Title: Glossary
Course: SUST 1013 Introduction to Sustainable Resource Management > Section: SUST 1013 Introduction to Sustainable Resource Management

Glossary

Terms

Term | Definitions | Glossary
Pre-Cycling | An approach to waste reduction based on limiting those products in a home, factory, office, or institution that will require disposal in a landfill. Under this concept, consumers can actually cont ... | Unit 11 Glossary
Adaptive Reuse | The repurposing of a structure that due to age, deterioration, or changes in the economic landscape or personal lifestyles is no longer considered to hold utility for its original use. Adaptive re ... | Unit 6 Glossary
Anaerobic Digestion | The use of microorganisms to break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen with bio-gas as an end product that can be combusted to generate electricity or heat. | Unit 5 Glossary
Building Materials | Products that are commonly utilized to build residential, commercial, industrial, and public facilities. | Unit 6 Glossary
Commercial | Facilities that offer services, sell products, and /or manufacture products. | Unit 4 Glossary
Communication Campaign | An organized and multi-faceted effort to implement a communication plan. A communication campaign can include multiple categories of communication channels including “free” media events, print ... | Unit 13 Glossary
Communication Plan | A formal set of goals, objectives, and strategies designed to heighten public awareness, encourage desired changes in individual, and/ other collective attitudes and behaviors, and build and expan ... | Unit 13 Glossary
Community/Non-Profit Sector | Those formal and informal organizations established to address specific areas of human need, environmental quality, community betterment, health, and education. Revenues are historically derived f ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Compost | Organic material that has been decomposed and recycled as fertilizer and/or a soil amendment. The process of making compost is known as composting. | Unit 3 Glossary
Construction - Demolition Materials | Commonly referred to as C&D, these are the waste products generated both through building activities, and the practice of demolishing existing structures due to age, or a perceived lack of continu ... | Unit 6 Glossary
Costs/Benefits | A model for conducting a comparative analysis of selected decision options that weighs the financial, human, environmental, and social impact of each option against the prospective benefits to be ... | Unit 7 Glossary
Curbside/Drop off Recycling | Two methods by which recyclable materials are transferred from the source to a MRF. Curbside involves direct pickup by a private contractor or unit of local government after recyclable materials h ... | Unit 8 Glossary
Eddy Current Separator | A high intensity piece of equipment utilized to separate non-ferrous metals from waste after ferrous metals have been removed. | Unit 8 Glossary
Electronic Scraps ( EScrap) | Waste derived from discarded computers, telephones, and other electronic devices. Escrap is considered a special category of waste in consideration of the materials contained in electronic devices ... | Unit 4 Glossary
Environmental Protection Agency/Act | The State of Illinois agency charged with the implementation and enforcement of the Environmental Protection Act. Established in 1970 with the passage of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Ferrous Metals | Metals that contain iron. | Unit 8 Glossary
Food Scraps | Organic waste from food products. | Unit 3 Glossary
Full Cost Accounting | An accounting method that considers both direct and indirect environmental, social, and economic costs. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has identified five core principles of ful ... | Unit 11 Glossary
Green Economy | An economic construct that results in improved human well-being and social equity while significantly reducing environmental risk, and ecological scarcity. | Unit 12 Glossary
Green Purchasing | A phrase used to describe purchasing practices that seek out products and materials that protect the environment, and result in waste r reduction. Green purchasing considers not only how the produ ... | Unit 11 Glossary
Green Team | An interactive education initiative that encourages teachers and students to help the environment through waste reduction, recycling, composting, and energy conservation. | Unit 12 Glossary
Green Washing | Attempts by manufacturers and/or product distributors to mislead consumers regarding a company’s sustainability practices and/or the environmental benefits of certain products, materials or serv ... | Unit 12 Glossary
Highest/Best Use | A process for determining the most effective utilization of a resource or resources that considers the financial, social, human, and environmental consequences of a selected utilization option. | Unit 7 Glossary
Incineration | A disposal option that involves the burning of waste materials. Incineration has historically been criticized for the pollutants produced by the process. In recent years, a number of incineration ... | Unit 5 Glossary
Landfill | A disposal option for municipal solid waste that involves burying of waste materials in segregated areas. Landfills have become the object of increased government oversight and regulation in recen ... | Unit 5 Glossary
Life Cycle Assessment | An evaluate and planning model that contemplates all the environmental, social and economic impact of a product at all stages of the product’s life cycle including manufacture, distribution, dec ... | Unit 11 Glossary
Magnetic Separator | A piece of equipment utilized to separate iron particles. | Unit 8 Glossary
Materials Recovery Facility | A specialized facility that receives, separates, and prepares recyclable material for end users. | Unit 8 Glossary
National Environmental Protection Act/USEPA | Signed into law in 1969, the NEPA represented a significant policy decision at the Federal level to make protection of air, waterways, and land a governmental responsibility. In 1970, the United S ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Non-Ferrous Metals | Metals that don’t contain iron. Common examples are lead, aluminum, tin, and copper. Such metals are the economic base of recycling due to the fact that such metals are often recycled. | Unit 8 Glossary
Organics | Material derived from living things. | Unit 3 Glossary
Private Sector | The sector of the economy comprised of for- profit enterprises including manufacturing, commerce, services, and financial services. | Unit 10 Glossary
Product Life Cycle | Closely related to life cycle assessment, a product life cycle recognizes that every product can be understood as the centerpiece of a linked set of processes from manufacture to reuse/recycling o ... | Unit 11 Glossary
Public Sector | The governmental sector comprised of Federal, State. and local units of government with revenues derived from taxation, fees for services, and income derived from the enforcement of law and regula ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Pyrolysis | The use of elevated temperatures in a virtually oxygen free environment to decompose organic materials. The process is used to convert biomass, plastics or tire waste into fuel. | Unit 5 Glossary
Recovery | The process through which building material waste, including construction and demolition materials, are secured, recycled, reused, and/or repurposed. | Unit 6 Glossary
Recycling | the series of activities by which discarded materials are collected, sorted, processed, converted into manufacturing feedstock material and used in creation of new products. Excludes use of these ... | Unit 1 Glossary
Repurpose | use of a product or item for a different purpose than its original intended use.  Examples include repurposing a door as a tabletop, repurposing wood pallets as compost pile walls, repurposing wi ... | Unit 1 Glossary
Residential | A single structure, group of adjoining structures, or sections of a community where individuals reside. | Unit 4 Glossary
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act/Subtitle D | This subtitle of the RCRA places responsibility for the management of non-hazardous household, commercial, and industrial solid waste at the state and local levels. The RCRA/Subtitle D represented ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Resource Management System | An integrated systems approach to the utilization of all resources in all resource categories including waste reduction, recovery, reuse, recycling, and disposal. | Unit 7 Glossary
Reuse | use of a product or item in its original form more than one time. Examples include refilling glass or plastic bottles, repairing wood pallets, using corrugated or plastic containers for storage, r ... | Unit 1 Glossary
Single Stream | A recycling process that accepts products and materials from different waste categories. Also referred to as commingled. | Unit 4 Glossary
Solid Waste Management Act | Signed into law in 1986, the Act is one two pieces of legislation governing solid waste policy and practice. The Act applies a hierarchy to solid waste management that includes waste volume reduct ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Solid Waste Planning and Recovery Act | Adopted in 1988, the Act set waste reduction goals for State of Illinois agencies, and for local units of government. Under the Act’s provisions, each county is to have a solid waste planning an ... | Unit 10 Glossary
Sorting/Picking | A process utilized at Materials Recovery Facilities to separate recyclable items from non-recyclable items or to segregate certain types of recyclables. The process can be done manually, or can be ... | Unit 8 Glossary
Source Separated | Waste that is segregated into categories by type of product or material prior to collection. The phrase may also be applied to the process of separating recyclable from non- recyclable products an ... | Unit 4 Glossary
Strategic Plan/Action Plan | A comprehensive set of linked actions designed to achieve identified goals and objectives within a specified time-line. Effective strategic/action plans are built around broad but attainable goal ... | Unit 13 Glossary
Sustainability | the ideas and values that inspire people on both an individual and collective level to be better stewards of resources in ways that promote positive economic growth, environmental sustainability, ... | Unit 1 Glossary
Sustainability Plan | A set of goals, objectives, implementation strategies, time-lines, and metrics designed to assist individuals, organizations, communities, and for profit facilities adopt practices, processes and/ ... | Unit 13 Glossary
Sustainable Development | Development that meets the needs of present day society without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. | Unit 1 Glossary
Sustainable Resource Management | The management of resources focusing on elimination or minimization of waste, recycling and reuse of materials, waste treatment and disposal. | Unit 1 Glossary
Triple Bottom Line | A measurement and evaluation model that assess the impact of actions on the economy, the environment and society. This model is often referred to as People, Plane and Profit. | Unit 1 Glossary
Waste Audit | A visual inspection of waste produced for a single source. The audit doesn’t categorize waste. The waste audit can yield general conclusions that can serve as the basis for further study. | Unit 3 Glossary
Waste Reduction | Design, manufacture, or use of a product to minimize the municipal waste requiring processing or disposal, including activities that minimize weight or  volume or increases durability or recyclab ... | Unit 1 Glossary
Waste Sort | A process of categorizing waste from a certain source such a household, school, business, or industry by type, and by comparative volume in the full waste stream. | Unit 3 Glossary
Waste Stream | the  total  flow  of  solid  waste  from  homes,  businesses, institutions, and manufacturing plants that must be recycled, composted or disposed of in landfills; or any segment thereof, s ... | Unit 1 Glossary
Zero Waste Community Planning/ Sustainable Resource Management Planning | Application of normative planning activities to resource management based on identification of those goals, objectives, and tactics necessary to attain a zero waste profile within a defined area, ... | Unit 7 Glossary