Waste Lab
Pre Lab Questions
1) How much solid waste is produced in the US per day? Per year?
The United States produces 600,000 tons of waste per day and 210 million tons of waste per year.
2) How much is that per capita/per day? Per year?
This is four pounds per person per day, and one thousand 1460 pounds per year.
3) Where does this waste go?
The trash is handled in many different ways. Twenty-seven percent of the waste is recycled, 57 percent is buried in landfills, and 16 percent is burned.
4) What different things can be done with waste?
The waste can be recycled, burned, or buried. The waste also emits methane which can be harvested as a potential energy resource.
5) What do you predict the largest amount of waste you and your family produces is?
The largest amount of waste is from uneaten food products and food wrappers.
Hypothesis:
If household waste is collected over a weekend, than the waste will consist mostly of paper items, primarily be recyclable items, and being relatively light around 100g.
· Independent Variable: The trash collected over the weekend.
· Dependent Variable: The composition, weight, and ability to be recycled of the trash
· Controlled Variable: The time period of collecting trash
· Control: N/A
· Experimental Variable: The trash being collected over the weekend
Problem: How much and what type of trash is collected per person over an average weekend and is this trash recyclable?
Materials:
· Bag
· Available trash
Procedure:
1. Carry a trash bag with you over the weekend and collect all food products excluding food products and feminine hygiene products, bandages, and bodily fluids
2. After the weekend is over, sort by composition, ability to be recycled, and weight of each item.
Observations:
1. All the trash collected over the weekend ended up to be recyclable materials.
2. Plastic had by far the heaviest weight at 235g.
3. Paper and platic had very similar weights at 46g and 45g, respectivley.
4. None of the trash was reusable.
5. Only the paper was compostable.
Questions
1. What is done to control the amount of pollution created from a landfill?
Pollution is controlled through many different ways. A municipal solid waste landfill uses a synthetic liner to isolate the trash from the environment. Many landfills have rainwater control systems as well so the runoff doesn’t take the trash from the landfill and pollute the environment. Much of the trash is buried, burned, or recycled to limit the amount of trash in the landfill.
2. Many people think landfills should not be expensive since they are a hole in the ground. Explain why a landfill such as above can cost in the millions of dollars to build and keep up.
Landfills can be very expensive as trash isn’t just being thrown into a giant hole, it is recycled, harvested for energy, and requires investments to control the pollution. Much of the trash is recycled which requires large amount of money to sort and ship it to recycling facilities. Many energy collecting resources such as methane collectors are established around landfills to harvest the methane excreted from the landfilled and convert it into usable energy. It also takes investments such as storm water collectors to ensure the landfill doesn’t permanently damage the environment.
3. How did the amount of waste you and your family each create compare with what you expected?
The amount of waste was actually much more than I expected. It’s very easy to overlook how much trash is produced in a day. Every meal that I ate created trash in the form of wrappers, food waste, etc. which accumulates very quickly.
4.What are some reasons the average could be different than your (or family’s) amount for one day?
I think that family size plays large role in the amount of trash produced. Smaller families tend to eat out lot more than larger families which create more trash in the form of food wrappers and bags. Larger families, like my own, tend to not eat out as much as it becomes costly for each person to have a purchased meal. This creates a tendency for large families to cook meals which produces much less trash.
5. Calculate how much trash you accumulate in one month’s time: 4890g
6. There are approximately 1,300 students at our school. How much trash do you estimate would be produced by all the students in our school over the course of 10 months (one school year)? 63,570,000g
7. What was the total weight of your recyclable material? The total weight was 326g.
8. What was the total weight of your reusable material? The total weight was 0g.
9. What was the total weight of your compostable material? The total weight was 45g.
10. Now, calculate how much trash you would produce if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not in your trash bag? How much trash would that save over the course of one year?
I would produce 0g of trash if all the recyclable, resuable, and compostable materail were not in my trash bag. I would save 58,680g of trash over the course of a year.
11. How much could the school save through the course of one school year if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not thrown in the landfill?
If each student has an average of 150g of recyclable, resuable, and compoostable material, the school could save 58,500,000g of trash.
Conclusion
The hypothesis was partly correct, but was generally incorrect for the experiment. It was predicted that the trash would be primarily recyclable items which proved to be true. The trash entirely consisted of recyclable materials such as papers and plastics. The hypothesis was incorrect in the prediction of the composition of the trash. Contrary to the hypothesis’s prediction of paper items, the primary composition was by far plastic items. This is due the majority of food packaging consists of plastics such as the milk jug and ramen noodle package which was in the trash. The trash turned out to be much heavier than was predicted. It was only predicted to be around 100g; however, much more trash was collected and the final weight ended to be around 200g. This is because many of the plastic items such as the milk and orange juice jug were very heavy in weight.
There were some sources of error in this experiment. The trash collected was not an entirely accurate representation of the trash produced in the given time period. Food waste was excluded which consisted of decent amount of my total trash which makes the predictions less than what they are. Another source of error was human error during this experiment. Many trash items were neglected to be collected as it wasn’t practical to bring a bag to collect them. This again makes the trash collected less than the actual amount of trash produced in the given time period.
This experiment was very revealing about the amount of waste that is produced, specifically by Americans. A total of 200g was produced by only a single person, which if multiplied by the 300 million Americans, yields an unimaginable amount of trash. The most interesting part of this experiment was that the majority of these food items were recyclable. If each American truly recycled every piece of trash that was recycled, we’d be looking at billions of pounds of trash reduced per year. This would bring America into a much more sustainable, environmentally friendly society as landfills can be potentially deadly. The trash is frequently burned which causes greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere which enables the greenhouse effect. The trash can also be swept by rainwater which carries potential toxins across the environment poisoning the local lakes and streams. Solving our landfill problem by recycling waste would even cut our need for resources thus saving our nation money.
Works Cited
"Waste and Recycling Facts." Clean Air Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
1) How much solid waste is produced in the US per day? Per year?
The United States produces 600,000 tons of waste per day and 210 million tons of waste per year.
2) How much is that per capita/per day? Per year?
This is four pounds per person per day, and one thousand 1460 pounds per year.
3) Where does this waste go?
The trash is handled in many different ways. Twenty-seven percent of the waste is recycled, 57 percent is buried in landfills, and 16 percent is burned.
4) What different things can be done with waste?
The waste can be recycled, burned, or buried. The waste also emits methane which can be harvested as a potential energy resource.
5) What do you predict the largest amount of waste you and your family produces is?
The largest amount of waste is from uneaten food products and food wrappers.
Hypothesis:
If household waste is collected over a weekend, than the waste will consist mostly of paper items, primarily be recyclable items, and being relatively light around 100g.
· Independent Variable: The trash collected over the weekend.
· Dependent Variable: The composition, weight, and ability to be recycled of the trash
· Controlled Variable: The time period of collecting trash
· Control: N/A
· Experimental Variable: The trash being collected over the weekend
Problem: How much and what type of trash is collected per person over an average weekend and is this trash recyclable?
Materials:
· Bag
· Available trash
Procedure:
1. Carry a trash bag with you over the weekend and collect all food products excluding food products and feminine hygiene products, bandages, and bodily fluids
2. After the weekend is over, sort by composition, ability to be recycled, and weight of each item.
Observations:
1. All the trash collected over the weekend ended up to be recyclable materials.
2. Plastic had by far the heaviest weight at 235g.
3. Paper and platic had very similar weights at 46g and 45g, respectivley.
4. None of the trash was reusable.
5. Only the paper was compostable.
Questions
1. What is done to control the amount of pollution created from a landfill?
Pollution is controlled through many different ways. A municipal solid waste landfill uses a synthetic liner to isolate the trash from the environment. Many landfills have rainwater control systems as well so the runoff doesn’t take the trash from the landfill and pollute the environment. Much of the trash is buried, burned, or recycled to limit the amount of trash in the landfill.
2. Many people think landfills should not be expensive since they are a hole in the ground. Explain why a landfill such as above can cost in the millions of dollars to build and keep up.
Landfills can be very expensive as trash isn’t just being thrown into a giant hole, it is recycled, harvested for energy, and requires investments to control the pollution. Much of the trash is recycled which requires large amount of money to sort and ship it to recycling facilities. Many energy collecting resources such as methane collectors are established around landfills to harvest the methane excreted from the landfilled and convert it into usable energy. It also takes investments such as storm water collectors to ensure the landfill doesn’t permanently damage the environment.
3. How did the amount of waste you and your family each create compare with what you expected?
The amount of waste was actually much more than I expected. It’s very easy to overlook how much trash is produced in a day. Every meal that I ate created trash in the form of wrappers, food waste, etc. which accumulates very quickly.
4.What are some reasons the average could be different than your (or family’s) amount for one day?
I think that family size plays large role in the amount of trash produced. Smaller families tend to eat out lot more than larger families which create more trash in the form of food wrappers and bags. Larger families, like my own, tend to not eat out as much as it becomes costly for each person to have a purchased meal. This creates a tendency for large families to cook meals which produces much less trash.
5. Calculate how much trash you accumulate in one month’s time: 4890g
6. There are approximately 1,300 students at our school. How much trash do you estimate would be produced by all the students in our school over the course of 10 months (one school year)? 63,570,000g
7. What was the total weight of your recyclable material? The total weight was 326g.
8. What was the total weight of your reusable material? The total weight was 0g.
9. What was the total weight of your compostable material? The total weight was 45g.
10. Now, calculate how much trash you would produce if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not in your trash bag? How much trash would that save over the course of one year?
I would produce 0g of trash if all the recyclable, resuable, and compostable materail were not in my trash bag. I would save 58,680g of trash over the course of a year.
11. How much could the school save through the course of one school year if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not thrown in the landfill?
If each student has an average of 150g of recyclable, resuable, and compoostable material, the school could save 58,500,000g of trash.
Conclusion
The hypothesis was partly correct, but was generally incorrect for the experiment. It was predicted that the trash would be primarily recyclable items which proved to be true. The trash entirely consisted of recyclable materials such as papers and plastics. The hypothesis was incorrect in the prediction of the composition of the trash. Contrary to the hypothesis’s prediction of paper items, the primary composition was by far plastic items. This is due the majority of food packaging consists of plastics such as the milk jug and ramen noodle package which was in the trash. The trash turned out to be much heavier than was predicted. It was only predicted to be around 100g; however, much more trash was collected and the final weight ended to be around 200g. This is because many of the plastic items such as the milk and orange juice jug were very heavy in weight.
There were some sources of error in this experiment. The trash collected was not an entirely accurate representation of the trash produced in the given time period. Food waste was excluded which consisted of decent amount of my total trash which makes the predictions less than what they are. Another source of error was human error during this experiment. Many trash items were neglected to be collected as it wasn’t practical to bring a bag to collect them. This again makes the trash collected less than the actual amount of trash produced in the given time period.
This experiment was very revealing about the amount of waste that is produced, specifically by Americans. A total of 200g was produced by only a single person, which if multiplied by the 300 million Americans, yields an unimaginable amount of trash. The most interesting part of this experiment was that the majority of these food items were recyclable. If each American truly recycled every piece of trash that was recycled, we’d be looking at billions of pounds of trash reduced per year. This would bring America into a much more sustainable, environmentally friendly society as landfills can be potentially deadly. The trash is frequently burned which causes greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere which enables the greenhouse effect. The trash can also be swept by rainwater which carries potential toxins across the environment poisoning the local lakes and streams. Solving our landfill problem by recycling waste would even cut our need for resources thus saving our nation money.
Works Cited
"Waste and Recycling Facts." Clean Air Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
Data
Data table of the trash collected over the weekend.
Graph
Graph of the weight of the different compositions of trash.
Collected Trash
Trash that was collected over the weekend