The environmental potential of reuse: an application to used books

Reuse is generally considered to have environmental benefits, but it has not yet been widely adopted in environmental policy or strategy. In this paper, a simple model of second-hand markets is explored with a case study of used books that illustrates the behavior of the model and shows that such a model is consistent with the data. Three questions of the dynamics of reuse are addressed: (1) If it becomes easier to buy and sell used goods (via Internet markets or other means), by how much will sales of used goods increase? (2) When sales of used goods increase, by how much will sales of new goods decrease? (3) When is reuse better than recycling? Expanding from the case study, the model is used to examine how reuse affects the consumption of new goods, and the relative merits of reuse versus recycling. When the used goods market is small, the ratio of the price of used and new goods, an observable quantity, is approximately equal to the fractional decrease in sales of new goods that will result from increased sales of used goods. A formulation of the environmental impact of reuse and recycling is developed that includes the market impact of reuse. Illustrating this formulation for books with a simplified analysis, reuse of books through sales in a second-hand market is estimated to save more than twice as much energy, with considerable uncertainty, than making books from recycled paper. The formulation provides a basis for identifying products and markets for which reuse can be an effective environmental strategy.     

Solid waste management in Bogotá: the role of recycling associations as investigated through SWOT analysis

In emerging economies, recycling provides an opportunity for cities to increase the lifespan of sanitary landfills, to reduce the costs of solid waste management, to decrease environmental problems from waste treatment by reincorporating waste into the productive cycle and to protect and develop the livelihoods of citizens who work as informal waste pickers. However, few studies have analysed the possibilities of and strategies for integrating the formal and informal sectors in solid waste management for the benefit of both. This integration is the key, especially in developing countries, to understanding how the recycling population can develop a business despite their social and economic limitations. The aim of this study was to perform a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis of three recycling associations in Bogotá with the aim of examining and understanding the recycling situation from the perspective of members of the informal sector in their transition to becoming authorised waste providers. This issue has rarely been studied in the context of developing countries. The data used in the analysis are derived from multiple sources, including a literature review, Bogota’s recycling database, focus group meetings, governmental reports, national laws and regulations and interviews with key stakeholders. The results of this study show that as the primary stakeholders, the formal and informal waste management sectors can identify the internal and external conditions of recycling in Bogotá. Several strategies were designed based on the SWOT analysis. The participation of recycling associations is important in the design and application of waste policy, the consolidation of recycling through an effective business model, promotional programmes for social inclusion and the development of new transformation processes and technologies to valorise recycling materials. In conclusion, recycling associations can become authorised waste providers through a profitable business that increases recycling rates to create a productive process from waste during the generation of new materials and to decrease environmental problems while improving the welfare and living conditions of recyclers. These findings are important for Bogotá to advance and promote recycling as a key strategy for integrated sustainable waste management in the city.     

The application of system dynamics in different practices of a waste management system

The continuous increase in waste generation warrants global management of waste to reduce the adverse economic, social, and environmental impact of waste while achieving goals for sustainability. The complexity of waste management systems due to different waste management practices renders such systems difficult to analyze. System dynamics (SD) approach aids in conceptualizing and analyzing the structure, interactions, and mode of behavior of the complex systems. The impact of the underlying components can therefore be assessed in an integrated way while the impact of possible policies on the system can be studied to implement appropriate decisions. This review summarizes various applications of SD pertinent to the waste management practices in different countries. Practices may include waste generation, reduction, reuse/recovery, recycling, and disposal. Each study supports regional-demanding targets in environmental, social, and economic scopes such as expanding landfill life span, implementing proper disposal fee, global warming mitigation, energy generation/saving, etc. The interacting variables in the WMS are specifically determined based on the defined problem, ultimate goal, and the type of waste. Generally, population and gross domestic product can increase the waste generation. An increase in waste reduction, source separation, and recycling rate could decrease the environmental impact, but it is not necessarily profitable from an economic perspective. Incentives to separate waste and knowledge about waste management are variables that always have a positive impact on the entire system.

     

长江上游生态脆弱区生态屏障建设与产业发展战略研究--以昭通市为例

长江经济带是世界最大的内河产业带和制造业基地,在我国社会经济发展中占有重要的战略地位。建设长江生态屏障是长江经济带可持续发展的基本保障,以金沙江区段为主的长江上游地区在流域生态屏障建设中更是起着至关重要的作用。结合实地调研,以地处云南省东北部、金沙江下游、滇川黔3省结合部的昭通市为例,分析了地区产业发展与生态屏障建设的互动机理。首先分析了昭通市生态—经济系统存在的主要问题,进而指出优化产业结构是昭通市生态－经济系统协调发展的必然选择,在此基础上提出昭通市应通过高效生态农业、环境友好型工业以及生态旅游业的发展实现经济发展与生态屏障建设的有机结合。     

Environmental mainstreaming and policy coherence: essential policy tools to link international agreements with national development—a case study of the Caribbean region

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development adopted in September 2015 advocates for a balanced integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Existing multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) can provide guidance for policy-makers to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, within safe ecological limits. This paper presents a practical approach to mainstream international obligations of MEAs with national development priorities and strategies. It identifies pathways of policy coherence from national strategies to specific instruments and indicators to advance implementation of MEAs and help counties to fulfill agreed obligations. The approach is grounded in the driving forces–pressure–state–impact–response (DPSIR) framework, and it was applied in two national and two regional case studies in the Caribbean. The outcomes from the case studies show that mainstreaming rate of MEAs is low, and linkages across multiple MEAs are rarely considered. The DPSIR framework was useful for addressing national development priorities and those of MEAs in tandem, through adopting a cross-sectoral, multistakeholder perspective. The research shows that addressing environmental degradation and improving MEAs’ implementation requires that international and regional agencies identify linkages among MEAs to assist in creating policy coherence to ensure their integration into national strategies by connecting with policies and strategies in tandem implementation of MEAs for national policy-makers to work with.     

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。     

Ecological and economical assessment of end‐of‐life waste recycling in the electrical and electronic recovery sector

Technological innovation and shorter product life cycles of electrical and electronic equipment coupled with their rapidly growing applications have resulted in the generation of an enormous amount of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). To address the potential environmental problems that could stem from improper end‐of‐life management of WEEE, many countries have drafted national legislation to improve the reuse, remanufacture and material recycling from WEEE, and to reduce the amount of such waste going to landfills. With the introduction of such legislation comes an increased need for the recovery operators to evaluate the recycling costs and environmental benefits of reclaimed products and materials in order to select the most appropriate end‐of‐life options for individual products in WEEE. This paper presents a systematic methodology for ecological and economical assessment to provide a holistic understanding of the impacts associated with different end‐of‐life options for such waste. This assessment, in addition to providing decision‐support for the selection of the best possible end‐of‐life option for a particular product in WEEE, could also generate vital information to support the design and material selection processes during the initial product development activities. The assertion made is that the detailed considerations of the ecological and economical impacts associated with different end‐of‐life options will significantly improve the recovery and recycling of WEEE.     

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.     

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.     

Corporations,Consumerism and Culpability: Sustainability in the British Press

Sustainability and sustainable development are prominent themes in international policy-making, corporate PR, news-media and academic scholarship. Its definitions are contested, however sustainability is associated with a three-pillar focus on economic development, environmental conservation and social justice, most recently espoused in the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. In spite of its common usage, there is little research about how sustainability is represented and refracted in public discourse in different national contexts. We examine British national press coverage of sustainability and sustainable development in 2015 in a cross-market sample of national newspapers. Our findings show that key international policy events and environmental and social justice frames are peripheral, while neoliberalism and neoliberal environmentalism vis-à-vis the promotion of technocratic solutions, corporate social responsibility and “sustainable” consumerism are the predominant frames through which the British news-media reports sustainability. This holds regardless of newspaper quality and ideological orientation.     

The disappearing sustainability triangle: community level considerations

This article challenges the application of the sustainability triangle to conceptualise sustainable development by looking at how weak sustainability can be obtained via the reinforcing increase in social capital and natural capital. Sustainable development is often visualised as a triangle consisting of social, environmental, and economic aspects. Would it be possible to conceive a flattened system, with diminishing economic resources or without refilling financial resources? The possibility involves mutual reinforcement between social capital and natural capital. The consideration of the diminishing economic dimension relates to the concept of development without economic growth, such as degrowth, zero-growth, and sustainable growth, that has been revived in the face of the recent economic crisis. Several countries have imposed extreme budget cuts in development collaboration and in other government expenditures. When the economic resource is not at a satisfactory level, can we rely on the reinforcement between social and environmental aspects for sustainability? Although it is not new to acknowledge the contribution of social capital to environmental conservation, research has long ignored the reinforcing relationship between environmental and social dimensions. This article provides a prototype model to demonstrate how social capital and natural capital can reinforce each other. The prototype is studied and verified at the community level using a comparative method. This article concludes with principles and practices that may encourage sustainability with merely the reinforcement between social capital and natural capital.     

Manufacturing system sustainability through lean and agile initiatives

Sustainability is one of the most critical issues facing manufacturers today. The industries must develop new and innovative approaches to ensure sustainability in economic, environmental and social aspects. The operational excellence strategies such as Lean and Agile manufacturing can be applied in the industries that add value to the product by eliminating waste and quickly respond to dynamic changes in demand. This paper presents a framework that builds and assesses the sustainability of the manufacturing system with combined lean and agile concepts. Analytical Hierarchy Process and Analytical Network Process are identified as suitable methodologies to analyze the model. The model is validated in an Ayurveda Pharmaceutical industry to identify the most important factors of lean and agile manufacturing that build and enable the sustainability dimensions such as Economic, Environmental, Social, Technological and Ethical. The results show that the industry focuses more on economic aspects of sustainability followed by social, environmental, ethics and technological dimensions of sustainability in the case of a lean perspective. For an agile perspective, the weightage is more for social dimension followed by ethics, economic, technological and environmental dimensions of sustainability.     

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.     

Evaluating efforts to build sustainable WEEE reverse logistics network design: comparison of regulatory and non-regulatory approaches

Many developing countries such as Turkey are still making an effort on building an infrastructure for waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) reverse logistic network design (RLND) processes. It is obvious that policies/laws/regulations related to WEEE management provide a sustainable framework for implementation in the RLND. The question is here: Does the implementation of WEEE directives make sense in terms of reducing the total cost of the network in the long term? This study aims to compare regulatory and non-regulatory situations of WEEE RLND in developing countries by formulating two models named as ‘regulatory’ and ‘non-regulatory’. Model 1 is considered as sustainable with economic, environmental and social goals, and the quotas imposed by the environmental directive are taken into consideration as the data of product return amount. In Model 2, only economic goal is considered, and product return amount is forecasted using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). A case study is conducted in a recycling company in order to evaluate performance of the proposed models. This study contributes to the relevant literature by (1) comparing the regulatory and non-regulatory situations RL models explicitly and (2) proposing ANN model to forecast EEE product return or WEEE quantity for non-regulatory situation.     

Research from global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to sustainability science based on the object-subject-process framework

Since United Nations adopted the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the next 15 years (2016–2030), sustainable development will further become a core concept and main principle to guide global and national economic and social development. According to this background, strengthening the integrative research on the theories and methodologies of sustainable development has been a strategically important mission. This article provided an analytic framework for sustainability science, named the object-subject-process (OSP) framework for examining the key issues encountered during the theoretical research and policy analysis. This study emphasized that, on the object dimension, sustainable development means to seek for economic and social development within biophysical limits of the earth and the relationship of environment, society, and economy should be containing and complementary rather than parallel and substitute; on the process dimension, sustainable development should adopt both the responsive and proactive strategies for the whole process management which employing pressure-state-response (PRS) model rather than dealing with one part of them; on the subject dimension, sustainable development research should involve the key stakeholders who are kind of collaborate governance rather than separate each other. From the perspective of sustainability science, green economy was utilized as a case study to explore the issues of object, process and subject and also the significance of green economy was discussed in this study.     

The role of sustainability environment in export marketing strategy and performance: a literature review

Increasing environmental issues, economic and cultural differences, the regulatory framework and the great attention to social responsibility, have forced companies to face the challenge of sustainability. Thus, the adaption of a proper marketing strategy in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the market (specially export markets) has become an important principle in accepting companies. In this regard, this study is a systematic literature review, which investigated 102 published articles in international journals between 1964 and 2015. In the literature review, the main focus was on key issues such as sustainability, marketing strategies, financial and market export performance. In this article, at first, the concept of sustainability from different aspects was collected and described. Then, external factors, such as competitive intensity, public concern, regulations, technology, cultural/social, and economic, as well as internal factors, such as managers, employees, stakeholders, affecting sustainability, were studied. Finally, adaption of export marketing strategies in order to achieve sustainability export performance is discussed.     

价值核算是环境核算的关键

实行环境核算是将其纳入国民经济核算体系 ,是实施可持续发展战略的一项重大措施 ,而价值核算则是环境核算及其纳入国民经济核算体系的关键。本文阐述了环境价值构成和核算问题。     

Environmental and economic benefit of recycling model of packaging waste:a case study on aluminum

In order to achieve sustainable utilization of natural resources, save energy and protect environment and ecosystem, it is important for a region or a nation to develop and implement a viable waste recycling model from both theoretical and practical point of view. Some packaging recycling models operated in developed countries are introduced in this article. Aluminium can recovery and recycling is emphasized. Cost effective, economic and environmental benefit of different models are compared and analyzed. The result shows that all recycling models have their characteristics due to the initial purpose of recovery and the situation of the implementing country. However, all the models contribute to the reduction of municipal solid waste disposal and resources conservation.     

福建龙岩可持续发展实验区规划探讨及实践

可持续发展实验区总体规划是区域规划的一种特殊类型。通过对可持续发展实验区及其总体规划的理解和认识,文章指出地方可持续发展实验区总体规划的编制思路应当回归到问题指向型的出发点上来。规划编制思路应当紧密结合宏观经济发展环境、社会事业新要求以及全球环境变化压力等背景,从地区人地关系的突出问题入手,制定实验区可持续发展战略,并通过重点项目落实到规划实施中,使可持续发展实验区总体规划体现实验、探索、示范、创新的作用。文章以福建龙岩可持续发展实验区总体规划编制的实践经验为例,对规划编制思路进行探讨。     

A design for EoL approach and metrics to favour closed-loop scenarios for products

Recently, environmentally conscious design and extended producer responsibility have become key aspects for companies that need to develop products that are sustainable along their whole life cycle. Design for End of Life (EoL) is a strategy that aims to reduce landfill waste through the implementation of closed-loop product life cycles. It is important to consider disassembly and EoL scenario management as early as the design phase. For these reasons, this paper presents an approach to help designers in the evaluation and subsequent improvement in product EoL performance. The method is based on four innovative EoL indices that compare different EoL scenarios for each product component. In this way, the designer can modify the product structure or the liaisons to maximise the reuse and remanufacture of components as well as material recycling. The presented case studies confirm the validity of the approach in helping designers during the redesign phase of goods and products to reduce the quantity of materials and industrial wastes sent to landfill.