WasteRush Glossary 2 – E-L
Words / Initials / Acronyms that you might want to know as we ALL learn to Value and Use our Waste to Clean our Climate.
*Have you ever wondered what is meant by Incentivize?
…Incentivize – a new way to say: encourage, inspire, arouse, motivate, spur on, stir to action
*What is EPR?
…EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility – Especially in the age of Waste Plastic, EPR is a new environmental policy that is applied to producers to extend their responsibility to include the end of their product’s useful life. In other words – “we consumers are not the only ones responsible for dealing with the product you made. You have to help us move it to it’s next use, after we use it.” Today, this applies mostly to plastic, e-waste and glass packaging, but more types of products are being added as the EPR policy takes hold.
WasteRush Glossary 2
If you do not find a word that you are looking for,
please let me know so I can add it !
The links for each term offer you more information about it.
ALL the WasteRush Glossary posts are now together in one post.
The WasteRush Glossary #2 – E-L :
Electronic Waste or e-Waste – is waste that consists of electronic products at the end of their useful life. Many e-waste products can be reused, repaired or recycled, and government are now mandating that e-waste is recycled, not thrown away.
End of life of a product, End of “one Use” – the life cycle stage that begins when a product is no longer of use to the consumer who bought it. We now consider this the end of the product’s “first life”, after which it is broken down into it’s components that are then used as the feed stocks of another new product.
Nov 10, 2025 – Are big brands doing enough to reduce plastic waste? In this video, we dive deep into the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)—a powerful policy tool
EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility – is an approach to environmental policy in which a producer’s responsibility for their product is extended to include the post-consumer stage of a product, specifically what happens to the product when the consumer is finished with it. Today, this applies mostly to plastic, e-waste, glass and other forms of packaging.
When producers face the financial or physical burden of recycling their products after use, they may be motivated to design more easily recyclable products or that last longer.
ESG – Environment, Society, Governance – (ESG) is shorthand for an investing principle that prioritizes the issues of environmental, social, and corporate or other governance. “Even if your business isn’t looking for investment, adopting an ESG framework has benefits – from reducing risk and lowering costs to improving reputation and attracting new customers.”
e-waste – (electronic waste) – E-waste is a term used to describe electronic devices, powered by a plug, cable or battery, that are no longer in use, have become obsolete, or are at the end of their useful life. E-waste includes a broad range of electronic devices, including computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, televisions, printers, and other household appliances. These devices contain valuable materials such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, and rare earth elements and hazardous materials that can cause harm to the environment and human health if not disposed of properly.
Food Waste – is food that is intended for human consumption that is wasted and lost from agriculture and food preparation by commercial establishments, including grocery stores, restaurants, produce stands, institutional cafeterias, kitchens and food industry sources.
Food Waste – is food that is intended for human consumption that is wasted and lost from agriculture and food preparation by commercial establishments, including grocery stores, restaurants, produce stands, institutional cafeterias, kitchens and food industry sources.
Composting can significantly reduce food waste while also providing fertilizer for your own gardens. When food waste is composted, carbon is returned to our soils which are the largest terrestrial carbon sink/storage. This can help remove carbon from our atmosphere while providing benefits to our soil. Composting reduces pollution, reuses organic waste, reduces the cost of fertilizers and agricultural production inputs and more importantly, returns nutrients needed for food production back to the soil
Gasification – is a technology that converts carbon-based materials, such as Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), biomass, etc, into another form of energy without burning it. It is a hot partial oxidation process, that occurs in a limited or no oxygen atmosphere, causing a chemical transformation of solid or liquid waste into Syngas. Faced with growing and costly MSW disposal and the need to reduce and use GHG emissions, a growing number of countries are turning to Gasification; a tested and climate sensitive way to convert MSW into useful SynGas for transportation, energy fuels, chemicals and Electricity. The MSW disappears!
Conventional incineration facilities can burn 1 ton of MSW into about 550 kilowatt-hours of electricity. However, Gasification can turn the same 1 ton of MSW into syngas that can produce up to 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and also makes the MSW disappear.
GHG – Greenhouse gas (GHG) – are a category of gases that absorb heat energy emitted from the planet’s surface and then hold them in planet Earth’s atmosphere for a long time (from decades to centuries). Though they make up only a small portion of the atmosphere (less than 1% of all air molecules), GHGs absorb heat energy and re-radiate some of it back toward planet Earth’s surface. They’re called “greenhouse gases” because they trap heat somewhat similar to how a greenhouse allows in the sun’s rays and then holds their heat in, warming the greenhouse.
Greenwashing – when a company spends more time and money advertising their “claims to be green” than “actually being green”. This is Greenwashing. It is a PR tactic used to make a company or product appear environmentally friendly, without meaningfully reducing its environmental impact.
Hazardous Waste – waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and consists of four key traits: ignitability, reactivity, corrosivity, and toxicity.
Hydrofluorocarbons (incl. HCFCs and HFCs)
– a Greenhouse Gas
Hydrofluorocarbons are organic compounds that contain fluorine and hydrogen atoms. They are the most common type of organofluorine . Hydrofluorocarbons replace the older chlorofluorocarbons (CFC). They do not harm the ozone layer as much as the compounds they replace; but they do contribute to global warming. Their levels are increasing and causing international concern about their effect on climate. On 15 October 2016, negotiators from 197 nations reached a legally-binding accord to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in an amendment to the Montreal Protovcol. The same protocol that controls the use of CFCs.
Incentivize – a new word for: encourage, inspire, energize, arouse, motivate, invigorate, spur on, stir to action. Provide (someone) with the incentive to do something.
Incineration – controlled aerobic burning to make waste disappear and/or produce electricity. Also known as (WtE). Considered, today, not to be environmentally sound or efficient. It makes Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disappear, but the facility requires expensive filtration of the smoke it produces to filter out GHGs and other pollutants, it consumes huge volumes of MSW to the extent that recovering useful recyclable materials is ignored! (see also Solid Waste Combustion)
Landfill – the modern word for a Garbage Dump. The world is covered with landfills. Where ever there are human communities there are Landfills. We need to use them wisely.
Landfill Diversion – the act of diverting (using instead) more materials from being thrown into Landfills. Resource recovery/recycling strategies ensure that useful materials continue to be used. Our Assurance of Future Resources.
Leachate – When it rains on a Landfill, the rain seeps into the garbage, combines with the chemicals and bacteria in the garbage and collects at the bottom of the landfill. This leachate is dangerous stuff, that if it then seeps into the ground below the landfill, can contaminate the soil and any water reservoirs under the landfill. In a Sanitary engineered landfill, the leachate is collected and diverted to a facility that filters out the contaminants. (see Sanitary Landfill)
LFG – Landfill Gas – gas that forms in a Landfill by the process of anaerobic digestion is made up of nearly the same gases as natural gas (NG). The gas is captured from the Landfill by sucking it out through pipes. Depending on the size of the landfill, LFG can be captured for many years, even after the Landfill is closed. It can be filtered and used as renewable natural gas (RNG) with lower emissions or directly to produce Electricity.
Life cycles of a product – the consecutive and interlinked stages of a product’s life, from raw material acquisition (feed stock), pre-processing, production of something, warehoused, distribution, use, and end-of-life, also know as Post consumption. The product can receive maintenance, repair,
upgrading, refurbishment or remanufacture and reuse, for additional life cycles.
Linear Economy / Industry – The old system that the world has used up until recently that “causes Waste” – take-make-waste economy.
WasteRush Glossary 2
All Four pages of the WasteRush Glossary:
A-D WasteRush Glossary 1
E-L WasteRush Glossary 2
M-R WasteRush Glossary 3
WasteRush Glossary 4 – S-Z
Waste; Our Assurance of future Resources
– posts on the subject:
Hard-To-Recycle Waste – What Do You Have? What Are You Looking For?
WasteRush is Now! Tools to Sell & Buy Waste Commodities!
Wasterush Tools! Right To The Point! like commodities
Waste Online Tools! There Are More Of Them!
Harvesting Waste Ideas. Waste Rushes? NOW!
Industrial Zone – Closed-Loop Networking
Cigarette Butts: Pick Them Up Off The Street!
e-waste recycling
Urban Mining ! – More Important Than Ever
Critical Minerals & Rare Elements! ….. COLOSSAL WASTE RUSH
Municiple Solid Waste (MSW)
“Renewable Energy Stations”- replace Landfills in the Future
Useful Green WASTE Business Ideas That Can Scale To Any Size You Can Use.
Anaerobic Digestion In Full Swing – #1 Waste To Energy?
CNG, LNG, RNG Fuelling Stations – #2 Waste To Energy
#3 Municipal Solid Waste – MSW To BioFuel? Yes!
How To Get More Electricity For Your Community – Worldwide
Landfill Gas Projects Worldwide – – – Clean Up The Air, Now!
water-sanitation-toilets
#1 Leaky Toilets Are Everyones Business!
– series of 7 posts on water, sanitation, toilets
Plastic
Climate Proof Your Oil-Plastic Products! Win the Challenge!
Waste Plastic Upcycle Businesses – Opportunities, Opportunities!
– series of 5+ posts on waste plastic businesses
Jobs! With The Ocean Cleanup INTERCEPTOR™ Business!, +1000+ ECO Jobs!
COVID 19 Waste – Pick It Up Off The Street!
IMPORTANT! What Is The Future of Precious Plastic: UPDATE!
Mushroom / Mycelium
Mycelium In Industry – Ancient And New
– series of 15 posts on Mycelium in Industry
Printing Industry
Eco-Printing & Packaging EQUIPMENT They were the first to turn Circular!
Thoses posts about wastes that need present action!!!
Too Much Methane !
Why We Need To Capture Landfill Gas – – -Right Now!
Wipes – Human Behavior & False Advertising
Job Vacancies In Green Companies < More Now !