Waste and Pollution

This chapter examines material sinks and approaches to closing resource loops. Planetary sinks include the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere; ecosystem degradation and negative health effects occur when the biosphere becomes a sink for wastes and pollutants. To decrease waste and prevent pollution people must identify inefficiencies in material resource cycles. The environmental ImPACT can be expressed as a mass of an essential resource such as water or energy that is consumed, or of a waste product such as CO₂ that is produced, over the entire life cycle of the good, referred to as the resource footprint. When the waste absorption capacity of the environment is exceeded, pollutants accumulate in the environment and can become health risks. According to the World Health Organization, estimated annual deaths from water pollution are 5.1 million, outdoor air pollution 2.5 million, and indoor air pollution ~2 million, mostly from unsafe cooking methods.