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Put simply, IRM stops wasting money.
It turns waste into a resource, improves the environment, generates
clean energy and jobs, supports communities and more.
IRM is thus a viable, environmentally
sensible business decision that makes both money and sense.
The key advantages include:
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Viability. Enough energy
and materials can be recovered to potentially pay for the recovery process and when
optimised, yield a small profit (sufficient to pay for the process).
Traditional waste management is not usually viable and requires
payments (taxpayer support or similar disposal charges). IRM will
almost always minimise net cost;
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Phasing.
Because IRM uses phased implementation, it can grow in keeping with
demand. For developments, this means it can expand in pace
with the project rather than requiring all infrastructure to be
developed up front, thus reducing debt carry. This is
especially resilient and beneficial when economies fluctuate,
affecting demand;
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Demand. Because
it can be phased, IRM can be scaled to meet community and business
growth, where, when and how it happens. This reduces or eliminates
reliance on population and demand projections, which are rarely
achieved;
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Densification.
Communities often grow upwards not outwards, in keeping with Smart
Growth. IRM provides an important advantage when communities
increase density, it can avoid or reduce costs of expensive
replacement or upgrading of existing under-capacitied waste
management infrastructure;
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Debt. Because
it can be phased and scaled as, when and where needed, IRM delays costs until they are
either profitable and/or necessary. For communities, businesses
and developments, this means debt finance is minimised. IRM is
thus the most fiscally responsible approach;
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Economies of scale.
Traditional waste management usually relies on large plants and
landfills on the principle that these create economies of scale.
In reality these are usually purpose-designed, with and limited
competition to build or operate them. As a result the
economies are questionable. By contrast small package
plants can be supplied by a number of technology suppliers, thus
improving economies of scale and through competition, improving net
cost;
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Environment. Because IRM
reduces or eliminates waste it reduces or can potentially eliminate
impacts on water and air pollution. It also generates reusable
water that reduces demand on stressed aquifers and watersheds, as
well as replenishing water sources with clean water. This
supports ecosystem regeneration while helping with business and
community resilience, and the reduction of risk;
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Independence. No single technology or solution is used: instead, IRM relies on a
sophisticated model to evaluate how technologies can be sequenced to maximise recovery and minimise waste.
The importance of sequencing cannot be understated, and requires
matching to waste, resources, distribution,
existing systems, potential resource needs and demand;
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Obsolescence.
IRM uses multiple components and the ability to replace and improve
technologies with more efficient solutions can thus be handled incrementally.
This is more difficult with a traditional large-plant approach;
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Risk. Because
it is scalable and has localised phased plant, IRM is more
fault-tolerant. Traditional plants are large and when they
fail, affect entire systems. IRM's more localised solution
can significantly reduce or localize the impact of failures. Within an IRM plant there is 100%
redundancy for key components, and capacity can be redirected to other plants on the network. As
IRM can use a
"package plant" approach, repair, replacement or upgrading is designed to be
fast and straightforward;
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Resilience.
IRM generates local energy and water. IRM is thus more resilient to energy price and supply spikes, and
especially, supply interruptions, such as oil spikes following
hurricane Katrina; or power interruptions following earthquakes.
Localised plants reduce the potential impact
from catastrophic events. Localising water supply improves
drought tolerance;
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Retrofit. IRM
can be retro-fitted to existing communities and infrastructure.
It is especially suitable where old waste infrastructure is failing
or requires replacement because it will generally reduce maintenance
and replacement costs;
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Scalable.
Installations from small to large can be addressed, even in smaller
or dispersed communities. While IRM works best in larger
developments and communities, it can also work in very small
communities which although probably less viable, will still prove
the least costly, most flexible and least risky solution.
IRM was reviewed by Dr. Charles McNeill, Manager of the United Nations Development
Programme's Environmental Program Team, who concluded:
"I conclude that this IRM plan is conceptually sound and
on the right track, and if implemented it would likely provide a
model of great value to countless municipalities throughout the
world."
For more information
contact Sequel, download the summary,
or download more from our Resources page. |
