, Not knowledge, but Design

highly complex system of industry, finance, mobility, and energy we’ve created. We have to reengineer the process and the products. This will take time but needs concerted focus.
McDonough and Braungart have interesting things to say about this:
We should do away with the concept of “waste.” Our activities should create “biological and technical nutrients.”
Our goal should not be to build products/materials that have very long useful life. We don’t necessarily want “intergenerational tyranny.” (c2c, p 112)
Products can be designed to have limited life.
But it means designing products/materials that can be taken apart and used and reused without downcycling.
Examples of downcycling: writing paper to paper bag; plastic bottles to park benches, airplane aluminum to wall covering

no paper as we know it
It is made of plastics, polymers that are infinitely recyclable
It does not cut down trees, does not leach chlorine in waterways
The inks are nontoxic, can be washed by safe simple chemical process, in boiled water
These inks can be recovered from the water and reused
The glues are also recoverable and reusable without toxic affect

principles to practice.
Through their consulting firm, MBDC, they have worked with dozens of companies including:
Steelcase,
Proctor & Gamble,
Pepsico,
Energizer,
Nike, and so on.
They also offer, Cradle-to-Cradle Certification (C-2-C Certification) for products and processes. Herman Miller has more than 20 products with C-2-C Certification http://www.mbdc.com/

self-sufficient in terms of heating energy requirement. The completely glazed building has high quality triple glazing panels featuring a k-value of 0.4. Its design is modular.
Because of its assembly by means of mortice-and-tenon joints and bolted joints, it cannot only be assembled and dismantled easily but is also completely recyclable. The electrical energy required is produced by solar cells.

Architects:
Werner Sobek, Stuttgart/Germany
Planning time:
1998 – 1999
Construction time:
1999 – 2000

Herbert Girardet and printed in Creating Sustainable Cities (1999); per capita calc by Alen Amirkhanian