Readings and Articles
For this module, please:
- Read the Textbook.
- Read Section 19.4, pp 680 – 692.
- Focus on the section on Solid Waste Disposal. Relate these to the case studies in the Module Lecture Section.
- A Closer Look: Love Canal on pp 688-689.
- Read Section 14.3: Surface-Water Pollution and Treatment
- Read Section 14.4: 14.4: Groundwater Pollution and Treatment
- Relate these ideas back to what you read about leachate in the Solid Waste Disposal section. Pay close attention to Table 14.3.
- Read Section 14.6: Wastewater Treatment
- Read selected pages of this report on Solid Waste in Indiana from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
- Read the introduction on page 5.
- Look over Figure 1 on page 7, Tables 2, 3, and 4 on pages 8 and 9 to gain an appreciation for how many facilities we have and what type of waste is disposed in them.
- Look at Table 5 on pages 12 -13. Which county do you live in? How much waste is generated there?
- Look at Tables 6 and 7 on pages 14 and 15. Look at the amount of municipal solid waste that is disposed to each year. How does this change over time? Consider that Indiana has approximately 6.4 million people (6,423,113 according to the US Census Bureau). If you divide the tons of municipal solid waste by the number of Indiana residents, approximately how much waste can be attributed to each Indiana resident?
- Finally read the section on page 38: Remaining Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Capacity. See Table 22 on page 39. What is the capacity of existing landfills in Indiana? Approximately how many years of landfill space do we have left? How many years do you plan on living in Indiana?
- The Story of Stuff: I want you to watch this video as it gives a larger context to our textbook’s explanation of Integrated Waste Management (p 681). You should read the textbook first to understand what Integrated Waste Management is before watching this video. The video is about 20 minutes long. (It’s broken into chapters that you can come back to if you need to walk away from your computer.) Make sure the sound is up. Take notes and write down any questions you may have regarding any of the statements, assertions, or assumptions made. There is some bias in this video. I don’t want you to take everything Annie Leonard says as “truth,” but she does give you a good sense of Materials Management and explain why we need an Integrated Waste Management mind-set as our landfill space approaches its capacity. Click here for the video: “The Story of Stuff.”
Additional resources you may check out:
- Take a look at the Lake Mills Sewage Treatment Plant in Northern Indiana. You can click a map to view different aspects of a small town’s sewage treatment operations.
- For those art majors or people just interested in a visual depiction of the amount of waste we create, check out the art of Chris Jordan. Click on his exhibition titled “Intolerable Beauty.”
- Read this 2002 article by Jake Katz, photographs by Joshua Paul: “What a Waste: The generation and disposal of trash imposes costs on society and the environment. Should we be doing more?” The photographs are impressive.
In case you are bored this weekend:
- Take a busload of friends for a scenic tour of Mt. Rumpke in Colerain Township, Ohio. The highest point in metropolitan Cincinnati, Rumpke provides tours of their namesake landfill located on the I-275 beltway at the U.S. 27 exit. Otherwise, click on the link to view a description of their landfill operations, which handles trash from southeastern Indiana and Cincinnati.
- Visit the Mid-Connecticut trash museum in Hartford, CT. The kids will love it! The museum explains the history of trash and the technology of recycling. Connecticut and other northeast states have much higher recycling rates than the Midwest.