Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in the United States: Operations, revenue, and the impact of scale.

An analysis was conducted using nationwide survey data to evaluate how material recovery facilities (MRFs) operations vary regionally and with scale. The survey characterized materials, processes, and energy use involved with operations, and revenue for recyclables. This is the first nationwide analysis of MRFs in the US that accounts for mass processed, energy consumed, and revenue.

Modeling ammonia emissions from manure in conventional, organic, and grazing dairy systems and practices to mitigate emissions.

Almost 60% of all ammonia (NH) emissions are from livestock manure. Understanding the sources and magnitude of NH emissions from manure systems is critical to implement mitigation strategies. This study models 13 archetypical conventional (5 farms), organic (5 farms), and grazing (3 farms) dairy farms to estimate NH emissions from manure at the barn, storage, and after land application.

Techno-Economic and life cycle assessment of standalone Single-Stream material recovery facilities in the United states.

Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) are crucial players in achieving a circular economy. MRFs receive complex waste streams and separate valuable recyclables from these mixtures. This study conducts techno-economic analysis (TEA) to estimate the net present value (NPV) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate different environmental impacts of a commercial scale standalone, single-stream MRF to assess the economic feasibility and environmental impacts of recovering valuable recyclables from an MRF processing 120,000 tonnes per year (t/y).

Coordinated Management of Organic Waste and Derived Products.

We propose a coordination framework for managing urban and rural organic waste in a scalable manner by orchestrating waste exchange, transportation, and transformation into value-added products. The framework is inspired by coordinated management systems that are currently used to operate power grids across the world and that have been instrumental in achieving high levels of efficiency and technological innovation. In the proposed framework, suppliers and consumers of waste and derived products as well as transportation and technology providers bid into a coordination system that is operated by an independent system operator.