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Journal of Environmental Waste Management and Recycling | Volume 1
March 05-06, 2018 | London, UK
Recycling & Waste Management
5
th
International Conference on
T
he life cycle of recycling and waste management
proceeds from arisings through separation, collection
and transportation to recovery and treatment or disposal.
Any such life cycle should be assessed as an aggregate, “a
whole formed by combining several separate elements”. Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used to assess environmental
impacts, and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to analyse economic
costs, but these are both sums of separate values. Such
sums of separate values are not the same as the value of the
aggregated whole. There is currently no method to aggregate
qualitative elements. Assessing aggregated qualities implies
expressing their values in terms of the qualities of a whole
frame, a basic structure. The frame enables all aggregated
representations of scientific knowledge to be expressed,
and the assessment of sustainable technology using
“ecoputation”, by maintaining the values of frame qualities
at a given rate or level. The frame can include qualities,
among others, that are variable, local, spatial and temporal;
in waste management, in which local and variable transport
is significant, assessing these aggregates has historically been
a failure of decision support. An experimental methodology
and trialing program is therefore proposed, to assess and
manage sustainable household waste in agreement with
several waste authorities in a country to be determined.
Each authority will develop a (qualitative-and-quantitative)
narrative to express local practice. The narrative may
include both variable and fixed qualities, to be used with a
prototypical frame to generate alternative representations
with the same value. By repeated use, a sustainable
technology will be attained. The frame and method will be
fully evaluated within a participatory process to be carried
out with authorities, local waste management contractors
and a representative sample of members of the public. The
report will be open, transparent and agreed in consultation
with all parties involved.
e:
philip@eco-designandpolicy.co.ukExploring new horizons and sustainable technologies for recycling and waste management
Philip Sinclair
Eco-Design and Policy, UK