Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
engineering materials that are mined out of the earth and fabricated into
diverse market products. Attheendoftheproduct“lifecycle”(oftendefined
merely in terms of its unacceptable esthetics rather than its functionality),
it is reclassified as waste that has to be disposed of to make room for the
next batch of improved replacements. The mining of raw materials and
their preprocessing, whether it be oil, metal ore, or a fuel gas, are also
as a rule energy intensive operations. Air and water resources used are
“commons resources” available at no cost to the miners (
Fig. 1.2
). With no
legal ownership, the users tend to overexploit these resources (or pollute
it) to maximize individual gain. Naturally, in time, the resource will be
processes, however, are not fully reflected in what the users pay for in
a given product. Often, a community, a region, or even the entire global
population is left to deal with the environmental effects of the disposal of
waste generated during manufacture. The use of these ever-expanding lines
of products, made available in increasing quantities each year to serve a
growing population, presents an enormous demand on the Earth's resource
base.
Figure 1.2
Rio Tinto (Red River) in Southwestern Spain devastated and
tinted red from copper mining over several thousand years.
The notion of “ecological footprint (EF)” (Reese, 1996, 1997) illustrates
the problem faced by the world at large. EF is defined as the hectares of
productive land and water theoretically required to produce on a continuing
