As cities and municipalities around the world continue to find ways to manage solid waste, there have been innovations aimed at turning this trash into treasure. This is in line with the 3Rs of waste management i.e., reduce, reuse, recycle. There are great examples of companies that turn biological by-products into useful products that can be used in many areas in the economy.
Real World Examples ofProducts Made from Trash
The following are some inspiring example of some of the useful products whose primary raw materials are extracts from waste.
Biofuels and Bioliquids
As a solution to the 21st-century problem of finding renewable energy sources that are also friendly to the environment, companies such as MBP have turned to biological trash to manufacture biofuels and bioliquids. These products include things like Ethyl Ester, distillation residues, and even full-fledged biofuels extracted from biological by-products.
The continued production of biofuels and bioliquids and sustained innovation in this sector will go a long way towards reducing our carbon footprint and having a green sustainable future. The biofuels and bioliquids can also be healthy alternatives to toxic fuels and chemicals in use in our industries today. Biofuel manufacturing is a welcome innovation to address today’s environmental challenges.
Fertilizer
Studies have linked heavy usage of artificial chemicals in industrial fertilizers to an increase in disease among the population, soil degradation, decline in the flora and fauna and many other problems. There is a push towards organic farming where farmers are encouraged to use naturally extracted fertilizer to boost plant health and growth.
While this is good, the extraction of natural fertilizer can be costly as compared to artificial industrial fertilizer that is available off the shelf. The manufacture of fertilizer from biological by-products is a welcome move to ensure the safety of our food and the protection of the environment starting from the farm.
Biogas and Biomethane
Sewage management has always been a pain to manage for decades. What good could come from human and animal waste apart from manure and disease? Enter biogas and biomethane. Biogas is a renewable gas that is extracted from animal and human waste whose applications are many and far-reaching. For instance, biogas is widely used as a source of energy in millions of kitchens around the world.
The biogas and biomethane are extracted in anaerobic digestion plants that make use of biological by-products such as sewage and plant extracts to manufacture these all-important gasses. While we are still at the early days of biogas and biomethane production and usage, this is an industry that contains a lot of promise for the future of green and sustainable energy production. Imagine being able to reduce or eliminate our reliance on petroleum products for energy production while solving our waste management problems at the same time!
Animal Feed
Another exciting area of turning trash into treasure, the extraction of animal feed from biological trash is one area that has drawn quite a lot of interest of the years. Let’s admit it a lot of our food ends up in the dustbin either as leftovers or spoilt food. Recycling companies can turn this trash into perfectly normal animal feed, thus killing two birds with a single stone. We get to reduce the amount of bio-waste in our landfills while feeding our animals at the same time.
Some of the examples in this field include the use of chicken by-products to feed fish in commercial fish ponds around the world. Pig farms also do make heavy use of by-products to feed their pigs. That said, not all animal feed has to be extracted from the trash as some of it can be made from unwanted by-products from human food such as eggshells, maize stalks, among others.
In Conclusion
As you can see, not all the trash that we produce should end up in a landfill or incinerator. There is significant research and innovation that is going into the use of trash in creative ways for sustainability.
