Woody construction wastes on account of various adhesives; paint etc. may have some limitations because of fungicidal properties. The technology has great promise in South East Asia and other areas where agricultural woody wastes are generated in large quantities.

Lignin is given off as waste. Lignin is a complex mixture of polymers. The molecular unit is partially aromatic with phenolic hydroxyl, methoxyl and carboxyl groups attached. It has found little use. A recent promising use is in the manufacture of Dimethyl Sulphide and Dimethyl Sulfoxide which is used as a spinning solvent in polyester yarn making. Other end uses for Lignin include as road binders for asphalt emulsions, adhesives for floor coverings, core binders in foundry practice and in the preparation of Levulinic acid. Activated Carbon can also be manufactured from the Lignins. Lignins can be removed from solutions by acidulation with either Carbon Dioxide or Sulphuric Acid.

The Coskata Process promoted by General Motors uses a wide variety of  different feedstocks to produce Ethanol. Agricultural wastes, purposefully grown crops and other waste materials like old tires and even municipal waste streams can be used with very little or Zero land fill waste. Anaerobic bacteria in a reactor are fed Carbon Monoxide and hydrogen produced by the gasification of the feed stock. The reactor is a sealed plastic tube with millions of filaments on which the bacteria live. Bacteria feed on the Carbon monoxide and hydrogen and produce ethanol. This process does not use genetically modified organisms and the microbes that are being used are not pathogenic. Being anaerobic they are poisoned as soon as they come into contact with air. The process is also less taxing on water. While other current methods of ethanol production take three to four times of water per unit of alcohol produced, the Coskata process needs less than a unit of water per unit of ethanol produced.

Coors Brewing Company, Aurora, Colorado Brewery is producing Alcohol from Beer waste. Ethanol is stripped from the waste Beer stream. They are also building a second unit to process waste biomass to ethanol. The brewing operations result in almost 87000 tonnes of brewers grains on a dry matter basis plus nine other byproducts that contain fermentable starches or some ethanol. The Biomass conversion plant will produce in excess of 4 million gallons of ethanol per year through enzymatic conversion of starches to fermentable sugars, yeast fermentation, stripping, distillation and dehydration of Ethanol. The residual wet distillers grains and solubles are utilized as cattle feed and in Dairy operations.

Star Techs Plasma Converter system contains a plasma field that reaches temperatures up to 30000 degrees Celsius. The plasma breaks down feedstock materials such as waste coal, used tires, wood wastes, raw sewage, municipal solid wastes, biomass, discarded roof shingles, coal waste, discarded corn stalks, and other agricultural by products to their core elements. The Synthesis gas thus produced can be used as feed stock for anaerobic bacteria to produce ethanol or heat, pressure and a catalyst can be used to convert the gas to alcohol.

Some researchers have pointed out that Ethanol and Bio diesel from agriproducts do not provide as much energy as it takes to create them.

Animal manures are truly renewable feedstocks for Ethanol production. The quantity of Swine manure produced in the U.S. estimated at 5 billion  tones dry matter per year is sufficient to contribute substantially to Ethanol production. With a conversion efficiency of 40% there is a theoretical yield of 500 million gallons a year.

Industries that are likely to be benefited from the waste to Ethanol services include food and beverages, breweries and wineries, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical and consumer goods and agriproducts.

Tokyo Gas has built a plant to produce both Ethanol and methane from organic waste in the ward of Koto, Tokyo. Organic waste from school lunches is mashed and then taken to saccharisation tanks. Enzymes are added to the tank to breakdown starch into sugars. The suspension is then separated into the soluble and insoluble portions. The soluble part is rich in glucose which is fermented and distilled to give Ethanol. The solids are mixed with the distillation wastes and used for the generation of methane.

Sources

www.nedo3r.com/techsheet

www.tsk-g.co.jp

www.ecogeek.org/content

www.greencarcongress.com/2005

www.greencarcongress.com/2006

www.consumeraffairs.com/news04

www.glinden.blogspot.com/2004

www.terradaily.com

www.mark.asci.ncsu.edu/SWINEREPORTS/2001

www.ars.usda.gov

www.vincentcorp.com

www.sciencelinks.lipi.go.id

Waste Management flows in a cycle: Monitoring, Collection, Transportation, Processing, Disposal / Recycle. Through these steps a company can effectively and responsibly manage waste output and their positive effect they have on the environment.

Monitoring is identifying the waste management needs, identifying recycling opportunities and ways to minimize waste output, and reviewing how waste minimization is progressing. Through keeping records of the different waste streams, a customer can see the results of their efforts in becoming more environmentally friendly, and a more efficient business.

Collection involves the logistical organization to guarantee that bin containers will not overfill and waste sit time does not become too long. The correct bin container size and service frequency is a must to prevent overspill or excessive smell. The correct bins for different wastes must be available with sticker and bin colour identification. Locks, chains, lids and bars prevent public access and non-trained personnel putting rubbish in the incorrect bins.

Cooperation between the waste company and customer is vital. Bins must be accessible to the truck driver at the agreed times. Access to work premises outside work hours will cause an issue if unaddressed. Bin wheels can allow customers to move bins from convenient areas to serviceable locations.

Transportation is the organizing of waste transport vehicles with the authorization and ability to transport the specified wastes from a customer’s work residence to landfill or processing plant. A waste must be transported by the vehicle designed for it. For example, general waste requires a vehicle with thicker compacter walls, to that of a cardboard and paper waste transporting vehicle. Therefore, a customer may require a series of vehicles to meet their waste management needs.

Vehicles, drivers, and companies need licenses and approval in certain Council Areas to transport waste. EPA standards need to be upheld as well as General Public Safety. Safety standards are vital to the transportation of clinical and hazardous wastes. Drivers must undergo training for emergency circumstances that may arise.

Processing involves the separation of recyclables for treatment, and then after treatment are packaged as raw materials. These raw materials are sent to factories for production. Non-recyclable wastes by-pass this step and are delivered straight to landfill. Liquid and hazardous wastes are delivered to treatment plants to become less hazardous to the public and environment.

Disposal / Recycling is the disposal of non recyclables into landfill. Landfill sites must be approved by legal authorities. Legal authorities guarantee that specific wastes are buried at the correct depth to avoid hazardous chemicals entering the soil, water tables, water systems, air, and pipe systems.

In this step the raw materials made from recyclables are produced and sold as products on the market. Companies can purchase such products to further sustain the environment and natural resources.

In conclusion, waste management is a science that addresses the logistics, environmental impact, social responsibility, and cost of an organization’s waste disposal. It is a detailed process that involves human resources, vehicles, government bodies, and natural resources.

At a small coastal Industrial zone Kalundborg near Copenhagan an exemplary material exchange is being practiced. The exchange involves a 1500M.W. Power plant,(Asuaes Power Station),a 3.2 million metric tones capacity oil refinery,(Stat Oil),a 14 million square meters of Gypsum Board manufacturing unit,(Gyproc),an Intermational Biotechnology company with a sales in excess of $2 Billion and the city of Kalundborg which supplies residential heat and hot water to the residents.
The Power plant supplies waste steam to the refinery and in turn gets refinery gas which substitutes some of the coal. Excess steam is also supplied to the Biotechnology Company, (Novo Nosdisk) and the city of Kalundborg for heating. This replaces almost 3500 individual furnaces which otherwise are a source of high air pollution. Desulphurization at the Power plant also produces Gypsum which meets1/3rd of the need of Gypsum in the Board manufacturing unit. Sludge from the Biotechnology Company is used as fertilizer on nearby farms and surplus yeast from its Insulin plant is sold to farmers as pig food.

From:
Damle Anand- Use of Fly Ash in Burnt Clay manufacturing, Cleaner Technology, Impacts/12/2003-2004, MOEF-CPCB, Govt. of India, 2003 pages11-21

Her organic business venture Daily Dump offers different types of composters that convert the waste generated in one’s  kitchen into compost. If the customers do not require the compost, it can be sold back to Daily Dump.

What began as a small venture with family members and potters, three years ago, Daily dump is set to treble its turnover to Rs 36,00,000 (Rs 3.6 million) this year. Today, the company has about 4,500 dedicated customers in Bangalore who use the profitable composters.

The response has been encouraging and the company has steadily grown over the past 3 years. In the first year, Daily Dump made a turnover of Rs 200,000, which increased to 12,00,000 (Rs 1.2 million) last year.

Poonam says home waste generated in one’s kitchen is 50-70 per cent organic, but urban India has still not found an effective way to dispose this waste, which can actually be churned back into the system by converting it into useful organic manure.

“Keeping this waste off the streets will be the biggest challenge that civic authorities across every city will face. If we can convert this into compost, it can reduce the mess on the streets by 60 per cent, that’s a big impact,” Poonam points out.

The Daily Dump design is available to anyone who is interested, the designs are protected by a creative commons license and the cloning approach allows anyone to use these designs. “I plan to support every person who is brave enough to clone this in every possible manner,” says Poonam.

Poonam Kasturi shares her experiences of  ‘a great ride, tough but very fulfilling’ of converting household waste into wealth and how her products can make a far reaching impact in a country like India.

Green waste is biodegradable waste, usually from gardens and parks, and includes grass, hedge trimmings, leaves and tree trunks. It can be used to produce energy in biomass power stations and receives a renewable energy subsidy in Germany. It can also be recycled as compost, which reduces the extraction of peat – an important sink for CO2. However, composting does not receive financial support in Germany. The EU is currently developing policy to encourage composting and develop standards for composting across the EU1.

The research compared the environmental benefits of energy recovery from green waste and of recycling green waste using 81 samples. It analysed the CO2 balance of each system by estimating the release and savings of CO2 at the different stages of the process chain. For energy recovery this included the transport, shredding, incineration and the CO2 saved from the renewable energy produced. For recycling this included stages such as transport, composting and CO2 saved by replacing peat. Four different types of green waste were considered that differed in their amount of wood, herbaceous/grassy material and soil.

The results demonstrated that waste with a high percentage of wood produced the most CO2 savings for both composting and energy recovery whilst those with only herbaceous and soil components produced the least savings. The CO2 savings from energy recovery varied from 126 to 1040kg of CO2 saved per tonne of green waste, depending on the type of waste and its composition. The CO2 savings from recycling varied from 259 to 1193kg of CO2 per tonne of green waste, again depending on the type of waste. This indicates that the environmental gains, in terms of CO2 savings, were similar for both energy recovery and recycling of green waste.

Notably, green waste with a high percentage of herbaceous/grassy content and soil content had twice the CO2 savings from recycling as from energy recovery. This is probably because this type of waste has low heating values, due to high water and ash content, and is therefore better for composting purposes.

The researchers suggested that energy recovery and recycling of green waste should be judged as complementary systems. It is unlikely that one method on its own will achieve the desired reduction in CO2 levels and a combination is more likely to lead to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. As such they recommend that recycling of green waste be awarded equivalent financial support as the use of green waste to produce renewable energy.

One of WaterAid’s projects in India has found a novel approach to tackle this dilemma and generate income. Their solution lies with worms.

The community living in the Kalmanthai slum in Tiruchirapalli has worked hard to rehabilitate and build communal sanitation blocks for men, women and children.

They have also established water supply projects and credit schemes which they manage themselves.

The slum is adjacent to a wholesale banana market where truckloads of fruit, leaves and stems arrive every day. Discarded produce litters the area. With no proper disposal systems the community groups realised they would have to manage this and the other waste in the slum to ensure they had a clean environment to live in. WaterAid’s partner, Gramalaya, suggested the community ran a pilot vermiculture project.

Vermiculture uses worms in a controlled environment to do what they are best at- converting organic waste into nutrient-rich compost in nature’s way of recycling.

Members of the community groups underwent training and initiated a small-scale trial project investing Rs.2,200 (£29) they had raised from the sanitation blocks. They bought 4,000 red worms, Eisenia foetida, commonly known as the red wiggler or manure worm, which are best suited to composting.

Encouraged by the initial results the community then set up a larger scheme. An area of land by the communal toilet blocks was set aside with a small shed and composting arrangements for the worms.

Now in every 45 day cycle, for an investment of Rs.500, nearly one tonne of compost is produced. The compost is packed in bags and sold for Rs.5 per kilogramme, making nearly Rs.3000 per cycle.

The success has spread to other slum communities and individual households, which are now also carrying out vermiculture projects. The original project now even breeds and sells worms to those wishing to follow its example. But vermiculture isn’t only a solution in urban areas; another of WaterAid’s partners in India, REEDS, is now implementing a large-scale vermiculture project with rural farming communities in Andra Pradesh.

This scheme shows a highly successful and profitable way of waste disposal that provides communities with employment and funds to carry out their own future development work. As the members of the community proudly claim the scheme is ‘generating wealth from waste’.