The Industrial Green Game Implications for Environmental Design and Management (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Industrial Ecololgy: Closing the Loop on Waste Materials
Industrial Ecololgy: Closing the Loop on Waste Materials
Pages 37-47
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From page 37... ...
As human populations grow, discarding waste material is becoming increasingly problematic. These difficulties and the increasing public perception that we are drowning in a sea of garbage have resulted in considerable pressure regarding the freedom to throw things away.
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From page 38... ...
Regulatory pressures and shifting public opinion have spurred the industrial and engineering community to initiate efforts aimed at closing the materials loops more effectively and improving energy-use efficiencies (Allenby and Richards, 1994; National Academy of Sciences, 1992; Richards and Frosch, 1994; Schmidheiny and the Business Council for Sustainable Development, 1992; Smart, 1992)
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From page 39... ...
The industrial ecology perspective is beginning to influence designers of manufacturing processes to seriously consider waste streams. Designers of products are beginning to view their creations as transient embodiments of matter and energy with added value that can be recaptured and recreated within a continuing flow of materials extending beyond the point of sale.
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From page 40... ...
Almost 90 percent of the 800,000 tons per year that ends up in storage batteries is eventually recycled (16,000 tons of industrial waste from battery manufacture and 700,000 tons from post-consumer recycle)
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From page 41... ...
For various nonferrous metals that are regularly recovered from scrap and waste, Figure 2 relates the market price of the pure metal against the minimum concentration of metal wastes undergoing recycling. The diagonal line in Figure 2 is known as the Sherwood plot, after Thomas Sherwood who in the 1950s pointed out the relation between the price of a metal and its concentration in commercially viable virgin ore.
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From page 42... ...
The choice between recycling the material and burning it as fuel or otherwise extracting its chemical energy might be made on the basis of comparative market values. Waste and product materials sometimes contain unwanted "tramp" elements.
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From page 43... ...
Heavy capital investment in existing systems may prevent a company from securing an easy source of new investment to start over. This obstacle may only introduce a time lag, postponing the decision to recycle until it is suitable to make a capital investment, such as when the machinery requires change for some other reason.
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From page 44... ...
For example, the waste classification of a solvent-laden rag used to clean machinery depends on how it was used. If the solvent is poured first on the machinery and then wiped with a clean rag, the rag is a hazardous waste.
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From page 45... ...
Although it makes good sense to control through reuse and recycling hazardous waste materials, in practice the system inadvertently encourages the use of new materials and the disposal of old materials. A recent initiative by the EPA administrator seeks to change the regulatory system toward coordinated regulation of an industry rather than regulation determined simply by the material or medium in question.
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From page 46... ...
Certain nonhazardous wastes from glassmaking would make good additions to concrete, improving its properties. Nevertheless the glassmaker disposes of these wastes in a landfill, because the firms's legal counsel worries about potential liabilities if the concrete ends up in an apartment house or a highway.
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From page 47... ...
1994. Browner names six industries in plan to improve environ mental protection.
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