An economic theory of reuse

An economic model of reuse is developed to analyse the effect of reuse activity on the amount of waste in the economy and the welfare of consumers. The paper adapts the theory of durable goods and second-hand markets. There is only one type of good, a durable good, which last two periods. A durable good is called ‘new’ in the first period and ‘used’ in the second period. Following Kim (Int Econ J 3:53–63, 1989), it is assumed that consumers differ in valuing the service rate of used goods. Their valuations are represented by a parameter θ, with a higher θ denoting consumers with a greater willingness to pay. In this study, high-θ consumers are referred to as reuse-friendly consumers. The new durable good is supplied in a competitive market. After the purchaser has used the good for one period, (s)he can sell it, keep it or throw it away. If a consumer decides to enter the second-hand market, (s)he has to pay a transaction cost. In equilibrium, the price of used goods will be determined endogenously by a second-hand market; it depends on the value of transaction costs. Thus, whether the second-hand market exists or not also depends on the value of transaction costs. It is shown that the amount of durable goods that is wasted is minimal when a second-hand market exists. When a second-hand market does not exist, increase in reuse-friendly consumers leads to decrease in the amount of waste. In the case of the second-hand market, when many consumers begin to reuse, the welfare of consumers who do not buy used goods will be improved.     

Evaluating the sustainability potential of a white goods refurbishment program

A sustainable national policy on waste electronic and electrical equipment reuse has to ensure an integrated environmental economic and social approach. In this paper, a quantitative model is developed that permits a comparative analysis of re-use and non-re-use scenarios from an environmental and economic perspective. The model demonstrates the importance of considering user consumption profiles and the changing national electricity generation portfolio in determining the best end-of-life strategy, whether it should be reuse or recycling. A case study of Ireland is used to demonstrate the model. From a social perspective, qualitative aspects of reuse, such as the job creation potential and the impact on prosperity for low income families, are also considered. Reuse of white goods, if conducted through social enterprises, will create more employment than an equivalent amount of recycling for those most vulnerable to unemployment. Any environmental and social dividends from re-use can be realized only in the context of an economically sustainable system. This would include such factors as a secure supply of suitable equipment, a competitive cost base and sufficient revenues from sales and other sources in order for the business to survive. In an attempt to examine whether a white goods re-use program could possibly operate in a competitive manner with new appliances, this study has examined examples of comparable businesses operating in the EU as well as interpreting data on consumer demand.     

Pricing and coordination of waste electrical and electronic equipment under third-party recycling in a closed-loop supply chain

Waste electrical and electronic equipment have the potential environmental risks and resource value simultaneously. So the product recycling is very important. This paper studies on recycling problems of WEEE under the third-party recycling in a closed-loop supply chain. We take the following measures. Firstly, based on classifying the WEEE, we consider a revenue sharing and cost sharing contract as the coordination mechanism. Secondly, under centralized and decentralized decisions, we use the game analysis technology to determine the optimal pricing and profits, respectively. Finally, we conduct the number simulation to illustrate and validate the proposed models and provide managerial insights. The results show that when retailers sell new and second-hand products simultaneously, consumers become more sensitive to recycling prices, the profits of manufacturers, recyclers and CLSC increase. However, the retailers' profits decline.

     

Life cycle assessment part 2: current impact assessment practice

Providing our society with goods and services contributes to a wide range of environmental impacts. Waste generation, emissions and the consumption of resources occur at many stages in a product's life cycle-from raw material extraction, energy acquisition, production and manufacturing, use, reuse, recycling, through to ultimate disposal. These all contribute to impacts such as climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, photooxidant formation (smog), eutrophication, acidification, toxicological stress on human health and ecosystems, the depletion of resources and noise-among others. The need exists to address these product-related contributions more holistically and in an integrated manner, providing complimentary insights to those of regulatory/process-oriented methodologies. A previous article (Part 1, Rebitzer et al., 2004) outlined how to define and model a product's life cycle in current practice, as well as the methods and tools that are available for compiling the associated waste, emissions and resource consumption data into a life cycle inventory. This article highlights how practitioners and researchers from many domains have come together to provide indicators for the different impacts attributable to products in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase of life cycle assessment (LCA).     

Recovery and recycling of post-consumer waste materials. Part 1. Generalities and target wastes (paper,cardboard and aluminium cans)

Recycling of post-consumer waste materials is gaining increased interest due to public awareness, legislative promotion and imposition, economic benefits and appropriate technologies being available. The present paper does not deal with municipal solid waste as such, but only with the recyclable constituents. The paper does not aim at presenting recycling process details and/or fundamental research results, but reviews the major recyclables with their reuse potential, recycling technologies used, problems, solutions and potential areas of future research and development. These target recyclables include paper and cardboard, aluminium cans, glass beverage bottles, scrap metal and steel cans, scrap tyres, batteries and household hazardous waste. The present paper sets the overall picture and deals with paper, cardboard and aluminium cans only. A second part of the paper assesses the other target recyclables. The assessment of the waste availability, the existing and currently developed recovery and recycling technologies, and the economically rewarding markets while recycling, stress the technical, economic and environmental importance of this waste management sector. The activities associated with the recovery and recycling of post-consumer wastes require a strong sustainable engineering input at all phases of the treatment, from input quality control, to the selection of the most appropriate technology and the delivery of the recyclables as readily reusable feedstock.     

快递废弃物回收产业链演化仿真研究

近年来,随着电子商务的迅速崛起,快递废弃物激增所带来的环境污染、资源浪费程度日趋严重,营建快递废弃物回收产业链,促进快递废弃物循环使用的呼声日益急促。快递废弃物的循环使用涉及到多方利益相关者,本文基于利益主体协同演化视角,分别构建未引入政府约束机制和引入政府约束机制的"快递企业-消费者"演化博弈模型,借以探索政府、消费者及快递企业在快递废弃物回收产业链营建过程中所扮演的角色,借助复制动态方程得到利益相关方的演化稳定策略和规律,并进一步应用MATLAB仿真工具进行仿真模拟,研究结果表明:未引入政府约束机制下,博弈系统难以依靠市场调节快速演化到理想状态,快递企业和消费者会反复权衡参与营建快递废弃物回收产业链的收益和成本,根据净收益进行策略选择,当二者净收益大于0时,博弈系统会逐渐演化为理想状态,反之,博弈系统则会逐渐演化为不良状态。引入政府约束机制可以快速的引导快递企业和消费者向理想状态演化,加大对快递企业营建回收产业链的补贴力度以及对营建回收产业链怠工的罚款程度能够促进快递废弃物回收产业链营建的快速高效执行。本文的研究对快递废弃物回收产业链的营建起到一定的启示作用:1从政府的角度出发,快递废弃物回收产业链的成功营建能够带来社会环境资源福利的增加,所以不应仅仅依靠市场行为,政府应当充分发挥其在营建过程中的引导作用;2从快递企业的角度出发,快递企业是回收产业链的实施方,应将环境保护作为企业发展的责任,积极主动参与回收产业链的营建;3从消费者的角度出发,作为回收产业链运行的初始点,消费者应该从自身做起,提高环保意识,责任意识,积极推动回收产业链的营建。     

Multiobjective optimisation method for life-cycle design of mechanical products

Manufacturing that minimises the exhaustion of natural resources, energy used and deleterious environmental impact is increasingly demanded by societies that seek to protect global environments as much as possible. To achieve this, life-cycle design (LCD) is an essential component of product design scenarios; however, LCD approaches have not been well integrated in optimal design methods that support quantitative decision-making. This study presents a method that yields quantitative solutions through optimisation analysis of a basic product design incorporating life-cycle considerations. We consider two types of optimisation approaches that have different aims, namely, (1) to reduce the use of raw materials and energy consumption and (2) to facilitate the reuse of the product or its parts when it reaches the end of its useful life. We also focus on how the optimisation results differ according to the approach used, from the viewpoint of the 3R concept (Reduce, Reuse and Recycling). Our method obtains optimum solutions by evaluating objectives fitted to each of these two optimisation approaches with respect to the product's life-cycle stages, which are manufacturing, use, maintenance, disposal, reuse and recycling. As an applied example, a simple linear robot model is presented, and Pareto optimum solutions are obtained for the multiobjective optimisation problem whose evaluated objectives are the operating accuracy of the robot and the different life-cycle costs for the two approaches. The characteristics of the evaluated objectives and design variables, as well as the effects of using material characteristics as design parameters, are also examined.     

Fuzzy synthetic evaluation of treated wastewater reuse for agriculture

Reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) for agriculture is in practice in many countries. TWW reuse requires wastewater collection, treatment and recycling, which is associated with cost as well as risk to human and ecological systems. In contrast, it can increase agricultural production and reduce environmental risks by reducing wastewater discharge into the natural environment. In Saudi Arabia, where available water resources are extremely limited, TWW reuse can save significant amount of non-renewable groundwater used in agricultural development, which is a strategic goal for the country. In this paper, a multicriteria decision-making approach was developed where cost, risk, benefits and social acceptance of TWW reuse were considered to be the main criteria. A multistage hierarchy risk management model was constructed for this evaluation. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation technique was incorporated where fuzzy triangular membership functions were developed to capture uncertainties of the basic criteria. The analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the relative importance of various criteria at different hierarchy levels. This study indicated that TWW reuse could have positive impact on agriculture, risk reduction and groundwater conservation.     

水权市场研究述评与中国特色水权市场研究展望

水权水市场改革是我国水资源管理改革的重要内容,也是当前我国资源环境研究领域的热点之一。我国水权市场尚未发育完成,水权交易还未成体系,更缺乏水权交易的制度体系和技术支撑。国内外的研究表明,有效运作的水权市场,需要具备产权明晰、计量监测技术支撑、监管制度完善等多方面的条件,同时也会受到交易成本、第三方效应、社会文化等多方面的影响;从已有的水权交易模型来看,国内学者基本上是沿用了西方发展起来的水权交易模型,很少考虑中国国情因素。总体来看,国内水权水市场研究目前存在三个方面的主要缺陷。第一,在水权市场发展的规律研究方面,过于强调市场的作用和市场制度本身,对水权市场运作的内在机制认识不足;第二,在水权市场的国际经验借鉴方面,过于强调个别国家的"先进经验",对水权市场发展的教训和伴随的问题认识不足;第三,在水权交易和市场制度建设过程中,过于强调理想意义上的自由市场模式,对国情条件的制约和中国特色的因素认识不足。当前亟需开展更为深入的研究,系统探索中国国情因素对水权市场构建的影响,重点揭示中国特色的水权市场制度体系特征,提出中国情境下的水权交易模式、交易规则、水权监管制度以及与国情条件相适应的水价政策。通过理论集成和知识创新,增进对中国特色水权市场制度的理解,为水资源管理体制改革和水资源的可持续利用提供研究支撑。     

Reverse logistics network design: a conceptual framework for decision making

Reverse logistics play a significantly increased role in supply chains. Producers are incorporating reverse logistics into their supply chain design because of governmental legislation, economic benefits from product recovery, and customers' demands for better environmental practices. Motivated producers face two main challenges in reverse logistics network design: (1) how do you build product recovery activities into traditional forward logistics networks? and (2) how do you manage the impact of uncertainty in the reverse logistics supply chain? Moreover, producers need to consider many tradeoffs leading to efficient network design. Published case studies have discussed these tradeoffs, and we describe a framework to evaluate these tradeoff considerations. We then apply the framework to three new case studies: medical device refurbishing, municipal e‐waste recycling, and carpet fibre recycling.     

Depictions of sustainability in children’s books

Images in children’s books can leave a more lasting impression in young learners’ minds than text. Therefore, it is important for children’s books to use images as a teaching tool, especially regarding global issues such as environmental sustainability. This study examined how the images in nonfiction children’s books approach the topic of sustainability and whether these images support the overall goals of environmental education. We selected seven easy-to-access trade books which yielded 384 images for analysis. Two coders analyzed the images according to the following categories: (a) gender and age, (b) actions of people, (c) depictions of nature, (d) depictions of objects, (e) structures, and (f) habitation. Results show that nearly half of the images (48 %) depicted non-natural objects (16 %) or humans (31 %). One half of the images portrayed humans as consumers. Gender bias was evident, with 33 % of females portrayed as consumers and only 16 % of males portrayed as consumers. Similarly, 12 % of the images with males showed them engaged in recycling behavior, while only 4 % of the images showed females recycling. Of the 32 % of images depicting nature, individual plants rather than ecosystems were portrayed. Depictions of man-made systems predominated the images, a surprising finding. No images established the connection between consumerism and the depletion of natural resources or pollution, and further sustainable actions or lifestyles were not portrayed, implying that consumption is a societal norm. We conclude with recommendations for the use of images in children’s literature focusing on environmental education and sustainability.     

Evaluation on the development degree of China’s seven pilot carbon markets

China is preparing to establish a nationwide carbon market in 2017, and in order to facilitate this goal, seven pilot carbon markets have been under study for the past few years. This paper summarizes the operation experience and challenges of the seven pilot carbon markets in China. It has been widely accepted that the essence of a carbon market is to solve environmental problems through market mechanisms, with environmental benefit being the fundamental purpose, market mechanism being the key measure, and policies and regulations being an important guarantee for an orderly carbon market. Therefore, this paper constructs an evaluation index system composed of 34 detailed sub-indexes in three dimensions, such as environmental constraint force, market resource allocation ability, and supporting policies and facility completeness. Through analyzing the operation data from 2013 to 2016, the weights of the sub-indexes are obtained. In addition, the study obtains experts’ opinions from over 10 carbon permits exchanges, consultancy firms and research institutions in China, and conducts a comprehensive evaluation on the development degree of the seven pilot carbon markets. Results show that the pilot carbon markets that include private SMEs as the covered entities for emissions control present relatively higher environmental constraint force. But too many covered entities could increase the difficulty of market performance management, while the pilots that include high energy-consuming state-owned enterprises as the entities for emissions control demonstrate a phenomenon of “high market compliance rate with low trading volume”. The resource allocation capability of China’s carbon market has not been effectively brought into play, and low degree of market participation has become an important constraint factor for market development. Due to the lack of laws and regulations at the national macro-level, the legally binding force of the pilot markets construction is obviously insufficient, and the supporting policies are lacking foresights. Generally, the development of China’s pilot carbon markets is still in such a fragmented state as in the aspects of environment, market and policy development, and the market operation has not yet achieved the purpose of solving environmental problems through market mechanisms. Accordingly, policy recommendations pointed out by this study are that tightening the allowance of free quota and progressively increasing the auction proportion, improving legal construction, increasing the services and products of carbon finance and standardizing the order of market transactions, enhancing capacity building of local governments and promoting the participation willingness and capability of emissions control entities, will be necessary.     

Life cycle energy and CO2 emissions analysis of food packaging: an insight into the methodology from an Italian perspective

Packaging is strictly connected to environmental issues as it is a product characterised by high material consumption rate; it is often transported over long distances and has a short life. Providing environmental analysis is, therefore, urgent to identify energy and resources efficient solutions. The paper, taking advantage of a real case study, presents a life cycle-based comparative analysis among three different food packaging systems. The paper compares the life cycle of tin steel, polypropylene and glass-based packaging of an Italian preserves producer. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, for the baseline scenario, polypropylene packaging represents the greenest solution, whereas glass packaging is the worst choice. The paper presents a scenario analysis varying both the method used for accounting for recycling as well as the recycling rates of the packaging materials. Changes in overall results with parameters analysis changing are calculated and highlighted throughout the paper. The impact of a reuse policy of the glass-based solution is also analysed; a model for disposable glass packaging is proposed and the obtained results are compared with the single use polypropylene and tin steel-based packaging. In order to analyse the impact of different End of Life scenarios on the present case study, collecting as well as recycling rates of some European countries have been used. The results revealed a significant fluctuation both in energy consumption and in CO₂ emission as the nation changes. Summing up, a methodology for packaging environmental impact analysis is applied to a real case study, some crucial aspects of the methodology have been analysed in depth in order to give a contribution in packaging environmental impact analysis.     

环境价值的多元不可比性及其字典式偏好研究

绝大多数环境物品属于非市场资源,没有市场价格,因此市场体制低估甚至忽视了环境的价值,这是产生全球环境问题的深刻根源。在环境经济学中被广泛采用的显示偏好或明示偏好等非市场价值导出方法尽管可以估计环境的经济价值,但这些方法仍以新古典经济学的一元价值论为基础,忽视了环境物品的价值多元性和不可估价性。近年来在环境伦理领域兴起的字典式偏好可以较好地描述环境多元价值,反映环境物品具有伦理属性、公共属性和政治属性。相对于新古典经济学的福利最大化和利益补偿原则而言,商议是一种可以发现和容纳环境多元价值的机制,也是现代市民社会解决环境争议的重要途径之一。     

The study of production and inventory policy of manufacturing/remanufacturing environment in a closed-loop supply chain

The life cycle of electronic and electrical equipment has been ruthlessly shortened due to the rapid promotion of new products. Such a phenomenon has thereby resulted in serious environmental pollution and damages to the natural ecology. In order to reduce electronic wastes and increase recycling products, a manufacturing/remanufacturing simulation model was constructed through a series of inventory management policies. The model included the use of the traditional supply chain structures for the forward movement of goods to consumers, as well as a number of specialised operations required to perform reverse supply chain activities. Such a model took into account all the supply chain members such as the suppliers, manufacturers, logistics centres and customers at the same time. Finally, a case study on the application of the model was conducted.     

Decision rules for recycling returned products

Most retail and on-line outlets allow customers to easily return defective or even non-defective products. Due to increasing environmental and sustainable concerns, disposal of returned products is often costly and undesirable. Furthermore, these products contain parts and materials of value that can contribute to the companies' profit. One way to take advantage of these returns is by utilising good returned parts in production of after-market products. Recycling of parts from products at the end of their useful lives has been studied for a long time. Many of these studies, however, are focused on repairs and refurbishing of such products for reuse.

This paper addresses recycling of rather new parts recovered from returned products. In this process parts are assembled with other parts recovered from other products to make a complete unit. The main objective of this study is to provide quantitative decision rules for justification of recycling of returned parts. The proposed method consists of a computer-based simulation decision model that, given a set of production system parameters, determines the breakeven point for the primary production rate at which recycling is justified. The application of the system to several scenarios is demonstrated through a numerical example.     

国外废旧家用电子电器回收再利用研究

随着废旧家用电子电器数量和种类的增加及其产生的环境污染问题，废旧家用电子电器的处理处置、回收再利用引起世界各国的广泛关注。本文阐述了一些工业发达国家在废旧家用电子电器回收再利用方面所采取的措施、取得的成功经验和未来发展趋势。     

Recycling – the importance of understanding the complexity of the issue

Natural resources and raw materials such as metals and minerals are often taken for granted in today’s society. Without them, the offerings of an enormous variety of modern conveniences, including computers and mobile phones, would not be possible. The production of these everyday items depends on a secure, sustainable, and reliable supply of critical raw materials. In addition, product development also requires new hybrid materials when targeting lightweight structures, etc. However, the mandatory recyclability of new products or materials is not obligatory or even prevailing practice in present manufacturing business. Therefore, the main research question in this article is: “how to solve the challenge of recycling in industrial system?” In this article, a comprehensive approach to recycling based on the findings of research projects is presented. Simplified, this involves moving the challenge from the end of the product’s life cycle to the beginning, to the design or even to material development phases. Life cycle and system thinking and material know-how in the design phase are found to be essential elements of a new approach to recycling. This approach stems from the material development and market economy perspectives. Furthermore, the vulnerability of the industrial system to create uncertainty to recycling is also demonstrated.     

环境友好行为、信息公开与庇古税研究

在信息传播迅速的现代社会,环境友好行为日益成为环境规制的重要考量因素,环境友好行为更将借助信息公开这一新型环境规制手段而发挥更大的作用。为了实现节能减排与低碳经济发展,当环境友好行为渗透于排污费等常规的环境规制工具的实际应用中,环境规制政策应当精心设计。当涉及环境友好行为时,庇古税有何不同?在包括外部性的古诺模型分析框架中对该问题进行研究,得到结论:①消费者对污染排放的反应越强烈,污染排放量越小;②给定环境友好行为,次优排污费在竞争性条件下等于污染边际损害,垄断条件下小于污染边际损害;③市场结构、污染治理成本不变时,环境友好行为是造成排污费小于污染边际损害的一个因素。     

Life cycle assessment part 1: framework, goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, and applications

Sustainable development requires methods and tools to measure and compare the environmental impacts of human activities for the provision of goods and services (both of which are summarized under the term "products"). Environmental impacts include those from emissions into the environment and through the consumption of resources, as well as other interventions (e.g., land use) associated with providing products that occur when extracting resources, producing materials, manufacturing the products, during consumption/use, and at the products' end-of-life (collection/sorting, reuse, recycling, waste disposal). These emissions and consumptions contribute to a wide range of impacts, such as climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, tropospheric ozone (smog) creation, eutrophication, acidification, toxicological stress on human health and ecosystems, the depletion of resources, water use, land use, and noise-among others. A clear need, therefore, exists to be proactive and to provide complimentary insights, apart from current regulatory practices, to help reduce such impacts. Practitioners and researchers from many domains come together in life cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate indicators of the aforementioned potential environmental impacts that are linked to products-supporting the identification of opportunities for pollution prevention and reductions in resource consumption while taking the entire product life cycle into consideration. This paper, part 1 in a series of two, introduces the LCA framework and procedure, outlines how to define and model a product's life cycle, and provides an overview of available methods and tools for tabulating and compiling associated emissions and resource consumption data in a life cycle inventory (LCI). It also discusses the application of LCA in industry and policy making. The second paper, by Pennington et al. (Environ. Int. 2003, in press), highlights the key features, summarises available approaches, and outlines the key challenges of assessing the aforementioned inventory data in terms of contributions to environmental impacts (life cycle impact assessment, LCIA).