The volume of waste produced by human activity continues to grow, but steps are being taken to mitigate this problem by viewing waste as a resource. Recovering a proportion of waste for re-use immediately reduces the volume of landfill. Furthermore, the scarcity of some elements (such as phosphorous and the rare-earth metals) increases the need for their recovery from waste streams.

This volume of Issues in Environmental Science and Technology examines the potential resource available from several waste streams, both domestic and industrial. Opportunities for exploiting waste...