Pollution prevention
The US Environmental Protection Agency has a number of P2 programs that can assist individuals and organizations to implement P2[1].
See also
Cleaner production
Environmentalism
Energy conservation
Green chemistry
Pollution control
Recycling
Waste management
Extended producer responsibility
Pay As You Throw
External links
United States National Pollution Prevention Information Center
United States Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center
NPPR Finds P2 Programs Effective
P2Gems Pollution prevention directory
Southwest Network for Zero Waste
Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center (P2RIC)
Ward 49 of the City of Chicago includes most of Rogers Park and parts of West Ridge.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Recycling
Recycling
Recycling is the reprocessing of materials into new products. Recycling generally prevents the waste of potentially useful materials, reduces the consumption of raw materials and reduces energy usage, and hence greenhouse gas emissions, compared to virgin production.[1] Recycling is a key concept of modern waste management and is the third component of the waste hierarchy.
Recyclable materials, also called "recyclables", may originate from a wide range of sources including the home and industry. They include glass, paper, aluminium, asphalt, iron, textiles and plastics. Biodegradable waste, such as food waste or garden waste, is also recyclable with the assistance of micro-organisms through composting or anaerobic digestion.
Recyclates are sorted and separated into material types. Contamination of the recylates with other materials must be prevented to increase the recyclates' value and facilitate easier reprocessing for the ultimate recycling facility. This sorting can be performed either by the producer of the waste or within semi- or fully-automated materials recovery facilities.
There are two common household methods of recycling. In curbside collection, consumers leave presorted recyclable materials in front of their property to be collected by a recycling vehicle.
With a "bring" or carry-in system, the householder takes the materials to collection points, such as transfer stations or civic amenity sites.
The term recycling does not generally include reuse, in which existing items are used for a new purpose.
History
Recycling has been a common practice throughout human history. In pre-industrial times, scrap made of bronze and other precious metals was collected in Europe and melted down for perpetual reuse, and in Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was downcycled as a base material in brick making. The main driver for these types of recycling was the economic advantage of obtaining recycled feedstock instead of acquiring virgin material, as well as a lack of public waste removal in ever more-populated sites.
Paper recycling began in Britain in 1921, when the British Waste Paper Association (now Confederation of Paper Industries) was established to encourage trade in waste paper recycling.
Resource shortages caused by the world wars, and other such world-changing occurrences greatly encouraged recycling. Massive government promotion campaigns were carried out in World War II in every country involved in the war, urging citizens to donate metals and conserve fiber, as a matter of significant patriotic importance. Resource conservation programs established during the war were continued in some countries without an abundance of natural resources, such as Japan, after the war ended.
The next big investment in recycling occurred in the 1970s, due to rising energy costs. Recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the energy required by virgin production; glass, paper and metals have less dramatic but very significant energy savings when recycled feedstock is used [2]. The passage of the Clean Water Act of 1977 in the USA created strong demand for bleached paper (office paper whose fibre has already been bleached white increased in value as water effluent became more expensive).
In 1973, the city of Berkeley, California began one of the first curbside collection programs with monthly pick ups of newspapers from residences. Since then several countries have started and expanded various doorstep collection schemes. Around this time, Woodbury, New Jersey was also a forerunner of the recycling industry in the United States, being the first in the state to mandate it.
In 1987, the Mobro 4000 barge hauled garbage from New York to North Carolina, where it had been denied. It was then sent to Belize, where it was denied as well. Finally, the barge returned to New York and the garbage was incinerated. The incident led to heated discussions in the media about waste disposal and recycling. The incident is often referred to as igniting the recycling hysteria of the 1990s.
One event that initiated recycling efforts occurred in 1989 when Berkeley banned the use of polystyrene packaging for keeping McDonald's hamburgers warm. One effect of this ban was to raise the ire of management at the Dow Chemical Company, the world's largest manufacturer of polystyrene, which led to the first major effort to show that plastics can be recycled. By 1999, there were 1,677 companies in the USA alone involved in the post-consumer plastics recycling business.
In Germany the introduction of a Packaging Ordinance under the Waste Act led to the introduction of the Green Dot program. Originally launched by Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD) in 1990, the scheme has since been rolled out to 23 other European countries. The Green Dot scheme is captured under the European "Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive - 94/62/EC" and is binding for all companies if their products use packaging.
Benefits
Recycling is beneficial in two ways: it reduces the inputs (energy and raw materials) to a production system and reduces the amount of waste produced for disposal.
A study conducted by the Technical University of Denmark found that in 80% of cases, recycling is the most efficient method to dispose of household waste.[2]
Some materials like aluminum can be recycled indefinitely as there is no change to the materials. Other recycled materials like paper require a percentage of raw materials (wood fibers) to be added to compensate for the degradation of existing fibers. Recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy cost of processing new aluminium[2] because the melting temperature is reduced from 900 °C to 600 °C. It is by far the most efficient material to recycle. Recycling plastic saves 70% of the energy used in creating new plastic, and paper recycling saves 40% of the energy required to make a new product.[2]
The resources being processed are purer, thus less energy is needed to process them.
Additionally less energy is needed to transport them from the place of extraction (e.g. bauxite/aluminium ore mines in Brazil or coniferous forests in Scandinavia as compared to domestic areas).
This reduces the environmental, social, and usually the economic costs of manufacturing.
For example, bauxite mines in Brazil displace indigenous people, create noise pollution from blasting, machinery and transport, and create air pollution in the form of particulates (dust). The habitat loss and visual destruction is also negative both to the aesthetic qualities of the areas and the local environment.
The most commonly used methods for waste disposal (landfill, pyrolysis, incineration) may be environmentally damaging and unsustainable. Therefore any way to reduce the volume of waste being disposed in this fashion may be beneficial. The maximum environmental benefit is gained by waste minimization (reducing the amount of waste produced), and reusing items in their current form such as refilling bottles.
In the past recycling has been a fragmented industry with recycling companies only accepting specific materials for recycling, or only common materials such as plastic or metals. More recent approaches have resulted in recycling companies that accept a wide variety of materials or emerging market materials such as ceiling tiles, carpet, stained wood etc.. An example of a company that accepts a wide variety of materials, including emerging recycling markets is the Green Recycling Network.
Drawbacks and criticism
All recycling techniques consume energy for transportation and processing and some also use considerable amounts of water, although recycling processes seldom amount to the level of resource use associated with raw materials processing.[3]
There may also be drawbacks with the collection methods associated with recycling. Increasing collections of separated wastes adds to vehicle movements and the production of carbon dioxide.
This may be negated however by centralized facilities such as some advanced material recovery facilities and mechanical biological treatment systems for the separation of mixed wastes. It has been calculated that collecting waste and disposing it in a landfill is about $60 a ton opposed to separate collecting and taking it to be recycled costs $150 a ton.[4]
Recycled materials also sometimes cost more financially than their non-recycled versions. This is not universal to every recycled product, but it does occur.[5]
Negative consequences from mercury recycling have been cited by The Wall Street Journal.[6]
The article traces mercury recovered from American recycling programs into sales of mercury for alluvial mining activities in Brazil. During the autumn of 2006, the European Union banned the export of liquid mercury, and a life-cycle analysis prior to institution of recycling programs may reduce the risk of unintended environmental consequences.
For some materials, recycling is more expensive than landfill disposal unless externalities are considered.[citation needed] For these products, there is an opportunity cost to recycling. Some argue that the financial costs of recycling some materials outweigh the environmental benefits.
Some skeptics also argue that the environmental benefits of recycling do not compensate for the extra effort it may require.[7]
John Tierney, in an article in The New York Times claimed that government mandated recycling wastes more resources than it saves.[8] Some highlights from the article:
Recycling techniques
Many different materials can be recycled but each type requires a different technique.
Aggregates & concrete
Concrete aggregate collected from demolition sites is put through a crushing machine, often along with asphalt, bricks, dirt, and rocks. Smaller pieces of concrete are used as gravel for new construction projects. Crushed recycled concrete can also be used as the dry aggregate for brand new concrete if it is free of contaminants. This reduces the need for other rocks to be dug up, which in turn saves trees and habitats.
Batteries
The large variation in size and type of batteries makes their recycling extremely difficult: they must first be sorted into similar kinds and each kind requires an individual recycling process.
Additionally, older batteries contain mercury and cadmium, harmful materials which must be handled with care.
Lead-acid batteries, like those used in automobiles, are relatively easy to recycle and many new lead-acid batteries contain a high percentage of recycled material.
Biodegradable waste
Biodegradable waste can be recycled into useful material by biological decomposition. There are two mechanisms by which this can occur. The most common mechanism of recycling of household organic waste is home composting or municipal curbside collection of green wastes sent to large scale composting plants.
Alternatively organic waste can be converted into biogas and soil improver using anaerobic digestion. Here organic wastes are broken down by anaerobic microorganisms in biogas plants.
The biogas can be converted into renewable electricity or burnt for environmentally friendly heating. Advanced technologies such as mechanical biological treatment are able to sort the recyclable elements of the waste out before biological treatment by either composting, anaerobic digestion or biodrying.
Sulabh International, an Indian NGO designed a cheap toilet system that recycles human waste into biogas and fertilizer.
Electronics disassembly and reclamation
The direct disposal of electrical equipment — such as old computers and mobile phones — is banned in many areas due to the toxic contents of certain components. The recycling process works by mechanically separating the metals, plastics and circuit boards contained in the appliance. When this is done on a large scale at an electronic waste recycling plant, component recovery can be achieved in a cost-effective manner.
Electronic devices, including audio-visual components (televisions, VCRs, stereo equipment), mobile phones and other hand-held devices, and computer components, contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including lead, copper, and gold. They also contain a plethora of toxic substances, such as dioxins, Polychlorinated biphenylsPCBs, cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury. Additionally, the processing required to reclaim the precious substances (including incineration and acid treatments) release, generate and synthesize further toxic by-products.
In the United States, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills come from discarded electronics.[9]Some regional governments are attempting to curtail the accumulation of electronics in landfills by passing laws obligating manufacturers and consumers to recycle these devices,[10] but because in many cases safe dismantlement of these devices in accordance with first world safety standards is unprofitable,[citation needed] historically much of the electronic waste has been shipped to countries with lower or less rigorously-enforced safety protocols.
Places like Guiyu, China dismantle tons of electronics every year, profiting from the sale of precious metals, but at the cost of the local environment and the health of its residents.[11][12]
Mining to produce the same metals, to meet demand for finished products in the west, also occurs in the same countries, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has recommended that restrictions against recycling exports be balanced against the environmental costs of recovering those materials from mining. Hard rock mining in the USA produces 45% of all toxics produced by all USA industries (2001 US EPA Toxics Release Inventory).
Printer ink cartridges & toners
Printer ink cartridges can be recycled. They are sorted into different brands and models which are then resold back to the companies that created these cartridges. The companies then refill the ink reservoir which can be sold back to consumers. Toner cartridges are recycled the same way as ink cartridges, using toner instead of ink. This method of recycling is highly efficient as there is no energy spent on melting and recreating the recycled object itself.
Ferrous metals
Iron and steel are the world's most recycled materials, and among the easiest materials to recycle, as they can be separated magnetically from the waste stream. Recycling is via a steelworks: scrap is either remelted in an Electric Arc Furnace (90-100% scrap), or used as part of the charge in a Basic Oxygen Furnace (around 25% scrap).[13] Any grade of steel can be recycled to top quality new metal, with no 'downgrading' from prime to lower quality materials as steel is recycled repeatedly. 42% of crude steel produced is recycled material.[14]
Non-ferrous metals
Aluminium is shredded and ground into small pieces or crushed into bales. These pieces or bales are melted in an aluminium smelter to produce molten aluminium. By this stage the recycled aluminium is indistinguishable from virgin aluminium and further processing is identical for both.
Due to the high melting point of aluminium ore, large amounts of energy are required to extract aluminium from ore, making the environmental benefits of recycling aluminium enormous.
Recycling aluminium only results in approximately 5% of the CO2 that would be released during the production of raw aluminium.[15] The percentage is even smaller when considering the complete cycle of mining and transporting the aluminium. Also, as open-cut mining is most often used for obtaining aluminium ore, mining destroys large sections of natural land.
An aluminium can is 100% recyclable. Every time a can is recycled, enough energy is saved to power a television for about three hours (compared to mining and producing a new can).[16]
Glass
Glass bottles and jars are gathered via curbside collection schemes and bottle banks, where the glass may be sorted into color categories. The collected glass cullet is taken to a glass recycling plant where it is monitored for purity and contaminants are removed. The cullet is crushed and added to a raw material mix in a melting furnace. It is then mechanically blown or molded into new jars or bottles. Glass cullet is also used in the construction industry for aggregate and glassphalt. Glassphalt is a road-laying material which comprises around 30% recycled glass.
Glass can be recycled indefinitely as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed.
Paper
Recycled paper is made from waste paper, usually mixed with fresh wood pulp. If the paper contains ink, it must be deinked. This also removes fillers, clays, and fiber fragments.
Almost all paper can be recycled today, but some types are harder to recycle than others.
Papers coated with plastic or aluminum foil, and papers that are waxed, pasted, or gummed are usually not recycled because the process is too expensive. Gift wrap paper also cannot be recycled. Different types of paper are usually sorted before recycling, such as newspapers and cardboard boxes.
Different grades of paper are recycled into different types of new products. Old newspapers are usually made into new newsprint, egg cartons, or paperboard. Old corrugated boxes are made into new corrugated boxes or paperboard. High-grade white office paper can be made into almost any new paper product: stationery, newsprint, magazines, or books.
Sometimes recyclers ask for the removal of the glossy inserts from newspapers because they are a different type of paper. Glossy inserts have a heavy clay coating that some paper mills cannot accept. Most of the clay is removed from the recycled pulp as sludge which must be disposed. If the coated paper is 20% by weight clay, then each ton of glossy paper produces more than 200 kg of sludge and less than 800 kg of fiber. Uncoated (no clay), recycled newsprint gives less sludge and more useable fiber.
Paper can only be recycled a finite number of times due to the shortening of paper fibers making the material less versatile. Often it will be mixed with a quantity of virgin material, referred to as downcycling. This does not however exclude the material from being used in other processes such as composting or anaerobic digestion, where further value can be extracted from the material in the form of compost or biogas.
Plastic
Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products. Compared to glass or metallic materials, plastic poses unique challenges - because of the massive number of types of plastic, they each carry a resin identification code, and must be sorted before they can be recycled. This can be costly - while metals can be sorted using electromagnets, no such 'easy sorting' capability exists for plastics. In addition to this, while labels do not need to be removed from bottles for recycling, lids are often made from a different kind of non-recyclable plastic.
Plastics recycling rates lag far behind those of other items, such as newspaper and aluminium; consumers are typically unsure of how to recycle plastics, and compared to paper and metals fewer recycling facilities exist.
Textiles
When considering textile recycling one must understand what the material consists of. Most textiles are composites of cotton (biodegradable material) and synthetic plastics. The textile's composition will affect its durability and method of recycling.
Workers sort and separate collected textiles into good quality clothing and shoes which can be reused or worn. There is a trend of moving these facilities from developed countries to developing countries.[17]
Damaged textiles are further sorted into grades to make industrial wiping cloths and for use in paper manufacture or material suitable for fibre reclamation and filling products. If textile reprocessors receive wet or soiled clothes however, these may still be disposed of in a landfill, as the washing and drying facilities are not present at sorting units. [18]
Fibre reclamation mills sort textiles according to fibre type and colour. Colour sorting eliminates the need to re-dye the recycled textiles. The textiles are shredded into "shoddy" fibres and blended with other selected fibres, depending on the intended end use of the recycled yarn. The blended mixture is carded to clean and mix the fibres and spun ready for weaving or knitting.
The fibres can also be compressed for mattress production. Textiles sent to the flocking industry are shredded to make filling material for car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings and furniture padding.
Timber
Recycling timber has become popular due to its image as an environmentally friendly product, with consumers commonly believing that by purchasing recycled wood the demand for green timber will fall and ultimately benefit the environment. Greenpeace also view recycled timber as an environmentally friendly product, citing it as the most preferable timber source on their website. The arrival of recycled timber as a construction product has been important in both raising industry and consumer awareness towards deforestation and promoting timber mills to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.
Other Techniques
Several other materials are also commonly recycled, frequently at an industrial level.
Ship breaking is one example that has associated environmental, health, and safety risks for the area where the operation takes place; balancing all these considerations is an environmental justice problem.
Tires are also commonly recycled. Used tires can be added to asphalt, producing road surfaces that are more durable, create less traffic noise, and absorb precipitation better than traditional asphalt[citation needed]. Tires can also be used to make rubber mulch, which is used on playgrounds for safety.
Metal scavenged from automobiles can also be recycled at an industrial scale.
International Universal Recycling Codes
The communication and identification are laid out in International Universal Recycling Codes.
These codes outline what material an item is made from, to facilitate easier reprocessing.
See also
Anaerobic digestion
Composting
Downcycling
Recyclable waste
Materials Recovery Facility
Regiving
Pollution Prevention
Cheapcycle
Re-use
Types of recycling
Full Depth Recycling
Ship-Submarine recycling program
Thermal depolymerization
Chemical reclamation, for example hydrochloric acid regeneration
General topics
Environmentalism
Energy conservation
Waste management
Extended producer responsibility
Pay As You Throw
Recycling in the United States
Trade associations
International Solid Waste Association
Solid Waste Association of North America
Chartered Institute of Wastes Management
Recycling is the reprocessing of materials into new products. Recycling generally prevents the waste of potentially useful materials, reduces the consumption of raw materials and reduces energy usage, and hence greenhouse gas emissions, compared to virgin production.[1] Recycling is a key concept of modern waste management and is the third component of the waste hierarchy.
Recyclable materials, also called "recyclables", may originate from a wide range of sources including the home and industry. They include glass, paper, aluminium, asphalt, iron, textiles and plastics. Biodegradable waste, such as food waste or garden waste, is also recyclable with the assistance of micro-organisms through composting or anaerobic digestion.
Recyclates are sorted and separated into material types. Contamination of the recylates with other materials must be prevented to increase the recyclates' value and facilitate easier reprocessing for the ultimate recycling facility. This sorting can be performed either by the producer of the waste or within semi- or fully-automated materials recovery facilities.
There are two common household methods of recycling. In curbside collection, consumers leave presorted recyclable materials in front of their property to be collected by a recycling vehicle.
With a "bring" or carry-in system, the householder takes the materials to collection points, such as transfer stations or civic amenity sites.
The term recycling does not generally include reuse, in which existing items are used for a new purpose.
History
Recycling has been a common practice throughout human history. In pre-industrial times, scrap made of bronze and other precious metals was collected in Europe and melted down for perpetual reuse, and in Britain dust and ash from wood and coal fires was downcycled as a base material in brick making. The main driver for these types of recycling was the economic advantage of obtaining recycled feedstock instead of acquiring virgin material, as well as a lack of public waste removal in ever more-populated sites.
Paper recycling began in Britain in 1921, when the British Waste Paper Association (now Confederation of Paper Industries) was established to encourage trade in waste paper recycling.
Resource shortages caused by the world wars, and other such world-changing occurrences greatly encouraged recycling. Massive government promotion campaigns were carried out in World War II in every country involved in the war, urging citizens to donate metals and conserve fiber, as a matter of significant patriotic importance. Resource conservation programs established during the war were continued in some countries without an abundance of natural resources, such as Japan, after the war ended.
The next big investment in recycling occurred in the 1970s, due to rising energy costs. Recycling aluminum uses only 5% of the energy required by virgin production; glass, paper and metals have less dramatic but very significant energy savings when recycled feedstock is used [2]. The passage of the Clean Water Act of 1977 in the USA created strong demand for bleached paper (office paper whose fibre has already been bleached white increased in value as water effluent became more expensive).
In 1973, the city of Berkeley, California began one of the first curbside collection programs with monthly pick ups of newspapers from residences. Since then several countries have started and expanded various doorstep collection schemes. Around this time, Woodbury, New Jersey was also a forerunner of the recycling industry in the United States, being the first in the state to mandate it.
In 1987, the Mobro 4000 barge hauled garbage from New York to North Carolina, where it had been denied. It was then sent to Belize, where it was denied as well. Finally, the barge returned to New York and the garbage was incinerated. The incident led to heated discussions in the media about waste disposal and recycling. The incident is often referred to as igniting the recycling hysteria of the 1990s.
One event that initiated recycling efforts occurred in 1989 when Berkeley banned the use of polystyrene packaging for keeping McDonald's hamburgers warm. One effect of this ban was to raise the ire of management at the Dow Chemical Company, the world's largest manufacturer of polystyrene, which led to the first major effort to show that plastics can be recycled. By 1999, there were 1,677 companies in the USA alone involved in the post-consumer plastics recycling business.
In Germany the introduction of a Packaging Ordinance under the Waste Act led to the introduction of the Green Dot program. Originally launched by Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD) in 1990, the scheme has since been rolled out to 23 other European countries. The Green Dot scheme is captured under the European "Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive - 94/62/EC" and is binding for all companies if their products use packaging.
Benefits
Recycling is beneficial in two ways: it reduces the inputs (energy and raw materials) to a production system and reduces the amount of waste produced for disposal.
A study conducted by the Technical University of Denmark found that in 80% of cases, recycling is the most efficient method to dispose of household waste.[2]
Some materials like aluminum can be recycled indefinitely as there is no change to the materials. Other recycled materials like paper require a percentage of raw materials (wood fibers) to be added to compensate for the degradation of existing fibers. Recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy cost of processing new aluminium[2] because the melting temperature is reduced from 900 °C to 600 °C. It is by far the most efficient material to recycle. Recycling plastic saves 70% of the energy used in creating new plastic, and paper recycling saves 40% of the energy required to make a new product.[2]
The resources being processed are purer, thus less energy is needed to process them.
Additionally less energy is needed to transport them from the place of extraction (e.g. bauxite/aluminium ore mines in Brazil or coniferous forests in Scandinavia as compared to domestic areas).
This reduces the environmental, social, and usually the economic costs of manufacturing.
For example, bauxite mines in Brazil displace indigenous people, create noise pollution from blasting, machinery and transport, and create air pollution in the form of particulates (dust). The habitat loss and visual destruction is also negative both to the aesthetic qualities of the areas and the local environment.
The most commonly used methods for waste disposal (landfill, pyrolysis, incineration) may be environmentally damaging and unsustainable. Therefore any way to reduce the volume of waste being disposed in this fashion may be beneficial. The maximum environmental benefit is gained by waste minimization (reducing the amount of waste produced), and reusing items in their current form such as refilling bottles.
In the past recycling has been a fragmented industry with recycling companies only accepting specific materials for recycling, or only common materials such as plastic or metals. More recent approaches have resulted in recycling companies that accept a wide variety of materials or emerging market materials such as ceiling tiles, carpet, stained wood etc.. An example of a company that accepts a wide variety of materials, including emerging recycling markets is the Green Recycling Network.
Drawbacks and criticism
All recycling techniques consume energy for transportation and processing and some also use considerable amounts of water, although recycling processes seldom amount to the level of resource use associated with raw materials processing.[3]
There may also be drawbacks with the collection methods associated with recycling. Increasing collections of separated wastes adds to vehicle movements and the production of carbon dioxide.
This may be negated however by centralized facilities such as some advanced material recovery facilities and mechanical biological treatment systems for the separation of mixed wastes. It has been calculated that collecting waste and disposing it in a landfill is about $60 a ton opposed to separate collecting and taking it to be recycled costs $150 a ton.[4]
Recycled materials also sometimes cost more financially than their non-recycled versions. This is not universal to every recycled product, but it does occur.[5]
Negative consequences from mercury recycling have been cited by The Wall Street Journal.[6]
The article traces mercury recovered from American recycling programs into sales of mercury for alluvial mining activities in Brazil. During the autumn of 2006, the European Union banned the export of liquid mercury, and a life-cycle analysis prior to institution of recycling programs may reduce the risk of unintended environmental consequences.
For some materials, recycling is more expensive than landfill disposal unless externalities are considered.[citation needed] For these products, there is an opportunity cost to recycling. Some argue that the financial costs of recycling some materials outweigh the environmental benefits.
Some skeptics also argue that the environmental benefits of recycling do not compensate for the extra effort it may require.[7]
John Tierney, in an article in The New York Times claimed that government mandated recycling wastes more resources than it saves.[8] Some highlights from the article:
- In cases where recycling truly does save resources, such as with large scraps of aluminum, this will be reflected in market prices, and voluntary recycling will take place. Thus, there is no need for the government to mandate it.
- Each year the United States fills up over 9 square miles of landfill space. Once full, much of that land gets turned into parks.
- Tree farmers plant more trees than they cut down.
- Government mandated recycling is more expensive than putting the garbage into landfills, which means that this recycling uses up more resources than it saves.
- Some small towns with landfills are happy to import garbage from other cities and states because it provides jobs and tax revenue.
- Today's modern landfills are much cleaner and safer, and much less likely to leak and pollute than the landfills of the past.
Recycling techniques
Many different materials can be recycled but each type requires a different technique.
Aggregates & concrete
Concrete aggregate collected from demolition sites is put through a crushing machine, often along with asphalt, bricks, dirt, and rocks. Smaller pieces of concrete are used as gravel for new construction projects. Crushed recycled concrete can also be used as the dry aggregate for brand new concrete if it is free of contaminants. This reduces the need for other rocks to be dug up, which in turn saves trees and habitats.
Batteries
The large variation in size and type of batteries makes their recycling extremely difficult: they must first be sorted into similar kinds and each kind requires an individual recycling process.
Additionally, older batteries contain mercury and cadmium, harmful materials which must be handled with care.
Lead-acid batteries, like those used in automobiles, are relatively easy to recycle and many new lead-acid batteries contain a high percentage of recycled material.
Biodegradable waste
Biodegradable waste can be recycled into useful material by biological decomposition. There are two mechanisms by which this can occur. The most common mechanism of recycling of household organic waste is home composting or municipal curbside collection of green wastes sent to large scale composting plants.
Alternatively organic waste can be converted into biogas and soil improver using anaerobic digestion. Here organic wastes are broken down by anaerobic microorganisms in biogas plants.
The biogas can be converted into renewable electricity or burnt for environmentally friendly heating. Advanced technologies such as mechanical biological treatment are able to sort the recyclable elements of the waste out before biological treatment by either composting, anaerobic digestion or biodrying.
Sulabh International, an Indian NGO designed a cheap toilet system that recycles human waste into biogas and fertilizer.
Electronics disassembly and reclamation
The direct disposal of electrical equipment — such as old computers and mobile phones — is banned in many areas due to the toxic contents of certain components. The recycling process works by mechanically separating the metals, plastics and circuit boards contained in the appliance. When this is done on a large scale at an electronic waste recycling plant, component recovery can be achieved in a cost-effective manner.
Electronic devices, including audio-visual components (televisions, VCRs, stereo equipment), mobile phones and other hand-held devices, and computer components, contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including lead, copper, and gold. They also contain a plethora of toxic substances, such as dioxins, Polychlorinated biphenylsPCBs, cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury. Additionally, the processing required to reclaim the precious substances (including incineration and acid treatments) release, generate and synthesize further toxic by-products.
In the United States, an estimated 70% of heavy metals in landfills come from discarded electronics.[9]Some regional governments are attempting to curtail the accumulation of electronics in landfills by passing laws obligating manufacturers and consumers to recycle these devices,[10] but because in many cases safe dismantlement of these devices in accordance with first world safety standards is unprofitable,[citation needed] historically much of the electronic waste has been shipped to countries with lower or less rigorously-enforced safety protocols.
Places like Guiyu, China dismantle tons of electronics every year, profiting from the sale of precious metals, but at the cost of the local environment and the health of its residents.[11][12]
Mining to produce the same metals, to meet demand for finished products in the west, also occurs in the same countries, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has recommended that restrictions against recycling exports be balanced against the environmental costs of recovering those materials from mining. Hard rock mining in the USA produces 45% of all toxics produced by all USA industries (2001 US EPA Toxics Release Inventory).
Printer ink cartridges & toners
Printer ink cartridges can be recycled. They are sorted into different brands and models which are then resold back to the companies that created these cartridges. The companies then refill the ink reservoir which can be sold back to consumers. Toner cartridges are recycled the same way as ink cartridges, using toner instead of ink. This method of recycling is highly efficient as there is no energy spent on melting and recreating the recycled object itself.
Ferrous metals
Iron and steel are the world's most recycled materials, and among the easiest materials to recycle, as they can be separated magnetically from the waste stream. Recycling is via a steelworks: scrap is either remelted in an Electric Arc Furnace (90-100% scrap), or used as part of the charge in a Basic Oxygen Furnace (around 25% scrap).[13] Any grade of steel can be recycled to top quality new metal, with no 'downgrading' from prime to lower quality materials as steel is recycled repeatedly. 42% of crude steel produced is recycled material.[14]
Non-ferrous metals
Aluminium is shredded and ground into small pieces or crushed into bales. These pieces or bales are melted in an aluminium smelter to produce molten aluminium. By this stage the recycled aluminium is indistinguishable from virgin aluminium and further processing is identical for both.
Due to the high melting point of aluminium ore, large amounts of energy are required to extract aluminium from ore, making the environmental benefits of recycling aluminium enormous.
Recycling aluminium only results in approximately 5% of the CO2 that would be released during the production of raw aluminium.[15] The percentage is even smaller when considering the complete cycle of mining and transporting the aluminium. Also, as open-cut mining is most often used for obtaining aluminium ore, mining destroys large sections of natural land.
An aluminium can is 100% recyclable. Every time a can is recycled, enough energy is saved to power a television for about three hours (compared to mining and producing a new can).[16]
Glass
Glass bottles and jars are gathered via curbside collection schemes and bottle banks, where the glass may be sorted into color categories. The collected glass cullet is taken to a glass recycling plant where it is monitored for purity and contaminants are removed. The cullet is crushed and added to a raw material mix in a melting furnace. It is then mechanically blown or molded into new jars or bottles. Glass cullet is also used in the construction industry for aggregate and glassphalt. Glassphalt is a road-laying material which comprises around 30% recycled glass.
Glass can be recycled indefinitely as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed.
Paper
Recycled paper is made from waste paper, usually mixed with fresh wood pulp. If the paper contains ink, it must be deinked. This also removes fillers, clays, and fiber fragments.
Almost all paper can be recycled today, but some types are harder to recycle than others.
Papers coated with plastic or aluminum foil, and papers that are waxed, pasted, or gummed are usually not recycled because the process is too expensive. Gift wrap paper also cannot be recycled. Different types of paper are usually sorted before recycling, such as newspapers and cardboard boxes.
Different grades of paper are recycled into different types of new products. Old newspapers are usually made into new newsprint, egg cartons, or paperboard. Old corrugated boxes are made into new corrugated boxes or paperboard. High-grade white office paper can be made into almost any new paper product: stationery, newsprint, magazines, or books.
Sometimes recyclers ask for the removal of the glossy inserts from newspapers because they are a different type of paper. Glossy inserts have a heavy clay coating that some paper mills cannot accept. Most of the clay is removed from the recycled pulp as sludge which must be disposed. If the coated paper is 20% by weight clay, then each ton of glossy paper produces more than 200 kg of sludge and less than 800 kg of fiber. Uncoated (no clay), recycled newsprint gives less sludge and more useable fiber.
Paper can only be recycled a finite number of times due to the shortening of paper fibers making the material less versatile. Often it will be mixed with a quantity of virgin material, referred to as downcycling. This does not however exclude the material from being used in other processes such as composting or anaerobic digestion, where further value can be extracted from the material in the form of compost or biogas.
Plastic
Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products. Compared to glass or metallic materials, plastic poses unique challenges - because of the massive number of types of plastic, they each carry a resin identification code, and must be sorted before they can be recycled. This can be costly - while metals can be sorted using electromagnets, no such 'easy sorting' capability exists for plastics. In addition to this, while labels do not need to be removed from bottles for recycling, lids are often made from a different kind of non-recyclable plastic.
Plastics recycling rates lag far behind those of other items, such as newspaper and aluminium; consumers are typically unsure of how to recycle plastics, and compared to paper and metals fewer recycling facilities exist.
Textiles
When considering textile recycling one must understand what the material consists of. Most textiles are composites of cotton (biodegradable material) and synthetic plastics. The textile's composition will affect its durability and method of recycling.
Workers sort and separate collected textiles into good quality clothing and shoes which can be reused or worn. There is a trend of moving these facilities from developed countries to developing countries.[17]
Damaged textiles are further sorted into grades to make industrial wiping cloths and for use in paper manufacture or material suitable for fibre reclamation and filling products. If textile reprocessors receive wet or soiled clothes however, these may still be disposed of in a landfill, as the washing and drying facilities are not present at sorting units. [18]
Fibre reclamation mills sort textiles according to fibre type and colour. Colour sorting eliminates the need to re-dye the recycled textiles. The textiles are shredded into "shoddy" fibres and blended with other selected fibres, depending on the intended end use of the recycled yarn. The blended mixture is carded to clean and mix the fibres and spun ready for weaving or knitting.
The fibres can also be compressed for mattress production. Textiles sent to the flocking industry are shredded to make filling material for car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings and furniture padding.
Timber
Recycling timber has become popular due to its image as an environmentally friendly product, with consumers commonly believing that by purchasing recycled wood the demand for green timber will fall and ultimately benefit the environment. Greenpeace also view recycled timber as an environmentally friendly product, citing it as the most preferable timber source on their website. The arrival of recycled timber as a construction product has been important in both raising industry and consumer awareness towards deforestation and promoting timber mills to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.
Other Techniques
Several other materials are also commonly recycled, frequently at an industrial level.
Ship breaking is one example that has associated environmental, health, and safety risks for the area where the operation takes place; balancing all these considerations is an environmental justice problem.
Tires are also commonly recycled. Used tires can be added to asphalt, producing road surfaces that are more durable, create less traffic noise, and absorb precipitation better than traditional asphalt[citation needed]. Tires can also be used to make rubber mulch, which is used on playgrounds for safety.
Metal scavenged from automobiles can also be recycled at an industrial scale.
International Universal Recycling Codes
The communication and identification are laid out in International Universal Recycling Codes.
These codes outline what material an item is made from, to facilitate easier reprocessing.
See also
Anaerobic digestion
Composting
Downcycling
Recyclable waste
Materials Recovery Facility
Regiving
Pollution Prevention
Cheapcycle
Re-use
Types of recycling
Full Depth Recycling
Ship-Submarine recycling program
Thermal depolymerization
Chemical reclamation, for example hydrochloric acid regeneration
General topics
Environmentalism
Energy conservation
Waste management
Extended producer responsibility
Pay As You Throw
Recycling in the United States
Trade associations
International Solid Waste Association
Solid Waste Association of North America
Chartered Institute of Wastes Management
Waste management
Waste management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, aesthetics or amenity. Waste management is also carried out to reduce the materials' effect on the environment and to recover resources from them. Waste management can involve solid, liquid or gaseous substances, with different methods and fields of expertise for each.
Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial, producers. Management for non-hazardous residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government authorities, while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator.
Waste management methods
Waste management methods vary widely between areas for many reasons, including type of waste material, nearby land uses, and the area available.
The analysis of existing methods of processing waste
Disposal
Landfill
Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying waste to dispose of it, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Historically, landfills were often established in disused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly-designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. Older, poorly-designed or poorly-managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental impacts such as wind-blown litter, attraction of vermin, and generation of liquid leachate. Another common byproduct of landfills is gas (mostly composed of methane and carbon dioxide), which is produced as organic waste breaks down anaerobically. This gas can create odor problems, kill surface vegetation, and is a greenhouse gas.
Design characteristics of a modern landfill include methods to contain leachate such as clay or plastic lining material. Deposited waste is normally compacted to increase its density and stability, and covered to prevent attracting vermin (such as mice or rats). Many landfills also have landfill gas extraction systems installed to extract the landfill gas. Gas is pumped out of the landfill using perforated pipes and flared off or burnt in a gas engine to generate electricity.
Many local authorities, especially in rural areas, have found it difficult to establish new landfills due to opposition from owners of adjacent land. As a result, solid waste disposal in these areas must be transported further for disposal or managed by other methods. This fact, as well as growing concern about the environmental impacts of excessive materials consumption, has given rise to efforts to minimize the amount of waste sent to landfill in many areas. These efforts include taxing or levying waste sent to landfill, recycling waste products, converting waste to energy, and designing products that use less material.
Incineration
Incineration is a disposal method that involves combustion of waste material. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam, and ash.
Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals, and on a large scale by industry.
It is used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. It is recognized as a practical method of disposing of certain hazardous waste materials (such as biological medical waste). Although it remains a controversial method of waste disposal in many places due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants, modern combustion technologies such as the RCBC (rotary cascading bed combustor) allow efficient energy production with emissions well within regulatory standards.
Incineration is common in countries such as Japan where land is more scarce, as these facilities generally do not require as much area as landfills. Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) are broad terms for incinerator facilities that burn waste in a furnace or boiler to generate heat, steam and/or electricity.
Recycling
The process of extracting resources or value from waste is generally referred to as recycling, meaning to recover or reuse the material. There are a number of different methods by which waste material is recycled: the raw materials may be extracted and reprocessed, or the calorific content of the waste may be converted to electricity. New methods of recycling are being developed continuously, and are described briefly below.
Physical Reprocessing
The popular meaning of ‘recycling’ in most developed countries refers to the widespread collection and reuse of everyday waste materials such as empty beverage containers. These are collected and sorted into common types so that the raw materials from which the items are made can be reprocessed into new products. Material for recycling may be collected separately from general waste using dedicated bins and collection vehicles, or sorted directly from mixed waste streams.
The most common consumer products recycled include aluminum beverage cans, steel food and aerosol cans, HDPE and PET bottles, glass bottles and jars, paperboard cartons, newspapers, magazines, and cardboard. Other types of plastic (PVC, LDPE, PP, and PS: see resin identification code) are also recyclable, although these are not as commonly collected. These items are usually composed of a single type of material, making them relatively easy to recycle into new products. The recycling of complex products (such as computers and electronic equipment) is more difficult, due to the additional dismantling and separation required.
Biological processing
Waste materials that are organic in nature, such as plant material, food scraps, and paper products, can be recycled using biological composting and digestion processes to decompose the organic matter. The resulting organic material is then recycled as mulch or compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes. In addition, waste gas from the process (such as methane) can be captured and used for generating electricity. The intention of biological processing in waste management is to control and accelerate the natural process of decomposition of organic matter.
There are a large variety of composting and digestion methods and technologies varying in complexity from simple home compost heaps, to industrial-scale enclosed-vessel digestion of mixed domestic waste (see Mechanical biological treatment). Methods of biological decomposition are differentiated as being aerobic or anaerobic methods, though hybrids of the two methods also exist.
An example of waste management through composting is the Green Bin Program in Toronto, Canada, where household organic waste (such as kitchen scraps and plant cuttings) are collected in a dedicated container and then composted.
Energy recovery
The energy content of waste products can be harnessed directly by using them as a direct combustion fuel, or indirectly by processing them into another type of fuel. Recycling through thermal treatment ranges from using waste as a fuel source for cooking or heating, to fuel for boilers to generate steam and electricity in a turbine. Pyrolysis and gasification are two related forms of thermal treatment where waste materials are heated to high temperatures with limited oxygen availability. The process typically occurs in a sealed vessel under high pressure.
Pyrolysis of solid waste converts the material into solid, liquid and gas products. The liquid and gas can be burnt to produce energy or refined into other products. The solid residue (char) can be further refined into products such as activated carbon. Gasification is used to convert organic materials directly into a synthetic gas (syngas) composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The gas is then burnt to produce electricity and steam.
Avoidance and Reduction
Another important method of waste management is the prevention of waste material being created. Methods of avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of buying new, designing products to be refillable or reusable (such as cotton instead of plastic shopping bags), encouraging consumers to avoid using disposable products (such as disposable cutlery), and designing products that use less material to achieve the same purpose (for example, lightweighting of beverage cans).
Waste handling and transport
Waste collection methods vary widely between different countries and regions. Domestic waste collection services are often provided by local government authorities, or by private industry. Some areas, especially those in less developed countries, do not have a formal waste-collection system.
For example, in Australia most urban domestic households have a 240-litre (63.4 U.S. gallon) bin that is emptied weekly from the curb using side- or rear-loading compactor trucks. In Europe and a few other places around the world, a few communities use a proprietary collection system known as Envac, which conveys refuse via underground conduits using a vacuum system. In Canadian urban centres curbside collection is the most common method of disposal, whereby the city collects waste and/or recyclables and/or organics on a scheduled basis. In rural areas people often dispose of their waste by hauling it to a transfer station. Waste collected is then transported to a regional landfill.
Waste management concepts
There are a number of concepts about waste management which vary in their usage between countries or regions. This section presents some of the most general, widely-used concepts.
Waste hierarchy
The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms of waste minimization. The waste hierarchy remains the cornerstone of most waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.
Extended producer responsibility
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a strategy designed to promote the integration of all costs associated with products throughout their life cycle (including end-of-life disposal costs) into the market price of the product. Extended producer responsibility is meant to impose accountability over the entire lifecycle of products and packaging introduced to the market. This means that firms which manufacture, import and/or sell products are required to be responsible for the products after their useful life as well as during manufacture.
Polluter pays principle
The Polluter Pays Principle is a principle where the polluting party pays for the impact caused to the natural environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the waste.
Waste management trade associations
Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (UK)
International Solid Waste Association (International association)
Solid Waste Association of North America (North American peak industry body)
Waste Management Association of Australia (Australian peak industry body)
Saint Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, aesthetics or amenity. Waste management is also carried out to reduce the materials' effect on the environment and to recover resources from them. Waste management can involve solid, liquid or gaseous substances, with different methods and fields of expertise for each.
Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial, producers. Management for non-hazardous residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government authorities, while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator.
Waste management methods
Waste management methods vary widely between areas for many reasons, including type of waste material, nearby land uses, and the area available.
The analysis of existing methods of processing waste
Disposal
Landfill
Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying waste to dispose of it, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Historically, landfills were often established in disused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly-designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. Older, poorly-designed or poorly-managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental impacts such as wind-blown litter, attraction of vermin, and generation of liquid leachate. Another common byproduct of landfills is gas (mostly composed of methane and carbon dioxide), which is produced as organic waste breaks down anaerobically. This gas can create odor problems, kill surface vegetation, and is a greenhouse gas.
Design characteristics of a modern landfill include methods to contain leachate such as clay or plastic lining material. Deposited waste is normally compacted to increase its density and stability, and covered to prevent attracting vermin (such as mice or rats). Many landfills also have landfill gas extraction systems installed to extract the landfill gas. Gas is pumped out of the landfill using perforated pipes and flared off or burnt in a gas engine to generate electricity.
Many local authorities, especially in rural areas, have found it difficult to establish new landfills due to opposition from owners of adjacent land. As a result, solid waste disposal in these areas must be transported further for disposal or managed by other methods. This fact, as well as growing concern about the environmental impacts of excessive materials consumption, has given rise to efforts to minimize the amount of waste sent to landfill in many areas. These efforts include taxing or levying waste sent to landfill, recycling waste products, converting waste to energy, and designing products that use less material.
Incineration
Incineration is a disposal method that involves combustion of waste material. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment". Incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam, and ash.
Incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals, and on a large scale by industry.
It is used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. It is recognized as a practical method of disposing of certain hazardous waste materials (such as biological medical waste). Although it remains a controversial method of waste disposal in many places due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants, modern combustion technologies such as the RCBC (rotary cascading bed combustor) allow efficient energy production with emissions well within regulatory standards.
Incineration is common in countries such as Japan where land is more scarce, as these facilities generally do not require as much area as landfills. Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) are broad terms for incinerator facilities that burn waste in a furnace or boiler to generate heat, steam and/or electricity.
Recycling
The process of extracting resources or value from waste is generally referred to as recycling, meaning to recover or reuse the material. There are a number of different methods by which waste material is recycled: the raw materials may be extracted and reprocessed, or the calorific content of the waste may be converted to electricity. New methods of recycling are being developed continuously, and are described briefly below.
Physical Reprocessing
The popular meaning of ‘recycling’ in most developed countries refers to the widespread collection and reuse of everyday waste materials such as empty beverage containers. These are collected and sorted into common types so that the raw materials from which the items are made can be reprocessed into new products. Material for recycling may be collected separately from general waste using dedicated bins and collection vehicles, or sorted directly from mixed waste streams.
The most common consumer products recycled include aluminum beverage cans, steel food and aerosol cans, HDPE and PET bottles, glass bottles and jars, paperboard cartons, newspapers, magazines, and cardboard. Other types of plastic (PVC, LDPE, PP, and PS: see resin identification code) are also recyclable, although these are not as commonly collected. These items are usually composed of a single type of material, making them relatively easy to recycle into new products. The recycling of complex products (such as computers and electronic equipment) is more difficult, due to the additional dismantling and separation required.
Biological processing
Waste materials that are organic in nature, such as plant material, food scraps, and paper products, can be recycled using biological composting and digestion processes to decompose the organic matter. The resulting organic material is then recycled as mulch or compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes. In addition, waste gas from the process (such as methane) can be captured and used for generating electricity. The intention of biological processing in waste management is to control and accelerate the natural process of decomposition of organic matter.
There are a large variety of composting and digestion methods and technologies varying in complexity from simple home compost heaps, to industrial-scale enclosed-vessel digestion of mixed domestic waste (see Mechanical biological treatment). Methods of biological decomposition are differentiated as being aerobic or anaerobic methods, though hybrids of the two methods also exist.
An example of waste management through composting is the Green Bin Program in Toronto, Canada, where household organic waste (such as kitchen scraps and plant cuttings) are collected in a dedicated container and then composted.
Energy recovery
The energy content of waste products can be harnessed directly by using them as a direct combustion fuel, or indirectly by processing them into another type of fuel. Recycling through thermal treatment ranges from using waste as a fuel source for cooking or heating, to fuel for boilers to generate steam and electricity in a turbine. Pyrolysis and gasification are two related forms of thermal treatment where waste materials are heated to high temperatures with limited oxygen availability. The process typically occurs in a sealed vessel under high pressure.
Pyrolysis of solid waste converts the material into solid, liquid and gas products. The liquid and gas can be burnt to produce energy or refined into other products. The solid residue (char) can be further refined into products such as activated carbon. Gasification is used to convert organic materials directly into a synthetic gas (syngas) composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The gas is then burnt to produce electricity and steam.
Avoidance and Reduction
Another important method of waste management is the prevention of waste material being created. Methods of avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of buying new, designing products to be refillable or reusable (such as cotton instead of plastic shopping bags), encouraging consumers to avoid using disposable products (such as disposable cutlery), and designing products that use less material to achieve the same purpose (for example, lightweighting of beverage cans).
Waste handling and transport
Waste collection methods vary widely between different countries and regions. Domestic waste collection services are often provided by local government authorities, or by private industry. Some areas, especially those in less developed countries, do not have a formal waste-collection system.
For example, in Australia most urban domestic households have a 240-litre (63.4 U.S. gallon) bin that is emptied weekly from the curb using side- or rear-loading compactor trucks. In Europe and a few other places around the world, a few communities use a proprietary collection system known as Envac, which conveys refuse via underground conduits using a vacuum system. In Canadian urban centres curbside collection is the most common method of disposal, whereby the city collects waste and/or recyclables and/or organics on a scheduled basis. In rural areas people often dispose of their waste by hauling it to a transfer station. Waste collected is then transported to a regional landfill.
Waste management concepts
There are a number of concepts about waste management which vary in their usage between countries or regions. This section presents some of the most general, widely-used concepts.
Waste hierarchy
The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle, which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms of waste minimization. The waste hierarchy remains the cornerstone of most waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.
Extended producer responsibility
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a strategy designed to promote the integration of all costs associated with products throughout their life cycle (including end-of-life disposal costs) into the market price of the product. Extended producer responsibility is meant to impose accountability over the entire lifecycle of products and packaging introduced to the market. This means that firms which manufacture, import and/or sell products are required to be responsible for the products after their useful life as well as during manufacture.
Polluter pays principle
The Polluter Pays Principle is a principle where the polluting party pays for the impact caused to the natural environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the waste.
Waste management trade associations
Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (UK)
International Solid Waste Association (International association)
Solid Waste Association of North America (North American peak industry body)
Waste Management Association of Australia (Australian peak industry body)
Saint Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority
Monday, December 10, 2007
Seven & I Holdings Co.
Seven & I Holdings Co.
Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd. is a corporation in Japan. Formed on September 1, 2005 as the parent company of the 7-Eleven Japan chain of convenience stores, the Ito Yokado grocery and clothing stores, and the Denny's Japan family restaurants. It was formed by Ito-Yokado, 7-Eleven's primary Japanese franchisee, for the purpose of merging with 7-Eleven itself. In November it completed the purchase of US-based 7-Eleven Inc. On December 26, 2005, the company announced its acquisition of Millennium Retailing holding company, parent of the Sogo and Seibu Department Stores chains. The acquisition makes Seven & I Holdings the largest distribution and retailing business in Japan. Its headquarters are in Niban-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Seven & I Holdings is the main component of the IY Group.
On 11 August 2006, Seven & I Holdings Co. negotiated the purchase of Lombard, Illinois-based White Hen, Inc.
In July 2007 the group announced the enlargement of their American chain 7-Eleven. They proposed an additional 1000 stores in a $2.4 billion plan that would see their US operation grow to over 7,000 stores. The target was set to achieve $10 billion sales in the US by 2010.
External links
Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd.
Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd. is a corporation in Japan. Formed on September 1, 2005 as the parent company of the 7-Eleven Japan chain of convenience stores, the Ito Yokado grocery and clothing stores, and the Denny's Japan family restaurants. It was formed by Ito-Yokado, 7-Eleven's primary Japanese franchisee, for the purpose of merging with 7-Eleven itself. In November it completed the purchase of US-based 7-Eleven Inc. On December 26, 2005, the company announced its acquisition of Millennium Retailing holding company, parent of the Sogo and Seibu Department Stores chains. The acquisition makes Seven & I Holdings the largest distribution and retailing business in Japan. Its headquarters are in Niban-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Seven & I Holdings is the main component of the IY Group.
On 11 August 2006, Seven & I Holdings Co. negotiated the purchase of Lombard, Illinois-based White Hen, Inc.
In July 2007 the group announced the enlargement of their American chain 7-Eleven. They proposed an additional 1000 stores in a $2.4 billion plan that would see their US operation grow to over 7,000 stores. The target was set to achieve $10 billion sales in the US by 2010.
External links
Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd.
White Hen Pantry
White Hen Pantry
White Hen Pantry (known as White Hen in the midwest) is a Lombard, Illinois-based chain of approximately 261 predominantly franchisee-owned convenience stores located in the greater Chicago and Boston / New England areas. Most of the stores are open 24 hours and offer an array of standard convenience store fare such as coffees, cappuccinos, frozen and dry goods and toiletries. Many also have full delis serving boxed sandwiches and salads, name-brand meats and cheeses and fresh fruits and vegetables. White Hen's array of services includes catering options and sales of external holiday gift cards. Most stores also have ATM's and provide lottery ticket sales; White Hen is the largest lottery ticket vendor in the state of Illinois.[1]
History
White Hen Pantry was founded and began franchising in 1965.
In 2000 its owner Clark Retail Enterprises, Inc. sold all 55 White Hen Pantry stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to New England Pantry, Inc. in a 2001 agreement. This deal formed New England Pantry's current status as a sub-franchisor of the White Hen Pantry brand, and its exclusive franchisor in the New England area.[2]
In 2005 and the first part of 2006 White Hen franchises underwent a series of ups and downs.
In the third quarter of 2005 the company planned to increase its store count in the Chicago area by as much as 25 over the course of 2006. While still foreseeing eventual growth, however, the company has changed its immediate plans and will sell 15 of its stores in 2006. One explanation for its revamped course of action stems from its recent push toward serving freshly prepared deli offerings to replace stagnating sales of tobacco and other traditional convenience store wares. In summer 2005, White Hen's push toward deli-fresh offerings was strong in Chicago, where it offered free samples of its private label Pantry Select chips at an August Chicago Cubs baseball game.[3] Its new deli-fresh focus allegedly fails to meet the needs of some of the many demographics to which the store caters, and may be hedging the quick growth for which it had originally planned.[4]
Recent
In line with its focus on deli-fresh goods White Hen opened what it billed as a "store of the future" in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood on April 17, 2006. In addition to offering White Hen's standard fare, this particular venue offers "an expanded line-up of natural and organic foods, fresh Pantry Select green salads . . . and a toasted-to-order Hot & Fresh sandwich program with a state-of-the-art touch screen ordering system."[5]
On August 11, 2006, White Hen Pantry, Inc. was purchased by Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan's No. 1 retailer and operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States.[6] White Hen CEO Brandon Barnholt cited the merger as a great opportunity for the company, its franchisers and its customers. In the near term following the acquisition, White Hen stores will continue to function as they have.[7]
In July 2007, some White Hen stores began to be converted to 7-Eleven stores. Eventually, the White Hen name will disappear from the converted stores, being replaced with the 7-Eleven branding.
External links
Official Website (Chicago Area)
New England Website
White Hen Pantry (known as White Hen in the midwest) is a Lombard, Illinois-based chain of approximately 261 predominantly franchisee-owned convenience stores located in the greater Chicago and Boston / New England areas. Most of the stores are open 24 hours and offer an array of standard convenience store fare such as coffees, cappuccinos, frozen and dry goods and toiletries. Many also have full delis serving boxed sandwiches and salads, name-brand meats and cheeses and fresh fruits and vegetables. White Hen's array of services includes catering options and sales of external holiday gift cards. Most stores also have ATM's and provide lottery ticket sales; White Hen is the largest lottery ticket vendor in the state of Illinois.[1]
History
White Hen Pantry was founded and began franchising in 1965.
In 2000 its owner Clark Retail Enterprises, Inc. sold all 55 White Hen Pantry stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to New England Pantry, Inc. in a 2001 agreement. This deal formed New England Pantry's current status as a sub-franchisor of the White Hen Pantry brand, and its exclusive franchisor in the New England area.[2]
In 2005 and the first part of 2006 White Hen franchises underwent a series of ups and downs.
In the third quarter of 2005 the company planned to increase its store count in the Chicago area by as much as 25 over the course of 2006. While still foreseeing eventual growth, however, the company has changed its immediate plans and will sell 15 of its stores in 2006. One explanation for its revamped course of action stems from its recent push toward serving freshly prepared deli offerings to replace stagnating sales of tobacco and other traditional convenience store wares. In summer 2005, White Hen's push toward deli-fresh offerings was strong in Chicago, where it offered free samples of its private label Pantry Select chips at an August Chicago Cubs baseball game.[3] Its new deli-fresh focus allegedly fails to meet the needs of some of the many demographics to which the store caters, and may be hedging the quick growth for which it had originally planned.[4]
Recent
In line with its focus on deli-fresh goods White Hen opened what it billed as a "store of the future" in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood on April 17, 2006. In addition to offering White Hen's standard fare, this particular venue offers "an expanded line-up of natural and organic foods, fresh Pantry Select green salads . . . and a toasted-to-order Hot & Fresh sandwich program with a state-of-the-art touch screen ordering system."[5]
On August 11, 2006, White Hen Pantry, Inc. was purchased by Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan's No. 1 retailer and operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States.[6] White Hen CEO Brandon Barnholt cited the merger as a great opportunity for the company, its franchisers and its customers. In the near term following the acquisition, White Hen stores will continue to function as they have.[7]
In July 2007, some White Hen stores began to be converted to 7-Eleven stores. Eventually, the White Hen name will disappear from the converted stores, being replaced with the 7-Eleven branding.
External links
Official Website (Chicago Area)
New England Website
7-Eleven acquires Chicago-based White Hen chain
7-Eleven acquires Chicago-based White Hen chain
August 11, 2006
WHP Holdings Corp., the parent company of White Hen Pantry, has been acquired by Tokyo based Seven & I Holdings Co. for $35 million from New York investment firm, Angelo, Gordon & Co. White Hen has previously declared bankruptcy. Seven & I is the owner and operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain. This is the largest buyout for the 7-Eleven brand in two decades and signals a continuance of the expansion Seven & I has pursued in recent years.
"This acquisition is a strategic fit for 7-Eleven and enhances market presence in the Chicagoland area," said 7-Eleven Inc. President and Chief Executive Joseph DePinto. The addition of White Hen stores will allow the company to increase their presence in greater Boston (55 stores) and metropolitan Chicago (206 stores) bringing their North American store count to over 7,100.
Sources
"7-Eleven agrees to acquire convenience store chain". The Boston Globe, August 11, 2006
"Seven & I buys U.S. convenience store White Hen". Reuters, August 11, 2006
"7-Eleven runs out and buys 261-store White Hen chain". Chicago Tribune, August 11, 2006
Press Release: "Notice concerning the acquisition of the stock of WHP Holdings Corporation". Seven & I Holdings Co., August 10, 2006
August 11, 2006
WHP Holdings Corp., the parent company of White Hen Pantry, has been acquired by Tokyo based Seven & I Holdings Co. for $35 million from New York investment firm, Angelo, Gordon & Co. White Hen has previously declared bankruptcy. Seven & I is the owner and operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain. This is the largest buyout for the 7-Eleven brand in two decades and signals a continuance of the expansion Seven & I has pursued in recent years.
"This acquisition is a strategic fit for 7-Eleven and enhances market presence in the Chicagoland area," said 7-Eleven Inc. President and Chief Executive Joseph DePinto. The addition of White Hen stores will allow the company to increase their presence in greater Boston (55 stores) and metropolitan Chicago (206 stores) bringing their North American store count to over 7,100.
Sources
"7-Eleven agrees to acquire convenience store chain". The Boston Globe, August 11, 2006
"Seven & I buys U.S. convenience store White Hen". Reuters, August 11, 2006
"7-Eleven runs out and buys 261-store White Hen chain". Chicago Tribune, August 11, 2006
Press Release: "Notice concerning the acquisition of the stock of WHP Holdings Corporation". Seven & I Holdings Co., August 10, 2006
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