How Does Mexico Treat its Hazardous Wastes - Term Paper Example

How does Mexico treat its hazardous wastes? Table of contents 2 Introduction 3 Review of literature 3 Background information 5 An overview of Mexico’s waste management 7 Principal methods of waste treatment and disposal in Mexico 7 Key legislations affecting waste management in Mexico 8 E-Wastes 10 Trade and bilateral agreements 10 Conclusion 12 References 14 Abstract This study looks at the problem of waste disposal in Mexico in the perspectives of environmental management and gathers an insight of how the government takes a conscious effort to solve the problem. Method of research done in the study is exploratory research in order to gain a better understanding of the dimensions of the waste problems in Mexico. Usually, this type of research is conducted to analyze a situation. Study showed inadequacy of the systems of disposals in terms of need for new infrastructure and technology. A market for recycling of materials is shown to be a market opportunity because of bilateral trade agreements between US and Mexico. A conclusion is arrived saying that Mexico has to upgrade existing facilities to meet increasing demands of the population for safe waste and efficient disposal infrastructures. Your name here Subject Professor’s name Date submitted How does Mexico treat its hazardous wastes? Introduction Hazardous waste is a by-product of industrialization and the lifestyle changes of the people and higher standards of living. The lifestyle changes have changed the quality of life and it also means that we are creating more wastes than ever before. Wastes and how to correctly dispose of it has become both a big problem to the country. On the other hand, it has also opened a market of an income opportunity for recycling and disposal. Waste disposal has been the subject of interests and studies of international organizations, governments and professionals from universities on how to account for management of hazardous elements. Mexico, as a developing country is not exempted from the problem of hazardous waste disposal, and for purposes of this study, an insight of the waste management practices of Mexico will be reviewed. An exploratory research design will be applied in the study and the collection of data will be done through secondary sources that are published in the internet websites, books and literatures about the matter. Review of literature What is hazardous waste? The term refers to a substance, “solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials, which if not improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. According to the definition of economii.com., “a waste is considered hazardous if it exhibits one or more of the following characteristics: ignitability, corrosiveness, reactivity and toxicity”. Under certain conditions, wastes become hazardous because substances like liquids, solvents and friction sensitive substances easily ignite and create fires. Corrosive wastes such as tanks, containers, drums and barrels are acidic and capable of corroding metal. Reactive wastes are not stable under normal conditions and can create explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when mixed with water. The US Environment Protection Agency defines hazardous waste as “any of a number of solids, liquids, or contained gases generated by many modern industrial process” Examples of common hazardous wastes are spent auto batteries, spent solvents and sludges from industrial wastewater treatment units. Waste management practices Universally accepted procedure of waste management includes source reduction, recycling, treatment and disposal. Taken from economii, following processes are defined: Recycling is the use or reuse of hazardous waste as an effective substitute for a commercial product or an ingredient or feedstock in an industrial process. Treatment is any method, technique or process that changes the physical, chemical, or biological character of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste; to recover energy or material resources from the waste; or to render such waste nonhazardous, less hazardous, safer to manage, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage or reduced in volume. Disposal is the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of hazardous waste into or on any land or body of water so that the waste or any constituents may enter the air or be discharged into any waters, including groundwater. (Economii.com) Processes used to recycle and reuse waste materials include treatment technologies using chemicals, biological, incineration, solidification or stabilization, the selection of which depends upon the wastes to be treated. Other countries use abandoned sites as disposal sites for hazardous wastes, but their experience showed that improper disposal in the past led to the need to clean up and restoration of the sites to their original condition. As shown in Table 1 below, households and industries are the main contributors of hazardous wastes. Table 1. Sources of hazardous wastes Households By-products of industrial process generated by household when products are discarded. These include drain openers , oven cleaners, wood and metal cleaners and polishes, pharmaceuticals, oil and fuel additives, grease and rust solvents, herbicides and pesticides and paint thinners Industries Corrosive wastes, spent acids and alkaline materials used in the chemical, metal-finishing and petroleum refining industries. Many of these become waste streams that become toxic. Solvent wastes come from manufacturing industries while reactive wastes come from chemical and metal-finishing industries. Source: economii.com Background information In Mexico, according to the study done by Ceron (2008), 32 states of Mexico are generating about 105,000 tons of solid wastes daily. Fifty three percent is considered organic waste, 28% inorganic waste with commercial value (recyclable) and 19 percent of waste with no commercial value. Mexico has an existing environmental protection regulation system that is directing the 32 states to be responsible for implementing local laws and programs in handling solid municipal waste. Table 2 shows sources of organic and inorganic wastes that are divided among the homes, commercial sectors, public markets, food distribution centers, and others. It will be noted that business sectors generates more wastes than the other sectors in the list. From these, classification of inorganic wastes are subdivided into: textiles, 10%, Metals, 12%, plastics 35%, glass 12%, paper products 19%, and sanitary waste 12% (SEMARNART, 2008, cited in Ceron, 2009) According to the U.S. International Trade Commission (2004), most private sector estimates between 6 million to 11 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are produced every year in Mexico while the Mexican government has slightly played it down to 8 million metric tons in 1997. Estimates of polluters were recorded at 100,000 manufacturing companies and a million other entities that include households. Latest market data is not available, but in 2001, USITC estimated the combined market for solid waste equipment and services as $505 million, while the market for hazardous waste equipment and services is estimated at $210 million. The review showed that Mexico needs about $1.7 billion investment annually to develop and construct infrastructure for an efficient waste management. An overview of Mexico’s waste management. Table 3 below show selected characteristics of Mexico’s waste management, and discussion for each follows. Table 3. Selected characteristics of Mexico’s waste management Details Solid Waste Hazardous waste Principal methods of waste treatment and disposal Landfills; limited waste recycling and pilot stage of waste to energy Burning waste thru cement kilns, and incineration. Sterilization for medical waste and sparse condition of confinement and treatment infrastructure Key legislation General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection Regulatory authorities SEMARNAT GATS COMMITMENT NONE Other measures affecting trade and investment North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation; La Paz Agreement and Basel Convention Principal methods of waste treatment and disposal in Mexico In Mexico, solid wastes are dumped in landfills, recycling is done in a limited capacity and thru waste to energy which is still under a pilot testing. Hazardous wastes are disposed thru burning wastes in cement kilns, incineration, and recycling. Medical wastes are sterilized while containment and treatment is sparse. (US International Trade Commission) Mexico has a total 2,500 municipalities with a population of 113,741,226 as of 2011 (CIA World Factbook). Each of these municipalities is responsible for their own collection, treatment, and final disposal of residential urban waste. From the total generated waste daily, only 87% is collected and the rest is dumped illegally. On the 87% collected, 64% is dumped into sanitary landfills and controlled areas and 33 percent is sent to open air landfills with no control. According to Ceron, SEMARNAT reports that at least 50 new sanitary landfills are needed in Mexico to meet the dumping demands of 105,000 tons solid wastes generated daily. As of 2008, Mexico has a total 58 landfills, constituted of 11 sanitary landfills, 30 controlled landfills and 17 open air landfills and are nearing full capacity. The operators of these landfills have been noted not using latest technology in handling wastes. It is also feared that some landfills will have to be closed or to be contracted in size in order to promote consumer consciousness about recycling and re-use. Currently, Mexico is experimenting on gas-to-energy and the waste-to-energy thru the use of managed incineration as alternative fuel and energy and has so far produced 400 megawatts of energy. This experimentation is proposed to be continued by the government on a large scale basis. Key legislations affecting waste management in Mexico A general policy for waste management is important to the municipalities of Mexico since a vast number of them are poor. So, Mexico enacted General Law of ecological balance and environmental protection that became effective on January 28, 198 (WIPO Resources). This law “regulates the provisions of the Constitution of the United Mexican States relating to the preservation and restoration of the ecological balance, as well as environmental protection in the nation and areas where the country has sovereignty and jurisdiction. The implementation of Waste law was only given attention in 2007 under the administration of Felipe Calderon. Within this time, the National Policy and Strategies for Waste Prevention and Management was framed to implement the following strategies (Flores, S. 2001) 1. Promote legal and economic instruments to minimize waste generation 2. Implement a sound 3R’s policy 3. Produce high quality recycled products. 4. Increase basic facilities for waste treatment and disposal 5. Promote coordinated action of federal, state and local governments, as well as to promote social participation. 6. Comply with Mexico’s international commitments 7. Integrate a sub-system of information for waste management-highly important-to the National system of Environmental Information 8. Promote an active participation of the industrial sector; and 9. Promote environmental education program addressed to all of the different sectors of society. Achievements gathered from the implementation of this law are shown as follows: For waste generated in manufacturing processes, services or commercial activated, there were 953 authorized plans; 3,045 tons per day with management plan and 1,218 tons per day of valuable assets. Provided an environmental norm for construction waste From the wastes generated by consumer goods in the market up to 2005, the program has recovered 75,121 tons PET; 54,171 tons RIC recycled in a facility Recycled 3,674 laminated cardboard; recovered 3,546 ALU cans and 89,930 bottles and has recovered 98 tons of cartridges of tonners The Waste Law that took effect on January 6, 2004 repealed all existing legal provisions about wastes and assumes control of everything related to hazardous wastes. The changes in general waste law includes classification of waste, policy instruments for waste prevention and integrated management, integrated waste handling and solid urban waste prevention and integrated handing. The law establishes the scope of federal, state and local enforcement power and specifies the financial and administrative penalties applicable to acts of non-compliance (Ranger, E. 2003). Critical to this is the reconfirmation of “polluter pay policy” wherein those responsible for contamination is required to clean it up. The new waste law establishes remediation requirements for the owners of the contaminated sites. Under the new law, owners of contaminated sites have to get an authority from the government to transfer the rights of the property to new owners. This law is also seen as being based on the European models as the Waste Electric and Electronics Equipment (WEEE) that imposes new producer-responsibility and take back policies since it has a potential to include a number of electric and electronic products (Environment Intelligence track, 2010) E-Wastes Referring to the electronic wastes in Mexico, report of the National Institute of Ecology, 2010, stated that there are about 150,000 and 180,000 electronic wastes generated in Mexico in 2006. (Barclay, E.2008). These include laptop, desktop computers, recorders, fixed-line telephones, cellular telephones and televisions. Accordingly, these products contain flame retardants and other toxics that can leach into the environment and affect human health, at this point in time; Mexico has no formal infrastructure to manage these wastes. Trade and bilateral agreements Hazardous wastes are sometimes shipped to or from other countries for treatment, disposal, or recycling. For Mexico, majority of this trade waste occurs with U.S. wherein it has an existing bilateral agreement. This agreement needs notification to the government of the exporting country and consent of the importing country. Trade agreements on waste disposal are covered by the NAFTA rules and the Basel convention and La Paz agreement. Specifically, NAFTA and Basel agreements establish the mechanisms for imports and exports between the countries. In the La Paz agreement, which states ““as long as the applicable hazardous waste regulations are met, Mexico and US must accept the return of hazardous waste generated by production from raw materials that were imported under a temporary import permit. In relation with Mexican regulations, this means that most maquiladoras are required to send their hazardous wastes back to the U.S” (Jacot, Marisa,. 2001) There is lack of data on wastes being exported to US and imported to Mexico. However, a scant data has been found in the study of Jacot, 2011 wherein data of U.S. wastes exports to Mexico, Canada and other countries have been noted. The wastes being exported to Mexico are electric arc furnace dust generated by specialized steel operators. About 100,000 tons of this dust wastes had been sent to Mexico for zinc recycling. This amount is believed to increase over time because the overall dust sent to Mexico between had climbed to 350,000 tons to 800,000 tons from 1993 and 1997. Source: Jacot, Marissa, 2001 Conclusion The waste management system in Mexico, as shown from the data gathered, still needs a major infrastructure development. First, the incidence of hazardous wastes if not properly managed by the government will lead to the deterioration of health and environment of Mexico. We may conclude here that Mexico is still in its infant stage of infrastructure development in environmental management. Private contractors of the government that manages the wage disposals in landfills are not technologically advanced in its practices. We all know that landfills produce foul odor, and possibility of disease and contamination. There is also the prospect of leachate which is a toxic liquid, encroaching into the grounds that could contaminate the stream water. Aside from this, we have the greenhouse effect of harmful gases that pollutes the environment. Thus, the hierarchy of waste management should be followed and leave landfill as the last approach. Landfill also has externalities that will keep the value of property low. No one of course wants to be a neighbor to a garbage disposal locality. Furthermore, remediation of a contaminated land area will be very costly for a developer. As to e-wastes that keep on accumulating, study found that Mexico is not yet ready for infrastructure waste treatment for this type of waste. Some parts of the General Waste Law have been modeled after the WEEE of UK, but so far implementation to this effect is not yet seen. WEEE forces producers, more particularly, the IT manufacturers and importers to take financial responsibility for the recycling and disposal of a proportion of waste tech. The problem of e-waste should be addressed early by the government because the mount of its waste will rise up because of modern technology. Recycling effort should be given more effort and attention because of income opportunities in this market. For instance, the services engaged in wastes exported by US to Mexico for recycling needs to be augmented as study show that there is a growing income opportunity in this area. There are also wastes that can be turned into an industrial recycled material needed for production. Summing up this activity, the environment management of Mexico should take a cautious step on the use of activity and resources in order to have a greater impact on waste disposal. It should take into consideration the poor municipalities that cannot afford the modern technology of waste disposal and should not leave the decisions of disposals alone to them. References Barclay, Eliza. 02 Jan. 2008. Mexico struggle with e-wastes. Washingdon D.C. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/_the_study_esti.php Ceron, Francisco 2008. Mexico: Waste Management Equipment Market, US Commercial Service, United States of America, Department of Commerce. CIA World Factbook, 2011. North America: Mexico. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mx.html Ecomii. Science Encyclopedia. Hazardous waste Definition. http://www.ecomii.com/science/encyclopedia/hazardous-waste Environment Intelligence Track. January 2010. Hazardous waste in Mexico. http://www.eiatrack.org/s/188 Flores, Sandra. (2007) Waste Management, Mexico’s Experience. SEMARNAT. Bonn, Germany www.3rkh.net/3rkh/files/Mexico_0.pdf Jacot, Marisa, 2001. The Generation and Management of Hazardous Wastes and Transboundary Hazardous Wastes shipments between Mexico, Canada and the United States, 1990-2000. Texas Center for Policy Studies. www.texascenter.org/publications/haznafta.pdf Ranger, Edward. 2003 Legal ease. Proposed waste laws. Entrpreneur.http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/103494349.html Unites States International Commission. Solid and Hazardous Wastes Services: An examination of U.S. and Foreign Markets United States Environmental Protection Agency. 1998. International Trade in Hazardous Wastes: An Overview. EPA 305-K-98-001 WIPO Resources (2010) Mexico: General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection. http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/details.jsp?id=7971 Read More