Biodegradable wasteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biodegradable waste is a type of waste which can be broken down, in a matter of weeks or

few months, into its base compounds by micro-organisms ……………..

Made by- Yousuf ansari

X-a

and other living things, regardless of what those compounds may be.

Biodegradable waste can be commonly found in municipal solid waste (sometimes called biodegradable municipal waste, or BMW) as green waste, food waste, paper waste, and biodegradable plastics. Other biodegradable wastes include human waste, manure, sewage, sewage sludge and slaughterhouse waste. In the absence of oxygen, much of this waste will decay to methane by anaerobic digestion.

The main environmental threat from biodegradable waste is the production of methane and other green house gases………

Biodegradable waste can be used for composting or a resource for heat, electricity and fuel by means of incineration or anaerobic digestion. SwissKompog and the Danish AIKAN process are examples of anaerobic digestion of biodegradable waste. While incineration can recover the most energy, anaerobic digestion plants retain the nutrients and compost for the soil and still recover some of the contained energy in the form of biogas. Kompogas produced 27 million Kwh of electricity and biogas in 2009. The oldest of the company's own lorries has achieved 1,000,000 kilometers driven with

Featured in an edition of The Economist that predicted events in 2014, it was revealed that Massachusetts creates roughly 1.4 million tons of organic waste every year. Massachusetts, along with Connecticut and Vermont, are also going to enact laws to divert food waste from landfills.

In small and densely populated states, landfill capacity is limited so disposal costs are higher ($60–90 per ton in MA compared to national average of $45). Decomposing food waste generates methane, a notorious greenhouse gas. However, this biogas can be captured and turned into energy through anaerobic digestion, and then sold into the electricity grid.

Anaerobic digestion grew in Europe, but is starting to develop in America. Massachusetts is increasing its production of anaerobic digesters.

Biodegradability prediction Biodegradable bags Biodegradation Biodrying Brown waste Green waste Landfill diversion List of waste types Miniwaste Sewage treatment

….What are categories?....

Categories are groups of articles on related topics. At the bottom of an article, you will see a box containing the categories to which that article has been assigned. Simply click any of these categories to go to the corresponding category page. From there you can browse other articles on the same topic, or navigate through the category tree to find other related categories.

Most categories have a number of other categories listed as subcategories. These are listed in a special section of the category page, which appears above the list of articles belonging to the category. Click on these subcategories to navigate through the category tree to find more specific groups of articles.

How are categories organized?...

Articles are not usually placed in every category to which they logically belong. In many cases they will not be placed directly into a category if they belong to one of its subcategories. This is because otherwise categories would become too large, and the list of categories on articles too long. To find the articles you are looking for, it may be necessary to dig down. For example, you won't find Oslo listed at the category called Cities, but if you start from there and click "Cities by country", and then "Cities and towns in Norway", you'll arrive at the right place. Conversely, if you are at the Oslo article and you want to find the category of all cities, start by clicking Cities and towns in Norway and navigate up the tree to its parent categories.

A pollutant that is not broken down by natural processes. Some nondegradable pollutants, like the heavy metals, create problems because they are toxic and persistent in the environment. Others, like synthetic plastics, are a problem because of their sheer volume. One way of dealing with nondegradable pollutants is to reduce the quantity released into the environment either by recycling them for reuse before they are disposed of, or by curtailing their production. A second method is to find ways of making them degradable. Scientists have been able to develop new types of bacteria, for example, that do not exist in nature, but that will degrade plastics…

……..Scottish-American naturalist and Sierra Club founder, John Muir (1838–1914), wrote, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.“…… Our rapidly growing, ever more industrialized human population exists within a carefully balanced global system of physical processes that circulates chemical elementsthroughthe solid earth, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosp

…. From agricultural land and water management, to extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, to industrial and municipal disposal of waste products, modern human activity has overprinted natural Earth cycles with synthetic ones.……. In many cases, these man-made alterations to the natural environment negatively impact the very Earth systems that sustain human life. ….Contamination of the hydrosphere and atmosphere, depletion of radiation-shielding stratospheric ozone, and anthropogenic globalclimate change are examples of changes induced by human environmental pollution.

Contamination is the unwanted presence of a microorganism in a particular environment. That environment can be in the laboratory setting, for example, in a medium being used for the growth of a species of bacteria during an experiment. Another environment can be the human body, where contamination of various niches can produce an infection. Still another environment can be the solid and liquid nutrients that sustain life. A final example, which is becoming more relevant since the burgeoning use of biotechnology, is the natural environment. The consequences of the release of bioengineered microorganisms into the natural environment to the natural micro flora and to other species that depend on the environment for their welfare, are often unclear.

The recognition of the adverse effects of contamination have been recognized for a long time, and steps that are now a vital part of microbiological practice were developed.

….Consumer pollution refers, in part, to traces of numerous consumer products, including pain relievers, prescription drugs, antibiotics, insect repellent, sunscreens, and fragrances—collectively called pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs)—discovered in inland and ocean waters. Between 1999 and 2000 the United States Geological Survey (USGS) established the widespread occurrence in the environment of minute but measurable quantities of PPCPs, along with other organic wastewater contaminants, such as detergent metabolites, plasticizers, and fire retardants. These contaminants were discovered in 80 percent of 139 waterways downstream from sewage treatment plants and livestock operations. Before 1999 most research into PPCPs took place in Europe, and pharmaceuticals were detected there in sewage treatment effluent, surface water, groundwater, drinking water, and the North Sea.

A pollution prevention (P2) technology is one that creates less pollution in its life cycle than the one it replaces. P2 can be achieved in many ways, from better housekeeping and maintenance to redesign of products and processes. The range of P2 technologies is therefore very broad. It includes relatively cleaner technologies, technologies that help other technologies to be cleaner, and certain mass-market technologies. All of them reduce environmental impacts compared to their alternatives. It is important to understand that P2 technology does not include pollution-control or -treatment technologies that do not make the technology producing the pollution any cleaner itself. They just manage the resulting waste.

Relatively Cleaner Technologies Technology is always advancing and improving. Many new

technologies are naturally more energy efficient and less polluting than the ones they replace. Sometimes, this is because they were designed with environmental improvement in mind.

One key to achieving a sustainable society and tackling the complex environmental challenges of the twenty-first century is pollution prevention (P2), reducing or eliminating pollution before it is created. The idea has been discussed since 1976, but has only lately gained widespread support from both the private and public sectors. It is an environmentally sound and cost-effective practice.

In 1990 Congress passed a federal statute, the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. The act defined pollution prevention as a practice that are following >>>>

Reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment.

Reduces the hazards to public health and the environment associated with the release of such substances, pollutants or contaminants. The term includes equipment or technology modifications, process or procedure modifications, reformulation or redesign of products.