Abstract

Ecosystems for waste consumption are found everywhere in wild nature and in practical use by human societies. They include the waste treatment plants of urban civilization, which are really domesticated mesocosms. Waste consumption units close the material cycle from human economic society to the biosphere’s life support system (Figure 17.1). Some units use the energy of the waste, whereas others use solar energy and/or physical stirring energy as well. Many alternative systems of waste disposal have been studied in microcosms. Food production microcosms and waste recycling microcosms are the main interfaces between the world’s environment and the economic patterns of society (Figure 17.1). Because the material output of one is the input of the other, there is cooperative symbiosis between autotrophic producing units and heterotrophic consuming units.

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