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Chapter 16 APES
Solid waste vocab words
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) | Refuse collected by municipalities from households, small businesses, and institutions. |
| Waste Stream | The flow of solid waste that is recycled, incinerated, placed in a solid waste landfill, or disposed of in another way. |
| E-Waste | A generic term used to describe all types of old, end-of-life or discarded electrical and electronic equipment. |
| Reduce | To cut back on the amount of trash we generate. |
| Reuse | Using a product or material that was intended to be discarded. |
| Recycle | The process of collecting and processing materials (that would otherwise be thrown away as trash) and remanufacturing them into new products. |
| Closed-loop recycling | Recycling a product into the same product. |
| Open-loop recycling | Recycling one product into a different product. |
| Composting | organic material that has decomposed under controlled conditions to produce an organic-rich material |
| Sanitary landfill | An engineered ground designed to hold municipal solid waste, with as little contamination of the surrounding environment as possible. |
| Tipping fee | A fee charged for disposing of material in a landfill or incinerator. |
| Landfill sitting | The designation of a landfill location, typically through a regulatory process involving studies, written reports, and public hearings. |
| Incineration | The process of burning waste materials to reduce volume and mass, sometimes to generate electricity or heat. |
| Bottom ash | Residue collected at the bottom of the combustion chamber in a furnace. |
| Fly ash | The residue collected from the chimney or exhaust pipe of a furnace. |
| Waste-to-energy system | A system in which heat generated by incineration is used as an energy source rather than released into the surrounding environment. |
| Hazardous waste | Waste material that is dangerous or potentially harmful to humans or ecosystems. |
| RCRA | The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act |
| CERCLA (Superfund) | The CERCLA, a 1980 US Federal act that imposes a tax on industry, funds the clean up of hazardous sites, and authorizes the federal government to respond to the release of heath risking substances. |
| Brownfield | A former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination. |
| Life-cycle analysis | A systems tool that looks at the materials used and released throughout the manufacturing, use and disposal of a product. Also known as Cradle-to-Grave. |
| Integrated Waste Management | A waste management technique that employs several waste reduction, management, and disposal strategies to reduce the environmental impact of municipal solid waste. |
| Bioremediation | the use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced microorganisms or other forms of life to consume and break down environmental pollutants, in order to clean up a polluted site. |
| Dump | a site for depositing garbage. |
| Phytoremediation | uses plants to clean up contaminated environments |
| Planned Obsolescence | The process of designing a product so that it will need to be replaced within a few years. |