Conceptualising Reuse in African Households: Perspectives from Chembe,Malawi

African households are often models of sustainability, practicing daily behaviours, which, if even not directly associated by the individual with Western conceptualisations of ‘recycling’ or ‘reuse’, have dramatically positive impacts on the amounts of household waste generated. However, rarely has the African household been given the same consideration, and there is a poor understanding within the discipline how poor individuals, and Africans in particular, understand and conceptualise ‘waste’ as both a problem and a resource. Drawing on Kennedy and Appadurai’s theoretical perspectives, the purpose of this article is to critically examine and contextualise household solid waste reuse practices in Chembe, Malawi, a rapidly densifying village and a constituent part of one of the nation’s premier resort destinations. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with residents and stakeholders, findings suggest that, within Chembe, reuse practices, and the motivations that drive them, are both widespread and diverse, with a multitude of ‘waste’ items living multiple ‘lives’ before being ultimately discarded as ‘trash’. These behaviours are facilitated by the fact that many desirable waste items are widely available locally within Chembe, and although some of these reuse practices may be widespread within Malawi, others have been uniquely fostered by Chembe’s position as an affluent tourism destination with abundant and easily accessible waste streams. This investigation is particularly important within the context of rural Africa, and the Global South more broadly. Moreover, it should critically inform circular economy, zero waste, and broader waste management studies discourse, where African households have been habitually treated as problems needing solutions, rather than potential sources of innovation and learning.

     

Contributions of paraecologists and parataxonomists to research,conservation, and social development

Citizen science has been gaining momentum in the United States and Europe, where citizens are literate and often interested in science. However, in developing countries, which have a dire need for environmental data, such programs are slow to emerge, despite the large and untapped human resources in close proximity to areas of high biodiversity and poorly known floras and faunas. Thus, we propose that the parataxonomist and paraecologist approach, which originates from citizen‐based science, is well suited to rural areas in developing countries. Being a paraecologist or a parataxonomist is a vocation and entails full‐time employment underpinned by extensive training, whereas citizen science involves the temporary engagement of volunteers. Both approaches have their merits depending on the context and objectives of the research. We examined 4 ongoing paraecologist or parataxonomist programs in Costa Rica, India, Papua New Guinea, and southern Africa and compared their origins, long‐term objectives, implementation strategies, activities, key challenges, achievements, and implications for resident communities. The programs supported ongoing research on biodiversity assessment, monitoring, and management, and participants engaged in non‐academic capacity development in these fields. The programs in Southern Africa related to specific projects, whereas the programs in Costa Rica, India, and Papua New Guinea were designed for the long term, provided sufficient funding was available. The main focus of the paraecologists’ and parataxonomists’ activities ranged from collection and processing of specimens (Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea) or of socioeconomic and natural science data (India and Southern Africa) to communication between scientists and residents (India and Southern Africa). As members of both the local land user and research communities, paraecologists and parataxonomists can greatly improve the flow of biodiversity information to all users, from local stakeholders to international academia.     

Can the 2050 zero land take objective of the EU be reliably monitored? A comparative study

The European Union has defined an ambitious objective for the future concerning sustainable land use to stop the process of land take by 2050. But can this objective be reliably monitored? In this paper, which is based on the case study of Luxembourg and the neighbouring regions, we show that the tools that are used to monitor land-take produce different results that prevent from comparing the figures from one region to another. Moreover, a comparison of the strategic documents related to land use in this cross-border region shows that land-use policies are the product of very different contexts and relationships towards land as a resource, which need to be addressed with tailored strategies.     

Using a Balanced Scorecard to Implement Sustainability

Developing social and environmental balanced scorecard measures helps EH&S managers identify the key performance factors that link their department's work to the company's strategic objectives. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Leveraging social media and deep learning to detect rare megafauna in video surveys

Deep learning has become a key tool for the automated monitoring of animal populations with video surveys. However, obtaining large numbers of images to train such models is a major challenge for rare and elusive species because field video surveys provide few sightings. We designed a method that takes advantage of videos accumulated on social media for training deep-learning models to detect rare megafauna species in the field. We trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with social media images and tested them on images collected from field surveys. We applied our method to aerial video surveys of dugongs (Dugong dugon) in New Caledonia (southwestern Pacific). CNNs trained with 1303 social media images yielded 25% false positives and 38% false negatives when tested on independent field video surveys. Incorporating a small number of images from New Caledonia (equivalent to 12% of social media images) in the training data set resulted in a nearly 50% decrease in false negatives. Our results highlight how and the extent to which images collected on social media can offer a solid basis for training deep-learning models for rare megafauna detection and that the incorporation of a few images from the study site further boosts detection accuracy. Our method provides a new generation of deep-learning models that can be used to rapidly and accurately process field video surveys for the monitoring of rare megafauna.     

MSWI boiler fly ashes: magnetic separation for material recovery

Nowadays, ferrous materials are usually recovered from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) bottom ash by magnetic separation. To our knowledge, such a physical technique has not been applied so far to other MSWI residues. This study focuses thus on the applicability of magnetic separation on boiler fly ashes (BFA). Different types of magnet are used to extract the magnetic particles. We investigate the magnetic particle composition, as well as their leaching behaviour (EN 12457-1 leaching test). The magnetic particles present higher Cr, Fe, Mn and Ni concentration than the non-magnetic (NM) fraction. Magnetic separation does not improve the leachability of the NM fraction. To approximate industrial conditions, magnetic separation is also applied to BFA mixed with water by using a pilot. BFA magnetic separation is economically evaluated. This study globally shows that it is possible to extract some magnetic particles from MSWI boiler fly ashes. However, the magnetic particles only represent from 23 to 120 g/kg of the BFA and, though they are enriched in Fe, are composed of similar elements to the raw ashes. The industrial application of magnetic separation would only be profitable if large amounts of ashes were treated (more than 15 kt/y), and the process should be ideally completed by other recovery methods or advanced treatments.     

Economic and other implications of integrated chain management: a case study

In this article, the concept of Integrated (Substance) Chain Management (ISCM) is discussed. The definition of ISCM, motives for ISCM, conditions for implementation, different points of view and a five-step model are dealt with. In addition, a number of possible barriers on the road to ISCM are discussed. The model is applied to a stonewool-producing company in the Netherlands. This company set up a recycling project in the form of a briquetting factory. The substance-flow sheets show that after implementing the briquetting factory, almost all process wastes are used in the factory and that fewer virgin materials have to be used. From an economic point of view, production in a more sustainable fashion is very unattractive: production costs per ton of stonewool product rose as a consequence of the use of the briquettes as an input. The barriers connected to ISCM are mainly economic and regulatory. Solutions for the Rockwool company may include engaging in environmental product stewardship and a realignment of the government policy towards dumping re-usable and non-separated building and construction waste.     

Elements of a certification system for forestry-based carbon offset projects

Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will require theestablishment of procedures for monitoring,verification and certification of carbon offsetprojects. In this paper, the steps required forindependent certification of forestry-based carbonoffset projects are reviewed, based on the proceduresused by the international certification companySociété Générale de Surveillance.Firstly, a project must be evaluated for itssuitability in relation to eligibility criteria of theKyoto Protocol. These eligibility criteria areclassified under four headings: (a) acceptability tohost country parties and international agreements; (b)additionality, in terms of demonstrated positivegreenhouse gas effects additional to the`business-as-usual' case; (c) externalities orunwanted side effects; and, (d) capacity to implementproject's activities. Secondly, the scientificmethodology for calculating the carbon offsets and themethodology for data collection and statisticalanalysis must be evaluated. Additionally, the amountof carbon offsets quantified must be adjusted toreflect the uncertainty associated with themethodology and data used. Only when these steps havebeen completed can carbon offsets be certified.Finally, the paper discusses the importance ofstandardization of methods and procedures used forproject monitoring and verification, and the need foraccreditation to ensure that the activities ofcertifiers are regulated.