Toxic Waste And Hazardous Waste

     Hazardous wastes are another problem for the water in our world. These wastes are toxic, reactive, corrosive or ignitable. Most problems come from humans not storing the substance properly or not disposing of it correctly. This can be easily proven in 1969, when the Cuyahoga River, in Cleveland, Ohio, caught on fire and burned for sometime. Since this happened environmentalists have taken extreme measures to reduce the amount of pollution that is coming out of the power plants that are on the river and on Lake Erie.

These chemical wastelands are a type of pollution that affect the environment. These things are harmful to humans and animals and kill plant life all around. Not only can the cause birth defects, it can also cause cancer. Areas with pollution/chemical waste have higher risks of cancer then safe clean

Water pollution has become a major problem in our water sources. People think that when they litter or dump in our waters that their little contribution will not hurt anything, but everyone’s little contributions add up to some major problems. Our water ecosystems and the species that reside in them are being destroyed and we need to take the steps necessary to stop this. Why would anyone use the source of most of the world’s food as a dumping ground for garbage? People need to start realizing what it is they are doing when they do not take the proper steps to dispose of their garbage and the problems they are making for the future.

At its inception, Superfund was initially asked to identify and clean-up hazardous waste sites. However, thirty years later the United States is facing additional new threats to the health and safety of the American people. The Superfund sites themselves are becoming “nightmares to deal with, due to disturbances and damage caused by extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change” (Treadman, 2010). The EPA website states, “hazardous waste sites can discharge and release large quantities of toxic substances when subject to flooding, tornados and hurricanes” (EPA, 2010). The additional costs of cleanup, and disruptions caused by extreme weather events have caused a tremendous financial burden on an already ailing

Household hazardous waste is material that is considered dangerous or toxic for people and the environment. There are several hazardous waste disposal options in Eden Prairie.

Attention Getter: According to epa.gov, “Each person in the United States produces an average of 4 pounds of household hazardous waste each year for a total of about 530,000 tons/year.”

can leak or spill into adjacent land and water.” (Steuer 2). Waste storage can emit chemicals

As CEO of a small manufacturing company, if an employee has dumped toxic waste in a nearby stream, I would seek help from the hazardous waste supervisor within the company first. The supervisor should be knowledgeable enough to get the situation under control. Toxic waste is a serious safety and health problem and it is my job as CEO to prevent any further danger to the work environment and the surrounding area. While getting assistance from within, I would call both the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as state departments of environmental protection.

Our society uses a lot of materials considered hazardous. They are used in, or are the byproduct of, industrial processes, power plants, the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and fuels. Much of the land transport of hazardous materials is the job of the trucking industry.

Waste trafficking refers to the traffic of hazardous wastes through illegal transnational business that involves a variety of criminal groups such as private entities, corrupt government officials, and organized crime groups (Liddick 134). According to environment professor Don Liddick, "By the late twentieth century transnational organized criminals, corporate polluters, and corrupt public officials have discovered the means to profit from the traffic in household garbage, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and even radioactive waste – illicit industries that rival the international drug trade in scope and profitability” (Liddick 134). Waste is considered hazardous if it is explosive, reactive, flammable, irritable, harmful, toxic, or corrosive. Hazardous waste includes oily substances, batteries, medical waste,

Attention Getter: According to epa.gov, “Each person in the United States produces an average of 4 pounds of household hazardous waste each year for a total of about 530,000 tons/year.”

Such kind of waste emits radiations from tens to hundreds of years. These reactive radicals make the sand or the water contaminated. It is known as mixed waste. The mixture cause hazardous chemical reactions and leads to dangerous complications.

Hazardous waste and its proper disposal have become a major sociological problem today due to its capability of contaminating the area in which we live and its potential to be lethal to all living things. In order for the United States and the rest of the world to save itself from a potentially life threatening problem they must fix the causes which lead to the improper disposal of hazardous wastes and like materials. Some reasons that hazardous waste has become a problem in the United States today is due to the breakdown in enforcing laws for the proper disposal of such wastes, a lack of initiative on big companies behalf to spend money on proper disposal, and the ease of disposing of such wastes illegally.

Waste Management, Inc., incorporated in 1968, had become a leader in the industry of waste management services ranging from industrial operations to curbside collection. This company had become synonymous with many different kinds of disposal services that allowed for the company to grow and grow with a solid base over the course of twenty-eight years. Finally in 1996, the company reported total assets of almost $20 billion with net income close to $200 million. However, even with this growth and solid base, the company was feeling competitive pressures and net income was on the decline.

Special hazardous USEPA pollutants include wastes, medical wastes, military wastes and the radioactive releases. The hazardous waste can be either a designated waste or a characteristic waste. A characteristic waste is named so because it exhibits one of the properties such as corrosiveness, reactivity, ignitability or radioactivity. A designated waste is the waste that is in the list of the USEPA.