272 Environmental Biotechnology
mainstream industrial acceptance. There is no doubt that they have advantages,
but issues like cost and guaranteed reliability will prove vital in their uptake.
Clean manufacturing as a field appears to have a major contribution to make
to the environmental cause and there are a number of possible novel manufactur-
ing biotechnologies emerging. Particularly when implemented alongside ‘green’
chemical processes, they promise significant advances in pollution reduction over
the coming years.
Waste Management
The second of the intervention points, waste management, is also likely to see
major changes in the future, which are almost certain to be driven by external
pressures to restrict the entry of biologically active material into the disposal
loop. With strict diversionary and recycling targets increasingly becoming the
accepted norm in many countries of the world, it seems certain that biowaste will
be subject to expressly biological treatment at a previously unprecedented rate.
It appears reasonable to assume that this will lead to an upsurge in the amount of
waste destined for existing biooptions like anaerobic digestion and composting
rather than any burgeoning evolution of new treatment technologies, particularly
in the case of domestic waste. In addition, if clean manufacturing techniques
based on biological systems become established, the amount of biodegradable
waste produced in the first place should fall, though this does not allow for the
contribution of normal refuse production growth, which seems to average around
5% increase per year.
The role of integrated technologies in dealing with waste while simultaneously
allowing components, either material or energy, to re-enter the chain of commer-
cial utility is likely to prove a vital one. In whatever form this most fundamental
of recycling is achieved, an adequate final market is essential. Whether the end
product is fundamentally reclaimed humus and minerals or a useable fuel, with-
out a genuine and environmentally beneficial end-use of some kind, the whole
operation becomes little more than an exercise in shifting the problem from one
place, to another. This is a criticism which has been levelled at environmental
biotechnology at various times over the years and, on occasions, with some jus-
tification. A rational use for biomass energy is unlikely to be hard to find; a mass
market for vast amounts of compost, particularly if of questionable quality, may
not be so easy. How the ideals of carbon sequestration are best translated into
reality is still an area of some debate and will probably remain so well into the
foreseeable future.
One of the great advantages of waste biotechnologies, especially when applied
to domestic refuse, is the ease with which they can be incorporated into treatment
trains. Indeed, biological waste treatment naturally lends itself to many applica-
tions which enable very effective maximisation of overall process efficiency to
be achieved, which is an important aspect to be considered in the planning of