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Abstract:
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"The wastes generated by the intensive agriculture systems of the Province of Almería (Spain) are very varied, and they frequently cannot be directly reused; for example, mixtures of plant material and plastic raffia cannot be used as animal feed. A less indiscriminate form of management of these wastes, however, could lead to their being turned into usable products. This would also reduce their environmental impact. The natural resources needed for the treatment, transformation and management of solid agricultural wastes such as biomass, plastics, fertilizer and crop protection product containers, wood, wire, waste oils and waste substrates, are largely water and manpower. The final products that might be produced are plant compost, plastic granules, classified metal metallic materials, separated fertilizer and crop protection product containers, and waste oils that could be further treated. The problems associated with such waste management would be noise, the production of dust and smells, the leaching of liquids from waste plants and fruit, the dirty water left over after washing out trucks and fertilizer and crop protection product containers etc., and the waste water produced by the wetting of plant material. The assessment of the environmental impact of a potential waste treatment plant shows that it would be better to recycle and compost wastes than to try to obtain energy from them through combustion. A polymer concrete system for the control of effluents produced from crop protection products is also discussed."
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