Published: April 28, 2009 07:56 am      

Eastern professor advocates localized recycling complexes

While recycling efforts in the United States have come a long way in the past decade, an Eastern Kentucky University professor still sees room for improvement.

Dr. Joe Beck, a professor in EKU’s Department of Environmental Health Science who has more than 30 years of experience with environmental health issues involving risk communications and assessment issues, advocates that the system could be dramatically improved if solid waste materials collected were re-purposed in local facilities rather than shipped to other regions to be made into the new products.

The concept of a waste research park, where a broad range of materials could be separated, refined or converted and made into new products at the same location, was first presented by Beck several years ago in a study he did with EKU colleague Dr. Steve Konkel for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Pacific Northwest Laboratory.

The study came after Beck served as co-chairman with then-vice president George Bush on his Task Force on Environment and Health from 1984 to 1988 and advised him on environmental health policy issues related to high-level nuclear waste disposal.

The study proposed providing strategically located parks consisting of separation and conversion facilities, research and product standards laboratories, and industries that convert the materials into products and fuels. A broad range of secondary material resources would be derived from solid waste, demolition debris, coal waste, landscape trimmings, used tires, scrap metal, agricultural residue, food processing residue and other non-hazardous forms.

Energy conversion systems, using some waste streams as fuel, also were recommended for use in such parks to supplement energy demands of the industrial operations. The close proximity of the resource providers and user industries would also minimize transportation costs and provide a test case for an “industrial ecology” approach to sustainable economic development, according to the study findings.

Beck and Konkel, with engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a representative from Pacific Northwest, presented the concept for recycling and research complexes at the International Solid Waste Association in 1992, but “due to the change of administrations, the priorities shifted,” Beck noted.

With the nation’s heightened awareness and interest in protecting the environment, he hopes there will now be more interest in making the concept a reality.

“While the interest in recycling has grown, so have the opportunities for making the cycle more energy efficient,” Beck explained. “As fuel prices rise, so does the problem with recycling. It must be done regionally to be cost effective.”

Beck cites the recycling of carpet as an example.

“Carpet used in Kentucky can be taken to a local recycling plant, but that is only the first stage,” he said. “The nearest facility where it can actually be re-used is in Georgia — and that shipping makes it much less cost-effective.”

The move in recent years toward being more ecologically responsible also makes the idea of a “one-stop” shop even more relevant.

“The products made with the ‘secondary resource’ must be of higher quality to address the issues of sustainability,” he added. “Constant research into most appropriate resource use is also essential to reduce the carbon footprint of the refinement of the secondary resource at each stage of the recycling process.”

Beck notes that currently more than 1,800 businesses in North America are involved in recycling post-consumer plastics, triple the number of a few years ago.

“Even with this considerable numbers increase, most plastic waste products end up in our local landfills, which equals unacceptable economic and environmental cost,” he said.

Beck can be reached at joe.beck@eku.edu or 1-859-622-6359.