WasteRush Glossary 3 – M- R
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 LFG?
…LFG – Landfill Gas – the gas that forms in a Landfill is made up of the same gases as natural gas (NG) a fossil fuel. In a Landfill LFG can be captured and used in the same way as natural gas.
*What is MSW ?
…MSW is Municipal Solid Waste – The garbage that every home throws away. It is used as a feedstock to a MRF to be sorted or sent to a Landfill.
WasteRush Glossary 3
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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 #3 – M- R
Material Recovery Facility (MRF) or Recycling Center, Resource Recovery Center – A Materials Recovery, from Waste, Facility, or MRF (pronounced like ‘murf’), receives, separates, and prepares recyclables from a Waste stream to be sold to an end use buyer. A MRF uses a combination of equipment, machines, and manual labor to separate and prepare the materials. A MRF will enhance the ability to process and recycle materials efficiently, by diverting waste from landfills and contributing to the reuse of more materials in an environmentally friendly waste management system.
Methane(CH4) – a greenhouse gas – is a colorless, non-poisonous, flammable greenhouse gas created by the anaerobic decomposition of organic compounds. If captured and managed correctly, it can be used as renewable energy in the same way as natural gas (NG). It is then called RNG. If not captured and managed correctly, it has a more harmful effect on our climate, as a greenhouse gas, than CO2.
Methane has a global warming potential (GWP) of 29.8 ± 11 compared to CO2 (potential of 1) over a 100-year period, and over a 20-year period its warming potential is even higher to a CO2e of 82.5 ± 25.8 warming potential. This means that, for example, a leak of one tonne of methane is equivalent to emitting 82.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric methane levels have increased to about 150% and continue to rise. Homes use methane for domestic heating and cooking, as “natural gas (NG)”. Methane Leaks from Oil and Gas Fields Detected from Space The cheapest method of extracting natural gas, known as “fracking”. Or, when it leaks from gas pipes, or the methane emitted from landfills from the decomposition of biomass. Methane can penetrate the interior of buildings and expose occupants. Methane reduction in our atmosphere is more urgent than most people understand! >>>More about Methane.
MSW – Municipal Solid Waste – refers to any everyday items we use, until they are no longer useful and then want to throw away, such as product packaging, food scraps, newspapers, and appliances. It comes from our homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals. The residential sector is the primary source of MSW, contributing over half of the total waste generated. This includes food scraps, packaging materials, and household items including those that are considered “unrecycable” because they are “dirty/soiled” by definition.
Natural Gas (NG) – Natural Gas is a fossil fuel. It is not a renewable energy resource. (See Also Methane.)
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) – a Greenhouse Gas, commonly known as laughing gas or nitrous is a chemical compound; oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colourless NON-flammable gas, with a slight metallic scent and taste. At hotter temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidizer like molecular oxygen. It is soluble in water. Considered over a 100-year-period, nitrous oxide has 265 times the atmospheric heat-trapping ability of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Since 38% or more of the N2O entering the atmosphere is the result of human activity, and its concentration has increased 15% since 1750, control of nitrous oxide gas emissions is neccessary. Nitrous Oxide and Ozone layer depletion Scientists believe that nitrous oxide is “thinning the ozone layer”. Studies suggest that N2O emissions are now the most ozone-depleting substance (ODS). It appears to exceed CFCs and will stay in the atmosphere throughout the 21st century.
Organic Waste – are waste materials derived from living organisms, such as food, garden and lawn, agricultural wastes, including animal wastes, which decompose naturally, as nature already does. And, as planet Earth has done for millennia, can be recycled and turned into valuable products such as compost or renewable energy.
Organic recycling – Organic recycling refers to collecting, processing, and reusing organic waste materials to create valuable resources such as compost, biogas, and nutrient-rich soil amendments. Organic recycling is the circle of nature. These biodegradable materials break down through natural processes such as composting (aerobic) or anaerobic digestion to transform waste into environmentally beneficial products.
Overshoot Day – Overshoot Day marks the date on which humanity’s demand for mined/extracted resources in a given year exceeds what planet Earth can regenerate in that year.
A single country’s overshoot day marks the date when Earth Overshoot Day would fall if all of humanity consumed at the same level as the people in that country.
Country Overshoot Days are published annually. They are made available at the end of December of the year prior, using the latest data from the most recent edition of the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts – which is now the 2026 edition. Earth Overshoot Day’s date is announced on World Environment Day (June 5).
Ozone (O3)– a Greenhouse Gas – Ozone exists as a gas (and as a atmospheric layer) that shields the planet Earth from certain rays from the sun up high.• Ozone in the “ozone layer” is what filters out sunlight wavelengths from about 200 nm UV rays to 315 nm. The part that remains, UV-B, after going through the ozone layer is what causes sunburn in humans and DNA damage in both plants and animals. These same wavelengths are also those that produce vitamin D in humans.
Tropospheric ozone or Low level ozone is an atmospheric pollutant coming from the reaction of sunlight on air containing hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides that react to form ozone at the source of the pollution near the surface of planet Earth. Ozone is not an emission from car engines or from industrial operations. It reacts with the pollutants as they pass out into the air. These are the first steps in creating smog such as peroxyacyl nitrates, a powerful eye irritant. The atmospheric lifetime of tropospheric (Low) ozone is about 22 days. There is evidence that increased ground-level ozone reduces agricultural yields which interferes with photrosynthesis and stunts growth of some plant species.
Ozone Layer – up high – That “ozone layer” prevents most harmful UVB wavelengths of ultraviolet light (UV light) from passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. These wavelengths cause skin cancer, sunburn and cataracts, which are thought to increase dramatically as a result of thinning ozone, as well as harming plants and animals.
Plasma – The fourth state of matter – the sun is plasma. Most plasmas are created when extra energy is added to a gas, which can occur when gases are heated to very high temperatures. Plasma is one of the four common states of matter – solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Plasma is an electrically charged gas. The main difference between a gas and a plasma is that a plasma’s particles have an electrical charge, they are affected by electrical and magnetic fields.
Plasma Gasification – Plasma Gasifier MSW Recycling does not involve combustion (burning). The waste is heated to much higher temperatures so it melts, vaporizes and then breaks down to the molecular level in the form of a syngas (synthesis gas). This is done by increasing the energy as heat in the form of a super-hot “torch” injected into the gasifier.
Think of the spark plug in a car: electricity feeds into the plug from the battery, makes a lightning-like spark and that spark ignites the fuel that powers your engine. A plasma torch is much bigger using a gas (such as oxygen, nitrogen, or argon) blowing through it.
The plasma torch heats the waste to temperatures anywhere from 1000 (typically) to 15,000°C (1800–27,000°F), melting the waste and turning it into vapor and then syngas. Simple organic (carbon-based) materials cool back down into relatively clean gases; metals and other inorganic wastes fuse and cool to solids. You end up with two products: syngas (an energy-rich mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) and a kind of rocky solid waste not unlike chunks of broken glass.
This type of gasification can accept most waste, with the exception of radioactive and explosive materials. This includes municipal solid waste (MSW), biomass, industrial waste, and even complex wastes, such as hazardous, toxic and medical wastes without any additional treatment requirements.
The Syngas can be converted into a wide range of sustainable energy products, including electricity, diesel, hydrogen, and RNG. (See also Gasification)
Post-consumer material – products/materials that have been used by a consumer and have come to the end of their useful life for that consumer but are still of use in future production of next generation products.
Post-industrial Scrap or Pre-consumer material – a material that has not yet been used by a consumer but is left over after a product is manufactured. Pre-consumer volumes after production use, afford less expense in their management in waste, as they are already in bulk volume.
Recycle, recycling, recycled – any recovery operation by which relevant waste materials are reprocessed to useful materials that can be used again to produce products whether for the original or other purposes.
“Refuse” (the Waste meaning) – Waste materials that are not recyclable or reusable, such as soiled household waste and other items that are NOT able to be cleaned. Some people use the word Refuse to mean any kind of MSW, but others are very specific as to what can go into a Refuse Bin.
Remanufacture – a standardised industrial process of remanufacturers by which used parts and components are returned to same-as-new, or better condition and performance, by “remanufacturing” them. The process, which is fully documented, is in line with specific technical specifications, including engineering, quality and testing standards. The process yields fully warranted products, usually at some lower price. Remanufacturing is at the heart of the circular economy, an important recycling – reuse process.
Renewable Energy – Types of Renewable Energy such as solar, wind, wave and the gas produced in a garbage dump, are constantly renewed or come from natural phenomena that are ever continuous and unlimited.
Renewable natural gas (RNG) – is a pipeline-quality gas that is fully interchangeable with conventional natural gas (NG) and thus can be used in natural gas vehicles, and other processes. Unlike fossil fuel which is finite, RNG will continue to be ever available. Example – we humans will never run out of garbage.
Renewable raw material – (By definition this strikes out mining and drilling in the surface of planet Earth! Such materials are finite. Eventually, planet Earth will not have any more, including fossil fuels.) A form of Waste or by-product from agriculture that remains after a crop has been harvested and is renewed because man keeps making it or growing it; the stalks of a corn harvest are harvested and not meant as food = a byproduct that contains carbon = energy. Garbage keeps piling up as man makes more of it…it can be a renewable feedstock in the generation of Landfill Gas (LFG). Presently we have too much of it, but we are learning to use more of it.
Replace with Waste – Like https://gomi.design/ – A strategy to replace new resource materials (fresh feedstocks) in your operations/production line with waste materials, or Post Consumer used materials, that satisfactorily perform the same function, thereby using less virgin materials, and maybe reducing GHG emissions.
Resource recovery – the strategy to recover reusable materials instead of mining new resources. (See also MRF)
ReUse – any operation by which products or components that have reached the useful end of their first lives, but are still useful, are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived or another.
Reverse logistics or Reverse Supply Chain Market – The process of sending products, components or materials at the end of their consumer useful lives, back through the supply chain for reuse, reconditioning, remanufacture, or recycling.
RDF – Refuse Derived Fuel – Another truely distorted Waste Market/product/commodity. In many countries where the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) projects were conducted, Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) use is being aggressively promoted by government, heavy industry, and even supported by the United Nations Development Programme as a fossil fuel alternative that “reduces carbon emissions.”
But science shows this claim is baseless. To make this dubious claim, industry relies on discounting the carbon emissions from the paper, cardboard, and timber parts of RDF, which they claim are ‘renewable’ energy sources. They may be constantly available, but they emit GHGs. This creative carbon accounting has long been debunked, because the climate makes no distinction between fossil fuel carbon and RDF carbon emissions. “Burning Waste” is NOT climate friendly.
WasteRush Glossary 3
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
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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 !