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Coal, produced over millions of years, is a finite and non-renewable resource on a human time scale. A non-renewable resource (also called a finite resource) is a natural resource that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick enough to keep up with consumption. [1] An example is carbon-based fossil fuels.
The environmental dimension of sustainability includes greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, hazardous waste and toxic emissions, [7] water consumption, [9] and depletion of non-renewable resources. [6] Energy sources with low environmental impact are sometimes called green energy or clean energy. The economic ...
For example, mealworms fed only on plastic show very little weight gain, unlike mealworms fed on a normal diet of bran. [5] This is due to plastic lacking water and nutrients needed to grow. [ 5 ] Plastic-fed mealworms can still derive energy from their diet, so they do not lose weight like starved mealworms do.
Biodegradable technology is established technology with some applications in product packaging, production, and medicine. [31] The chief barrier to widespread implementation is the trade-off between biodegradability and performance. For example, lactide-based plastics are inferior packaging properties in comparison to traditional materials.
Incineration, the combustion of organic material such as waste with energy recovery, is the most common WtE implementation. All new WtE plants in OECD countries incinerating waste (residual MSW, commercial, industrial or RDF) must meet strict emission standards, including those on nitrogen oxides (NO x), sulphur dioxide (SO 2), heavy metals and dioxins.
Swiss Kompogas and the Danish AIKAN process are examples of anaerobic digestion of biodegradable waste. [8] [9] While incineration can recover the most energy, anaerobic digestion plants retain nutrients and make compost for soil amendment and still recover some of the contained energy in the form of biogas.
The production of biofuels can be very energy intensive, which, if generated from non-renewable sources, can heavily mitigate the benefits gained through biofuel use. A solution proposed to solve this issue is to supply biofuel production facilities with excess nuclear energy, which can supplement the power provided by fossil fuels. [ 112 ]
Energy recovery from waste is using non-recyclable waste materials and extracting from it heat, electricity, or energy through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolyzation, and anaerobic digestion. [58] This process is referred to as waste-to-energy. There are several ways to recover energy from waste.