Emergy Synthesis for Waste Treatment in Macao

Abstract

Because the production processes that underlie current modes of socioeconomic development are highly wasteful compared with the processes that govern the development of natural systems, waste management becomes a crucial issue for human systems such as cities. An effective waste management policy should therefore be based on the principles of sustainable development, with wastes regarded as a potential resource, and with wastes produced at levels no higher than what the human and natural systems can absorb.In this chapter, we employed emergy accounting to investigate Macao’s waste treatment in six years (1990, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2004). Specifically, we analyzed the waste collection and treatment processes for solid wastes, sewage, and gaseous emissions so that we could obtain their emergy flows. Our analysis confirmed that the waste treatment process decreased the environmental impact of the wastes, but increased the related transformity. And we also found much energy was lost through waste treatment processes.KeywordsGaseous EmissionWaste ManagementWaste CollectionEmergy AnalysisBurning PetroleumThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.