Introduction to Waste Utilisation: Types and Characteristics of Wastes Wastes Management and Minimisation Uses of Wastes Rocessing of Wastes into Products Limitations

This book is intended to provide a thorough introduction to wastes utilization and to arouse interest in the subject. Traditionally, waste is viewed as an unnecessary element arising from the activities of any industry. In reality, waste is a misplaced resource, existing at a wrong place at a wrong time. Governments have spent billions of dollars to build incineration plants and sanitary landfills. With the rate of growth in solid waste, it is not sustainable to go on building more waste disposal facilities to meet increasing amounts of waste. Moreover, building and operating new disposal facilities is very costly and could only lead to a higher refuse disposal fee. The sustainable waste management solution is to minimise waste, and maximise recycling. Such an approach would help to defer the construction of new disposal facilities, reduce the demand for land to build the facilities, and avoid unnecessary increase in the refuse disposal fee. It should be also clearly understood that waste minimisation, however attractive, is not a panacea for all environmental problems and may have to be supported by conventional treatment/disposal solutions.