Chapter 23

Obtaining and using renewable and non few able resources as sustainably as possible Eliminate subsidies for extracting virgin materials Establish green building incentives Create financial penalties for production that uses poor materials management Provide incentive for practices that enhance environment Provide more incentives to people to reuse and recycle waste materials

Availability a measure of he wealth of a society Without resources, modern technological civilization not possible

Tectonic plate boundaries Igneous processes Sedimentary processes Streams Glaciers Biological processes Weathering processes Sedimentary enrichment

New deposits forming but two slowly to be of use to us today Increasingly difficulty to find deposits Recycling and conservation will help manage remaining supply

The trend in recent years has been away from subsurface mining and toward large, open-pit mines Causes aesthetic degradation, dust pollution, topographic changes and potential water pollution Another problem is release of harmful trace elements Water resources are particularly vulnerable to such degradation When leached from mining wastes and concentrated in water, soil, or plants, may be toxic or may cause disease

Plants and animals killed by mining activity or contact with toxic soil or water

Changes in nutrient cycling, total biomass, species diversity, and ecosystem stability

Result from rapid influx of workers into areas unprepared for growth Stress is placed on local services Air quality is reduced as a result of more vehicles, dust from construction, and generation of power Adverse social impacts also occur when mines are closed Closure produces ghost towns

Environmental regulations Reclaiming areas Stabilizing soils Controlling air emissions and water release On-site and off-site treatment of waste Three rs of waste management Reduce waste produced Reuse materials in the waste stream Recycle

The volume if waste produced in the US was relatively small Managed through the concept of “dilute and disperse”

East transport of materials by boat Sufficient water for processing and cooling Easy disposal of waste into the river Method was sufficient to remove the waste reform the immediate environment

Changed to “concentrate and contain” Containment not always achieved

Study of relationships among industrial systems and heir links to natural systems Waste from one part of the system would be a resource for another part

Reuse Source reduction Recycling Composing Landfill Incineration