THE VALUE OF "WASTE"

Waste…... A normal word which we have been coming across in our day to day life. We use this word, ‘Waste’ to denote the things which are useless. We normally refer the things which cannot be consumed further and thus thrown away after utilization as waste. But does the exact meaning match the word?

Actually, the exact meaning of waste can be given as ‘the things whose values are unknown’. Yes…… There are several valuable products which can be extracted from waste generated from households and industries. A few mind-blowing by-products extracted from waste are listed here:

ELECTRICITY

Electricity is one of the vital parameters which is needed for a comfortable life and also for the industries to operate. There is a greater depletion in fossil fuel and thus research has been focussed on other areas which are renewable. But can electricity be produced from waste?

Are we utilizing these resources to the core?

Incineration is a process which deals with combustion of the solid wastes to ashes and produce electricity or heat. It is a very promising technique and is utilized in several countries. For one ton of waste, nearly 500 to 600kWh of electricity can be produced by incineration process. Landfills also deliver methane gas which can be used as a fuel but landfilling leads to degradation of land and also its environment.

FERTILIZER

In the United States, only 60% of the food they produce were consumed. The remaining 60 million metric tons of food is wasted and more than half of them reach the landfills. These food wastes can be effectively converted into fertilizers if they get composted. 

RECYCLED PRODUCTS

The recycling process helps in converting waste into useful product and reduces the Greenhouse gas emission. Even composting is a type of recycling. For effective recycling, source segregation is necessary. Also, the primary waste collectors help in collecting recyclable waste from the landfills.

You might have already known these facts. But there are few other mesmerizing facts.   

GOLD in GARBAGE????

Several electronic components like laptops, phones, cameras have gold plating in their circuit boards. Some circuits even have silver, copper and platinum in them. 

CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME GARBAGE?            

Sweden has a better waste management system

The above sentence can never be heard by any of us. But there is a nation which is pleading for garbage. Sweden, a European nation which has an effective waste management system ran out of wastes and requested waste from nearby countries to keep their systems working. 

In our daily routine, we don’t find enough time(interest) to properly segregate the household wastes. But once we start to segregate them and manage them effectively, we can surely make an impact in our environment.

CLEANLINESS STARTS FROM HOME