Under the watchful eye of its manager, Harlin Hazzard, the Recycle City Hazardous Waste Center handles the treatment and disposal of waste that can harm people or the environment.
Put on your protective goggles and gloves and tour the Center with Harlin. That's him in the middle, pointing...
Harlin Hazzard
Hazardous waste comes in several forms: liquid, solid, or sludge, which is a combination of both. Most hazardous wastes that Harlin handles are produced as by-products of manufacturing.
Harlin considers waste to be hazardous if it is:
- Ignitable (it can catch fire)
- Corrosive (it can eat through metal)
- Reactive (it can explode)
- Toxic (it is harmful or fatal to living things)
To help Recycle City businesses make the best environmental decisions, Harlin keeps a list of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommended ways to prevent pollution from hazardous waste:
- Reduce—Find safer substitutes for hazardous materials, such as using solvents made from naturally acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar instead of hazardous ones.
- Recycle—Clean and reuse materials than contain hazardous ingredients, such as motor oil.
- Treat—Combine hazardous waste with other chemicals that make the hazardous ingredient safer. (Some hazardous waste can be safely destroyed by burning them at very high temperatures.)
- Dispose—Dispose of hazardous waste in approved hazardous waste landfills after treatment. (Liquid hazardous wastes can be combined with other substances, like glass or concrete, to make them solid, so they won't move or leak when buried in a landfill.)
Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Center
Household hazardous wastes are leftovers from toxic products used at home. Since household hazardous wastes can be dangerous, they should never be thrown into the regular trash. Why? Certain kinds of waste can cause physical injury when they are combined. They can contaminate septic tanks and wastewater treatment systems if they are poured down drains or toilets. And, they can be hazardous to small children and pets if left around the house.
As part of his hazardous waste manager's job, Harlin runs a drop-off center where Recycle City residents can bring used household items such as cleansers, cleaning fluids, insect sprays, paint, batteries and battery acid, motor oil, or old medicines.
If residents bring unopened products or ones that are in good, reusable condition, Harlin puts those items in a waste exchange bin. He gives them away for free to other residents who can use them.
Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal Building
When hazardous materials are brought into the Hazardous Waste Center, Harlin makes sure they are carefully separated according to how they can be safely reused, treated, or disposed of. Then they're transferred to places that specialize in handling certain materials or treatment and disposal methods.
Paint Remixing and Reuse Area
Almost all latex paint that is brought to the Center is remixed with a special electric mixer. Harlin sorts paints into off-white and other colors, and repackages them into five gallon pails. Then, he either resells it or puts it in a waste exchange bin for reuse. Individuals and groups from around the city use the remixed paint to paint their homes or cover graffiti.
Recycling and Recovery Loading Station
Harlin collects motor oil, all kinds of batteries, and antifreeze, and sends them to other facilities to be recycled. Chemicals used in photography contain silver, so Harlin sends those to a licensed recycling facility where the silver can be extracted and used again.
Fuel Blending Transfer Area
Harlin sends oil-based paints, paint thinners, solvents, and tar for roofing to a licensed facility that blends them into a fuel.
Energy from these wastes can be recovered because they contain petroleum-based chemicals and they can be burned. This new fuel is shipped to companies that burn it in kilns used to manufacture cement. (These kilns must have special equipment to minimize air pollution.)
Treatment and Neutralization Loading Station
Neutralization is a way to make a hazardous material not hazardous.
Certain acids, non-flammable poisons, and other types of chemicals can be treated this way. Harlin ships these kinds of waste to a special treatment facility where they are reduced in volume or changed into non-hazardous materials.
Incineration Transfer Area
Aerosol cans, pesticides, certain acids, and some kinds of chemicals can be safely burned at high temperatures. At high heat, these materials are broken down into a non-hazardous form. If, after burning, the resulting ash is hazardous, it is safely buried in the hazardous waste landfill.
Contamination and the Superfund
If hazardous waste is not properly disposed of in a landfill built especially to handle hazardous waste, it can leak into groundwater. Leaking is a big problem because the hazardous waste contaminates both the soil around the area and the water underground.
If soil and water become contaminated by hazardous waste, it is very expensive to clean up. People have to actually "clean" the soil and water to make it safe for the local communities again. And, that kind of cleaning is very expensive.
In the past, when people didn't handle hazardous waste properly and just dumped it (like they sometimes did in Dumptown years ago), some areas of the country became very contaminated by this waste. Some of this contamination continues to cause problems for the communities that live these areas.
To help clean up hazardous waste sites in the United States, Congress created Superfund, a law that lets government find those responsible for creating the hazardous waste and have them clean it up. Superfund is also a name for special money the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can use to clean up pollution from hazardous waste if they can't find who caused the contamination, or if those responsible for it don't have enough money to pay for the expensive clean-up.
Hazardous Waste Landfill
Only about one percent of Recycle City's hazardous waste has to be buried in this special landfill, located about 20 miles outside of town. The landfill is carefully constructed with barriers to prevent the soil or groundwater from being contaminated. Liquid hazardous wastes are combined with other materials to make them solid, so they stay in one place and don't leak into the earth.
