Resources from Waste: A Guide to Integrated Resource Recovery

Integrated Resource Recovery (IRR) is a new way of managing limited resources by viewing waste as a valuable commodity that can be used to supply water, generate clean energy, grow food and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Ministry of Community and Rural Development in British Columbia has published a great guidebook to inform the public on this exciting concept.

The IRR approach integrates wastewater management with the management of energy, stormwater, drinking water, rainwater and solid waste. IRR offers a framework that allows communities and developers to take their understanding of the connections between water and energy to its logical conclusion through a holistic approach that incorporates water efficiency and reuse, low impact development, decentralized wastewater management, energy generation and nutrient recovery.

I first learned of the IRR approach after seeing a presentation on Dockside Green, a LEED Platinum certified development located in Victoria, BC that employs a number of IRR strategies. Since then, I have been including references to Dockside Green and the IRR approach in all of my presentations to illustrate how integrating the way we think about and manage our water and energy resources can reduce demand for both.

For example, residents at Dockside Green benefit from a small, tertiary wastewater treatment facility located onsite that reuses treated wastewater (which comes from efficient, low-flow fixtures) for nonpotable uses such as irrigation and toilet flushing. Waste heat resulting from the sewage treatment process is also recovered to heat buildings and reduce the load on hot water heaters, thereby reducing electricity demand and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, by utilizing IRR approaches Dockside Green is slated to become the first greenhouse gas positive development in North America from an energy perspective, meaning onsite energy production will actually reduce net GHG emissions by over 5700 tons of CO2/year.

According to a report published by the Ministry of Community and Rural Development in British Columbia called Resources from Waste: A Guide to Integrated Resource Recovery (PDF), IRR is guided by the following principles:

Design with Nature: Designing infrastructure to work with, rather than against, nature is more efficient and sustainable. For example, directing storm water to permeable surfaces or bioswales rather than to waterways through pipes and pumps requires less infrastructure, less energy, and helps to recharge groundwater.

Move Upstream to Prevent Waste: If waste resources can be recovered for the benefit of the community which produced them, then the cost of transportation to a central facility can be avoided. For example, wastewater in the City of Victoria's Dockside Green development is treated to the point where it can be used for non-potable purposes on the site. As a result, the development's consumption of fresh water and production of wastewater are both significantly reduced. This reduction is in addition to water conservation measures, which are first taken to reduce consumption.

Every Waste is a Potential Resource: Almost all waste is a potential resource. For example, organic waste in landfills decomposes to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. If this waste is diverted to an energy facility such as an anaerobic digester, the methane becomes a source of renewable energy instead of a pollutant.

Use Each Resource More Than Once: Resource streams can provide multiple benefits. At the Dockside Green development in Victoria, fresh water is used first for potable purposes, then again for non-potable uses. In a waste-to-energy facility, this solution not only provides a renewable energy source; it can produce a nutrient-rich residual that may be used as a replacement for artificial fertilizer.

Resource Recovery Generates Revenues: Just as it is economically beneficial to recycle metals than to pay for them to be buried in a landfill, it is also more profitable to recover usable resources from waste than to landfill them.

Integration of System Boundaries: Options for waste management increase significantly when system boundaries are viewed more broadly than they have been traditionally. For example, in the City of Revelstoke, the local sawmill is the site for a wood residue burner that provides heat for the sawmill, as well as for nearby buildings in the community.

Use Each Resource for its Highest Value: Waste can be recycled (e.g. metal cans back into cans), down-cycled (e.g. glass used as road base) or up-cycled (e.g. kitchen waste digested to biomethane). The value gained from each of these processes should be analyzed to determine which is most appropriate.

These principles extend far beyond what is typically considered under the purview of water managers, be them drinking water, stormwater or wastewater managers. But that’s the point: in order to truly manage water in a responsible, sustainable way we have to look across sectors and understand the countless ways that water, energy, land use and solid wastes are interrelated.

For more information on IRR, check out The Ministry of Community and Rural Development’s website on Integrated Resource Recovery. They have a number of resources available to educate the public and policymakers on the concepts of IRR, as well as a list of qualified suppliers of IRR services to help you implement IRR concepts in your community.

Or you can download the report Resources from Waste: A Guide to Integrated Resource Management (PDF). For a more in depth report, check out Resources from Waste: Integrated Resource Management Phase I Study Report (PDF)