Type:

Waste Management

Most large deep-space vehicles sustain closed ecological systems for environmental support, smaller vessels echo this, but in a more short-term manner. Unlike a planetary eco-system, a starship uses technological systems to approximate the complex ecological processes which sustain life. Among these processes is the Starship's waste managnement system, which recycles almost all waste produced.
Water and Sewage Recycling	Each Starfleet crew-member typically generates 52 litres of wastewater and sewage per day. This waste is pumped to recycling units housed in environment support complexes.
	Preliminary treatment is by a series of mechanical filtration processes that remove solids and particulates (Residue is conveyed to the solid waste processing units for further treatment). Osmotic and electrolytic fractioning is then used to remove dissolved and microscopic contaminants for treatment and recycling. The water left is heated to 150 degrees centigrade for biological sterilisation before being subjected to a final mechanicla filtration stage. The water is then returned to one of the storage tanks for use.
Solid Waste Recycling	Solid waste such as trash is conveyed to processing units by means of linear induction utility conduits. Incoming solid waste is automatically scanned and classified as to type and composition. Item that can be recycled with mechanical reprocessing are separted. Such items, which constitute aproximately 82% of all solid waste include articles of clothing, packaging and other discarded containers and small personal articles. These items are conveyed to a series of dedicated processors that first sterilise the waste products, then reduce them to a recyclable form (such as processed fiber packets from which uniforms and other garments are fabricated). Hazardous materials (such as toxic, biohazard and radioactive substances) are separated, and then the remaining unrecoverable material is stored for matter replication recycling.
Matter Replication Recycling	Material that cannot be directly recycled by mechanical or chemical methods is stored for matter replication recycling. This is accomplished by molecular matrix replicators that actually dematerialise the waste materials and rematerialose them in the form of desired objects stored in computer memory. While this process provides an enormous variety of useful items, it is very energy intensive and many everyday consumables (such as water and clothing) are recycled by less energy intensive means. Certain consumables (such as food) are routinely recycled using matter replication because this results in a considerable saving in raw materials storage.
Hazardous Waste Recycling	Approximately 5% of all liquid and solid wastes are considered to be hazardous materials under toxicity, reactivity, biohazard or radioactivity standards. Such materials are separated from other waste materials and are immediately diverted to a matter replicator, which converts them to inert carbon particles. This material is then stored for matter replication recycling.