Environmental Science

Name Mindilyn Wertz

Course Number SCI201-1504A-01

Instructor’s Name Professor Rush

Due Date November 2, 2015

SCI201 Unit 4 Individual Project

For this assignment, complete all of the sections on this worksheet, and submit it to the Submitted Assignments area of the classroom.

Introduction

A good paper should start with background information on the topic to be discussed, define important terms, and explain why the topic is important to the reader. For this assignment’s introduction, you will answer the following questions:

What is municipal solid waste?

Municipal solid waste is more commonly known as trash or garbage generated by households and commercial establishments and then collected by local government bodies (businessdictonary, 2015).

How was waste dealt with before industrialization?

Solid waste before industrialization were domestic sewage and agricultural residues were the only waste and they were biodegradable. Solid waste could be conveniently disposed of in the countryside on open ground or were placed in pits covered by layers of earth. Because of their biodegradable nature, they use to get decomposed and assimilated in the soil. But with industrialization and consequent organization has not only changed the quantity of waste that has increased but the quality has also changed (cpreec, 2015).

Why did this process have to change?

The process began to change in the 1960s when most waste generated was either burned or landfilled. In the 1980s landfill disposal declined to about 54% and resources recovery increased to more than 33%. The most recent numbers from the EPA indicate that in 2012 the US waste recycle rate was 34.5% (EPA.gov, 2015).

Body of Paper

The body of your paper should consist of several paragraphs, one to address each of the main topics of your paper. For this week’s assignment, address the following points with at least 1 paragraph each:

1. Describe an open dump. What environmental problems do open dumps cause?

Open dumping occurs when large quantities or piles of waste accumulate in areas not designed to handle such materials. Open dumping is illegal.  Deteriorating soil quality and decrease in vegetation abundance are some consequences of open dumping. Soils at disposal sites showed high pH, TDS and EC in comparison to control sites. Various heavy metal concentrations such as lead, copper, nickel, chromium and zinc were also found to be higher at dumping sites, except for cadmium which had higher value in control sites (sciencedirect, 2015). In developing countries dumpsites are common because of low budgets so open dumping is more common in undeveloped countries.