Waste in Ecological EconomicsKaty Bisson, John L. R. Proops Edward Elgar, 2002 - 209 pages Waste is a quintessentially ecological economic issue. The generation of waste is rooted in the very laws of nature, but waste is also a social construct, and what we understand to be waste has evolved with human societies. Therefore, a crucial issue in modern waste management is the understanding of attitudes towards waste. This book examines the ecological economics approach to waste, its conceptualisation and management. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the issue of waste, the authors utilise an array of disciplinary approaches from both natural and social sciences. They begin by considering waste through the thermodynamics of production processes, and through an assessment of the history of waste. Building on this physical-social background, they concentrate on specific aspects of waste policy. These include the public's attitude towards waste, the economics of waste, and the laws and regulations surrounding waste disposal. Further chapters look in detail at the three main types of waste being generated by modern societies: municipal, toxic and nuclear waste. This path-breaking book seeks to lay the basis for a general conceptualisation of waste in ecological economics and to elucidate the main issues relating to waste generation and management. This is a comprehensive analysis of waste as a concept, and as an issue for humans as both producers and consumers. It will be of great value to ecological economists, waste managers and environmental policy analysts. |
From inside the book
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... Exergy is defined to be the maximum amount of work obtainable from a system as it approaches thermodynamic equilibrium with its environment in a reversible way ( Szargut et al . , 1988 , p . 7 ) . Exergy is also commonly called ...
... exergy . It is typically provided by burning coke , which , for the purpose of this analysis can be taken to be pure ... exergy values and molecular weights of the chemicals involved in the reaction are given in Table 2.1 . Table 2.1 ...
... exergy for four moles of Fe to be produced from Fe2O3 . We compensate for this shortage of exergy on the input side by introducing one additional unit of the exergy source C. The reaction equation should , thus , be written down as ...
Contents
PARTI PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES | 7 |
Figures | 23 |
Tables | 26 |
Copyright | |
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