Environmental Justice and Sustainable Purchasing: Sustainable Waste Management

The book compiles research findings directly related to sustainable and economic waste management and resource recovery. Mining wastes, municipal, urban, domestic, industrial and agricultural wastes and effluents, that contain persistent organic contaminants, nanoparticle organic chemicals, nutrients, energy, organic materials, heavy metal, rare earth elements, iron, steel, bauxite, coal and other valuable materials, are significantly responsible for environmental contamination. They increase impacts on human life and biodiversity. There is currently a large volume of research in the realm of waste management and resource recovery, which has led to innovation and commercialisation of sustainable and economic waste management for improved environmental safety, which are summarised in this book. Key Features: Reviews the key research findings related to sustainable and economic resource recovery and waste management techniques Discusses minimizing waste materials and environmental contaminants with a focus on recovering valuable resources from wastes Mining waste can be used to re-extract minerals, provide fuel for power plants, and supply other valuable material Presents research on recycling of municipal, urban, domestic, industrial and agricultural wastes and wastewater in the production and recovery of energy, biogas, fertilizers, organic materials and nutrients Discusses topical interests of research resulting in patents and inventions for sustainable and economic waste management techniques and environmental safety

Sustainable Resource Recovery and Zero Waste Approaches covers waste reduction, biological, thermal and recycling methods of waste recovery, and their conversion into a variety of products. In addition, the social, economic and environmental aspects are also explored, making this a useful textbook for environmental courses and a reference book for both universities and companies.

The legacies of a century of fossil-fuel based development and overconsumption, of treating the environment as a waste sink for industry and agriculture, have left devastating impacts on the earth's air, water and land, and these are directly implicated in Climate Change. In response, a number of global institutions and nations, including the European Union and China, have committed themselves to the development of a 'circular economy'. This will require a transformation of today's 'linear economy' of 'make, use and dispose' as the market dictates, into a Circular Economy. The aim of the Circular Economy is to decouple economic growth from resource and energy use through iterative, systemic social, economic and technological reform. This book presents new theoretical and practicalinsights into this concept, based on case studies from both the developingand developed world, with an emphasis on economic and materialtransformation, design for reuse and waste reduction, industrial 'symbiosis '(the planned circulation of resources and energy within an industrial setting),and social innovation and entrepreneurship. Four central themes emerge through the essays presented here: the importance of 'restorative design' in transforming resource flows through both production and consumption, the value of understanding and enumerating wastes in more detail to enable their reuse, the central role of advancing technology and applied science to further this transformation of materials for reuse, and finally, a reconfiguration of design, consumption and retail, so that the present 'linear' economy of 'make, use and trash' can be replaced with a more 'circular' model.