Welcome to the Solid Waste Sustainability Hub
at the University of South Alabama!
Mission:
We are a group of educators, researchers, practitioners and community partners who embrace sustainability and resiliency, promote solid waste reuse, recycling, repurposing and reducing, and enhance environmental stewardship and boost circular economy at the Gulf of America via education, outreach, research, and collaboration.
The Solid Waste Sustainability Hub is to seek sustainable and innovative solutions to address various types of solid wastes, such as:
Plastic waste is everywhere and plastic pollution is a dire and persistent world-wide issue. Microplastic and nanoplastic can be released from the plastic waste, entering the water body and contaminating our food chain, and harming to human health. Do you know that the plastic recycling rate in the United States is less than 10%? What can we do about the plastic waste? What are the innovative ways to recycle, reuse, and repurpose waste plastic?
What can we do about waste glass? How about reuse them for glass jewelry and handicraft. Possibly, we can use crushed glass to replace virgin aggregates in concrete, soil bed, and roadway, because the glass cullet and blends have similar characteristics to natural aggregate, durable, hard, and inert. Aggregate in asphalt is called "glassphalt".
Do you know that asphalt pavement is 100% recyclable and America's #1 recycled product that is greater than aluminum, glass, and paper? Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) contains valuable source of asphalt and aggregate, which is milled off from old asphalt pavement. 95% of all RAP is reused into new asphalt pavement. Approximately $2.9 billion is saved to consumer annually. Let's RAP it up!
A Solid Waste Sustainability Hub video about the journey of a plastic bottle. From production to disposal, follow this bottle's path as it ends up in landfills, oceans, and even as repurposed products. Learn more about this essential but often overlooked part of our everyday lives.
Discover the captivating journey of a glass bottle. From production to disposal, follow its path as it impacts our lives and environment. Serving as a vessel for our beverages, watch the unfortunate destination in landfills. And uncover the potential for repurposing and innovative ideas that breathe new life into these overlooked everyday essentials.
Join us for a better and greener world! We are working together!
