How Effective Is Recycling?


Book Description

Discusses the effectiveness of global recycling efforts and highlighting issues such as the dangers of recycling toxic or hazardous waste, the potential of blackwater treatment and the use of new sustainable building materials.




Can I Recycle This?


Book Description

“If you’ve ever been perplexed by the byzantine rules of recycling, you’re not alone…you’ll want to read Can I Recycle This?... An extensive look at what you can and cannot chuck into your blue bin.” —The Washington Post The first illustrated guidebook that answers the age-old question: Can I Recycle This? Since the dawn of the recycling system, men and women the world over have stood by their bins, holding an everyday object, wondering, "can I recycle this?" This simple question reaches into our concern for the environment, the care we take to keep our homes and our communities clean, and how we interact with our local government. Recycling rules seem to differ in every municipality, with exceptions and caveats at every turn, leaving the average American scratching her head at the simple act of throwing something away. Taking readers on a quick but informative tour of how recycling actually works (setting aside the propaganda we were all taught as kids), Can I Recycle This gives straightforward answers to whether dozens of common household objects can or cannot be recycled, as well as the information you need to make that decision for anything else you encounter. Jennie Romer has been working for years to help cities and states across America better deal with the waste we produce, helping draft meaningful legislation to help communities better process their waste and produce less of it in the first place. She has distilled her years of experience into this non-judgmental, easy-to-use guide that will change the way you think about what you throw away and how you do it.




How Effective Is Recycling?


Book Description

How do we end up eating plastic bags? What is 'e-waste'? How do we recycle plastics? This book discusses recycling in a world that has an increasing amount of waste, looking at how effective we are globally at recycling and highlighting issues such as the dangers of recycling toxic or hazardous waste, the potential of 'blackwater' treatment and the use of new building materials that are sustainable, such as guadua bamboo.




Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete


Book Description

Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete looks at the processing of plastic waste, including techniques for separation, the production of plastic aggregates, the production of concrete with recycled plastic as an aggregate or binder, the fresh properties of concrete with plastic aggregates, the shrinkage of concrete with plastic aggregates, the mechanical properties of concrete with plastic aggregates, toughness of concrete with plastic aggregates, modulus of elasticity of concrete with plastic aggregates, durability of concrete with plastic aggregates, concrete plastic waste powder with enhanced neutron radiation shielding, and more, thus making it a valuable reference for academics and industrial researchers. Describes the main types of recycled plastics that can be applied in concrete manufacturing Presents, for the first time, state-of-the art knowledge on the properties of conventional concrete with recycled plastics Discusses the technological challenges for concrete manufactures for mass production of recycled concrete from plastic waste




Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine


Book Description

People are proud to recycle, but in recent years many have become suspicious the process isn't operating as seamlessly as we'd like to think. Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine makes sense of the complex system for any reader who wants to learn how it works, what the problems are, and what they can do to help recycling thrive




Plastic Waste and Recycling


Book Description

Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel. This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials. Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacement Considers major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementation Includes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches




Recycling Reconsidered


Book Description

How the success and popularity of recycling has diverted attention from the steep environmental costs of manufacturing the goods we consume and discard. Recycling is widely celebrated as an environmental success story. The accomplishments of the recycling movement can be seen in municipal practice, a thriving private recycling industry, and widespread public support and participation. In the United States, more people recycle than vote. But, as Samantha MacBride points out in this book, the goals of recycling—saving the earth (and trees), conserving resources, and greening the economy—are still far from being realized. The vast majority of solid wastes are still burned or buried. MacBride argues that, since the emergence of the recycling movement in 1970, manufacturers of products that end up in waste have successfully prevented the implementation of more onerous, yet far more effective, forms of sustainable waste policy. Recycling as we know it today generates the illusion of progress while allowing industry to maintain the status quo and place responsibility on consumers and local government. MacBride offers a series of case studies in recycling that pose provocative questions about whether the current ways we deal with waste are really the best ways to bring about real sustainability and environmental justice. She does not aim to debunk or discourage recycling but to help us think beyond recycling as it is today.







Recycling and Deinking of Recovered Paper


Book Description

Paper recycling in an increasingly environmentally conscious world is gaining importance. Increased recycling activities are being driven by robust overseas markets as well as domestic demand. Recycled fibers play a very important role today in the global paper industry as a substitute for virgin pulps. Paper recovery rates continue to increase year after year Recycling technologies have been improved in recent years by advances in pulping, flotation deinking and cleaning/screening, resulting in the quality of paper made from secondary fibres approaching that of virgin paper. The process is a lot more eco-friendly than the virgin-papermaking process, using less energy and natural resources, produce less solid waste and fewer atmospheric emissions, and helps to preserve natural resources and landfill space. Currently more than half of the paper is produced from recovered papers. Most of them are used to produce brown grades paper and board but for the last two decades, there is a substantial increase in the use of recovered papers to produce, through deinking, white grades such as newsprint, tissue, market pulp. By using recycled paper, companies can take a significant step toward reducing their overall environmental impacts. This study deals with the scientific and technical advances in recycling and deinking including new developments. Covers in great depth all the aspects of recycling technologies Covers the latest science and technology in recycling Provides up-to-date, authoritative information and cites many mills experiences and pertinent research Includes the use of biotech methods for deinking, refining. and improving drainage




How to Live a Low-Carbon Life


Book Description

Drastic reduction of carbon emissions is vital if we are to avoid a catastrophe that devastates large parts of the world. Governments and businesses have been slow to act - individuals need to take the lead now if we are to avoid climate chaos.Each Westener is responsible for an average 10 - 20 tonnes of carbon emissions each year (depending on where you live). In How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, Chris Goodall shows how easy it is to take responsibility, providing a comprehensive, one-stop reference guide to calculating your CO2 emissions and reducing them to a more sustainable 2 tonnes a year.