Page 6 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

CAT3525_C00.qxd 2/17/2005 1:03 PM Page v

Preface

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters —
one represents danger and one represents opportunity.
John F. Kennedy

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers

In his Laws of Ecology, Dr. Barry Commoner postulated that “In nature there is no waste; every-
thing is connected to everything else; everything must go someplace; and there is no such thing as
a free lunch.” These laws have been faithfully followed for eons by all biota on the planet; except
for humans. This has become particularly evident over the past few centuries. Worldwide, human
population growth continues to increase exponentially. The quantities of nonrenewable natural
resources extracted and used, and the consequent degrees of air, water, and soil pollution also fol-
low an upward trend. The “garbage crisis,” as it became known in the late 1980s, will not go away;
the number of sanitary landfills in the United States continues to decline rapidly, and the amount of
waste generated per capita has only recently begun to stabilize. Demands for convenient and dis-
posable consumer products have reached unprecedented levels. Humans are producing numerous
substances that nature simply does not possess the capability to decompose. Payment for our
“lunch” is indeed due.
In the United States, regulators, scientists, policy makers, and the general public have belatedly
recognized that the context in which we have managed our wastes, whether household, industrial,
commercial, or hazardous, has been inadequate if not outright flawed. In the 1970s, disasters
including Love Canal (NY), Times Beach (MO), and Valley of the Drums (KY) underscored the
lack of a comprehensive strategy for hazardous waste management. In the 1980s, the Islip (NY)
“Garbage Barge” made headlines along with the washing of medical waste on to New Jersey, New
York and California beaches. The Khian Sea, transporting incinerator ash from Philadelphia, expe-
rienced a lengthy and frustrating odyssey in hopes of finding a home for its toxic cargo. The Fresh
Kills landfill, located in Staten Island, New York, is now the world’s largest landfill, constructed
without a liner on porous sandy soils. It has become apparent that our earlier mindset on manage-
ment and disposal of wastes was neither adequately serving public health nor protecting the
environment.
In response to the above and similar events, federal and state legislation has been enacted
addressing the proper storage, collection, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery, and dis-
posal of wastes from many sources. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) estab-
lished a comprehensive framework for the overall management of existing and future hazardous
waste generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal activities. The Act also called for
the more effective management of both hazardous and nonhazardous wastes, by way of reduction,
reuse, and recycling. Amendments to RCRA now cover the management of used oil, industrial
waste, and other residues that do not fit conveniently into either category.
There is a need for well-trained scientists, regulatory personnel, and policy makers to appreci-
ate and integrate the technical and regulatory complexities of waste management. The public must
make well-informed decisions concerning the allocation of resources toward future management