Sustainability initiatives help ensure waste is reused. The plant also now generates $2 million annually in recycling revenue. - http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/business-brains/gm-claims-landfill-free-status-for-first-us-assembly-plant/20280?tag=nl.e660

in Industrial Waste Management Corporate Social Responsibility

The ProblemA hazardous waste landfill in Belleville, MI, owned by the Environmental Quality Company had a problem. They needed to develop a treatment process ... - http://www.environmental-expert.com/articles/dynatec-provides-mbr-system-for-hazardous-landfill-260067

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The Mainichi Daily News is the English-language news site of Japan's Mainichi Newspapers. Feature articles about current affairs and topical issues in Japan. Includes Mainichi's 'Hibakusha' and 'Cluster Bomb' series. - http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20111013p2g00m0fe097000c.html

in Industrial Waste Management MSW

Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with low carbon fuel specialist LanzaTech, to develop aviation fuel from waste gases at steel works for use on a number of routes within two to three years. - http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waste-management-world.recycling.2011.10b.Waste_Gases_to_be_Recycled_into_Aviation_Fuel.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html

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The change mirrors the shift in the UK economy from manufacturing to service industries where the waste industry has seen a significant fall in industrial waste arisings over the past decade. Rising landfill tax levels and improved operational efficiency within manufacturing companies have also played a key part.

The report Rubbish Economy ( http://www.urbanmines.org.uk/assets/files/r/rubbisheconomy_2066.pdf ) was commissioned by RWM in partnership with CIWM, and research undertaken by environmental consultancy Urban Mines. Launching the report at the Birmingham NEC today, Urban Mines' managing director, Peter Scholes said that it "was clear that commercial waste arisings are a focus for the future".

News source: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=20815&title=Waste from UK services industry will overtake manufacturing for first time

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Ten Honda Manufacturing Facilities in North America Achieve Zero Waste Sent to Landfill

Four Remaining Plants Achieve "Virtually Zero" Level

Honda announced today that it has achieved one of the most important targets in the company's longstanding "Green Factory" initiative in North America: zero-waste-to-landfill. Ten of 14 Honda manufacturing plants in North America are now operating with zero waste to landfill, while the remaining four plants are functioning with "virtually zero" waste to landfill.

Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, in Lincoln, Ala., became the first zero-waste-to-landfill auto plant in North America at the outset of production in 2001, setting off an industry-leading trend within the company. Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, in Greensburg, Ind., also started production as a zero-waste-to-landfill plant in 2008.

Waste sent to landfills has been dramatically reduced at Honda auto plants throughout North America-from 62.8 pounds of industrial waste to landfills for every automobile produced in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001(FY2001), to an estimated 1.8 pounds per automobile in the current fiscal year 2012. Among all of its 14 plants in North America, Honda now sends less than one-half of 1 percent of all operating waste to landfills. Remaining waste product is either recycled or used for energy recovery.

http://www.vadvert.co.uk/business/16070-ten-honda-manufacturing-facilities-in-north-america-achieve-zero-waste-sent-to-landfill.html

in Industrial Waste Management

Honda hits 'Zero-Landfill' target in North America

Honda's North American manufacturing plants have been on a mission to find ways to keep every bit of waste created out of the trash, and now, after a decade of work, the 14 plants send almost zero waste to landfills.

In 2001, when Honda began working on waste, it was sending 62.8 pounds of industrial waste to landfill for each vehicle produced. By mid-2012, it expects to send 1.8 pounds per vehicle.

The plants' efforts began with "dumpster dives" to get an accurate look at what trash they were making and what could be done with it.

Plants took hundreds of actions, including:

* Reducing the size of steel sheets used for stamping parts
* Reusing sand from aluminum and ferrous metal casting operations
* Changing packaging for parts to make it recyclable
* Building recycling bins for materials
* Minimizing paper and plastic waste in cafeterias
* Composting food waste

http://www.eco-business.com/news/honda-hits-zero-landfill-target-in-north-america/

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An excellent document on solid waste management in India - http://www.scribd.com/doc/19687417/Solid-Waste-Management

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A boiler concept to utilize wet feedstocks in a gasification process.

Note; I am not an engineer, I am a visionary. My ideas are intentionally placed in the public domain for anyone to develop. The catch is that you will need to do your own patent search. If any of my ideas are patented, please let me know. I will either delete the idea from my database or link to the patent or patent owner.

This concept is of a boiler system that accepts blended wet bio mass feedstocks, separates out the valuable water, oil, volatiles, industrial chemicals, water and other products and separates out the metals and glass for recycling.

First step is to construct bins and chambers to collect your feedstocks.

Wet waste like sewage, manures and paper making black liquors, should be stored in a silo, with provisions to auger any solids off the bottom as they accumulate.

Wet green algae and the water it was grown in should be stored in a silo.

More or less dry biomass like corn stover, sawdust, switch grass, leaves and lawn clippings should be rough chopped and stored in a silo.

Waste paper products should be roughly ground and stored in a silo.

Hazardous medical and industrial wastes should also be rough chopped as needed and stored in a very secure silo or silos.

Garbage should be rough chopped and stored in a silo to keep out pests and keep down odors. Separation of metals and glass from garbage will come later.

Dead livestock, road kill, slaughter house offal should be roughly chopped and placed in a sealed silo.

Wet produce canning waste should be stored in a silo. Sweet corn stover and similar should be rough chopped.

Next we need a pressurized feedstock surge chamber. My concept is a chamber that acts much like a boat lock on a river. Close and seal the door leading to the boiler and depressurize the hopper. Feed in a load of feedstock, blending various feedstocks as desired. Close and seal the loading door and pressurize the hopper using at first steam after it has exited the turbine, then topping off with fresh steam to achieve pressure. This steam should be injected in the bottom of the hopper to preheat the feedstock.

Open the door to the boiler and start the feedstock down the pressurized processing line. The heat should probably gradually increase as you near the boiler, to separate heat processed elements one after the other.

I will leave it to the engineers to separate out the various volatiles, oils and other valuable products on the journey to the boiler or from the steam.

The firebox should be multi fuel capable, utilizing bio mass, diesel type oils or syngas derived from the composting of wastes.

The steam should be used to power a turbine. Some spent steam could go to pre heat the feedstock and perhaps to begin to pressurize the feed hopper. Then the rest of the steam needs to be cooled to a water state and sold.

The metals and glass should be the last thing left, send them to a pressurized surge hopper for eventual removal and sorting.

The firebox flue gas should all be bubbled thru green algae beds in the plastic tubes, to feed the algae and clean up the emissions. All heat and flue chemicals should be recovered.

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