The Food and Agriculture Industries: Food Packaging and Waste Disposal
Americans dispose of more than two hundred million tons of trash each year, and a significant percentage of that is food packaging. As the public has become increasingly concerned about the negative impact of this massive scale of waste disposal, M...
Sustaining the Earth: Case Study: Eco-Village
An examination of a sustainable community called Eco-Village in Ithaca, New York. This community strives to create a human habitat more in harmony with natural processes in which a sustainable lifestyle can be achieved in a cooperative living enviro...
The Chemical Industries: Polyester Manufacturing
Most people commonly associate polyester with clothing but, in fact, the bulk of polyester resins is used to make reinforced plastic products. Polyester is a vital component in plastics which require strength and durability. Polyester not only mak...
The Chemical Industries: The Chemical Industry and the Environment
Waste minimization and recycling are two of the techniques commonly used to improve environmental quality. They reflect the chemical industry's acknowledgement of its growing responsibility toward the environment and communities in which it conduc...
The Papermaking Industry: Recycled Pulping
Approximately forty percent of the fiber in U.S. paper products is recycled, or secondary, fiber. Re-pulping fibers that have already been processed shortens them and weakens their bonding capacity, so secondary fiber is often mixed with virgin fib...
Introduction to Waste Stream Management: Pollution Prevention
Recycling industrial materials that would otherwise require treatment or landfilling is known as resource recovery and is part of an emerging area of pollution prevention. Some wastes are converted directly into useful energy in municipal waste-to-...
Rise and Fall: Population, Urbanization and the Environment
Much of the change that has occurred in many cities over the past century has come about as a result of the interplay among three factors: population shifts, the environment, and urbanization.
The Papermaking Industry: Papermaking and Pollution Control
From pulping, to bleaching, to forming sheets on the paper machine, papermaking creates air emissions, water emissions--or effluent--as well as solid waste. However, the environmental impacts of the process are mitigated by a variety of treatment m...
Waste, Part I: Material Recycling Facilities
The development of technology for handling co-mingled wastes has changed the one-time altuistic gesture of recycling into a symbiotic relationship between environmental needs and profitability.
Sustaining the Earth: Case Study: Industrial Symbiosis
An examination of a symbiotic industrial arrangement among four industries in Denmark in which the wastes from one industry provide the raw materials for another. This kind of planned cradle to grave management of resources has positive economic, so...