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The growth of modern societies with their scientific, economic and social achievements was made possible by the cheap availability of fossil fuels. Side effects of fossil energy resources were the development of unsustainable production and consumption patterns, the degradation of natural capital, and the release of airborne, waterborne and solid waste. Consumption and environmental loading are not only related to fuels, but also to other material resources, such as minerals in general and rare earths in particular. The increasing shortage of crucial resources affects and constrains important economic sectors (e.g., electronic sectors, renewable energies, food production), thus placing a limit on further development and wellbeing. Concepts of sustainable economies and communities, with focus on the social dimension of development and also on the ecological and economic aspects at the same time, are gaining the attention of policy makers, managers, and investors, as well as local sta...
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Toward a theoretical approach to waste management: Utilizing waste for sustainable development
Toward a Theoretical Approach to Waste Management: Utilizing Waste for Sustainable Development
1992 •
Dr. Theodore J Bagwell
The Sustainable Waste Utilization Paradigm is a unified body of knowledge about waste and waste management, and it is founded on the basic principle that waste material generated is actually a valuable resource, which could be harnessed for sustainable development through recycling, re-usage and commercialization for profitability. This theoretical approach is designed to change individual and organizational perspectives about the true nature of waste material in order to underscore the viability of adequate waste management. Under this paradigm, it is presumed that it is impossible to completely and comprehensively eliminate all waste material from our atmospherethe very nature of the atmosphere makes it unfeasible to do so. Hence, waste should be harnessed, recycled, re-used, resold and redesigned to advance human developmental projects around the world.
Turning waste into resources: Rethinking the way we discard things
Isabel Ordoñez
Licentiate thesis Waste is one of the biggest challenges faced by our society. If not handled correctly, waste pollutes our natural environment with devastating results. However, it seems almost unavoidable that our society generates waste. Cyclical material use models have been proposed as a more sustainable alternative to our linear take-make-waste production culture. The aim of this licentiate thesis has been to investigate how to recover the material resources that today cannot go back into production, helping to redefine waste as a resource. In order to do that this work first defines a framework to address material flow through society followed by a general background on waste and waste management. The main body of the licentiate describes three studies performed by the author in order explore the topic addressed. The studies investigated (A) how design and waste management collaborate, (B) how to facilitate designing with difficult waste and (C) how the waste system interface can be designed to facilitate resource recovery. Studies A, B and C are described in the central chapters of this work, with more information provided through the annexed Articles. All three studies relied on the tacit knowledge of different relevant stakeholders in order to gain knowledge about the problem addressed. Studies B and C were carried out in collaboration with different actors, meaning that the knowledge gained in these studies have been generated collectively. The work concludes two relevant gaps to address in order to improve resource recovery: (1) the connection between waste management and production systems and (2) the connection between the users and the waste system. The first gap was addressed partially in Study B, where the possibilities of designing with difficult waste were explored. The main barrier to design with waste was found to be the lack of reliable material knowledge. It was also made clear that designing with waste is a palliative solution. Difficult materials reaching the waste system should be avoided to the highest possible extent. In the case of pre-consumer waste this could be achieved by broader adaptation of industrial symbiosis and stricter production regulations. For post-consumer waste , difficult waste should be avoided by significantly improving waste sorting and collection systems. Sorting and collection systems were addressed in Study C, which mainly investigated the relation between the users and the waste management system. Study C found that solutions that are in line with users' relations towards discarded materials are more easily adopted by the users, while solutions that generate value for the users could be a way to significantly improve user engagement. Biodegradable waste is currently insufficiently recovered, constituting a large portion of the discards that are landfilled or incinerated. Possibilities of recovering bio-waste shall be explored with future work.
Supporting decent livelihoods through sustainable service provision: Lessons on solid waste management from Kampala, Uganda
2019 •
Lucy E Oates
Waste management & research : the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA
Waste management - still a global challenge in the 21st century: An evidence-based call for action
2015 •
Costas Velis
