In human thermodynamics, entropy waste is a metaphoric, entropology, type of term referring generally to material entropy turned into waste or entropy turned into a disordered state of energy or waste heat. The term is commonly used in economic thermodynamics and ecological thermodynamics; often distinguishing between “high entropy waste”, the prime example being waste heat, and “low entropy waste”, the example being waste material; although neither of these make any thermodynamic sense. [1]
Overview
The idea of entropy waste seems to trace to the ideas of Romanian mathematician Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen who, in his 1971 book The Entropy Law, uses a non-logical interpretation of the material entropy conception to outline a crude theory of a matter-energy entropy and waste. [2] In particular, Georgescu-Roegen stated that: [3]
“The entropy law is the root of economic scarcity: it states that the natural resources on which our existence depends are continuously and irrevocably turned into waste.”
By 1998, according to Americans biologist Peter Corning and engineer Stephen Kline, the following view of entropy had solidified in the public mind: [4]
“Entropy is now a household word for any kind of disorder, disorganization, uncertainty, waste, confusion, inefficiency, and most flagrantly, willful sabotage.”
In an aside to this comment, we note that this is an oversimplification. Correctly, according to 2008 polls, only 17 percent of households know what entropy is and can give a loose definition of it, and of this percentage none cited “waste” as a description of entropy. [5] In any event, into the 2000s, the concept of "entropy waste" has since been lost in translation, particularly in ecological economics, as a way to crudly quantify the end products of production processes.
References
1. Halberg, Niels, Forskningscenter for Økologisk Jordbrug, Alroe, Hugo F., Knudsen, Marie T., Kristensen, Erik S. (2006). Global Development of Organic Agriculture (pg. 116-117). CABI.
2. Lightman, Alan, Sarewitz, Daniel R., and Desser, Christina. (2004). Living with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (keyword: entropy waste, pgs. 32, 60-61, 72, etc.). Island Press.
3. Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas. (1971). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
4. (a) Corning, Peter A. and Kline, Stephen J. (1998). “Thermodynamics, Information, and Life Revisited, Part I: ‘To Be or Entropy’”, Systems Research and Behavior Science, Vol. 15, Issue 4, pgs 273-95.
(b) Corning, Peter A. and Kline, Stephen J. (1998). “Thermodynamics, Information, and Life Revisited, Part I: ‘Thermoeconomics’ and ‘Control Information”, Systems Research and Behavior Science, Vol. 15, Issue 6, pgs 453-82.
5. Thims, Libb. (2008). “Entropy (public lexicon)”, Research Project #13, Chicago: Institute of Human Thermodynamics.
Further reading
● Baumgartner, S. (2002). “Thermodynamics of Waste Generation” in: Bisson, K. and Proops, J. (eds) Waste in Ecological Economics, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, ppgs. 13-37.
