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Hazardous Materials
What can you do?
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The United States produces over 260,000,000 tons of hazardous waste each year. That’s over one ton for each American! Most of this waste comes from industry, with about 70% generated in the chemical and petrochemical industries. A much smaller amount comes from the science laboratories and maintenance operations of educational facilities. Universities generate less than 1% of the toxic waste stream, but one percent is about 5,200,000,000 pounds – a large amount of potentially dangerous chemicals. To complicate disposal, the waste from laboratories and university operations is widely varied, so pretreatment to lessen its toxicity before shipment can be difficult.
The volume of hazardous waste generated in American households can only be estimated, since the harmful chemicals in domestic use are not tabulated and, unfortunately, are generally not disposed of properly. Flushing household hazardous materials (or any type of hazardous material) down the drain presents a problem since non-biodegradable materials are not processed in the standard sewage treatment system used by most cities (including Buffalo). This means that these materials pass into rivers and streams where they may persist in the environments, enter the food chain, or even be taken into the drinking water supply of communities further downstream. Land-filling or incinerating hazardous materials can result in toxic air or water emissions. This is why reduction of hazardous waste needs to begin with each of us, both at school and at home.
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