End-of-Life options

Green EarthYet when thinking about environmental impact, it’s important to recognize that true environmental advantage starts at the beginning as well as end life.

Composting:

Biopolymer made of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) undergoes 2 steps degradation process.  First, moisture and heat in the compost pile split the polymer chains apart, creating smaller polymers, and finally, lactic acid.  Second microorganisms in compost and soil consume the smaller polymer fragments and lactic acid as nutrients. The end result of composting is carbon dioxide, water and humus, a soil nutrient.  This degradation process is temperature and humidity dependent.

 

Landfill

Conditions in landfills can vary considerably by geography, management practices, and age of waste. As a result of Belgium-based Organic Waste Systems performed two different series of tests spanning a broad spectrum of conditions. The first was at 21˚ C (69.8˚ F) for 390 days at three moisture levels. The second series of tests were designed to simulate high solids anaerobic digestion under optimal and significantly accelerated conditions and were performed at 35˚ C (95˚ F) for 170 days. Both series of tests were designed to represent an examination of what could happen under a range of significantly accelerated anaerobic landfill conditions.

 

Incineration:

Another way used globally is incineration, especially in where land is a scare resource.. In certain areas, Municipal Waste Combustors is used to burn wastes including municipal solid waste, refuse derived fuel and industrial wastes.