Measuring the success of the federal government's Brownfields Program

In 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) initiated the Brownfields Program to help local governments clean up and reuse hundreds of thousands of contaminated former factories and transportation and other commercial sites in cities and industrialized suburbs. By the end of 2002, the Brownfields Program had distributed grants of about $200,000 each to 436 local governments. Program grants have diffused through federal, state, regional, and local levels of government and private and not‐for profit organizations, and have reached into economically distressed neighborhoods. As expected, grant recipients disproportionately had a legacy of contaminated industrial sites and relatively large African American and/or Latino populations. But abandoned factories and environmental justice concerns do not completely explain the geographical distribution of recipients. Award winners tended to be larger cities with more capacity to compete for grants and were likely to be connected to sources of information about the grant opportunity and to decision makers. With a few exceptions, recipients consider the program to be highly successful at stimulating entrepreneurs to remediate and redevelop sites and, sometimes, surrounding neighborhoods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Economic aspects of the rehabilitation of the Hiriya landfill

The Hiriya landfill, Israel's largest, operated from 1952 to 1998. The landfill, located in the heart of the Dan Region, developed over the years into a major landscape nuisance and environmental hazard. In 1998, the Israeli government decided to close the landfill, and in 2001 rehabilitation activities began at the site, including site investigations, engineering and scientific evaluations, and end-use planning. The purpose of the present research is to perform a cost-benefit analysis of engineering and architectural-landscape rehabilitation projects considered for the site. An engineering rehabilitation project is required for the reduction of environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, slope instability and leachate formation. An architectural-landscape rehabilitation project would consider improvements to the site to make it suitable for future end uses such as a public park. The findings reveal that reclamation is worthwhile only in the case of architectural-landscape rehabilitation of the landfill, converting it into a public park. Engineering rehabilitation alone was found to be unjustified, but is essential to enable the development of a public park.     

降低一次风机噪声的技术改造

从理论上分析了一次风机产生噪声的原因,并根据实际情况提出了改造方案。改造后噪声明显减小,达到了降噪的目的。     

Re-thinking incentives and penalties: Economic aspects of waste management in Italy

This paper focuses on the dynamics the formation of operational costs of waste management in Italy and the effect of economic measures. Currently incentives and penalties have been internalized by the system no differently from other cost items and revenues. This has greatly influenced the system directing it towards solutions that are often distant from the real environmental objectives. Based on an analysis of disaggregated costs of collection treatment and recovery, we provide the basic elements to compose a picture of economic management in various technical–organizational scenarios.In the light of the considerations contained in the paper it is proposed, e.g. for controlled landfills, that the ecotax, currently based on weight, could be replaced by one based on the volume consumption. Likewise, for tax reduction on disposal system, instead a pre-treatment might ask an environmental balance of the overall system.The article presents a reflection on the last hidden costs associated with the consumption of goods and packaging, and how to reduce waste production is the necessary path to be followed in ecological and economic perspectives.     

Economic benefits from food recovery at the retail stage: An application to Italian food chains

The food supply chain is affected by losses of products near to their expiry date or damaged by improper transportation or production defects. Such products are usually poorly attractive for the consumer in the target market even if they maintain their nutritional properties. On the other hand undernourished people face every day the problem of fulfilling their nutritional needs usually relying on non-profit organizations. In this field the food recovery enabling economic benefits for donors is nowadays seen as a coherent way to manage food products unsalable in the target market for various causes and thus destined to be discarded and disposed to landfill thus representing only a cost. Despite its obvious affordability the food recovery is today not always practiced because the economic benefits that could be achieved are barely known. The paper aims at presenting a deterministic mathematical model for the optimization of the supply chain composed by retailers and potential recipients that practice the food recovery, taking into account the benefits recognized to donors and the management costs of the food recovery. The model determines the optimal time to withdraw the products from the shelves as well as the quantities to be donated to the non-profit organizations and those to be sent to the livestock market maximizing the retailer profit. The results show that the optimal conditions ensuring the affordability of the food recovery strategy including the tax reliefs and cost saving for the retailers outperforms the profit achievable in absence of such a system.     

Prior to Economic Treatment of Emissions and Their Uncertainties Under the Kyoto Protocol: Scientific Uncertainties That Must Be Kept in Mind

In a step-by-step exercise – beginning at full greenhouse gas accounting (FGA) and ending with the temporal detection of emission changes – we specify the relevant physical scientific constraints on carrying out temporal signal detection under the Kyoto Protocol and identify a number of scientific uncertainties that economic experts must consider before dealing with the economic aspects of emissions and their uncertainties under the Protocol. In addition, we answer one of the crucial questions that economic experts might pose: how credible in scientific terms are tradable emissions permits? Our exercise is meant to provide a preliminary basis for economic experts to carry out useful emissions trading assessments and specify the validity of their assessments from the scientific point of view, that is, in the general context of a FGA-uncertainty-verification framework. Such a basis is currently missing.     

工业园区生态化的产业共生体系研究——以天津空港经济区为例

工业园区生态化是未来发展的必然选择,其核心是建立"资源—产品—消费—再生资源"产业共生的生态模式,以充分利用资源、减缓或消除环境破坏、协调社会经济与资源环境的关系。在工业园区生态化发展需求及趋势分析的基础上,以产业生态学理论为指导,分析了工业园区生态产业链及产业共生模式的类别及特征。并以天津空港经济区为例,构建了嵌套型工业共生体系框架。     

Economic evaluation of thermochemical conversion of municipal solid waste to syngas: a case study of Cape Town municipality

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Thermochemical conversions of the combustible components of municipal solid waste (MSW) minimize the emissions and net effects of greenhouse gas...     

The maturing of the Triad approach: Avoiding misconceptions

Misunderstandings and misconceptions have arisen as the Triad approach has gained wider application. The Triad initiative's ability to catalyze second‐generation cleanup practices will be hampered if inaccurate or incomplete assumptions create persistent confusion about what Triad is or how it works. This article has been prepared by the multi‐agency workgroup responsible for articulating the Triad approach and coordinating national Triad efforts. It serves to address some misunderstandings about key Triad concepts. As an aid to those wishing to learn more, a new Web site (the Triad Resource Center, http://www.triadcentral.org) and a new Triad reference document from the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) are introduced as sources of explanatory information supporting the Triad approach. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Degradable polymers: The role of the degradation environment

The degradability of several degradable polymers was examined using three types of degradation environments. These include exposure in a laboratory-scale composting test system containing material representative of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW), exposure in a thermal hydrolytic environment consisting of water at 60‡C, and exposure in a thermal-oxidative, dry oven environment of 60‡C. The results of the investigation clearly indicate that, in addition to chemical and biological activity which can lead to polymer degradation, physical restructuring and reorganization of the macromolecular structure may also occur at temperatures typically found in a compost environment, resulting in changes in the mechanical properties of the polymer films. In the case of the polyethylene-modified polymers evaluated in this study, all behaved similarly, but differently from the other polymer types. The polyethylene-based films appeared to be susceptible to oxidative degradation and should degrade in a composting environment providing that there is sufficient air in contact with the film for a sufficient period of time. However, when exposed in a laboratory composter, it appears that although ideal temperature-time curves may be obtained, the test time period was insufficient in comparison to the induction period required to achieve the desired thermal oxidative degradation. Issued as NRCC No. 37620.     

"2009年全国生态经济建设理论与实践学术研讨会"综述

“2009年全国生态经济建设理论与实践学术研讨会”于2009年7月22日在甘肃行政学院隆重举行。围绕“发展循环经济与建设生态文明”的主题,从5个方面展开讨论;中西部地区发展循环经济的路径选择、绿色新政与绿色经济、马克思主义生态经济学和生态马克思主义经济学的联系与区别、国内研究循环经济的主要力量及低碳经济。     

The revenge of OSHA: The new asbestos regulations

After suits by the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union demanding more worker protection, OSHA published new proposed asbestos regulations in 1990. Hearings were held in 1991. Everyone was very interested. Nothing happened for about three years. Then, just when everyone thought they had their “asbestos problems” figured out, along came the new October 11, 1994, asbestos rules. Look out building owners, property management companies, abatement contractors, and asbestos consultants—it's your turn to cry.     

The use of respiration indices in the composting process: a review.

Respiration is directly related to the metabolic activity of a microbial population. Micro-organisms respire at higher rates in the presence of large amounts of bioavailable organic matter while respiration rate is slower if this type of material is scarce. In the composting process respiration activity has become an important parameter for the determination of the stability of compost. It is also used for the monitoring of the composting process and it is considered an important factor for the estimation of the maturity of the material. A wide range of respirometric protocols has been reported based either on CO2 production, O2 uptake or release of heat. The most common methods are those based on O2 uptake. Respirometric assays are affected by a number of parameters including temperature, humidity, and both incubation and pre-incubation conditions. Results from respirometries are generally expressed as 'respiration indices', most of them with their own units and basis. In consequence, some confusion exists when referring and comparing respiration indices. This is particularly important because current and future legislations define and measure the biological stability of waste on the basis of respiration activity of the material. This paper discusses and compares most common respiration indices currently used.     

Nitrate Remediation: The Importance of the Advanced Nitrogen Cycle in Remedy Selection

Nitrate has become an increased regulatory concern due to gradual deterioration of surface and groundwater quality primarily related to widespread fertilizer use. Remediation of nitrate is a relatively straightforward process; however, nitrate impacts to groundwater are often a symptom of a sustained source from another nitrogen form (e.g., ammonia, ammonium nitrate, urea), analogous to how nonaqueous phase liquid can serve as a long‐term source of volatile organic compounds in groundwater. Understanding the various nitrogen transformation reactions when selecting, implementing, or documenting a remedy associated with nitrate is therefore critical to successfully reaching remedial endpoints. Case studies are presented that highlight in situ remedial successes with nitrogen‐impacted groundwater and discuss the key considerations that should be factored into remedy application. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of intergenerational influence in waste education programmes: the THAW project

Whilst the education of young people is often seen as a part of the solution to current environmental problems seeking urgent attention, it is often forgotten that their parents and other household members can also be educated/influenced via home-based educational activities. This paper explores the theory of intergenerational influence in relation to school based waste education. Waste Watch, a UK-based environmental charity (www.wastewatch.org.uk), has pioneered a model that uses practical activities and whole school involvement to promote school based action on waste. This methodology has been adopted nationally. This paper outlines and evaluates how effective school based waste education is in promoting action at a household level. The paper outlines Waste Watch's 'Taking Home Action on Waste (THAW)' project carried out for two and half years in Rotherham, a town in South Yorkshire, England. The project worked with 6705 primary age children in 39 schools (44% of primary schools in the project area) to enable them to take the "reduce, reuse and recycle message" home to their families and to engage these (i.e. families) in sustainable waste management practices. As well as substantial increases in students' knowledge and understanding of waste reduction, measurement of the impact of the project in areas around 12 carefully chosen sample schools showed evidence of increased participation in recycling and recycling tonnages as well as declining levels of residual waste. Following delivery of the project in these areas, an average increase of 8.6% was recorded in recycling set out rates which led to a 4.3% increase in paper recycling tonnages and an 8.7% increase in tonnages of cans, glass and textiles collected for recycling. Correspondingly, there was a 4.5% fall in tonnages of residual waste. Waste Watch's THAW project was the first serious attempt to measure the intergenerational influence of an education programme on behaviour at home (i.e. other than schools' own waste). It clearly shows that household recycling behaviour can be positively impacted by intergenerational influence via a practical school-based waste education model. However, although the model could potentially have a big impact if rolled out nationally, it will require seed funding and the long-term durability of the model has not yet been fully quantified.