Waste minimization and resource use optimization course

May 26th 2004 exam solutions

1. Waste minimization occurs when production of waste is either avoided, or reduces, or

something is re-used. All this can be achieved with plastics: Due to their long durability their
avoid wasting.. (2 p.) (e.g. plastic bottles last longer than glass). There are many cases when
the same function can be provided with use of less material when replacing glass or metal
with plastic (e.g. packaging, cars), and due to their light weight when they become waste, they
produce less waste (2 p.). The light weight also reduces energy use (2 p.) (e.g. plastic bottles
are lighter to carry than glass, cars consume less gasoline because they are lighter as they
contain lot of plastic etc.) There are also examples or re-usable plastics, e.g. packaging (2 p.).

One of the principles of Industrial Ecology is that every process and product should be
designed to preserve the embedded utility of the materials used. An efficient way to
accomplish this goal is by designing modular equipment and by remanufacturing. (2 points)
Embedded utility indicates that to how many purposes or applications can you use the same
thing, and if the product is re-usable at all. So, for example, when a TV doesn’t work
anymore, and one disassembles it, the plastic cover cannot be used for nothing anymore –
because it hasn’t been designed to be re-usable. The rest of the points you could get for a
good example of a new design involving plastic parts that are e.g., easy to recover-
disassemble, re-usable multiple times, etc.

2. In the exam material, there were 7 reasons listed for resource use efficiency: 1. live better, 2.
pollute and deplete less, 3. make money, 4. harness markets and enlist business, 5. multiply
use of scarce capital, 6. increase security, 7. be equitable and have more employment. 1 point
for each. As for the disadvantages of MIPS, you got 2 points for knowing what is MIPS, and
one point each for the disadvantages: 1. doesn’t take into account surface use, 2. doesn’t take
into account toxicity, and 3. makes no reference to biodiversity.

3. First, you should have defined decarbonization. It is an effort to be less reliable on carbon
based energy sources, especially aims at reducing the use of fossil materials (2 p.). The why
follow from this, you could have mentioned the scarcity of fossil sources as well as
greenhouse gas emission. There was a number of ways catalysis mentioned in the lecture and
exam materials on how catalysis contributes to decarbonisation (2 p. for each):
- Contributes to energy efficiency in production
- Promotes the use of renewable feedstock, e.g. biocatalysis of biomass to ethanol
- Better means to produce H2 as a future fuel
- Development of more efficient fuel cells
- Development of solar cells

4. The second law holds that energy is degraded through its use; it becomes less and less useful
to do work. Entropy is a measure of the state of usefulness of energy. The lower the entropy
of a system, the more work that energy can do. Industrial systems are transformers of
materials and energy, increasing entropy and reducing the usefulness of materials and
energy. (2 p.) Material waste and waste heat are inevitable outcomes of this process.
Irreversible dissipative loss through dispersion of energy and materials. (2 p.) It follows from
the second law of thermodynamics that there is a need for an alternatively designed industry
 which limits energy- and material loss during production and consumption processes –
which is essentially waste minimization. (2 p.) There are 3 major strategies (2 p. each):
a. to increase energy and material efficiency
b. re-use and recycle materials wherever possible; and
c. to reduce the need for new/fresh natural resources and the release of wasteful and
potentially harmful by-products.

5. All three points can be explained by the PSSP based waste definitions (4 p. each):
- Re-use generally applies to wastes of class 2. Take an example of a glass bottle,
the purpose of which is to deliver soft drink. As soon as the soft drink is
consumed, the bottle has fulfilled its purpose. An empty glass bottle has the
potential to fulfil the same purpose again: to contain, and deliver any liquid. But a
re-usable glass bottle is a non-waste, only as long as it is returned for refill. The
fact that it can be assigned a purpose doesn’t make them non-waste, only when
they are actually used for that purpose.
- End-of-life vehicles are typically wastes of class 3. On way they become wastes is
when they are no longer able to perform their purpose, so they don’t work
anymore. The loss of performance can be attributable to the inability of one or
several structural parts to perform their purpose. However, there is a possibility
that a car becomes waste even if it is still in a working condition: when the owner
abandons it. In that case it belongs to class 4. The owner might argue that while
the car can perform its purpose of transportation, it did not meet all his
expectations of performance, e.g. its speed was limited, its gasoline consumption
was too high, and it didn’t offer the comfort expected, etc.
- Demolition waste can be viewed as waste of class 2, one that has fulfilled its
purpose. Incidentally, it may be originated from a waste of class 3, e.g. a house
that was no longer performing satisfactorily and thus was disintegrated. If tiles
from house are used to build a new house, e.g. they are assigned a new purpose,
and their structure and state allows it to perform satisfactorily with respect to that
purpose, they are no longer wastes. The fact that they have a purpose and perform
with respect to the purpose makes them a non-waste.

Questions and comments to:

Dr. Eva Pongrácz, senior researcher, course lecturer and examiner
FIN-90014 University of Oulu,
Department of Process and Environmental Engineering, 4 PYOLÄM,
Office: TF 401 A
Tel.: +358 8 553 2345
E-mail: eva.pongracz(at)oulu.fi