Domestic trash

While a number of wastes produced at the wellsite are considered characteristic hazardous waste, some wastes fall under the nonhazardous description. The regulation of these fall under RCRA Subtitle D. Initially Subtitle D wastes were regulated to control dumping of domestic trash and city runoff. The EPA is considering promulgating regulation of certain oil and gas wastes under Subtitle D [231]. 

Before about 1950, landfill effects were ignored. When attention was first directed to the problem 20 or 30 years ago it was thought that in most places landfills caused little damage. Today it is known most landfills have had a dreadfully effect on soil and water quality. Rain percolates down through the decaying layers and carries toxic materials into the water table. This can cause serious ground water pollution when the waste consists of only domestic trash. When industrial trash, with a broad spectrum of materials, is included along with the domestic waste the problem becomes worse. 

There are subtle reasons why venting carbon dioxide from trash incineration is of far less concern than the venting of the same gas from fossil fuel combustion reactions. Large portions of the carbon compounds in domestic trash are paper and food wastes. Only a few years ago the carbon contained in these plant products was part of the atmosphere. On a long-term basis, returning this carbon to the atmosphere has no effect on the overall carbon dioxide balance it simply speeds up the rate of recycle of carbon from plant material to the biosphere. 

The typical life cycles of consumer batteries depend to some extent on their applications. Primary batteries employed in portable devices are most often discarded casually with domestic trash and end up in landfills. Exceptions exist in communities where deliberate efforts are made to collect spent batteries for recycling or proper disposal and in communities where battery vendors participate in incentive programs to return spent batteries to the manufacturers or collect them for recycling or proper disposal. The magnitude of such programs is still... 

Linear low density extruded products share many of the same markets as low density products, but the proportions are different, as shown in Figure 29. Film dominates extrusion products, with packaging films, stretch-wrap and domestic trash bags consuming much of the product. 

HDPE accounts for about 42 percent of the domestic polyethylene market. It is harder, more rigid, and less waxy in appearance than HP-LDPE. Its higher density gives it better gas barrier properties. Because it softens above 100°C, containers made with HDPE can be sterilized, but those made with LDPE cannot. It is extruded into pipe, trash bags, food packaging, multiwalled sack liners, wire and cable coverings, and thick industrial film. A large application is for blow-molded containers and housewares. 

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