Introduction to Sustainability Road to a Better Future [Hardcover]

This book develops a supporting structure for sustainable development, following a natural set of steps to reach an established goal. It provides the tools to navigate this Road to a Better Future by explaining concepts, giving ideas, proposing methods, and suggesting actions. To illustrate the utilization of techniques there are many examples, applied to a variety of activities, and to wrap up concepts, the last chapter is dedicated to the analysis of a community in search of a sustainable environment. A thematic index has been designed to help a person quickly find information on relevant topics.

Sustainability relates with Economics, Society, and Environment. However, one common fact that links them all is the generation of waste. This chapter is divided into two: The first part analyses the current generation of waste as well as its treatment. The second intends to establish policies for the future treatment of waste or, better yet, for ceasing the generation of waste. This first part begins by raising some capital questions: What is waste? Which are the components of waste? Where is waste generated? and How is waste treated? The second part will deal with: Why is waste produced? and What is society doing to correct this problem? 2. 2 First part: Current generation and treatment of waste 2. 2. 1 What is waste? The dictionary defines waste as something useless, unwanted, or defective and the word by-product as something produced in an industrial or biological process in addition to the principal product. From the point of view of sustainability, the word waste does not have that meaning as, though it may be unwanted, it is not something useless and is certainly not defective. Even if in a manufacturing process a product or part of it does not conform to the manufacturers quality specs, it does not thereby become waste, but is, rather scrap material that is usually brought back to its original statl4