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Reconsider Recycling
Abstract
After decades of lobbying by environmentalists and extensive implementation of voluntary programs, municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling recently received widespread official acceptance. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a national goal that 25% of MSW be recycled. Forty-one states plus the District of Columbia have set recycling goals that range up to 70%. Twenty-nine states require municipalities or counties to enact recycling ordinances or to develop recycling programs. Unfortunately, recycling has proven to be costly, ineffective in solving the MSW problem, and even environmentally harmful in some cases. fundamental rethinking is needed to achieve the goals; without reform, many recycling programs will be closed. The supply of recycled materials has grown much faster than the capacity for converting them into useful products. Prices for materials have fluctuated wildly, making planning difficult. It takes time to develop efficient collection and processing systems, and the policymakers and the public have been patient as the kinks in the systems are worked out. The self-evident wisdom of recycling reassured everyone that all these problems could be solved. However, as these difficulties are being resolved, one is developing a much clearer picture of the economics of recycling. Beneath the debates about markets and infrastructure lurk two fundamental questions: Is it cost effective? Does it actually preserve resources and benefit the environment? The paper attempts to answer these questions and offers alternatives to recycling.
... Incineration and recycling of plastics are practiced as the most sustainable options, but some critics agree that the environmental cost may be too high for solid waste recycling (Hendrickson et al, 1995). In any case, of all the uses to which plastic commodities are or can be put, some make the subsequent collection of wastes for incineration or recycling unlikely, impractical and impossible. ...
This paper reviews the municipal solid waste management (MSW) literature with particular respect to the cost-benefit analysis of MSW management alternatives. To diagnose the state of the field, the author examined the studies that use the cost-benefit approach in analyzing the MSW management. The review reveals a few important research notes. First, the current literature does not offer an example of a comprehensive and objective cost-benefit model for comparing MSW management options. Second, a systematic measurement of environmental benefits of MSW management methods was not found. Third, recycling may be cost-competitive depending on the situations. However, these circumstances are not clearly identified. And, lastly, few of the current cost-benefit studies discuss the methodological issues such as standing in a systematic way. These findings suggest that the subject of MSW management still lacks comprehensive and rigorous research that may guide both researchers and practitioners to the making of effective MSW management decisions.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), stored as bacterial reserve materials for carbon and energy, are biodegradable substitutes to fossil fuel plastics that can be produced from renewable raw materials. PHAs can be produced under controlled conditions by biotechnological processes. By varying the producing strains, substrates and cosubstrates, a number of polyesters can be synthesized which differ in monomer composition. By this means, PHAs with tailored interesting physical features can be produced. All of them are completely degradable to carbon dioxide and water through natural microbiological mineralization. Consequently, neither their production nor their use or degradation have a negative ecological impact. After a historical review, possibilities for the synthesis of novel PHAs applying different micro-organisms are discussed, and pathways of PHA synthesis and degradation are shown in detail for important PHA producers. This is followed by a discussion of the physiological role of the accumulation product in different micro-organisms. Detection, analysis, and extraction methods of PHAs from microbial biomass are shown, in addition to methods for polyester characterization. Strategies for PHA production under discontinuous and continuous regimes are discussed in detail in addition to the use of different cheap carbon sources from the point of view of different PHA producing strains. An outlook on PHA production by transgenic plants closes the review.
A framework for evaluating the economic performance of a recycling system is proposed, and data from four electronics recycling systems in North America (Alberta, California, Maine, and Maryland) that use different operating models are used as a preliminary test of the framework. The framework is built around a hierarchy of descriptors that clarify the function of the system components under consideration and the activities, cash flow elements, and resources within those functions; costs are incurred by specific stakeholders. Data from each system on fee and mass collection amounts and collection, processing, and management costs are used to create a matrix of several net costs for stakeholders within each system. Although all four systems are relatively new, thereby making data collection a challenge, some preliminary insights can be gleaned from comparing the systems. Processing costs vary significantly in the four systems, with Alberta and California having the highest reimbursement rates for processing. Alberta and California also have relatively high system management costs, but processors are generally quite satisfied with the systems. Maine has an additional cost for consolidation that is an implicit management cost because of the need to count incoming products by manufacturer.
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