Page 218 - Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation

196 Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation

maintenance of ecosystems. Any degradation of ecosystems will not only
affect production of plants and animals, but also represent real threats to hu-
man life on the planet [1]. Biological benefits represent the bulk of human
consumption, whether direct consumer use (i.e., food consumption, medic-
inal resources, wood products, breeding stocks, etc.) or indirect consumptive
use (i.e., recreation, bird watching, ecotourism, etc.). Socioeconomic bene-
fits that can be generated from sustainable and efficient use of environmen-
tal resources include recreation and ecotourism [2].
Economics is a science of choice that analyzes how people choose to
employ scarce resources that could have alternative uses in order to pro-
duce goods and services and to distribute them for consumption, in the
present or in the future, among various persons and groups in society. This
definition of economics when applied to environmental resources, becom-
ing scarce due to their overuse around the world, we are at the center of
environmental economics, which seeks the optimal use of environmental
resources in order to sustain and maintain environmental quality. During
the last four decades, a number of important human problems have been
explained and analyzed in the subject which have enlarged its frontiers.
In traditional economic thinking, privately held resources will not be
mismanaged or depleted, since depletion would not be in the interests of
the owner of the resource. Certain resources like grazing land, ground wa-
ter basin, and forests are considered as common property resources that
are often jointly owned by local communities. These resources have two
characteristics (a) nonexcludability and (b) nonrivalry in the sense that one
member uses more, less will remain for others. These features make it prone
to depletion or degradation as its use is pushed beyond the limit of sustain-
able yield. This process, by which a common property resource is depleted
because no individual has an incentive to conserve, was first outlined by
biologist Garrett Hardin in 1968; “The Tragedy of the Commons” while
dealing with the problem of over exploitation of grazing land with open
access. It is a tragedy, as it would be in the interest of all, if everyone were
to conserve, without access or restrictions; however, this will not happen.

12.2 WASTE AND ITS MANAGEMENT FOR ECONOMIC
GROWTH
Waste can be simply defined as the useless remains or by-products. Solid
waste can be defined as the nonliquid waste materials arising from domestic,
trade, commercial, industrial, agricultural and mining activities, and from