HUMAN SYSTEMS 8.

3 Solid Domestic Waste

AND RESOURCE USE
THINK ABOUT…
Do you ever think about all the itesm you throw in the trash each
day?
A paper napkin and empty yogurt container at breakfast, the contents
of your lunch tray, the empty water bottle and apple core from an
afternoon snack.
How about the plastic wrap that surrounds your newspaper? Or those
dried-up pens and markers you threw last summer?
The list is probably much longer tan you ever imagined.
If you think about the other people who live in your house, in your
city, in the world…
Suddenly the amount of garbage becomes overwhelming, doesn’t it?
http://www.theworldcounts.com/counters/shocking_environmen
tal_facts_and_statistics/world_waste_facts
WASTE

Waste: any unwanted material or substance that results

from a human activity or process.

Waste pollutes water, soil and air. It’s ugly and often smells bad.

Solid Domestic Waste Industrial Waste

(Municipal Solid Waste that comes from Hazardous Waste
Waste) the production of Solid or liquid waste
Nonliquid waste that consumer goods, that is toxic, chemically
comes from homes, mining, agriculture and reactive, flammable or
institutions and small petroleum extraction corrosive.
businesses and refining
SOLID DOMESTIC WASTE
Waste produced by consumers, public facilities and small businesses.
What we commonly call trash or garbage.

The average Mexican

generates 770 grams of SDW
per day. But in our city, that
number goes up to 1-1.2 kg
per day.
Imagine carrying around 1 kg
of trash with you every single
day! You would get tired after
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH20tkp_EhY
a while…
TYPES OF SDW

Organic material: garden waste, food,

wood, corks
Paper: newspaper, writing, packaging,
cardboard, printing paper
Plastics
Glass
Metals: steel cans, aluminum cans and
packaging, copper pipes
Rubber, leather and textiles
Other: bricks, rock, ash, soil…
A large portion of SDW are packaging materials, nondurable goods and plastic
products.
WHERE DOES SDW GO?
METHODS OF WASTE
DISPOSAL
Current methods of
SDW disposal are
based on ancient
practices of
dumping, burying
and burning waste.
This is often the
result of poor
infraestructure and
management of
waste.
LANDFILLS
Landfill is the oldest and
probably the most common
method of organized waste
disposal in many countries of
the world.
In its simplest form it is a hole
in the ground where waste
materials are buried. However,
modern landfills need to meet
certain criteria to prevent
pollution.
 SANITARY LANDFILLS

Granular
drainage layer
Gravel
Plastic liner Compacted
impermeable clay
WASTE TO ENERGY
Landfill gas: a mix of gases of which almost 50 percent is methane.
We can collect, process and use landfill gas just like natural gas.
ADVANTAGES
Cheap method of waste disposal 
Gases such as methane can be collected for waste to energy schemes.
Creates jobs for the local community
Old landfill sites can be landscaped and re-used for building projects.
Landfill sites that are close to settlements reduce the cost of
transporting the waste.
DISADVANTAGES
Landfill sites give off dangerous gases that cause air pollution and global
warming (methane)
Liners can fail and leachates leak into the local environment and
groundwater sources.
Landfills are filling up. Even with daily compaction of waste the life span
of landfills is limited.
Poorly managed sites cause problems with vectors such as rats, mice and
flies increasing the spread of diseases.
Poorly managed sites cause problems with dust, odor, visual and noise
pollution
Contribute to marine debris - the litter that ends up in seas and oceans as
it blows off poorly managed sites. 
INCINERATION
The waste material is combusted and
converted into:
Ash: this is what is left after the burn.
Flue gas: this may contain particulate
matter (ash) and pollutants so it is
scrubbed before entering the atmosphere.
Heat: which may be used to generate
electricity e.g. waste to energy Incineration
incinerators. developed as a
technology when
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCNgNkA
Zqg4 landfills availability
became limited.
INCINERATION
Advantages Disadvantages
Reduces the volume of waste by 80 – Causes visual pollution due to the
85% intrusive chimney stack.
Very useful for clinical waste and Emit varying levels of toxic heavy
any hazardous waste containing metals vanadium, manganese,
pathogens that are destroyed by chromium, nickel, arsenic, mercury,
higher temperatures. lead, and cadmium.
Used to generate local district Causes property devaluation in the
heating  surrounding areas. 
Can be used to generate electricity. Toxic fly ash is difficult to dispose
Avoids the methane emissions of taking away the funding from other
landfills. renewable energy research
Landfill space is running out. Set up costs are very high. 
LET’S LOOK AT THE
NUMBERS
At Monterrey’s sanitary landfill, up to 4,500 tons of waste arrive
everyday
= 300 tons
SOLUTIONS
It’s clear that we cannot just simply continue
with this linear model of waste.
Landfills are limited sources of disposal.
There is only so much space we can use for
landfills.
We are mismanaging the natural resources
and disposing them in ways they can never
be recovered by nature.
Waste is also a measure of inefficiency –
industries, municipalities and consumers
lose money and resources.
WASTE HIERARCHY
Waste hierarchy is a tool used in the evaluation of processes that
protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption
to most favourable to least favourable actions.
WASTE REDUCTION
Reduce means changing our behaviour.
Refuse, return, redesign. Choose less. Consume less.
When we reduce, we lower the costs of disposal and recycling.
WASTE REDUCTION
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg-E1FtjaxY

Non-biodegradable plastics are a problem we can easily reduce.

Each second we consume over 160,000 plastic bags.
Each day we use more tan 500 million plastic straws.
In Mexico, 21 million plastic water bottles are disposed everyday.

Activity on
Friday: let’s
make a bag!
Bring your own
t-shirt
WASTE REDUCTION
Economic incentives – some municipalities charge residents for
home trash pickup according to the amount of trash they put out.
“Pay-as-you-throw” method.
REUSE
Instead of throwing away material after we use it
once, we are encouraged to find it a second use of
a way to reuse it.
Buy reusable over disposable items. 
Maintain and repair products, like clothing,
tires and appliances, so that they won't have to be
thrown out and replaced as frequently.
Borrow, rent or share items that are used
infrequently, like party decorations, tools or
furniture.
Buy used.
Refill.
RECYCLE
Recyle is a process to brak down materials and reprocessed and
transform them to make new raw material that can be used to make
new items.
Industrial process. We don’t recycle in our homes.

Collection and processing

of recyclable materials

Consumer purchase or Use of recyclables by

products made from industry to manufacture
recycled materials new products
RECYCLE
Recycle is a system – this means it carries out processes, it has inputs
and outputs, flows of transfer and flows of transformation.
Let’s look at the following video and try to identify them: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GMpjx2jDQ

Inputs: Outputs:
Waste, materials Waste, sorted materials
Energy New raw material
Water Energy
Human resource Water
 HOW RECYCLING
WORKS?
Draw out a systems diagram to fully explain and describe the process of
recycling of the following materials:

Paper Plastic Metal(Alumminum Glass

)
Natalia Marco Alejo Mariana Isabel Regina Mariana Alema
V C
Sabrina Rubén Cristel Miguel Jimena Eugenia Ericka María
Andrea Andrea Ana Paloma Karla Marcela Manuel Caro
R T Cecilia
Barbara Ale R Ana Isa Patricio Majo Ana Pau Andrea Kyara
C
Note: the activity is not in teams. Due date: Saturday, February 24
 PROBLEMS WITH
RECYCLING
Misconception
Recyclable doesn’t mean it will be
recycled
Not enough infraestructure to accomplish
it
Requires resources
Green washing campaigns makes us
consume more
Empirically, recycling is almost always
substantially more expensive than
disposing in the landfill. 
https://www.facebook.com/ABCTV/videos/101
58660317540543
/
EXAMPLE: H&M
The company says it has collected more than
57,000 tonnes of used textiles since launching
the program worldwide in 2013.
I:Collect, the company that handles the donations
for H&M and several other major retailers, says
about 35 per cent of what it collects is recycled
and used for products like carpet padding,
painters' cloths or insulation. Across H&M’s
brands, only 0.7% of the materials used in new
clothing has been recycled
The reason why H&M is focusing on textile
recycling is because it's an easy sustainability
win for them. It doesn't involve them changing
their production model at all.
IS IT COST EFFECTIVE?
Less than 1% of plastic bags
are recycled each year -
recycling one ton of plastic
bags costs $4,000, while the
recycled product can be sold
for only $32.

In Mexico, 1 kg of plastic
bottles is valued at about $3.
Which Company is going to
invest that much resources and
money to something that is
worth so Little?
A GLOBAL ISSUE
China had been processing at least half of the world’s exports of
waste paper, metals and used plastic — 7.3 million tons in 2016,
according to recent industry data.  Last July, China notified the
World Trade Organization
that it intended to ban some
imports of trash, saying the
action was needed to protect
the environment and improve
public health.
“What’s happened is that the
final link in the supply chain
has turned around and said:
‘No, we’re not going to take
this poor-quality stuff
anymore. Keep it for
During Typhoon Vicente, a
container ship lost seven
40-ft containers in the
waters south of Hong
Kong. Six of the containers
contained bags of plastic
pellets and one contained
glass bottles. Some of the
containers were broken
causing the plastic pellets
to scatter at sea and wash
on to nearby beaches.
 PLASTIC
The word plastic derives from the Greek
plastikos meaning "capable of being
shaped or molded“
Plastics are generally made from
petroleum – a non renewable resource
The energy required to produce plastic is
bigger tan any other material (paper,
glass, iron and Steel), about 108 MJ/kg.
Most plastic was designed to be
completely disposable –this is the
problem.
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0
TYPES
PLASTIC
Of the plastic we’ve thrown out, about 9% has been recycled, and
12% has been incinerated. That means the vast majority—nearly 5
billion metric tons—it is sitting someplace on the planet right now,
be it in a dump or that massive plastic patch in the middle of the
ocean.
MICROBEADS
HOW MANY CAN BE
AVOIDED?
 RECOVERY
Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable
waste materials into useable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety
of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolization,
anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas (LFG) recovery.
This process is often called waste-to-energy (WTE).

Reduces carbon emissions by

offsetting the need for energy
from fossil sources and
reduces methane generation
from landfills.
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl7IV
https://
fB-PDI www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKLQ
0aWo4M
 RECOVERY
CEMEX

https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
8v0F53OTBa0
COMPOST
Compost is the outcome
of the decomposition of
organic matter being
recycled into fertilizer.
It is nature’s way to
recycle.
It provides nutrients back
to the ground, very
useful in organic
farming, gardens,
agriculture, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWHwoCJkknQ
BIO VS DEGRADABLE
Biodegradable:
capable of being decomposed by
bacteria or other living
organisms.
Compostable:
biodegradable within a certain
amount of time and conditions.
Degradable:
a compound that breaks down
into simpler compounds by
stages.
ZERO WASTE
A philosophy that encourages the
redesign of resource life cycles so that all
products are reused.
The goal is for no trash to be sent to
landfills or incinerators.
Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical,
economical, efficient and visionary, to
guide people in changing their lifestyles
and practices to emulate sustainable
natural cycles, where all discarded
materials are designed to become
resources for others to use.
ZERO WASTE BUSINESS