Topic 2 Flashcards
resource and reserves
RESOURCE = stock or supply of a physical material / the amount that exists in both undiscovered and discovered deposits
e.g. oil, water, coal, soil, air
RESERVE = proven resources that can be economically and technically extracted
e.g. oil fields, areas with sunlight, coal mine
renewable and non-renewable resources
renewable = resources that continue to exist despite being consumed or can replenish themselves over time even as they are used
- e.g. wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydropower (dams)
non-renewable = a resource that doesn’t replenish itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable use
- e.g. coal, petroleum, natural gas, fossil fuels, minerals
waste mitigation strategies
reduce or eliminate materials directed to landfills
WMS examples
- Re-use = reuse the same product in the same or different context
- Repair = reconstruction or renewal of any part of an existing product
- Re-engineer = redesign components or products to improve their characteristics or performance (speed, energy, consumption)
- Recycle = using the materials from obsolete products to create the products
- Recondition = rebuilding a product so it’s in an “as new” condition
- Dematerialisation = reducing the quantities of materials –> “do more with less”
- e.g. shifting from paper to digital communication, fossil fuels to solar power
methods for designing out waste
- Circular Economy
- Energy Recovery
- WEEE Recovery
- Raw material recovery
- Recycling
- Dematerialization
raw material recovery
process of separating the parts of a product to recover the parts and materials
WEEE recovery
WEEE is a complex mixture of materials and components from electrical products that can cause environmental and health problems if not properly managed because of their hazardous content
energy recovery
generating energy in the form of electricity/heat from the primary treatment of waste
- e.g. waste-to-energy (WtE) –> produces electricity/heat through combustion
life cycle analysis (LCA)
assesses environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life from cradle to grave
circular economy
the use of waste as a resource within a closed-loop system
- maximizing the use of resources and minimizing waste by keeping products, materials, and resources in use for as long as possible
external drivers and social change
- waste charges
- energy costs
- public opinion
- environmental comp
energy utilization, storage, and distribution
goal is to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products or services
- e.g. driving less to conserve energy
embodied energy
all energy needed to produce and maintain a product or service.
- it’s valuable for calculating the effectiveness of an energy-producing/saving device
components of embodied energy
- Materials: Energy used to extract and produce materials
- Transport: Energy used to transport the materials to the factory or the building site
- Assembly: Energy used to construct the building or create the product
- Recurring: Energy used to maintain parts of the building, or to use the product
- Recycling: Energy used to recycle the components at the end-of-life.
distributing energy
how electricity is distributed along the grid and the energy loss involved from small source collection and delivery to large scale and its effect on the environment
- National and international grids are not designed for small-scale energy producers to feed electricity into so only efficient at a large scale.
- Smart Grid technologies allow for small-scale and sustainable energy producers to provide power
