The most common types of organic waste are agricultural, food and animal matter. You can recycle domestic organic waste by making a compost pile in your backyard. Organic waste recycling recreates the way nature breaks down organic materials. If you live in a cold area, keep your compost in the sun. If you live in a warm or dry area, keep it in the shade.
The 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) is an approach to sustainable waste management based on a philosophy of cascading where the full resource value of materials is utilised. The 3Rs can substantially decrease the amount of waste to be disposed of and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions both from the waste sector and from other sectors.
Generally speaking, while organic waste generation can be reduced, it cannot be completely eliminated. Reuse of organic wastes (e.g. the use of food waste as animal feed) directly contributes to avoided GHG emissions from the reduced need for production. Recycling of organic waste (e.g. composting and anaerobic digestion) can reduce net GHG emissions, but its efficiency depends on the technology and operating conditions.
The quantity of organic waste has increased with the urbanisation of developing Asia. For instance, the urban population of China in 2000 was approximately 36% of the total population and increased to 43% in 2005. Accordingly, the China Urban Construction Statistical Yearbook recorded that the quantity of municipal solid waste collected in 2000 was approximately 118 million tonnes and increased to 156 million tonnes in 2005. The waste in China consists of around 50% food waste and 15% paper, so assuming that waste composition remained constant, organic waste in China was estimated to have increased by 31% over this five-year period.
Methane emissions from municipal solid waste treatment in Asia have increased substantially. The Vietnamese Government, for example, reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from solid waste treatment increased fourfold between 1994 and 2000, and the sector’s contribution to the total national GHG emissions increased from 0.9% in 1994 to 3.7% in 2000. Current GHG emissions from solid waste treatment could be much higher, not only because of an increase in waste generation but also due to an increase in the rate of waste collection and in the expanding use of landfill disposal.
The experiences of using landfill gas recovery systems in the region however, are not very encouraging. For instance, a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project on landfill gas recovery for electricity generation in Wuxi, China, was estimated to provide an 18% methane emission reduction from 2005-2008, but the methane emission reduction achieved was only 12% of the baseline emissions, and the electricity generation only reached 60% of the target output.
The region faces difficulties in managing waste in an environmentally sound manner due largely to budget and personnel constraints. Current priorities of many municipalities are to increase the coverage of waste collection services, to construct new disposal sites and to improve existing disposal sites towards engineered landfills. Most landfills, including those constructed recently, do not have gas collection systems. The percentage of organic waste recovery in most countries is low and from a climate perspective, these trends are worrying.
When organic waste is exposed to oxygen, such as during the composting process, it can be very good for the soil. It decomposes to create nutrient-rich compost that can be used on farms and in gardens, or it can be processed for mulch or soil amendment. In the past, because of a lack of organics recycling services, we have primarily mined the power of organics from materials that were disposed of in a landfill. Organic waste in a landfill decomposes and generates methane or as is more commonly referred to as “landfill gas.” Many landfills across the country already capture this methane with gas-to-energy facilities that either generate electricity for the grid or used as an alternative for natural gas. While that’s a start, now so much more can be accomplished with organics recycling.
I think the most resource of organic waste is house hold waste and the human habitation,The most of the environmental protection agency use this type of waste for the recycling process.