Waste Prevention, Recycling and Composting Options

Waste Prevention, Recycling and Composting Options PDF

Author: Brenda Platt

Publisher:

Published: 1999-02

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780788143502

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This report analyzes the actual operating experience of 30 diverse communities -- some with high materials recovery rates, others with model waste reduction initiatives -- and draws lessons for communities wanting to strengthen their own programs. Most of the data presented in this report come from in-depth case studies of these 30 communities written by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The 30 communities range from rural towns of 2,000 people to metropolitan areas approaching 2 million people. Includes dozens of charts and tables. Also includes a 24-page report, "Waste Prevention Pays Off: Companies Cut Waste in the Workplace."

Composting and Recycling Municipal Solid Waste

Composting and Recycling Municipal Solid Waste PDF

Author: Luis F. Diaz

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 135136751X

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Composting and Recycling Municipal Solid Waste is a comprehensive guide that identifies, describes, explains, and evaluates the options available when composting and recycling municipal solid waste (MSW). The book begins with an introductory chapter on the nature of MSW and the importance of solid waste management programs and resource recovery. Chapter 2 discusses MSW storage and collection, with emphasis on recyclables. Chapter 3 examines issues involved in determining the quantity, composition, and key physical characteristics of the MSW to be managed and processed. The book's other chapters cover topics such as the steps required for processing MSW for material recovery, the use of uncomposted organic matter as a soil amendment, composting and use of compost product, the marketing of recyclables, biogasification, and integrated waste management. Composting and Recycling Municipal Solid Waste provides essential information needed by solid waste professionals, consultants, regulators, and planners to arrive at rational decisions regarding available economic and technological resources for MSW composting and recycling.

Waste Incineration and Public Health

Waste Incineration and Public Health PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-10-21

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 030906371X

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Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

No-Waste Composting

No-Waste Composting PDF

Author: Michelle Balz

Publisher: Cool Springs Press

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0760368708

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In No-Waste Composting, you’ll discover the hows and whys of composting and find over a dozen practical step-by-step plans for building both indoor and outdoor composting systems that require a minimal amount of space. “I don’t have enough space to compost.” “I don’t know what’s safe to compost and what isn’t.” “I live in the city, so I don’t think I can compost.” “Indoor composting systems are smelly.” “I don’t have a garden, so I don’t need to compost.” If any of these is your excuse for not composting, then this is the book for you! Small-space composting has never been easier, more efficient, and more eco-friendly. Composting keeps millions of tons of waste out of landfills and creates carbon-sequestering, nutrient-dense compost that can be used to help fuel plant growth (including houseplants!) and build soil health. Build a DIY worm-composting system for a cupboard or garage Craft a layered, under-the-sink composting system from terra cotta pots Construct a simple outdoor compost bin from repurposed wooden pallets Use upcycled wire fencing to build a mobile composting system on the driveway Learn how to compost larger sticks and branches to build new food and flower gardens Upcycle a plastic bucket to make an indoor compost fermenting system Plus, you’ll find plans to keep cat and dog waste out of the landfill by using a groundbreaking (and safe) DIY composting system. And if you don’t garden, author and composting professional Michelle Balz offers plenty of other ways you can utilize the wonderful, crumbly compost you create. Whether you’re just starting your no-waste journey or you’re a seasoned recycling and repurposing pro, No-Waste Composting is an invaluable tool to have at your side. This book is part of the Cool Springs Press No-Waste Gardening series, which also includes No-Waste Kitchen Gardening and No-Waste Organic Gardening.

Business Guide for Reducing Solid Waste

Business Guide for Reducing Solid Waste PDF

Author: Elizabeth Feinberg

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1998-12

Total Pages: 91

ISBN-13: 0788174843

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Offers step-by-step instructions designed to assist medium & large businesses, governments, & other organizations establish waste reduction programs. An overview on developing & implementing a waste reduction program is followed by a series of worksheets designed to help the waste reduction team conduct a waste assessment & devise a program tailored for its company' specific goals. Appendices include waste reduction ideas, regional EPA & State waste reduction program contacts, a glossary, volume-to-weight conversion tables, & a listing of common recyclable materials.

Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle PDF

Author: William McDonough

Publisher: North Point Press

Published: 2010-03-01

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1429973846

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A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism "Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as this provocative, visionary book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world? In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are). Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, William McDonough and Michael Braungart make an exciting and viable case for change.

The Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste

The Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste PDF

Author: Fifteenth Anniversary Task Force

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 1568062265

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Describes how people can help solve a growing problem -- garbage. Outlines many practical steps to reduce the amount & toxicity of garbage. Includes success stories, reusable vocabularyÓ, & other resources. Illustrated.

Resource Recovery and Reuse in Organic Solid Waste Management

Resource Recovery and Reuse in Organic Solid Waste Management PDF

Author: Piet Lens

Publisher: IWA Publishing

Published: 2004-03-01

Total Pages: 537

ISBN-13: 184339054X

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Uncontrolled spreading of waste materials leads to health problems and environmental damage. To prevent these problems a waste management infrastructure has been set to collect and dispose of the waste, based on a hierarchy of three principles: waste prevention, recycling/reuse, and final disposal. Final disposal is the least desirable as it causes massive emissions, to the atmosphere, water bodies and the subsoil. The emission of methane to the atmosphere is an important source of greenhouse gasses. Organic waste therefore gets a lot of attention in waste management, which for Europe can be illustrated by the issue of the Landfill Directive (99/31/EC) and the Sewage Sludge Directive (86/278/EEC). Proper treatment of organic waste may however turn this burden into an asset. In particular, biological treatment may help in developing more effective resource management and sustainable development. The following advantages may be listed: The greenhouse effect is tackled as methane emissions from landfilling are prevented Soil quality can be restored or enhanced by the use of compost in agriculture Compost may replace peat in horticulture and home gardening, reducing greenhouse emissions and wetland exploitation Anaerobic digestion has the additional benefit of producing biogas that may be used as a fuel Pesticide use can be reduced by proper use of the disease suppressive properties of compost Resource Recovery and Reuse in Organic Solid Waste Management disseminates at advanced scientific level the potential of environmental biotechnology for the recovery and reuse of products from solid waste. Several options to recover energy out of organic solid waste from domestic, agricultural and industrial origin are presented and discussed and existing economically feasible treatment systems that produce energy out of solid waste and recover useful by-products in the form of fertiliser or soil conditioner are demonstrated. The potential of environmental biotechnology is highlighted from different perspectives: societal, technological and practical.