Resource recovery is usingwastes as an input material to create valuable products as new outputs. The aim is to reduce the amount of waste generated, thereby reducing the need forlandfill space, and optimising the values created from waste.[1] Resource recovery delays the need to useraw materials in the manufacturing process. Materials found inmunicipal solid waste,construction anddemolition waste,[2] commercial waste and industrial wastes can be used to recover resources for themanufacturing of new materials and products.Plastic,paper,aluminium,glass andmetal are examples of where value can be found in waste.[citation needed]
Resource recovery goes further than just themanagement of waste. Resource recovery is part of acircular economy, in which the extraction ofnatural resources and generation ofwastes are minimised, and in which materials and products aredesigned more sustainably for durability,reuse,repairability,remanufacturing andrecycling.[3]Life-cycle analysis (LCA) can be used to compare the resource recovery potential of different treatment technologies.
Resource recovery can also be an aim in the context ofsanitation. Here, the term refers to approaches to recover the resources that are contained inwastewater andhuman excreta (urine and feces). The term "toilet resources" has come into use recently.[4] Those resources include: nutrients (nitrogen andphosphorus), organic matter, energy and water. This concept is also referred to asecological sanitation. Separation of waste flows can help make resource recovery simpler. Examples include keeping urine separate from feces (as inurine diversion toilets) and keepinggreywater andblackwater separate.[citation needed]
Resource recovery can be enabled by changes in government policy and regulation, circular economyinfrastructure such as improved 'binfrastructure' to promotesource separation and waste collection,reuse andrecycling,[5] innovative circularbusiness models,[6] and valuing materials and products in terms of their economic but also their social and environmental costs and benefits.[7] For example, organic materials can be treated bycomposting andanaerobic digestion and turned into energy, compost orfertilizer.[8] Similarly, wastes currently stored in industriallandfills and around oldmines can be treated withbioleaching[9] and engineered nanoparticles[10] to recover metals such aslithium,cobalt andvanadium for use inlow-carbon technologies such aselectric vehicles andwind turbines.[11]
A limiting factor of resource recovery is the irrevocable loss of raw materials due to their increase inentropy in our current linear business model.[12] Starting with the production of waste in manufacturing, the entropy increases further by mixing and diluting materials in their manufacturing assembly, followed by corrosion and wear and tear during the usage period. At the end of the life cycle, there is an exponential increase in disorder arising from the mixing of materials in landfills.[12] As a result of this directionality of the entropy law, the potentials of resource recovery are diminishing. This further motivates acircular economy infrastructure and business model.
Recycling is a resource recovery practice that refers to the collection and reuse of disposed materials such as empty beverage containers. The 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.[citation needed]
The most common consumer products recycled includealuminium such as beverage cans,copper such as wire,steel food and aerosol cans, old steel furnishings or equipment,polyethylene andPET bottles,glass bottles and jars,paperboardcartons,newspapers, magazines and light paper, andcorrugated fiberboard boxes.[citation needed]
PVC,LDPE,PP, andPS (seeresin identification code) are also recyclable. 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.[citation needed]
The type of recycling material accepted varies by city and country. Each city and country have different recycling programs in place that can handle the various types of recyclable materials.
Valuable resources can be recovered fromwastewater,sewage sludge,fecal sludge andhuman excreta.[13] These include water, energy, and fertilizing nutrientsnitrogen,[14]phosphorus,[15]potassium, as well as micro-nutrients such assulphur andorganic matter. There is also increasing interest for recovering other raw materials from wastewater, such asbioplastics and metals such as silver.[16] Originally, wastewater systems were designed only to remove excreta and wastewater from urban areas. Water was used to flush away the waste, often discharging into nearby waterbodies. Since the 1970s, there has been increasing interest in treating the wastewater to protect the environment, and efforts focused primarily on cleaning the water at the end of the pipe.[citation needed] Since around the year 2003, the concepts ofecological sanitation andsustainable sanitation have emerged with the focus on recovering resources from wastewater.[citation needed] As of 2016, the term "toilet resources" came into use, and encouraged more attention to the potential for resource recovery from toilets.[4]
The following resources can be recovered:
Other methods are also being developed for transforming wastewater into valuable products. GrowingBlack Soldier Flies in excreta or organic waste can produce fly larvae as a protein feed.[21] Other researchers are harvestingfatty acids from wastewater to make bioplastics.[22]
Disposed materials that are organic in nature, such as plant material, food scraps, and paper products, can be recycled using biological composting and digestion processes todecompose the organic matter. The resulting organic material is then recycled asmulch orcompost for agricultural or landscaping purposes. In addition, waste gas from the process (such asmethane) can be captured and used for generating electricity and heat (CHP/cogeneration) maximising efficiencies. The intention of biological processing is to control and accelerate the natural process of decomposition of organic matter.[citation needed]
There is a large variety of composting and digestion methods and technologies varying in complexity from simple home compost heaps, to small town scale batch digesters, industrial-scale enclosed-vessel digestion of mixed domestic waste (seemechanical biological treatment). Methods of biological decomposition are differentiated as beingaerobic oranaerobic methods, though hybrids of the two methods also exist.[citation needed]
Anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction ofmunicipal solid waste (MSW) has been found to be more environmentally effective, than landfill, incineration orpyrolysis.[citation needed]Life cycle analysis (LCA) was used to compare different technologies. The resulting biogas (methane) though must be used for cogeneration (electricity and heat preferably on or close to the site of production) and can be used with a little upgrading in gas combustion engines or turbines. With further upgrading to synthetic natural gas it can be injected into the natural gas network or further refined tohydrogen for use in stationary cogeneration fuel cells. Its use in fuel cells eliminates the pollution from products of combustion. There is a large variety of composting and digestion methods and technologies varying in complexity from simple home compost heaps, to small town scale batch digesters, industrial-scale, enclosed-vessel digestion of mixed domestic waste (seemechanical biological treatment).[citation needed]
Waste valorization, beneficial reuse, value recovery or waste reclamation[23] is the process ofwaste products orresidues from an economic process beingvalorized (given economic value), byreuse orrecycling in order to create economically useful materials.[24][23][25] The term comes from practices insustainable manufacturing andeconomics,industrial ecology andwaste management. The term is usually applied in industrial processes where residue from creating or processing one good is used as a raw material or energy feedstock for another industrial process.[23][25]Industrial wastes in particular are good candidates for valorization because they tend to be more consistent and predictable than other waste, such ashousehold waste.[23][26]
Increased regulation of residual materials and socioeconomic changes, such as the introduction of ideas aboutsustainable development andcircular economy in the 1990s and 2000s increased focus on industrial practices to recover resources asvalue add materials.[27]
In many countries, source-separatedcurbside collection is one method of resource recovery.
In Australia, households are provided with several bins: one forrecycling (yellow lid), another for general waste (usually a red lid) and another for garden materials (green lid). The garden recycling bin is provided by the municipality if requested. Some localities havedual-stream recycling, with paper collected in bags or boxes and all other materials in a recycling bin. In either case, the recovered materials are trucked to amaterials recovery facility for further processing.[citation needed]
Municipal, commercial and industrial, construction and demolition debris is dumped at landfills and some is recycled. Household disposal materials are segregated: recyclables sorted and made into new products, and unusable material is dumped in landfill areas. According to theAustralian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the recycling rate is high and is "increasing, with 99% of households reporting that they had recycled or reused within the past year (2003 survey), up from 85% in 1992".[28] In 2002–03 "30% of materials from municipalities, 45% from commercial and industrial generators and 57% from construction and demolition debris" was recycled. Energy is produced is part of resource recovery as well: somelandfill gas is captured for fuel or electricity generation, although this is considered the last resort, as the point of resource recovery is avoidance of landfill disposal altogether.[citation needed]
Resource recovery is a key component in a business' ability to maintainingISO14001 accreditation. Companies are encouraged to improve their environmental efficiencies each year. One way to do this is by changing a company from a system of managing wastes to a resource recovery system (such as recycling: glass, food waste, paper and cardboard, plastic bottles etc.)[citation needed]
Education andawareness in the area of resource recovery is increasingly important from a global perspective ofresource management. TheTalloires Declaration is a declaration forsustainability concerned about the unprecedented scale and speed of environmentalpollution anddegradation, and thedepletion ofnatural resources. Local, regional, and globalair pollution; accumulation and distribution of toxic wastes; destruction and depletion of forests,soil, andwater; depletion of theozone layer and emission of "green house" gases threaten the survival of humans and thousands of other living species, the integrity of the earth and itsbiodiversity, the security of nations, and the heritage of future generations. Several universities have implemented the Talloires Declaration by establishingenvironmental management and resource recovery programs.University andvocational education are promoted by various organizations, e.g.,WAMITAB andChartered Institution of Wastes Management. Many supermarkets encourage customers to use theirreverse vending machines to deposit used purchased containers and receive a refund from the recycling fees. Brands that manufacture such machines includeTomra and Envipco.[citation needed]
In 2010, CNBC aired the documentaryTrash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage about waste, what happens to it when it is "thrown away", and its impact on the world.[29]
The United Nations set 17Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015.SDG 12, for "responsible consumption and production", measures progress against 11 targets with 13 indicators. Targets 3, 4, and 5 focus on waste generation across food and chemicals.[30]
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a pricing strategy that promotes integrating all costs associated with a given product throughout its life cycle. Having the market price also reflect the "end-of-life disposal costs" encourages more accuracy in pricing. Extended producer responsibility is meant to impose accountability over the entire lifecycle of products, from production, to packaging, to transport and disposal or reuse. EPR requires firms that manufacture, import and/or sell products to be responsible for those products throughout the life and disposal or reuse of products.[citation needed]
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