How Energy From Waste Can Help Save

The Planet The Worrying State Of Our Environment

Recyclingo Recycling, by now should be part of intuitive

repertoire, a habit you do in your every day routine.

o There are parts of our lives that we have changed and altered due to our attitude towards rubbish.

o Recycling has increase considerably over the last ten years. The average person in 1991-1992 in the UK produced roughly 428kg of waste in a year with only a shocking 11kg of the amount recycled.

o Currently, the average amount of waste now produced is 466kg per person with 185kg of waste now being recycled.

Awarenesso A decade ago, there were few people who knew what climate change was, and even fewer of us realised that we could in fact recycle half the things we threw away in out rubbish bins.

o We have long known now that our planet it teetering on the edge of environmental disaster. Our ozone is getting thinner, our rainforest are getting smaller, our oil reserves are running lower and our time to reverse the problems caused by burning fossil fuels is growing ever shorter.

Technologyo The technological advances of recent years have

undoubtedly had an impact on the environment. This is due to the fact that the increasing sophistication and efficiency of these renewable energy technologies means that they are becoming more viable as alternatives to fossil fuels.

o Solar energy has developed paint-on solar cells. o Wind energy has advanced in a bladeless wind

turbine.o Biomass Power uses algae (50% oil and 0%

emissions) to be a biodiesel as it is full of fuel potential.

o Energy is produced from waste to decrease the amount of rubbish going in a landfill

Energy From Wasteo There has been some success in renewable

resources. The process of energy from waste has helped to maximize recycling and minimize the amount of waste thrown away in a landfill.

o By investing in the latest technology, some waste management companies have been able to generate 100% green electricity from household and industrial waste, minimizing the use of landfills in the UK.

o All the waste collected is put through processes to remove any recyclable material.

The Process:o Building materials which can be reused such as bricks,

sand and soil are repackaged and sent to other plants to be refined.

o Plastics are boiled before going to specialist packaging companies which reuse plastic materials.

o Metal waste is sent direct to merchants to melt down.o The remaining waste is screened to ensure there are

no more reusable materials before being burned. o The whole process is fully automated and closely

monitored so that the steam produced from this processes is used to power turbines which generate 5 megawatts of totally green electricity.

Targets For The Futureo Targets set by the European Landfill Directive state

that landfill use in England and Wales must be no more than 8 million tonnes of waste by 2012/2013 and reduced further to 5.5 million tonnes by 2019/2020.

Making A Changeo It is obvious that we can’t continue to carry on the way we’re

going, we need to stop drilling and get our heads together to come up an alternative to our dependence on natural gas and oil.

o We can take some comfort in the changes we’ve made to our everyday lives but we need the people in charge, the politicians, and environmental envoys from across the globe and scientists to knock their head together, drop the political wishy-washiess and sort this out before it all becomes too late.