Regional secondary resource utilization parks: The industrial parks of the future

摘要

Obstacles currently facing the solid waste recycling industry are often related to lack of public and investor confidence, issues of profitability and liability, and insufficient consumer identification with products made from recycled materials. Resolution of these issues may not be possible without major changes in the way the solid waste recycling business is structured. One potential solution takes the form of the secondary resource utilization park. The premise is simple: Provide a strategically located facility where a broad range of secondary resources are separated, refined or converted, and made into new products on the site. The secondary material resources would come from municipal solid waste, demolition waste, landscape trimmings, used tires, scrap metal, agricultural waste, food processing waste, and other non-hazardous forms. The park would consist of separation and conversion facilities, research and product standards laboratories, and industries that convert the materials into products and fuels. Energy conversion systems using some waste streams as fuel could be located at the park to supplement energy demands of the industrial operations. The strategic co-location of the resource providers and user industries would also minimize transportation costs and could provide a test case for an ''industrial ecology'' approach to sustainable economic development.