Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Energy recycling is the energy recovery process of using energy that would normally be wasted, usually by converting it into electricity or thermal energy.Undertaken at manufacturing facilities, power plants, and large institutions such as hospitals and universities, it significantly increases efficiency, thereby reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas pollution simultaneously.
Zero waste, or waste minimization, is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are repurposed (i.e. "up-cycled") and/or reused. The goal of the movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, oceans, or any other part of the environment.
Ideal closed-loop systems produce no waste. They are called "closed" because products have a circular life cycle , beginning as raw materials and either being recycled into replacement products, returning to the original raw materials, or being returned to the environment as biodegradable waste . [ 2 ]
Incineration, the combustion of organic material such as waste with energy recovery, is the most common WtE implementation. All new WtE plants in OECD countries incinerating waste (residual MSW, commercial, industrial or RDF) must meet strict emission standards, including those on nitrogen oxides (NO x), sulphur dioxide (SO 2), heavy metals and dioxins.
The waste is then stored until it is time for burning. A few plants use gasification, but most combust the waste directly because it is a mature, efficient technology. The waste can be added to the boiler continuously or in batches, depending on the design of the plant. In terms of volume, waste-to-energy plants incinerate 80 to 90 percent of ...
Resource recovery can be enabled by changes in government policy and regulation, circular economy infrastructure such as improved 'binfrastructure' to promote source separation and waste collection, reuse and recycling, [5] innovative circular business models, [6] and valuing materials and products in terms of their economic but also their social and environmental costs and benefits. [7]
Within the concept of a circular economy in sanitation, an alternative term that is being used is "resource flows". [4]: 10 The final outputs from the sanitation treatment systems can be called "reuse products" or "other outputs". [4]: 10 These reuse products are general fertilizers, soil conditioners, biomass, water, or energy.
Treatment in urbanized areas is typically handled by centralized treatment systems. Alternative systems may use composting processes or processes that separate solid materials by settlement and then convert soluble contaminants into biological sludge and into gases such as carbon dioxide or methane. [3]