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Anaerobic digestion is gaining increasing acceptance as a key technology to treat industrial wastewaters and organic residuals. There were about 600 vendor-supplied, low-solid anaerobic digestion systems operating or under construction worldwide as of 1996 and over 1,000 in 1997 according to the International Energy Agency. The technology is allowing waste disposal operators to achieve increasingly strict regulations in terms of providing environmental benefits.

The introduction of allegedly degradable polymers in the 1980s has been disappointing because their performance did not meet the expectations of the public. Fortunately, the search for truly degradable polymers has led to the introduction of materials that will mineralize with the compost materials they contain. The production of these degradable polymers is considerably more expensive than that for conventional plastics but research is underway to make the production of these materials competitive.

Fire and Light is a small glass recycling operation in Arcata, CA, initially envisioned to manufacture glass tiles from recycled glass. Unfortunately, their facility is not large enough for a tile-making operation. A local artist suggested making recycled glass dinnerware instead. There were problems in shifting the product line ranging from capitalization concerns to equipment to sorting the glass to be recycled but the company has managed to solve these.

On-farm anaerobic digestion is an improvement on the technology of biogas systems and is receiving increasing attention from farmers, researchers and government officials since 1993. The global climate change due to methane has led to a renewed interest in anaerobic digestion. Odor control and water quality are the main reasons for farmers' interest in anaerobic digestion. The AgSTAR program within EPA is a result of an initiative taken to help farmers make decisions on on-farm methane recovery. Anaerobic digestion is applied to both individual farms and cooperative projects.

An application for anaerobic digestive technology is the digestion of municipal solid waste. The technique is an effective treatment option for industrial wastewater rich in organics. The industry has grown tremendously with more than 600 systems under construction or operation. Anaerobic by-products can improve a compost as they are rich in nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, iron and magnesium content, and enhance the composting process.

The internet World Wide Web provides a variety of information on 7,529 composting sites. Selection of some representative composting sites on Web pages can help in overcoming the problem of time-consuming search for specific and relevant information. Some of these information cites are located in Canada, Virginia, and at the universities of Cornell, Essen, and Michigan. These Web pages provide historic and current information on composting, composting equipments, home composting, and organic resource management. Details of several Web sites are provided.

Firms in Iowa and Arkansas are diverting wood from landfills into recycling operations. Work at the Waste Management Assistance Division (WMAD) and the University of Iowa show that diversion of wood materials is difficult because it comes from varied sources. This causes problems in sorting and collection of the appropriate material for their operation. WMAD is providing financial help in the construction equipment of wood processing.

Fire control and prevention at compost facilities are based on local considerations such as the materials, climate, equipment available and the nature of the fire. Site specific variations influence fire control methods. The use of water after isolating and spreading the smoldering portions into thin layers is an effective method. Fire prevention in large storage piles is possible by the layering technique. Wind direction is critical in controlling fire at dry places.

Changes in the Environmental Code and improvisations in ecosystem design and engineering have increased the acceptance and the market potential of composting toilets in the US. Innovative and alternative technologies provide substitutes or cost effective upgrades. The National Sanitation Foundation International has laid down the standards for structural soundness, liquid holding capacity, and odor testing for composting toilets. Composting toilets models, such as Clivus Multrum, the AlasCan Organic Waste and Wastewater Treatment System, and Washwater Garden are described.

The biosolids provided by the Bio Gro program of the Wheelabrator Water Technologies Inc. increases the water holding capacity and organic content of the alluvial soils in Arizona and flood damaged soils in Missouri. A 2% colloidal solution containing biosolids from wastewater treatment plants is pumped into solar beds and air dried to increase its solid content to 72%. The biosolids are provided free but the farmers pay for their transportation and spreading. Tests carried out indicate the feasibility of the composting and land application programs.

Vermiculture has become successful commercially that most breeders have expanded their operations to include vermicomposting. While vermiculture focuses on the large-scale breeding and growing of worms and the production of castings, vermicomposting involves the recycling of organic materials. Some of the more successful vermicomposting operations include Chattanooga, TN-based Goodwill Industries, Banks of Eden Farm in Eden, MD, and Alpine, CA-based Environmental Recycling Systems. For vermicomposting, the most commonly used works are red wigglers.

A presentations by Kansas city musician, Stan Slaughter, to educate children on backyard composting, the carbon cycle, ecology and soil fertility has spurred children and their parents to set up home compost plants. The musician's demonstrations with worms worked like magic on children with 'worm village' becoming very popular. Interest in vermiculture has resulted in setting up of worm bins and worm composting has become very popular on small scales, the commercialization of which is being considered.

The Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu could cut down its expenditure by over $33,000 in 1994 due to a new organics recycling program that recycles vegetable trimmings and wet food scraps from the kitchen. Gathering and processing are done through a contract with Unisyn Biowaste Technology, a private firm located in Waimanalo. Waimanalo facility has attracted international attention.

American Soil Products has developed compost and blended soil products that are composed of a variety of materials such as manure, vermicompost, biosolids, wood fines, bark, volcanic cinder and rice hulls. The companyacquires its materials from sources such as worm farms and dairies. American Soil Porducts Pres Lou Truesdell. found that varying the compost's composition produced different levels of nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. Truesdell recommends compost with specific nutrient levels for growing plants, and supplements his operations with landscaping materials and plants.

Recycling of miniaturized rubber particles is on the upswing to meet the increasing market demand for smaller and better quality rubber recyclables. Recycled rubber products are of use in the cement, coal, paper industries and power plants. The recycling industry has focused attention on ushering in cost-effectiveness in the manufacture of such rubber products.

The City of Berkeley's Ecology Center has achieved good waste diversion rates through its residential curbside collection programs, initiated in the early 1970s. Waste recycling has been substantially improved in this Californian region through the participation of nonprofit Community Conservation Centers in collecting paper, glass, metal and scrap steel, sending them for recycling in the Berkeley Recycling Center and marketing the recycled products to the local populace.

A follow-up to the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 is the Oakland/Berkeley Recycling Market Development Zone program which has enhanced economic growth in California by encouraging local enterprises to upgrade the use of recycled feedstocks in their production of value-added products. Diversion of wastes from landfills has significantly improved by the local industries' enhanced usage of paper, glass, plastics and other recyclable materials.

The 1994 biosolids composting survey indicates the rapid strides made by the biosolid composting industry in upgrading technology and improving the facilities in operation. A majority of the 201 facilities in operation prefer yard trimmings such as leaves and woody materials as bulking agents. Projects involving aerated static pile are under development to provide quality compost to agricultural users, soil blenders, home owners, landscapers and nurseries.

Farmers have perceived composting as an essential means of recycling food products and manure because of its immense benefits. Composting ensures better income and material handling, enhanced nutrient management and improved soil quality. Prominent farmers have adopted composting in their working and have encouraged the farming community to follow suit.

Technologies using earthworms are popular due to their potential to compost large-scale organics in residential and commercial waste streams. Earthworms digest organic waste and convert it into soil amendment products, called castings. State municipalities and private companies are tapping the enormous worm resources and are conducting awareness programs to boost the support for vermiculture and vermicomposting.

Software packages can efficiently and economically reduce the complexity of managing composting and recycling fields. Specialized software programs can help develop compost recipes, evaluate composting processes, analyze odor transport and control processing environments. RecycleWare, developed by RecycleWorlds Consulting in Madison, WI, is a good software package that focuses on nonlinear and interactive collection systems.

Arcata City, CA, is the base for modernized recycling, wastewater treatment and composting programs. The isolated location of the city enables implementation of unique recycling techniques. Recyclables are treated as resources and commodities that can be remanufactured and marketed as commercially useful products. Use of recyclables in the city has facilitated the starting of several new local and regional businesses.

Recyclers, who face many problems at military bases, resort to the method of dropoffs to help their work. Recyclers at these bases opine that, although dropoffs accounted for only 10% of the total of 2619 tons of materials recycled, it helped keep people aware of the significance of the recycling process.

An increasing number of researchers, end users and manufacturers are now interested in scrap tires which are being seen as a potential raw material. Many states are also providing loans, grants, tax credits and rebates for end-users of scrap tires. A large number of niche markets are being created by private companies which benefit from funds provided by municipal, state or federal agencies.

MedCycle, a recycling program at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont (MCHV) in Burlington, salvages 21 different materials that range from construction and demolition debris to food waste, and the composting is done by Intervale Foundation in Burlington. The waste management laws of Burlington have been instrumental in promoting the recycled tonnage at MCHV. MedCycle also runs a consultancy service in waste management to educate other hospitals and health care facilities in the different processing of recycling.

The US Air Force has published the 'Pollution Prevention Action Plan' which aims to recycle 50% of its waste by 1998. The US Air Force has 219 bases worldwide, 181 of which have recycling programmes. A report undertaken in Mar 1993 shows that on average only 14% of the bases' 1.4 million tonnes of waste is recycled. Ferrous metal is the most popular waste product for recycling, followed by wood, tires, plastics, newspaper, glass, aluminium and compost.

There are now at least 50 different software programs in the market that would assist recycling and composting projects. The increase in software of this kind has been due to the ever increasing waste management programs in the US which has become so huge with 4,000 curbside collections serving 65 million people, according to the latest count in Apr 1992. The software programs' three potential areas of growth include route collection and weighing software, process control systems and incinerator design and system analysis.

Dropoffs, or curbside recycling programs, are fast being legislated in many US states such as Delaware, Maine, Virginia, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. In these states, pilot programs are made operational in some strategic cities and towns. In Delaware, for example, 100 dropoffs facilities have been installed around the state by the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DWSA) in Sep 1991 after the state passed the Recycling and Waste Recycling Act in 1990. Consequently, DSWA expectations have been economically satisfied. In Portland, ME, the publicly-owned and managed Regional Waste Systems takes care of the state's recycling and solid waste disposal needs.

A summary of the 1992 survey results of municipal sewage sludge composting projects is presented. These projects are identified as either being an aerated static pile, in-vessel, windrow, aeratredwindrow or static pile type. Trends involving yard debris composting, paper addition to mixes, more organized public acceptance effort and the increase in the role of private companies in composting municipal sludge were prevalent in the survey. Odor control and marketing are still the primary management concern.

New York State has ordered a 40% recycling rate statewide by Sep 1997. In relation to this, New York, NY's Department of Sanitation (DOS) foresees an estimated recycling rate of 31% and a composting rate of 7% resulting from the implementation of the nearterm plan. To achieve the composting target rate, nongrass leaf and yard wastes will be composted at Fresh Kills Landfill and Edgemere. The DOS also plans to create small-scale on-site facilities to handlefood wastes produced by institutions. The plan proposes separate collection of food wastes in plastic bags on refuse collection days for the remaining organicwastes from residential and institutional sources. So far, the public reaction has been positive.

Hawaii has begun developing recycling and composting programs but this start has been hampered by difficulties due to shipping costs and physical distance of markets. In spite of obstacles posed by overlapping state and local bureaucracies, some businesses still go into recycling. They are hopeful that joint ventures with foreign firms and the promotion of waste alternatives through education, market development and state procurement initiatives would enable Hawaiian recyclers to overcome their marketing and processing capability problems.

Knowledge of vermiculture and vermicomposting is rapidly increasing as more and more researchers and entrepreneurs conduct studies regarding the ability of earthworms to process organic wastes into usable soil amendments. Universities, for instance, have been engaged in research aimed at evaluating the viability of vermicomposting in the fields of horticulture and aquaculture. Commercial firms, meanwhile, are doing their share by developing innovative technologies for vermicomposting. There are also educational resources about vermicomposting and worms in general.

Asphalt and concrete have become the most widely used composting pad materials in the US, but viable alternatives are now becoming available. The composting pad at Bluestem Solid Waste Agency's yard trimmings composting site in Cedar Rapids, IA, for example, is made from Ecostone, a hydrated Class C fly ash produced from coal-fired plants operated by IES Utilities Inc. A lime stabilized clay surface has been used for the composting pad at the USDA/ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland.

Hutchinson, Minnesota, has started to include food residuals into its existing composting program for organic waste materials. The city has been given a grant of US$100,000, with 50% being allocated for setting up the organics collection system and the other 50% for training people involved in the project. Food waste is collected from two local supermarkets and two other large companies. Schools and local homes will be included at a later date. Store managers were worried that food waste would smell and attract flies and vermin outside their premises but this has not happened.

A composting site established at El Corazon, an abandoned mining site in Oceanside, CA, has proved very successful. The facility, created on the basis of a suggestion from Mary Matava, founder of Agri Service, uses yard trimmings collected from local residents and some commercial companies. It currently handles around 100 tons a day, with the composting time being determined by the end use. The bulk of the end product is used within Oceanside itself.

Compost tea offers the benefit of adding nutrients, suppressing diseases and destroying greymold and damping off, to organic farmers and gardeners. Researchers believe that microbials in compost teas produce toxins attacking the early blight fungus. The addition of straw mulch to cow manure and yard compost teas may help in effective chemical control of early blight. The effectiveness of tea may change with the aging of the compost. The water has to be separated from the compost. Ardeo, Inc. has manufactured a device for growing microbes.

The Oneida County Solid Waste Department in Wisconsin is expanding its composting programs with a view to reduce wastes by making a profitable use of them. On the basis of land application and composting trials at the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Research Station, the Oneida County landfill has collaborated with company paper mills, supermarkets, and other commercial generators. It has started land applying the fiber cake produced by the mills and set up a composting area. The landfill has started taking source separated organics also.

Vermicomposting science is becoming very popular, and many companies foresee a prosperous market for vermicomposting. Vermicycle Organics, Inc. in Charlotte, NC has introduced a workable system capable of processing over five tons of swine manure solids per week. Jack Chambers, a commercial airline pilot, runs a worm farm at Sonoma, CA which utilizes an automatic drip irrigation system for moisture, and produces 4,000 lbs of worms and 300 cubic yards of castings per year. George Bodlak, an environmentalist, has also started an earthworm culture business.

Promotional and educational programs such as the grass recycling and backyard composting promotional campaign of Montgomery County, Maryland, help promote backyard composting. The Lower East Side Ecology Center, New York, has set up a composting site and a textile recycling program. The center conducts tour of composting and vermiculture bins, and holds workshops on urban composting. City Farmer, British Columbia, uses phones and computer modem to monitor its composting promotional activities. Its Internet site that promotes backyard composting receives good response.

The Los Angeles, CA, area's Bradley Landfill will reach its capacity by 2002, but WMX Technologies will by then have converted the facility into the Sun Valley Recycling Park of Los Angeles. The transformation will cost an estimated $56 million. Recycling operations at the landfill, begun in 1990, accounted for about 45,000 tons of material in 1994. Recycling projects planned for the facility are discussed.

Bulletin boards and Web sites are used to collect data required for recycling at a very low cost. These bulletin boards also provide download of information, legislative updates, public forums, materials exchanges and online discussion groups. Different bulletin board systems namely RecycleNet, BioNet, InfoCycle, PenCycle, and Global Recycling Network, Inc. are working throughout the world. These boards use Internet effectively and provide online information access to its users.

The Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina has employed a composting process developed by the Patterson Exploration Services to clean the region's soil from petroleum contamination. The process has, thus far, rectified 200,000 tons of soil of gasoline, diesel, oil, jet fuel, kerosene and motor oil contamination.

Recycling enabled the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in increasing its profit level. A team of staff employed directly under the specially appointed coordination separates the waste and sends it for recycling. The Defense Business Operating Fund offers financial assistance for their recycling process. They earn by marketing recycled goods, with tax exemption.

Many states run pilot projects of composting and waste management to gather information on the need to modify or expand current facilities and to formulate regulations. The pilot project in Maine helped define the criteria for siting and management while the Massachusetts pilot identified transportation and collection to be the problems for successful recycling. The Los Angeles pilot on vegetable and fruit waste recycling was a failure.

Several states such as California, Texas and Wisconsin have embarked on public education programs in home composting. The Alameda County Waste Management Authority, CA, conducts classes on compost science and systems, application of the end products and construction of compost bin and has trained 5000 residents of Alameda County. The Community Composting Education Program in Austin, TX, encourages organic waste composting as part of organic gardening. The Yard Waste to Yard Riches Program of Wisconsin assesses the educational programs in home composting across the country.

The successes of waste management programs in Washington and New Jersey indicated the commitment of generators, haulers, composters and regulars to resolving the problems of recycling vegetative food waste from supermarkets and other industrial units. American soil, Inc, in Parlin, NJ, upgraded its operations to compost source separated food and paper waste from supermarkets and food manufactures. Cedar Grove Compost Company, Iddings, Inc, and Lloyd enterprises illustrate similar success in Washington.

The recycling centers established by the US Naval Air Station at Seaplane Base and Ault Field have reduced the disposal cost and the tipping fees, and made the surroundings cleaner. Materials collected from naval households and station factories are dumped at these two facilities. A vehicle picks up the waste and materials such as tube glass, paper, plastic, aluminum are separated by army men and kept in different bins. Then all materials are processed and recycled to make new products. The neighboring towns such as Town of Oak Harbor also benefit form recycling programs as the center allows the community people to participate in them and provides incentives to them. Welfare programs and fund collection for the base are conducted with the money received by selling the recycled products.

Statistics indicate that disposal costs for computers could reach $1 billion and the disposal space required would be an acre of land dug 3 1/2 miles deep by 2005. Several environmental and entrepreneurial ventures have been established to meet this problem, such as Advanced Recycling Inc in Belleville, New Jersey, which employs nine people and recycles around 200 tons of discarded computers and terminals every month. The company caters to commercial and industrial firms which constantly upgrade their computers and are looking for a way to dispose of their old hardware.