UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS OF GUATEMALA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF SCIENCES
ENGLISH SECTION
TECHNICAL ENGLISH II
SECTION: A

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT 1
Solid and Hazardous Waste

Licenses: Names:
201503455 Edith Noem Pineda Rodrguez
201503763 Jorge Martn Juan Velsquez Prez
201504189 Kevin Alexander Garca Hernndez
201504368 Christopher Alexander Guerrero Soto
201504502 Hugo Alberto Alvarez Esteban

Guatemala February 27th of 2017

 INDEX

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................... 3
OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................ 4
SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE..........................................................................5
1. Definition..................................................................................................... 5
2. Classification................................................................................................ 5
3. Control Waste.............................................................................................. 8
4. Global Solid and Hazardous Waste.................................................................9
5. Solid and Hazardous Wastes in Guatemala....................................................10
CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................... 11
ANNEXES........................................................................................................... 12
BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................. 14

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 INTRODUCTION

In the work presented below will develop topics of global importance; Solid and
hazardous wastes; It is very important to know and understand this subject since
all beings are affected by their repercussions.

The planet earth is filled every day with solid wastes (generated by human beings),
which do not devalue until many years, most of them can be harmful to human
health; Are presented the different types of elements that are in the environment
that can cause damage to living beings. It will also identify how to recognize a
hazardous waste according to its classification.

Although the whole world is affected by these wastes, it is important to focus on

Guatemala, since it is the place where as a citizen can take a plan of action.
Therefore it will be released the state of the country regarding the amount of waste
generated.

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 OBJECTIVES
General

To know the best systems for waste treatment.

Specifics

Know how produced the most hazardous waste.

Determinate how regulated the control systems are.
Know the methods most used to handle waste.

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 SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE

1. Definition

The term is used to describe objects that people throw away (trash). The US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines them as: Any object
discarded; objects intended for reuse, recycling or recovery and sludge. This
definition excludes radioactive waste and mining waste in situ.

These materials threaten people through exposure in their jobs, in their

homes, communities and the environment. The majority of hazardous waste
is the result of industrial processes that produce by-products, defective
products or unwanted or wanted materials dispose in the environment.

2. Classification

Solid waste can be classified into different types depending on their source:

a) Household waste is generally classified as municipal waste,

b) Industrial waste as hazardous waste, and
c) Biomedical waste or hospital waste as infectious waste.

Municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste consists of household waste, construction and

demolition debris, sanitation residue, and waste from streets. This garbage
is generated mainly from residential and commercial complexes. With rising
urbanization and change in lifestyle and food habits, the amount of
municipal solid waste has been increasing rapidly and its composition
changing.

Over the last few years, the consumer market has grown rapidly leading to
products being packed in cans, aluminum foils, plastics, and other such non-
biodegradable items that cause incalculable harm to the environment. One
positive note is that in many large cities, shops have begun packing items in
reusable or biodegradable bags. Certain biodegradable items can also be
composted and reused. In fact proper handling of the biodegradable waste
will considerably lessen the burden of solid waste that each city has to
tackle.

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 The type of litter we generate and the approximate time it takes to
degenerate

Type of litter Approximate time it takes to

degenerate the litter
Organic waste such as vegetable and a week or two.
fruit peels, leftover foodstuff, etc.
Paper 1030 days
Cotton cloth 25 months
Wood 1015 years
Woolen items 1 year
Tin, aluminum, and other metal items 100500 years
such as cans
Plastic bags one million years?
Glass bottles undetermined

Garbage: the four broad categories

Organic waste: kitchen waste, vegetables, flowers, leaves, fruits.

Toxic waste: old medicines, paints, chemicals, bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer
and pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish.

Recyclable: paper, glass, metals, plastics.

Soiled: hospital waste such as cloth soiled with blood and other body fluids.

Hospital waste:

Hospital waste is generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or

immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities in these
fields or in the production or testing of biologicals. It may include wastes like
sharps, soiled waste, disposables, anatomical waste, cultures, discarded
medicines, chemical wastes, etc. These are in the form of disposable
syringes, swabs, bandages, body fluids, human excreta, etc. This waste is
highly infectious and can be a serious threat to human health if not managed
in a scientific and discriminate manner. It has been roughly estimated that of
the 4 kg of waste generated in a hospital at least 1 kg would be infected.

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Hazardous waste:

Industrial and hospital waste is considered hazardous as they may contain

toxic substances. Certain types of household waste are also hazardous.
Hazardous wastes could be highly toxic to humans, animals, and plants; are
corrosive, highly inflammable, or explosive; and react when exposed to
certain things.

Household waste that can be categorized as hazardous waste include old

batteries, shoe polish, paint tins, old medicines, and medicine bottles.

Hospital waste contaminated by chemicals used in hospitals is considered

hazardous. These chemicals include formaldehyde and phenols, which are
used as disinfectants, and mercury, which is used in thermometers or
equipment that measure blood pressure.

In the industrial sector, the major generators of hazardous waste are the
metal, chemical, paper, pesticide, dye, refining, and rubber goods industries.

Direct exposure to chemicals in hazardous waste such as mercury and

cyanide can be fatal.

Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known or tested to

exhibit one or more of the following four hazardous traits:

o Ignitability:

Ignitable wastes are wastes that can readily catch fire and sustain
combustion. Many paints, cleaners, and other industrial wastes pose
such a fire hazard. Most ignitable wastes are liquid in physical form. Non
liquid waste is only hazardous due to ignitability if it can spontaneously
catch fire under normal handling conditions and can burn so vigorously
that it creates a hazard. Certain compressed gases and chemicals
called oxidizers can also be ignitable. Ignitable wastes carry the waste
code D001 and are among the most common hazardous wastes. The
regulations describing the characteristic of ignitability are codified at
261.21.

o Reactivity:

A reactive waste is one that readily explodes or undergoes violent

reactions. Common examples are discarded munitions or explosives. In
many cases, there is no reliable test method to evaluate a waste's

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 potential to explode or react violently under common handling conditions.
This is possible because reactive hazardous wastes are relatively
uncommon and the dangers they pose are well known to the few waste
handlers who deal with them.

o Corrosivity:

Corrosive wastes are acidic or alkaline (basic) wastes which can readily
corrode or dissolve flesh, metal, or other materials. They are also
among the most common hazardous waste streams. A waste may also
be corrosive if it has the ability to corrode steel in a specific EPA-
approved test protocol. Corrosive wastes carry the waste code D002.
The regulations describing the corrosivity characteristic are found at
261.22

o Toxicity:

Toxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage an organism.

Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal,
bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the
organism, such as a cell (cytotoxicity) or an organ such as the liver
(hepatotoxicity).

3. Control Waste

Civil engineering has a great relationship with technology and the use of
natural resources, using technology as a tool to manage natural resources
in order to build things like bridges, houses, roads, buildings, walls, Dams.
However, a major imbalance has been triggered where the environment is
being exaggerated. That is why in the last years many ways have been
proposed to reduce the level of toxicity that we have on the planet. It is
estimated that at present 40% of construction companies worldwide are
concerned with good management of their waste; And of that percentage
only the majority are in United States of America and Canada. The most use
methods to reduce the pollution in the Civil engineering are:

1. One of the methods currently being used for the preservation and settlement
of the environment is the method called "Pre-consumerism" in which it is
planned before producing a product, both the purchase and disposal of the
same thus probing a type of planning Of the amount of waste that will be
produced and therefore also a smaller amount of harmful and necessary
waste to recycle.

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2. Another of the methods proposed is the prohibition of the spindle of certain
materials; since sometimes they are used for construction certain
substances that are extremely harmful and that can even alter the chemical
composition of nature, materials as radioactive elements. The second
reason why this method is planted is because there are materials that prove
to be very complicated to recycle as in the case of wood that is extremely
difficult this process.

3. The last process you have is the classic "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" in
which you plan to first Reduce. This process is understood as using the
products but in a smaller quantity, especially those that decompose naturally
in more than 100 years, such as the tarps of Geotextiles that are left
abandoned under the layer of the earth and can exist for hundreds of years.
The process of reuse indicates that it must be used several times the same
object to not throw it and generate pollution, in the case of civil engineering,
this factor is not produced as the used machinery is used for years, besides
everything That can be used of material is used because everything
represents an expense. Finally, this is the recycling that represents the use
of new things, is used only in materials such as "Steel" (which is mostly
recycled) and glass that can be recycled up to 40 times.

4. Global Solid and Hazardous Waste

The term includes hazardous wastes derived from all toxic chemicals,
radioactive materials, biological and infectious particles. These materials
threaten workers through exposure in their jobs. As well as the general
public in their homes, communities and the environment. Exposure to these
wastes can occur near the place of origin of the waste production, or along
the path of its transport, and near its disposal sites.

Most hazardous waste is the result of industrial processes that produce by-
products, defective products. The generation and disposal of hazardous
wastes is controlled through a variety of international laws and through
national regulations specific to each country.

The great industrial development of the world over the last decades has
produced a great increase in the use of chemical products, many of them
with few experimental studies, only tangible in the long term, and this has
caused the foreseeable number of problems Related to the hazardous
wastes to which we are all exposed. There are multitude of hazardous solid
wastes and multitude of combinations between them.

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 To simplify them, we can classify them into these 5 categories:

Radioactive substances
Chemicals
Biological waste
Flammable waste
Explosive waste

5. Solid and Hazardous Wastes in Guatemala

In Guatemala, environmental management is approached by different

actors, each with different functions, interests and geographic areas. The
Ministerio de Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (MARN) is the governing
body in the area of environmental management, with regard to human
health, the Ministerio de Salud Pblica, which often causes overlaps and
duplicity of functions in the aspects to issue the rules and apply
administrative sanctions.

The metropolitan area of the department of Guatemala produces about 30%

of the total waste generated annually in the country, of the 456,484 tons it
produces, 75% is collected and most of it is transported to the garbage
dump in zona 3. In Guatemala, information on the composition of solid
wastes is scarce, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadstica (INE,
2002), in 2000, the average per capita generation of municipal solid wastes
was 0.13 kg / inhabitant / day. According to official data, households in
extreme poverty prefer to burn garbage (43.8%), throw it anywhere (31.7%)
or recycle it (13.6%); and only a very small fraction makes use of the
collection service (2.2%).

There are construction wastes that are made up of materials that have
certain characteristics that make them potentially hazardous and which can
be considered as special industrial wastes. Residues containing flammable,
toxic, corrosive, irritant, carcinogenic or harmful substances in contact with
other materials are potentially hazardous. These residues require special
treatment in order to isolate them and facilitate specific treatment or
controlled deposition.

CONCLUSIONS

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 The most hazardous waste is produced of industrial processes and use
chemical products with few experimental studies.

The control systems are regulated taking into account different facts to
control in the right way all the different types of waste like ignitability, solid,
toxicity among others.

A many different methods can be used for handle waste, for example we
have de classic "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" or the prohibition of the
spindle of certain materials that help us to reduce the consequences of the
waste.

ANNEXES

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 IMAGE 1

Image #1: some hazardous waste

IMAGE 2

Image #2: advice of danger hazardous

IMAGE 3

Image #3: batteries are hazardous waste

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IMAGE 4
 Image #4: garbage dump in Guatemala

IMAGE 5

Image #5: garbage dump in Guatemala in flames by hazardous waste

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