Lab 10: Waste Management — Waste Investigation and E-Life Documentary

1. The waste hierarchy ranks waste management strategies from most to least preferred: (1) Reduce — buy less; (2) Reuse — use items multiple times; (3) Recycle — process materials into new products; (4) Recover energy — incinerate waste to generate power; (5) Dispose — landfill as a last resort.
2. Municipal solid waste (MSW) in the U.S.: the average American generates approximately 4.9 pounds of trash per day. Food waste is the largest component (~25%), followed by paper, plastics, metals, and glass. Only about 32% of U.S. MSW is recycled or composted.
3. Landfills: modern sanitary landfills are engineered to contain waste — impermeable liner prevents leachate from reaching groundwater; daily soil cover suppresses pests and odors; gas collection systems capture methane (a potent greenhouse gas) for energy generation or flaring.
4. E-waste (electronic waste) is the fastest-growing waste stream globally. It contains valuable metals (gold, copper, palladium) but also toxic materials (lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium). E-waste represents 2% of global MSW by weight but 70% of hazardous waste in landfills.
5. The E-Life documentary examines how discarded electronics from wealthy nations travel to informal recycling markets in Ghana, Nigeria, and China, where workers — including children — burn or acid-wash e-waste to extract metals, causing severe health impacts.
6. Circular economy: an alternative to the linear 'take-make-dispose' model. In a circular economy, products are designed to be repaired, refurbished, remanufactured, or recycled continuously, keeping materials in productive use rather than in landfills.
7. Contamination in recycling streams: when non-recyclable materials are placed in recycling bins ('wishcycling'), they can contaminate entire loads, causing them to be landfilled. Recycling works only if sorting is accurate.
8. Connection to BIO 1120 Outcome 3: improper waste disposal — leachate reaching groundwater, methane from landfills entering the atmosphere, e-waste toxins bioaccumulating in food chains — directly impacts ecosystems.

Discussion post

1. Exit reflection: what is the most important environmental lesson you are taking away from BIO 1120 as a whole?
2. Name one specific behavior change you will make after this course. How does it connect to at least one of the three course outcomes?
3. Respond to E-Life: what responsibility do you believe consumers in high-income countries have toward the communities where our e-waste ends up?
4. Reply to two classmates: do you think individual behavior change is enough, or does the problem require policy solutions? Explain your position with one piece of evidence from the course.

Netiquette from the syllabus: address ideas, not people. Complete sentences, correct spelling. Personal matters go to email, never the board.

Ask at home: If your neighborhood could only choose one waste reduction strategy — composting, curbside recycling, or a zero-waste grocery store — which would you pick, and what's your reasoning?

En español: Si tu vecindario solo pudiera elegir una estrategia de reducción de residuos — compostaje, reciclaje en la acera o una tienda sin residuos — ¿cuál elegirías, y cuál es tu razonamiento?