Biodegradable waste management

Arvanitoyannis and Varzakas (2008) summarized in their recent review the main advantages of the biodegradation waste management as follows ... 

Most of the plastics and synthetic polymers that are used worldwide are produced from petrochemicals. Replacing petroleum-based feedstocks with materials derived from renewable resources is an attractive prospect for manufacturers of polymers and plastics, since the production of such polymers does not depend on the limited supply of fossil fuels [16]. Furthermore, synthetic materials are very persistent in the environment long after their intended use, and as a result their total volume in landfills is giving rise to serious waste management problems. In 1992,20% of the volume and 8% of the weight of landfills in the US were plastic materials, while the annual disposal of plastics both in the US and EC has risen to over 10 million tons [17]. Because of the biodegradability of PHAs, they would be mostly composted and as such would be very valuable in reducing the amount of plastic waste. 

Narayan R (2001) Drivers for biodegradable/compostable plastics and role of composting in waste management and sustainable agriculture. Bioprocess Solid Waste Sludge 1(1)... 

Tabak, H. H. Govind, R. (1993). Development of nonlinear group contribution method for prediction of biodegradation kinetics from respirometrically derived kinetic data. In Emerging Technologies in Hazardous Waste Management III, ed. D. W. Tedder F. G. Pohland, ACS Symposium Series 518, pp. 159-90. Washington, DC American Chemical Society. 

Hinchee, R. E. Ong, S. K. (1992). A rapid in situ respiration test for measuring aerobic biodegradation rates of hydrocarbons in so s. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, 42, 1303-12. 

Sonesson, U., Bjorklund, A., Carlsson, M., and Dalemo, M. (2000). Environmental and economic analysis of management systems for biodegradable waste. Resour. Conserv. Recyd. 28(1—2), 29—53. 

In the field of waste management, natura supplies biodegradable waste bags in many different shapes and sizes, from 8 to 240 litres. The bags are used for kitchen and garden waste bins and compost easily after use. 

Langmaier, F., Mokrejs, P., Kolomaznik, K., and Mladek, M. (2008). Biodegradable packing materials from hydrolysates of collagen waste proteins. Waste Manage. 28, 549-556. 

G. Davis and J. H. Song, Biodegradable Packaging Based on Raw Materials from Crops and Their Impact on Waste Management, Industrial Crops and Products. An International Journal, 23(2), 147-161 (2006). 

During the search for efficient and ecologically justified waste-management concepts, the use of biodegradable polymer materials was repeatedly made a political demand. Next to the arguments of a partial solution to the waste-disposal problem by natural degradation, the conservation of the petrochemical resources, the reduction of C02-emission, and the use of renewable resources are a point of discussion. 

The D20.96 Committee of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) worked intensively on test methods for water-insoluble polymers and plastic materials [38,39]. Since 1993, five standards for biodegradation of plastic materials in various conditions have been published (Table 2), and other test methods with different environments are nearing completion [39], i.e., anaerobic high-solid digestor and anaerobic accelerated landfill to simulate the fate of a material during solid waste management. Other experimental methods need to be developed for freshwater and simulated marine conditions. 

The recently adopted landfill directive (a) demands high standards of landfill management, and also seeks to ban certain difficult wastes from landfill, and (b) seeks a progressive reduction in the land-filling of biodegradable wastes which account for a high percentage of wastes sent to sites. 

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