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CT: Recycling green waste as compost could match the environmental benefits of converting it into renewable energy, in terms of CO2 savings, according to new German research. It suggests that the two forms of waste management should be seen as complementary and both should receive subsidies.
Green waste is biodegradable waste, usually from gardens and parks, and includes grass, hedge trimmings, leaves and tree trunks. It can be used to produce energy in biomass power stations and receives a renewable energy subsidy in Germany. It can also be recycled as compost, which reduces the extraction of peat –an important sink for CO2. However, composting does not receive financial support in Germany. The EU is currently developing policy to encourage composting and develop standards for composting across the EU.
S: EC – http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/191na2_en.pdf (last access: 22 February 2015)
N: 1. Late 14c., compote, from Old French composte “mixture of leaves, manure, etc., for fertilizing land” (13c.), also “condiment,” from Vulgar Latin composita, noun use of fem. of Latin compositus, past participle of componere “to put together” (see composite). The fertilizer sense is attested in English from 1580s, and the French word in this sense is a 19th century borrowing from English.
2. Biomass is matter usually thought of as garbage. Some of it is just stuff lying around -dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left-over crops, wood chips (like in the picture to the right), and bark and sawdust from lumber mills. It can even include used tires and livestock manure.
Your trash, paper products that can’t be recycled into other paper products, and other household waste are normally sent to the dump. Your trash contains some types of biomass that can be reused. Recycling biomass for fuel and other uses cuts down on the need for “landfills” to hold garbage.
This stuff nobody seems to want can be used to produce electricity, heat, compost material or fuels. Composting material is decayed plant or food products mixed together in a compost pile and spread to help plants grow.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=compost&searchmode=none (last access: 22 February 2015). 2. http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter10.html (last access: 22 February 2015).
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CR: biomass, biomass energy, composting, fermentation, manure, organic fertilizer.
