Clapp (comparative development studies and environment and resource studies, Trent U.) examines the transfer of hazardous wastes and technologies from rich to poor countries, focusing on the forces that contribute to that transfer, as well as the political responses to it. c. Book News Inc.
Reveals the dangers facing our planet due to the lucrative and scandal-ridden business of trafficking in hazardous waste. Too often, the industrial world's worst poisons end up in countries where regulations are weak and seldom enforced. No country figures more prominently in this trade than the United States, which--as the world's top producer of hazardous waste--generates more than 500 million tons annually. In what amounts to the export of Love Canal, hazardous cargoes from America--used car batteries, dry cleaning fluids, banned pesticides, and the like--find dumpsites in the developing nations.
Electronic Waste Management and Treatment Technology applies the latest research for designing waste treatment and disposal strategies. Written for researchers who are exploring this emerging topic, the book begins with a short, but rigorous, discussion of electric waste management that outlines common hazardous materials. such as mercury, lead, silver and flame-retardants. The book also discusses the fate of metals contained in waste electrical and electronic equipment in municipal waste treatment. Materials and methods for the remediation, recycling and treatment of plastic waste collected from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are also covered. Finally, the book covers the depollution benchmarks for capacitors, batteries and printed circuit boards from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and the recovery of waste printed circuit boards through pyrometallurgy. - Describes depollution benchmarks for capacitors, batteries and printed wiring boards from waste electronics - Covers metals contained in waste electrical and electronic equipment in municipal waste - Provides tactics for the recycling of mixed plastic waste from electrical and electronic equipment
Hazardous waste in the environment is one of the most difficult challenges facing our society. The purpose of this book is to provide a background of the many aspects of hazardous waste, from its sources to its consequences, focusing on the risks posed to human health and the environment. It explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste; however, the scope of the book is much broader, discussing agents that are released into the environment that might not be classified as hazardous waste under the regulatory system, but nonetheless pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. It provides a background of some of the major generators of hazardous wastes, explains the pathways by which humans and wildlife are exposed, and includes discussion of the adverse health effects linked to these pollutants. It provides numerous case studies of hazardous waste mismanagement that have led to disastrous consequences, and highlights the deficiencies in science and regulation that have allowed the public to be subjected to myriad potentially hazardous agents. Finally, it provides a discussion of measures that will need to be taken to control society's hazardous waste problem. This book was designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, including students, professionals, and general readers interested in the topic. - Provides information about sources of and health risks posed by hazardous waste - Explains the legislation and regulations surrounding hazardous waste - Includes numerous case studies of mismanagement, highlights deficiencies in science and regulation and discusses measures to tackle society's hazardous waste problems
The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients. High Tech Trash is a wake-up call to the importance of the e-waste issue and the health hazards involved. Americans alone own more than two billion pieces of high tech electronics and discard five to seven million tons each year. As a result, electronic waste already makes up more than two-thirds of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead found in our landfills. But the problem goes far beyond American shores, most tragically to the cities in China and India where shiploads of discarded electronics arrive daily. There, they are "recycled"-picked apart by hand, exposing thousands of workers and community residents to toxics. As Grossman notes, "This is a story in which we all play a part, whether we know it or not. If you sit at a desk in an office, talk to friends on your cell phone, watch television, listen to music on headphones, are a child in Guangdong, or a native of the Arctic, you are part of this story." The answers lie in changing how we design, manufacture, and dispose of high tech electronics. Europe has led the way in regulating materials used in electronic devices and in e-waste recycling. But in the United States many have yet to recognize the persistent human health and environmental effects of the toxics in high tech devices. If Silent Spring brought national attention to the dangers of DDT and other pesticides, High Tech Trash could do the same for a new generation of technology's products.
Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation presents a detailed analysis on using scientific methods to recover and reuse energy from Toxic waste. Dr. Barik and his team of expert authors recognize that there has been a growing rise in the quantum and diversity of toxic waste materials produced by human activity, and as such there is an increasing need to adopt new methods for the safe regeneration and minimization of waste produce around the world. It is predominately broken down into 5 sections: - The first section provides and overview on the Toxic waste generation addressing the main components for the imbalance in ecosystem derived from human activity - The second section sets out ways in which toxic waste can be managed through various methods such as chemical treatment, cracking and Electro-beam treatment - The final 3 sections deliver an insight in to how energy can be extracted and recycled into power from waste energy and the challenges that these may offer This book is essential reference for engineering industry workers and students seeking to adopt new techniques for reducing toxic waste and in turn extracting energy from it whilst complying with pollution control standards from across the world. - Presents techniques which can be adopted to reduce toxic organic waste while complying with regulations and extract useable energy it - Includes case studies of various global industries such as nuclear, medical and research laboratories to further enhance the readers understanding of efficient planning, toxic organic waste reduction methods and energy conversion techniques - Analyses methods of extracting and recycling energy from toxic organic waste products
Examines the export of hazardous wastes to poor communities of color around the world and charts the global social movements that challenge them. Every year, nations and corporations in the “global North” produce millions of tons of toxic waste. Too often this hazardous material—inked to high rates of illness and death and widespread ecosystem damage—is exported to poor communities of color around the world. In Resisting Global Toxics, David Naguib Pellow examines this practice and charts the emergence of transnational environmental justice movements to challenge and reverse it. Pellow argues that waste dumping across national boundaries from rich to poor communities is a form of transnational environmental inequality that reflects North/South divisions in a globalized world, and that it must be theorized in the context of race, class, nation, and environment. Building on environmental justice studies, environmental sociology, social movement theory, and race theory, and drawing on his own research, interviews, and participant observations, Pellow investigates the phenomenon of global environmental inequality and considers the work of activists, organizations, and networks resisting it. He traces the transnational waste trade from its beginnings in the 1980s to the present day, examining global garbage dumping, the toxic pesticides that are the legacy of the Green Revolution in agriculture, and today's scourge of dumping and remanufacturing high tech and electronics products. The rise of the transnational environmental movements described in Resisting Global Toxics charts a pragmatic path toward environmental justice, human rights, and sustainability.
Hazardous Waste Handbook for Health and Safety provides instructions and guidelines to supervisors responsible for occupational safety and health programs at hazardous waste sites. The manual presents the health and safety risks of hazardous waste sites; ways to implement and carry out hazardous waste site clean-up; preliminary basis for developing a specific health and safety program; and planning for and responding to emergencies involving hazardous materials. The book will be very useful to supervisors and safety engineers of hazardous waste sites.