Earth Talker - Reuse, Reduce & Recycle

Where do we put all our garbage as the landfill reaches capacity and how do we generate more electricity to an already over taxed power grid? One quick answer is, waste to energy, energy recovery or in more realistic terms, incineration.

By burning our unwanted materials heat is generated and gases are formed. Through different technologies, the gases and heat are used to generate electricity that could go towards heating and lighting our homes. Sounds like a good fit as government bodies at every level begin to feel the crunch of running out of landfill space and the stream of garbage just keeps coming.

Waste to energy (WTE) has been practiced in the past. Unfortunately, the technology of 20, 10, even 5 years ago didn’t meet the requirements of environmental regulations with respect to particulate matter escaping into the atmosphere. Today, that particulate matter is being further reduced into smaller particles as the heat is intensified and more filters are added.

There are a few problems with this solution to our garbage problem that should be looked at a little more closely. First, the exhaust from the WTE plants will still emit pollution into our air. Second, the WTE plants demand enormous supplies of garbage (fuel) to run economically and are a huge financial undertaking to begin with. As a third concern towards the WTE solution, it has been pointed out that it is simply not a sustainable solution.

Why is the WTE concept not sustainable? If we continue to burn all of our resources then what is left over at the end of the day to manufacture new goods. This will lead to more mining and resource extraction from areas that we shouldn’t be going to in the first place only because we are running out of resources. OK, it won’t happen tomorrow, but lets think 50 years down the road. Where does that leave our kids and grand kids?

Sustainable practices mean actions that can continue indefinitely without depleting or altering those resources (raw materials, air quality, water quality, space, economics, responsible lifestyles, health) that are in some way connected to the proposed solution or practice. WTE, although seems like a good fix, may not be the most sustainable practice out there.

So what do we do then? A good place to start is to look at our unwanted things as not being garbage but a resource. If we can do that then the solution to our ever increasing pile of discards will focus on resource recovery.

In keeping our resources, new products can be generated with less energy expended as compared to mining and processing raw materials. But some items are difficult to recycle because of how they are made. That’s why the big push today is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR is taking the entire responsibility of recycling away from the back end user (us, the consumer) and making manufactures accountable for the products and packaging they produce.

EPR is gaining momentum; look at the recycling of old computers now. More change along this way of thinking is to come and many plans are already being put forth. But for any sustainable practice to be successful, everyone needs to step-up and do their part.