I have provided links that anyone interested in Zero Waste might want to view. Take a look and learn!
This is an operational pyrolyzer somewhere in the world. It shows the process for how it is done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HAx0odJbgM
This is s video created by residents of Logansport who are fighting the largest proposed pyrolysis incinerator in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GKz7Vti5no
A description of how biomass, in this case, wood chips and sawdust, is incinerated in a pyrolyzer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PItlQZC5_-4
After you see that, read the Letter to the Editor posted on June 21, 2014 in the Gainesville Sun at their website regarding the Gainesville Florida biomass incinerator’s appetite for wood, and how it has devastated the environment.
Capannori, Italy, adopted Zero Waste plan long before it was fashionable. Google “capannori italy zero waste” and an interesting story is revealed. Today, as a result of that community’s actions, over 117 Italian communities have adopted Zero Waste policies, creating jobs, reducing landfill use, while preventing more than 50 new incinerators from being built.
http://www.zerowasteeurope.eu/2013/09/the-story-of-capannori-a-zero-waste-champion/
Urban Ore is a company that implements Zero Waste in Berkley, CA, diverting between 7,000 and 8,000 tons of waste from that city’s landfill. It reuses, recycles, refurbishes, etc., things that normally go into the ground, creating 38 jobs that average over double the minimum wage, while including health coverage for all employees that is fully paid for by the company. They were in Fredericksburg on June 13th, but only one City Council member and no Stafford Board of Supervisor member took the time to learn. I guess it is better to remain ignorant, for plausible deniability purposes.
Read the report from the Berkley City Manager to the Mayor and City Council on how they are achieving their zero waste goal, how they have been stuck at 75% diversion since 2010, and their plan remedy that to go much higher.
This link has some interesting data, specifically describing how Delaware regulations require that no incinerator be built within 3 miles of residences, communities, schools, parks, churches, etc. What is within 2 miles of the incinerator site? Brooke Point High School, Stafford Middle School, Stafford Hospital, Marian Manor (Alzheimer care), the Senior Center. The new Cliff Farm school site is less than 1 mile from that site.
http://www.greendel.org/2013/08/09/new-castle-de-threatened-by-tire-incinerator/
And this link describes the full rationale that the State of Delaware used for blocking an incinerator in New Castle, DE.
The Zero Waste Alliance’s motto: Creating a prosperous and inclusive future without waste. See how it can be done.
Zero Waste International Alliance, another great source for how and why.
Wikipedia quotes the Zero Waste Alliance: “Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them. Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_waste
Eco-cycle provides a great list of how to deal with discards, an A-Z recycling guide. It also describes the Production-Consumption-Disposal System that most of the world uses, showing why it is broken. They have a great video there as well on zero waste.
http://www.ecocycle.org/zerowaste
San Francisco adopted a Zero Waste policy and is well on its way to implementing it by 2020. Go to the city/county website and see what they are doing, and why.
http://www.sfenvironment.org/zero-waste