Resource recovery from waste: An introduction

A large volume of solid and liquid waste is generated due to industrial and urban/suburban/agricultural activities. Management and handling of waste generated is nowadays burning issue for local authorities not only in urban areas, i.e., municipalities, but also in other regions in any country. With increasing urbanization and industrialization, generation of waste/wastewater appropriate disposal, treatment, and/or recycling are posing more challenges as the treatment and disposal costs huge amount in terms of money. However, conceiving the fact that “waste” word is placed wrongly and that it is a resource, resource recovery from wastes has emerged as thrust area of research and management as it offers huge environment and social sustainability potentials. Current researches globally are focusing on the recovery of various resources such as energy, bioproducts, nutrients, metals from waste/wastewater generated by anthropogenic activities, etc. This information needs to be discussed in the present context, and the future perspectives should be explored; most importantly, it should reveal current status, with state-of-the-art information and possibilities for technological exploitation. This chapter elaborates the recovery of various resources from solid and/or liquid waste.