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CS Professional · Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) - Principles and Practice · Green Initiatives

Deccan Foods Ltd. sends its food-processing residue to a biogas plant that generates energy for its own boilers, with leftover slurry used as farm manure. In the waste management hierarchy, how is this practice best classified compared with simple landfilling?

This is resource recovery, which ranks above landfill disposal in the waste hierarchy. The residue is turned into energy and manure, so value is retained. It is not waste prevention because the waste is still generated, but it is clearly better than simple landfilling.

  1. AResource recovery, preferable to disposal in landfillCorrect
  2. BWaste prevention at source, the most preferred step
  3. CDisposal, equivalent in rank to landfilling
  4. DGreenwashing since the waste is still generated

Explanation

Converting residue into energy and manure recovers value from waste, which ranks above landfill disposal in the hierarchy. It is not prevention, because the waste is still generated in the first place. It is therefore not equal to disposal and not greenwashing.

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