Redefining Waste - Ever Wonder?

Jim Campbell — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:02:57 GMT

“I recycle paper, plastic and glass because I want to do what's best for the environment, but I wish I could dispose of my organic garbage in a more sustainable way than just creating landfills.” For decades a handful of waste management corporations have been profiting nicely by ridding our lives of the garbage we don’t want and piling it high in landfills . Apart from the temporary eyesores (and olfactory offenses) that the landfills represent, we as citizens are pretty OK with that. Hey, for a reasonable fee the waste magically goes away, and that’s fine by us. But are we missing out on some of the profits of waste management? Consider the waste-to-energy movement (WtE) : Some companies are turning organic garbage into power. It’s an extremely forward-thinking process that offers an exciting sustainable solution to what most of us consider an out-of-sight, out-of-mind problem. It’s easy to see how this type of technology can (and will) offer real long-term sustainability solutions . But dig a little deeper and you’ll see there are profits to be made from our waste. Furthermore, the WtE solutions happening today are mostly industry-focused and the profits and generated are reaped by the...

The Innovation Engine Community - Ever Wonder?

Redefining Waste - Ever Wonder?