Discards
Handler
Hauler
Industrial Scrap
Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Non-Durable Goods
Packaging Efficiency
Plastic
Plastics Recovery Facility
Post-Consumer
Recovered Material
Recycling
Resource Conservation
Source Reduction
Styrofoam
Waste-to-Energy (WTE)
Densification
A process that lowers the volume-to-weight ratio in order to reduce shipping costs. Baling is the most common form of densification, although some handlers of post-consumer plastics granulate or grind collected material.
Discards
The components of municipal solid waste (MSW) remaining after recovery forrecycling and composting. These discards are presumably combusted or disposed of in landfills, although some MSW is littered, stored, disposed of on site or burned on site, particularly in rural areas.
Handler
An organization that prepares recyclable plastics by sorting, densifying and/or storing the material until a sufficient quantity is on hand. When the handler completes processing, the material is not ready to be manufactured into a new product, but it has been made more valuable.
Hauler
A company that transports post-consumer and other materials to a handler or other processor.
Industrial Scrap
Any plastic resin or products, such as factory regrind and plant scrap, recycled outside of the primary manufacturing facility. Also referred to as post-industrial or pre-consumer plastics.
A facility that receives materials in a form unacceptable by the marketplace. The MRF separates, removes contamination, sorts, densifies, and stores recyclable material types. Each material is prepared to meet the requirements of a specific market. MRFs are generally considered handlers.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
A phrase for garbage generated from residential, commercial, institutional and industrial sources that falls into six basic categories: durable goods, non-durable goods, containers and packaging, food wastes, yard trimmings and miscellaneous organic and inorganic wastes. Wastes from these categories include appliances, newspapers, clothing, food scraps, boxes, disposable tableware, office and classroom paper, wood pallets and cafeteria wastes.
Non-Durable Goods
Consumer goods with a useful life of less than three years that include; newspapers, paper towels, plastic cups and plates, disposable diapers, clothing, footwear and other items.
Packaging Efficiency
A quantification of the efficiency by which competing packaging materials deliver product to market. It is derived by comparing the volume of product delivered per pound of packaging. It is one way to quantify the achievement of source reduction, i.e., delivering the most product per unit of packaging.
Plastic
(1) One of many high-polymeric substances, including both natural and synthetic products, but excluding the rubbers. At some stage in its manufacture, every plastic is capable of flowing, under heat and pressure if necessary, into the desired final shape. (2) Made of plastic; capable of flow under pressure or tensile stress.
Plastics Recovery Facility
A facility that receives recyclable plastics and then separates, removes contamination, sorts by resin type and color, condenses, and stores the segregated plastic types. Sorted plastic bottles and containers are then baled and shipped to recycling markets.
Post-Consumer
Any plastic that has entered the stream of commerce, served its intended purpose, and has now been diverted for recycling or export. This includes residential, commercial and institutional plastic. This does not include industrial scrap material like factory regrind and plant scrap used within the primary manufacturing facility.
Recovered Material
Materials and by-products that have been recovered (or diverted) from solid waste. It does not include those materials and by-products generated from and commonly reused within an original manufacturing process (industrial scrap).
Recycling
The series of activities by which discarded materials are collected, sorted, processed and converted into raw materials and used in the production of new products.
Resource Conservation
A wide array of activities that include reducing the energy consumed and pollution generated during manufacture and over the useful life of a product; extending the life of material used to make a product initially; utilizing options available for recovering value from materials when they are ultimately discarded, such as energy recovery and fuel pellets.
Source Reduction
The design, manufacture, use or reuse of materials or products (including packages) to reduce their amount or toxicity throughout their useful life and when they are reused, recycled, landfilled or incinerated. Because it is intended to reduce pollution and conserve resources, source reduction should not increase the net amount or toxicity of wastes generated throughout the life of a product. Source reduction is sometimes referred to as waste prevention.
Styrofoam
Styrofoam is a trademarked name for a specific form of insulation manufactured by The Dow Chemical Company. "styrofoam" is not synonymous with "polystyrene."
Waste-to-Energy (WTE)
The conversion and recovery of the energy value in waste materials through the application of high temperature, controlled combustion. The recovered thermal energy can then be converted to electrical energy in steam driven turbine generators for plant use and for export/sale, or it can be exported and sold directly as steam or hot water for industrial processes and space heating. The recovered energy also can be used to generate chilled water for industrial processes or air conditioning. Most WTE projects employ combustion facilities specifically designed to accommodate the anticipated waste deliveries. These state-of-the-art, dedicated boilers are designed to extract the maximum energy value from the delivered waste materials and to simultaneously reduce the generation of potentially harmful gases and residues from the combustion process to well below stringent regulatory levels. The waste materials routinely delivered to such facilities include municipal solid wastes such as residential and commercial wastes; non-hazardous institutional wastes; and non-hazardous, non-manufacturing industrial solid wastes. Industrial plastic wastes and post consumer plastics that cannot be economically recycled provide an excellent source of fuel for waste-to-energy projects that utilize existing, appropriately modified industrial or utility boilers to combust specially prepared fuels derived from solid wastes, these are called refuse derived fuels, or RDF.
