In the light of our PerfectCity Charter Issue No. 5 Social Services, we would like to focus on one factor of our current poll: Refuse management. Mainly, we are interested in future solutions of coping with waste, which direct leads to questions like “How will future waste disposal look like?”, “What are alternatives to conventional waste disposals?”, ect..

Pollution problems resulting from the disposal of human waste are a well-known phenomena these days. In times of an ever growing world population and the concentration of this growth in urban centers, waste is produced in excessive amounts. Our conventional waste disposals are almost cramped and overstrained to handle all this waste. New ideas are needed!

One alternative to conventional waste disposals could be a bioreactor landfill. This landfill operates to rapidly transform and degrade organic waste. The increase in waste degradation and stabilization is accomplished through the addition of liquid and air to enhance microbial processes. By efficiently designing and operating a landfill, the life of a landfill can be extended by as much as 20 years.

Another idea of a future waste disposal concept is the Living Machines. Dr. Jon Todd, a biologist working in the field of ecological design, has created Living Machines. His goal is to introduce sustainable alternatives to conventional waste disposal, fuel production, heating and cooling, air purification, and food production. The key to accomplishing these tasks is through ecological engineering. In principle, a living machine is an ecologically engineered technology developed to restore, conserve, or remediate sewage or other polluted water, by replicating and accelerating the natural purification processes of streams, ponds and marshes. In practical application, a living machine is a self-contained treatment system designed to treat a specific waste stream using the principles of ecological engineering. It does this by using diverse communities of bacteria and other micro-organisms, algae, plants, trees, snails, fish and other living creatures. Read more about this interesting idea here and here.

What do you think about these ideas? Do you other examples, for instance for recycling non-organic materials?

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