Dealing with solid waste - Integrated waste management There are several ways to deal with solid waste, but the most sustainable approach is likely an integrated waste management program, where waste disposal and waste reduction are both used to handle waste. The following flowchart illustrates the general process of an integrated waste management program. Use the two dropdown menus below the illustration to complete the chart. Through recycling, reuse, and compost programs, the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has become a global leader in sustainable urban waste management. Edmonton reuses and recycles
15%
of its municipal solid wastes (MSW) and composts another
45%
; with these numbers, this means that Edmonton may only have
−
of its MSW heading to the incinerator and/or landfill. (For comparison, in the United States,
54%
​
of MSW gets buried in landfills.) One of the main reasons for Edmonton's leadership in waste management is its ever-continuing efforts of building advanced technologies to process MSW. For example, at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, the Waste-to-Biofuels Facility (see image) is currently being built and will be the world's first industrial-scale facility to produce biofuels from MSW. Expected to be operational by the end of 2014, it aims to convert 100,000 metric tons
(110,231
US tons) of any nonrecyclable and noncompostable MSW into 36 million liters
(9,510,194
gallons) of biofuels every year. As an extra benefit, these efforts are also projected to reduce Alberta's carbon dioxide
(CO 2
​
)
footprint by 6 million metric tons
(6,613,868
US tons) over the next 25 years; this decrease in
CO 2
​
emissions is equivalent to removing 42,000 cars from the road every year. Compare the sets of arrows-blue (A), green (B), and brown (C)-from the preceding flowchart with what you know about the different strategies of integrated waste management. By not sending nonrecyclable and noncompostable MSW to the landfill and, instead, using it to make biofuels, this new facility in Edmonton reorganizes its original strategy on waste , as represented by the arrows in the preceding flowchart. When dealing with the solid waste that is created by industries and communities, environmental scientists urge waste prevention should be the main priority, followed by waste reduction and, lastly, by waste management. Given these priorities, which of the following should be a main priority for the City of Edmonton? Check all that apply. Convince businesses to redesign products to use less energy and materials. Ensure that all new products are easy to repair and reuse. Eliminate unnecessary packaging.