Potential Useful Products From Solid Wastes
- 1 January 1991
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy
- Vol. 9 (1), 415-423
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242x9100900159
Abstract
Wastes have been aptly defined as "items, i.e. resources, that have been discarded because their possessors no longer have an apparent use for them". Accordingly, "wastes" have a significance only in relation to the items and those who have discarded them. The discarded items now are resources awaiting reclamation. Reclamation usually involves either salvage or conversion—or in modern terminology, "reuse" or "recycling". Reclamation for reuse consists in refurbishing or other upgrading without significantly altering original form and composition. Examples of wastes amenable to reuse are containers (bottles, etc.), cartons and repairable tires. With "recycling" (i.e. conservation), the discarded items are processed such that they become raw material, i.e. resources in the manufacture of "new" products. The variety of processes is wide, ranging from simply physical (grinding) through thermal (melting, gasification, combustion), to biological (composting, biogasification, hydrolysis, microbial protein production). In the paper, reuse and recycling (conversion) are evaluated in terms of advantages and disadvantages (limitations) and their respective technologies are described and discussed in detail.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Fraction of Garbage: A Pilot PlantPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1986
- Feedlot Wastes to Useful Energy—Fact or Fiction?Journal of the Environmental Engineering Division, 1975