Where Does My Trash Go?

This tutorial follows the geospatial inquiry process: ASK a question, AQUIRE data using ArcGIS Online (AGO), and EXPLORE the data; new questions arise, and more data is Acquired and Explored. Finally, GIS tools (spatial analysis) are used ANALYZE the data. New understandings are genarated, and we become obligated to ACT in accordance with our new knowledge to make the world a better place.

This Story Map has 5 purposes for use in a Massachusetts classroom:

1. Introduce students to essential concepts in  Solid Waste Management ;
2. Introduce students to  Environmental Justice  and  attributes of EJ communities ;
3. Engage students with ArcGIS Online (AGO) data layers to answer the "where" question, and to analyze the significance of location (why and how "where" matters).

Let's ASK a basic question that a student might pose, one that presents a topic upon which an interdisciplinary community-based, project-based learning expedition could be built.

Where does all the stuff go that I throw out?

READ: Let's AQUIRE data to start answering the question, where does our trash go?

First stop is the MA Department of Environmental Protection,  MA DEP , to download a spreadsheet from their webpage detailing information about Municipal Solid Waste. The process of downloading a spreadsheet and uploading it into ArcGIS Online has already been done for you.

STEP 1

DO: Add data to a blank map.

• Click "ADD Data"
• Click "Search for Layers"
• Select ArcGIS Online from the dropdown menu
• In the search bar, type "Solid Waste Landfills MA_CLOSED Cohasset EnvSci"
• Select the layer made by Jack Buckley
• Click the plus sign in the bottom right corner of the selected layer

 Watch this screencast  to see how to execute the steps above. Watch this screencast to learn  how to save your map .

FEATURES to Note about your map include:

• A) The layer of data displays only points.
• B) Each point, represented by the truck icon, has a table of attributes associated with that data point.
• C) The GIS software uses either address information or XY coordinate information to place it in its proper location.

1. Zoom into Cohasset. Note the number of icons located in Cohasset.
2. Click on each icon to open the "pop up."
3. Examine the pop up. Note that it has the name, address, number of acres; if it has a liner, and what type of waste it holds.
4. Learn: Landfills are lined or unlined. Cohasset's two accept MSW (municipal solid waste) and C&D, or Construction and Demolition Waste.
5. Understand: the information that pops up is data listed in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet holds information about every point in the data layer. You can access that spreadsheet by opening the table. The table is called the table of attributes.

 Take this Quiz .

The attribute table tells us that there are 334 "dots" on the map, or 334 landfills in MA, geo-located by address.

But all of these landfills are closed.

We don't have a monster landfill as does the City of San Diego. Watch the video below now or later; either is a good choice, as long as you do it before our term test.

STEP 2

Are there any landfills still operating in MA? Are there any other waste management systems in MA? Let's add more data to answer this question for Massachusetts.

ADD 2 more layers of data.  Watch this screencast  to learn how to add the next two data layers needed.

• Operating Landfills MA updated Cohasset EnvSci
• Waste Incineration MA Cohasset EnvSci

STEP 3

• Edit the Symbology of the two layers just added
• Change the basemap to better visualize the data.

Follow these  screencast directions  to complete Step 3.

Think about the following questions. How many landfills are currently in operation? How many incineration plants are there in MA? "Where" QUESTIONs: Where are the operating landfills located? Where are the incineration plants located? Do they cluster, or are they geographically dispersed?

 Take this Quiz 

The GeoSpatial Thinking process of acquiring data, exploring the map and analyzing the content is an iterative cycle. In order to ANALYZE, we need to ACQUIRE some more data.

STEP 4

More Questions arise. What's nearby? Can we find any data informing us about the people who live nearby? We continue ASKING, EXPLORING, and ANALYZING.

Step 4  Screencast directions  will show you how to:

• Search ArcGIS Online to find the data layer created by the State of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
• ADD a polygon layer, "MA 2020 Environmental Justice Block Groups"

Now  take this quiz.  It asks you to explore the attributes of the layer.

Take a Sidebar Tour to learn more about the census block polygons you've been clicking. Their shapes are determined by the US Census Bureau.

STEP 5

In the next screencast, we'll use the geoprocessing tool, the buffer tool, to place a 5 mile buffer around each of the 7 waste incineration plants in MA.

QUESTIONs: Does the buffer tool help us see a relationship between waste incineration plants to Environmental Justice communities?

STEP 6

We continue our ANALYSIS. We will use the Overlay tool. As illustrated below, the Overlay tool enables us to capture all the shapes and attributes common to the Intersection of two layers.

Watch  this screencast  to learn how to find and use the Overlay or Intersect Tool.

 Take this Quiz. 

STEP 7

Now that you've used the Overlay Tool to extract only the data that intersects with the 5 mile buffer around the waste incineration plants, we need to symbolize that data so that it matches our original Environmental Justice layer.

Revisit Step 3 screencast to see how to access the symbology tool.

STEP 8

Configure the Pop Up.

 This screencast  gets you going, but does not guide you through all the actions you need to take when configuring the pop up. Ask for support when you are working on STEP 8.

STEP 9

Here's some information from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts tells us that emissions from "well operated and maintained combustion facility are generally much lower than the limits established by law." However, "their emissions may still contain: Acid Gases that contribute to acid rain and can cause or aggravate breathing problems; Dioxins, Furans & Other Chlorine Containing Organics known or suspected to cause cancer and birth defects; Fly Ash & Soot seen as smoke [that] reduces visibility and can make it harder to breathe. Mercury, Lead & Other Heavy Metals can affect the human brain, kidneys, liver, and nervous system, as well as child development. Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), a primary ingredient of ground-level ozone (smog) that can cause or aggravate breathing problems."

About NOx, the EPA tell us "NO2 primarily gets in the air from the burning of fuel. NO2 forms from emissions from cars, trucks and buses, power plants, and off-road equipment. People with asthma, as well as children and the elderly are generally at greater risk for the health effects of NO2. NO2 along with other NOx reacts with other chemicals in the air to form both particulate matter and ozone. Both of these are also harmful when inhaled due to effects on the respiratory system."

Here's some EPA information.

Time to Acquire some Health Data...

STEP 1 Health Data

The next screencast shows you two ways to access Living Atlas data layers- from the Living Atlas portal or from within ArcGIS Online.

The data layer we are searching for is called PLACES:   Local Data for Better Health 

STEP 2 Health Data

The data layer we found in the Living Atlas repository covers the entire country. We want only the MA data. We can use the shape of MA- a polygon- as a cookie cutter. In this analogy, the dough is the all the health data and we're going extract, or cut out, only the data that lies within the MA cookie cutter.

As illustrated below, the rectangle is our health data and the circle is our outline of MA. We'll use the GIS tool "Overlay" to find the intersection of health data and MA. The result will be a layer that has only "the slice" of the US data pie we want.

1. ADD the hosted feature layer by jackbuckley_cscr called "Massachusetts Municipalities Dissolved (outline only)."
2. Watch the video below.

Once we have used MA as our cookie cutter, we need to symbolize the data in a more helpful way in pursuit of our concerns about the health of residents who live in proximity to our state's waste incineration plants.

STEP 3 Health Data

 Click here  to see the tutorial for symbolizing asthma data in proximity the incineration plants, as seen in the map below.

CLAIM: Your teacher has made a claim in this tutorial: It matters where your trash goes. You need to know where it goes and why it matters.

EVIDENCE: Your teacher has introduced you to facts about solid waste management in MA. Your teacher has also introduced you to Environmental Justice data. Your teacher has provided you with links to the mulitple resources that seem to suggest that living in proximity to Waste to Energy incineration plants is correlated with a variety of health issues.

CONCLUDING ASSIGNMENT: Use the Story Map format to submit evidence of your knowledge, skills, and confidence as a scientist and engaged citizen that solid waste management is a topic about which everyone should be environmentally and socially literate.

EXTENSION (for those who aspire to learn more.)

Let's now examine the filter tool. And let's look at a different attribute in the Better Health data layer.

Let's look at the attribute, Fair or Poor Health crude prevalence %

Try these filters:

Filter the EJ Layer, too

1. Turn on the Environmental Justice data layer.
2. Use your filter skills on that layer: select EJ criteria as the attribute to filter
3. filter EJ criteria is minority and income
4. At the top of the filter dialogue box or filter query, click ADD Another Expression
5. Be sure to change the dropdown menu to "Any" of the following expressions
6. Now add another expression: EJ criteria is minority, income, English isolation
7. This will limit the data displayed to only the two expressions you built.

Finally, create a 10 mile buffer...

You can find great inspiration at the Goldman Environmental Prize website, per the excerpt below.

"In September 2019, Sharon Lavigne, a special education teacher turned environmental justice advocate, successfully stopped the construction of a US$1.25 billion plastics manufacturing plant alongside the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Lavigne mobilized grassroots opposition to the project, educated community members, and organized peaceful protests to defend her predominantly African American community. The plant would have generated one million pounds of liquid hazardous waste annually, in a region already contending with known carcinogens and toxic air pollution." (credit: Goldman Environmental Prize, https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/sharon-lavigne/)

...and maybe you heard this story on NPR... what if all we stopped shopping?