Overview

Ken Geiser

The problems caused by municipal solid waste typically involve two factors: volume and toxicity. Since 1960, the volume of municipal solid waste has grown from 87 million pounds per year to a record 209 million pounds in 1997 (U.S. EPA, 1998a). The toxicity of solid waste is more difficult to measure. Toxic materials have always appeared in household wastes, but since mid-century, as synthetic materials began to replace many traditional materials, the proportion of synthetically derived toxic materials in waste has increased appreciably. The toxic constituents in solid waste include heavy metals, particularly lead, cadmium, nickel, and mercury; chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and methylene chloride; aromatic compounds, such as naphthalene and toluene; pesticides and other biocides; and used motor oil.

Some of these toxic materials enter municipal solid waste streams because they are waste products from domestic or commercial processes. Waste oil from automobile service stations is such an example. Some toxic materials are toxic products discarded once a portion of the product has been used. Waste paints are a good example. Most of the toxic materials, however, appear in solid waste as constituents of commercial products whose useful life is over. For example, over 4 billion dry cell batteries are sold each year in the United States. These include batteries containing mercury or mercuric oxide, magnesium, zinc, silver oxide, nickel and cadmium, and lithium. Many of these metals are not dangerous in the battery itself, but a dry cell battery has a useful life...