My Part of the Assignment: Organic wastes and Heavy Metals

Organic wastes

Disposal

Modern incinerators are designed to destroy around 99.9% of the organic waste material they receive. Organic materials that have little or no heavy metals can be detoxified biologically. If the materials are not detoxified before they flow into groundwater then there’s a high risk of water pollution. Livestock waste created by large livestock operations create large amounts of wastes which are converted into commercial quantities of a pathogen free, nutrient rich, soil building material.

Strategies for control

Composting and land farming, in which materials are spread out over a large land area so that microbes can decompose them, are examples of biological treatment of organic waste. The use of a garbage disposal still sends liquid food waste to the landfill, but in smaller amounts. The disposal unit manages food waste, which is washed down the drain and into the sewer system. From there is makes its way to the water treatment plant where the solids are separated from the liquids and sludge is created. The sludge is processed in a chemical industrial method and buried in the landfill.

Heavy metals

Disposal

A method of disposing of wastes containing heavy metal compounds is neutralizing the wastes, oxidizing the neutralized wastes and then solidifying the oxidized wastes using binding agents such as cement.

Pollution Management: The Three Level Model

Three level model

·      Human activity producing pollutant

o   Altering human activity through education, incentives and penalties to promote

 Development of alterative tech

Adoption of alternative lifestyles

Reducing, reusing and recycling

·      Release of pollutants into environment

o   Regulating and reducing at points of emission

Standards

Measures to extract pollutants from emissions

·      Long-term impact of pollutants from emissions

o   Cleaning up pollutants and restoring ecosystems

 Extracting and removing pollutant from ecosystems

Replanting and restocking animal populations

Pollution Management

These are the ways in which pollution management, which is the process of taking care of pollutants and the degree in which they affect the environment, work:


Directly or indirectly

• Directly
• Measuring the concentration of pollutants
• Acidity on rain
• Amount of gas(ses)
• pH of soil
• Presence/concentration of nitrates/phosphates/sulfates/etc.
• Amount od organic matter in soil/water
• Amount of bacteria
• Concentration of (heavy) metals
• BOD: used to determine the pollution in water (>BOD, more pollution)
• Direct sampling
• In situ
• Reliable but instruments may be hard and costly to transport
• Ex situ
• Wider variety of methods and instruments
• May be repeated
• Indirect

• Indicator Species
• Biodiversity
• BOD
• Spectroscopy
• Chromatography

Measuring pollution


Detection and monitoring of pollution is a process that can be done directly or indirectly

Directly: Measuring the concentration of pollutants

• Acidity of rain
• Amount of gases in atmosphere or emissions
• Soil pH
• Concentration of nitrates, phosphates, sulfates in soil and water
• Amount of organic matter in soil and water
• Amount of bacteria
• Concentration of (heavy) metals
• BOD (biochemical oxygen demand: the amount of oxygen used by microorganisms to break down organic matter in water): used to determine the pollution of water. The greater the BOD, the more pollution.

Indirectly

• Absence or presence of indicator species

A list of major pollutants

Pollutant	Causes	Effects
Carbon monoxide	Forms during the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing materials. Motor-vehicles, burning and forest and grasslands, inefficient stoves, open fires	CO reacts with hemoglobin, reducing blood's ability to transport oxygen. Can cause headaches, nausea, drowsiness.
Carbon dioxide	A result of the carbon cycle, the burning of fossil fuels, and industrial processes	Can alter the pH of water bodies and because of excessive quantities, it is contributing to the greenhouse effect. In the human body, excessive CO2 can cause asphyxiation and kidney damage.
Nitrogen oxides and nitric acid	Combustion of fossil fuels. Motor vehicles are a major contributor. Nitric acid can come from sewage and fertilizers.	Nitrogen oxides harm airways and can lead to respiratory diseases. It also contributes to the formation of ozone. Nitric acid leads to acid rain.
Sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid	Burning of coal and oil, also a byproduct of metal and industrial processes.	Both cause acid rain wich results in acidified soils and bodies of water. Health effects include respiratory and cardiovascular problems
Suspended Particulate Matter	Motor vehicles, coal-burning, fireplaces, power plants.	Causes asthma and decreased lung function. In the environment, it reduces visibility.
Ozone	Formed by the reaction of VOCs and nitrogen oxides.	Causes shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing, but can lead to severe lung problems such as reduced function and irritation.
Radon	Produced by the decay of uranium in soil and water.	Lung cancer.

More on Pollution and Wastes...

What is pollution?

Not necessary a substance. Noise pollution and light pollution also exist.
When the presence of an agent goes over the tolerated amount, it can be considered pollution.
Pollution management has been a challenge for mankind since the Industrial Revolution but has been a significant issue since the late 1990s.

Types of pollution

Point source: Can be tracked to a particular source, such as an oil spill.

Non-point source: Can't be tracked, such as a red tide that can be everywhere and happen from several factors.

Sources of pollution: Air, water, soil.

Air
Point-source: Factory plumes releasing large levels of CO2.
Non-point source: The use of products that release fluorocarbons that deplete the ozone layer.

Water
Point-source: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill that has released an estimated 4.5 million barrels of crude oil to the Gulf of Mexico affecting marine life. Groundwater under or near agricultural fields that have been polluted by chemicals flowing from pesticides.
Non-point source: Rainfall flowing to rivers or lakes containing trash from the cities. Polluted runoff.

Soil
Point-source: A chemical plant that buries its toxic residues in the nearby soil.
Non-point source: Water runoff also affects soil as larger residues might filter.

The Effect of Policies in Population of Australia and Italy

In this entry, two countries are compared in their population conditions, as well as the strategies that they're taking to regulate both population increase and the internal conditions that ensure the welfare of the people and the environment.


Australia

Main Facts

• Australia's capacity to sustain a large population is limited because the continent is largely arid with old, nutrient-poor soils and a variable climate.
• Australia's population growth rate of 1.2 per cent is one of the highest of developed (OECD) countries, with annual natural increase (120,000 to June 2001) being slightly ahead of net overseas migration.
• According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia will have a population in 2051 of between 24.1 (fertility 1.6 births per woman and net overseas migration over 70,000 per year) and 28.2 million (fertility 1.75 and net overseas migration 110,000)
• Most environmental indicators (biodiversity, water quality, soil etc) are declining in Australia, meaning the current population is not living sustainably at the current standard of living
• Australia has an ageing population, though compared with most other developed nations, it has a comparatively young population

Objectives

• To stabilise human population numbers both nationally and internationally as soon as possible.
• To determine what is an ecologically sustainable population at an acceptable level of material consumption, both nationally and internationally.

Actions required

• The government should develop an integrated population policy that encompasses immigrant intake, natural increase, aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, tourism, foreign aid, internal migration, and education.
• Taking a precautionary approach to tourism, recognising that temporary residents and visitors also place a burden on resources while travelling to and within Australia.
• Ensuring that Australia's educational and training institutions are adequately funded such that they provide all the skills needed for the functioning of the economy.

Italy

Main Facts

• Population at 58 million that will decline to 56 in 2025 with a net immigration of  
• 150,000 per year. If no migration, decline to 54 million in 2025.
• Decline of 4 million, but: - 2 (0-20); - 5 (20 to 65); + 3 (65 and over).
• Median age in 2025 would be of 51 years, highest in western Europe.
• Total fertility in 2004 being 1,33  as a slight recovery over minimum of 1.19 from 1999. Among the lowest fertility in the west (Spain, Japan: lower; Germany about the same).
• Life expectancy of 81, also among the highest in Western Europe.

Objectives

• Empowering the young
• Reversing the postponement syndrome
• Long term immigrants

Actions required

• Reforming the admission processes for improving inmigration.
• Establish appropriate selection criteria such as language and skills.
• Providing resident cards after 3 years instead of 6.
• Voting rights in local elections for residents; reforming citizens with better integration.

Comparison

• Both countries are MEDCs concerned with an aging population and for which migration represents probably the most important source of population growth. Life quality and expectancy increasing in both countries as well as median age. Fertility decreasing in Australia while slightly increasing in Italy from a dramatic low.
• Objectives differ greatly between both, with Italy giving much more importance to the migration and empowering the young people. Australia seems to take more into importance the conditions inside the country that regulate population.

From

http://www.ds.unifi.it/livi/pubblicazioni/does-italy-need-population-policy.pdf

http://www.mnforsustain.org/australia_sustainable_population_policy.htm