Showing posts with label Waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waste. Show all posts

08 December 2019

Circular Economies ~ From Trashflow to Cashflow

I've become increasingly intrigued by the circular economies idea wherein the classic linear material and energy flows going from source-to-sink are supplanted by recycling or reuse or waste-use material flow loops. Sarah Murray makes The case for a circular world in the recent FT Special Report on the Circular Economy...
"This is an approach to industrial and consumption systems that shifts from linear “take-make-dispose” models to circular ones that return what comes from nature to the production cycle. This means going back to the drawing board.  For example, Steelcase, the US office furniture maker, designs products with disassembly in mind. […] "we’re trying to, by design, keep things in the system as opposed to just reducing their negative impact,” […] For some companies, this has meant rethinking the business model. [Umcore made] the shift from mining operations to a business in refining, recycling and recovering speciality metals. […] DSM, a life sciences and materials sciences group [is] looking at how to recycle and reuse 100 per cent of carpets by making them from a single type of material, rather than from multiple materials. […] “People are frustrated by the extent of packaging and by having to throw a washing machine out after three years. Companies are responding —- that’s a big shift.”
In the WEF report Towards the circular economy: Accelerating the scale-up across global supply they spotlight -- and illustrate -- the material flows of a restorative industry system...
"First, a circular economy aims to design out waste. [...] Second, circularity introduces a strict differentiation between consumable and durable components of a product. [...] Third, the energy required to fuel this cycle should be renewable by nature."

18 January 2014

Junkyard Planet ~ Global Trash Trading...

The Economist reviews Adam Minter's Junkyard Planet which surveys the emergence of value-from-waste ventures globally...
"The multibillion-dollar recycling trade stands as “one of globalisation’s great, green successes”, writes Adam Minter, an American journalist, in "Junkyard Planet".
http://shanghaiscrap.com/books/junkyard-planet/
It is also a largely unsung one, as under-appreciated as a rusty bike. The industry turns over as much as $500 billion annually, and employs a huge number of people. [...] Dirty, dangerous, cheap to get into and not without romance, the junk business extracts value from what others see as worthless. Mr Minter is not blind to the grim realities of the industry. [...] But any recrimination over these recycling practices is best directed at the rich world and at the increasingly wealthy Chinese who are beginning to match their wasteful, spendthrift counterparts in the West. The recycling industry squeezes value from used goods, but nothing is 100% recyclable."
See excerpt at Shanghai Scrap, Minter's blog!

17 November 2013

07 December 2011

Waste Removal ~ Taking Out the Trash & No.2

IBM's SmarterPlanet spotlights NYC trash handling, where the...
"Department of Sanitation operates 59 district garages and manages a fleet of 2,022 rear-loading collection trucks and 450 mechanical brooms. Each week, approximately 64,000 tons of household and institutional waste are collected. In 2009, the average truck collected 9.9 tons of refuse and 5.6 tons of recyclables per shift."
And Cynical-C spots The Sewage Trucks of Dubai...
"Amazingly, Dubai doesn’t have a sewage infrastructure to support its skyscrapers, including the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Drivers said they’d been queuing for three days!"