The effectiveness of recycling policy options: Waste diversion or just diversions?

Recycling is becoming ever more important as waste generation rates increase globally. Policy-makers must decide which recycling practices to implement from the host of options at their disposal to best divert waste from landfill. This study strived to determine the most important characteristics in recycling programs that were associated with higher material recovery rates, including bag limits, user pay programs, the number of materials collected, curbside collection frequency, promotion and education (P&E) activities, Best Practice principles, and the type of recycling collection stream. Data collected from 223 recycling programs in Ontario during 2005–2010 were used to perform multiple regression analyses. The findings of this study suggest that attributes of convenience are more important to encourage recycling than those that penalize disposal, thus providing important implications for waste policy-makers, both in Ontario and in other jurisdictions.     

On recycling as a moot environmental issue

Recycling of household wastes may not contribute as much toward a solution to environmental problems as widely supposed. It runs into practical problems often overlooked by nonspecialists. Recycling can also contribute significantly to pollution. Most important, recycling may use up larger quantities of materials than it saves. The note ends up with a model in which recycling will always cause a net loss in real resources. It is concluded that the subject requires more exploration rather than decision making by prejudgment and emotion.     

The impact of coal utilization in Texas under the National energy plan

The paper describes the results of a study of the impact of the National Energy on the trend towards increased utilization of coal and lignite in Texas with forecasts of increased coal and lignite utilization for the electric utility and industrial sectors. Environmental impacts of this increased coal and lignite use are projected in terms of increased air pollutant emissions and air quality impacts. Economic costs of compliance with alternative source emission regulations are also projected for the electric utility industry.Lignite consumption in Texas under the National Energy Plan is projected to increase from the present 13 million metric tons in 1976 to 57 million metric tons annually by 1985. Sub-bituminous coal consumption in Texas is projected to increase from 1 million metric per year in 1976 to 49 million metric tons per year in 1985. Bituminous coal consumption in Texas is expected to increase from less than one million metric tons per year in 1976 to about 3 million metric tons per year in 1985.Major increases in sulfur oxides emissions from coal and lignite combustion in Texas can be expected by 1985 of up to 1.5 × 10⁹ kg per year without controls and 0.2 × 10⁹ kg per year with controls. Increases in acid precipitation formation will result in north-east Texas from extensive lignite usage for electric power generation as a detriment to agriculture. The photochemical air pollution problem in the Houston area will probably worsen primarily because of increased nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides emissions because of industrial coal combustion. Capital costs of air pollution controls in Texas for coal-fired utility boilers are estimated as up to U.S. $3.9 billion by 1985, with total operating costs of up to U.S. $1.2 billion per year.     

Good acting requires a good cast: A meso‐level model of deep acting in work teams

This study proposes and tests a meso‐level model of deep acting in work teams that draws on emotional contagion theory to explain how shared means of complying with display rules can arise in work teams. We argue that the presence of influential deep actors can lead to greater convergence (lower dispersion) on individual deep acting in the team. That is, team members behave more similarly. When a team has greater convergence, deep acting by individual members should be related to lower emotional exhaustion and higher job satisfaction and in‐role performance. In a sample of mature work teams, these hypotheses received general support. Our findings suggested that team‐level deep acting effects can foster benefits for team members (lower emotional exhaustion and higher satisfaction) and organizations (higher job performance). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of the Spatial Rainfall Generator (SRGEN) for the Agricultural Policy/Environmental Extender Model

Accurate spatial representation of climatic patterns is often a challenge in modeling biophysical processes at the watershed scale, especially where the representation of a spatial gradient in rainfall is not sufficiently captured by the number of weather stations. The spatial rainfall generator (SRGEN) is developed as an extension of the “weather generator” (WXGEN), a component of the Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. SRGEN generates spatially distributed daily rainfall using monthly weather statistics available at multiple locations in a watershed. The spatial rainfall generator as incorporated in APEX is tested on the Cowhouse watershed (1,178 km²) in central Texas. The watershed presented a significant spatial rainfall gradient of 2.9 mm/km in the lateral (north‐south) directions based on four rainfall gages. A comparative analysis between SRGEN and WXGEN indicates that SRGEN performs well (PBIAS = 2.40%). Good results were obtained from APEX for streamflow (NSE = 0.99, PBIAS = 8.34%) and NO₃‐N and soluble P loads (PBIAS ≈ 6.00% for each, respectively). However, APEX underpredicted sediment yield and organic N and P loads (PBIAS: 24.75‐27.90%) with SRGEN, although its uncertainty in output was lower than WXGEN results (PBIAS: ?13.02 to ?46.13%). The overall improvement achieved in rainfall generation by SRGEN is demonstrated to be effective in the improving model performance on flow and water quality output.