An innovative container for WEEE collection and transport: Details and effects following the adoption

The content of hazardous components in Waste arising from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is a major concern that urges governments and industry to take measures to ensure proper treatment and disposal. Thus, the European Union issued directives to encourage reuse, recycling and other proper forms of recovery of such waste while companies and academics are still studying methods and technologies for optimizing recovery processes. This paper presents an analysis of the logistics process assuring the correct collection, handling, transportation and storing of WEEE. The experience comes from an Italian WEEE treatment plant (TRED Carpi S.r.l.) where a new kind of container has been introduced in order to improve the logistics system. An evaluation framework is described and used in order to compare different system configurations and assess the advantages emerging from adopting proper equipments for WEEE transport and handling.     

Abatement of NO3-N concentration in agricultural waters by narrow buffer strips

The performance of narrow buffer strips in abating the NO3-N concentrations in the water coming from cropland was tested in an experiment carried out on the low plains of the Veneto Region (northeast Italy). The buffer was composed of a 5-m wide grass strip and a 1-m wide row of trees. Maize and wheat were cultivated in the neighbouring field during the monitoring period (December 1997-June 1999). Four experimental conditions were monitored, deriving from a combination of two levels of crop N fertilisation and two sizes of buffer trees. The narrow buffer was very effective in abating NO3-N concentrations, allowing water to be discharged with a concentration always below 2 ppm. Its zone of influence might be bigger than its simple width. The abatement was also efficient during winter. Tree size showed no evident effect on the reduction of the concentration.     

Exposure to Inorganic Arsenic in Soil Increases Urinary Inorganic Arsenic Concentrations of Residents Living in Old Mining Areas

The short term human exposure studies conducted on populations exposed to high concentrations of inorganic arsenic in soil have been inconsistent in demonstrating a relationship between environmental concentrations and exposure measures. In Australia there are many areas with very high arsenic concentrations in residential soil most typically associated with gold mining activities in rural areas. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between environmental arsenic and urinary inorganic arsenic concentrations in a population living in a gold mining area (soil arsenic concentrations between 9 and 9900 mg kg(-1)), and a control population with low arsenic levels in soil (between 1 and 80 mg kg(-1)). Risk factors for increased urinary arsenic concentrations were also explored. There was a weak but significant relationship between soil arsenic concentrations and inorganic urinary arsenic concentration with a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.39. When participants with greater than 100 mg kg(-1) arsenic in residential soil were selected, the coefficient increased to 0.64. The geometric mean urinary inorganic arsenic concentration for the exposed group was 1.64 microg L(-1) (相似文献   

Pre-industrial sediment concentrations of metals: insights from the Venice lagoon (Italy)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study investigated the occurrence of selected metals and metalloids (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn) in radio-dated sediment cores from a coastal...     

Magnetic particle monitoring on leaves in winter: a pilot study on a highly polluted location in the Po plain (Northern Italy)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Environmental monitoring in Northern Italy, one of the most polluted areas in Europe, is of paramount importance. Leaf monitoring throughout magnetic...