Page 21 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

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Sustainable Industrial Design and Waste Management
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resources as well as for protecting the environment in order to approach sus-
tainable development.
The selection of a combination of techniques, technologies and man-
agement programs to achieve waste management objectives is called inte-
grated waste management (IWM). The hierarchy of actions to implement IWM
is reduction, reuse, recycle, treatment and final disposal (Tchobanoglous et al.,
1993). Different sources use different terms and categories to describe the waste
management hierarchy. The USEPA 1989 publication “The Solid Waste
Dilemma: An Agenda for Action” states that their hierarchy for waste man-
agement is source reduction, recycling, waste combustion and landfilling.
Others would list source prevention, source reductions and reuse as two cat-
egories, while most of the literature combines them under source reduction.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection includes recy-
cling, on-site composting and reusing at the source under source reduction.
However, reviewing diverse literatures reveals that the traditional waste man-
agement hierarchy is dominantly reducing, reusing, recycling, recovery, treat-
ment, and disposing. Incineration might be included within treatment because
it is thermal treatment, or within recovery as waste-to-energy recovery, or
can be discussed as an independent item as will be discussed in this chapter.
Reducing: Reduced material volume at the source can be enforced through
extended producers and consumers polices (e.g. less unnecessary packaging for
products). Indeed, changing the consumer’s practices is part of the source
reduction concept. Reducing the raw material at the source will conserve the
natural resources for other uses. Fortunately, statistics show that these trends
are declining in developed countries. For example, the total source reduction
in the USA, which includes prevention and reuse, increased from less than
one million tons in 1992 to more than 50 million tons in 1999 (USEPA, 1999).
Reusing: Reuse means to continue using the product in its original or in a
modified form. Reuse of materials involves extended use of a product
(retrading auto tires) or use of a product for other purposes (tin cans for holding
nails, glass bottles for holding water in refrigerators). Reusing the product
does not return the material to the industry for remanufacturing or recycling.
Reuse can be considered another aspect of source reduction which could be
carried out not only by consumers but also by producers. Chemicals used in
the tanning industry could be reused by installing an on-site chromium recov-
ery unit. Source reduction and reusing can be encouraged through numerous
regulations and programs such as the Pay-As-You-Throw program developed
by USEPA as well as other programs.
It is clear that source reduction does not only include reduction in the
use of material, but includes as well the activities that increase product
durability and reusability. Source reduction, which includes source preven-
tion and reuse, is the best option in waste management because it preserves
natural resources and reduces pollution, and waste landfilling or incinera-
tion. The less preferred option in waste management is recycling.