Recycling potential of urban solid waste destined for sanitary landfills: the case of Indaiatuba, SP, Brazil.

The urban solid waste of the city of Indaiatuba (pop. 175 000), located in the state of S?o Paulo, was characterized, focusing on the recycling potential. For this purpose, collected waste was subdivided into 27 items, classified by mass and volume. About 90% of this waste was found to be potentially recyclable and only 10% requiring landfilling. The compostable organic matter, in the form of food and garden waste, both with high moisture content (51 and 41%, respectively), represents 54% in mass and 21% in volume. The most common type of plastic in this waste is high density polyethylene, whose estimated disposal is about 5000kgday(-1). A socio-economic analysis of the waste generation indicates that low-income neighbourhoods discard relatively less packaging and more food waste, shoes and construction debris than middle and high income ones, which may be due to low purchasing power and schooling. Our findings indicate that more aluminium and uncoloured polyethylene terephthalate is discarded in the warmest months of the year, probably due to a greater consumption of canned and bottled drinks.     

Biomass use in chemical and mechanical pulping with biomass-based energy supply

The pulp and paper industry is energy intensive and consumes large amounts of wood. Biomass is a limited resource and its efficient use is therefore important. In this study, the total amount of biomass used for pulp and for energy is estimated for the production of several woodfree (containing only chemical pulp) and mechanical (containing mechanical pulp) printing paper products, under Swedish conditions. Chemical pulp mills today are largely self-sufficient in energy while mechanical pulp mills depend on large amounts of external electricity. Technically, all energy used in pulp- and papermaking can be biomass based. Here, we assume that all energy used, including external electricity and motor fuels, is based on forest biomass. The whole cradle-to-gate chain is included in the analyses. The results indicate that the total amount of biomass required per tonne paper is slightly lower for woodfree than for mechanical paper. For the biomass use per paper area, the paper grammage is decisive. If the grammage can be lowered by increasing the proportion of mechanical pulp, this may lower the biomass use per paper area, despite the higher biomass use per unit mass in mechanical paper. In the production of woodfree paper, energy recovery from residues in the mill accounts for most of the biomass use, while external electricity production accounts for the largest part for mechanical paper. Motor fuel production accounts for 5–7% of the biomass use. The biomass contained in the final paper product is 21–42% of the total biomass use, indicating that waste paper recovery is important. The biomass use was found to be about 15–17% lower for modelled, modern mills compared with mills representative of today's average technology.     

Deconstructing sustainable rubber production: contesting narratives in rural Sumatra

ABSTRACT

The growing demand for natural rubber is increasingly threatening biodiversity and forest ecosystems. Recently, the French Michelin Group started a cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to establish environmentally and socially sustainable ‘model’ rubber plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia. The framing of Michelin’s tyre production as ‘eco-friendly’ and their purported ‘sustainable’ rubber cultivation contradict with statements by villagers living around Michelin’s plantation in Jambi Province, Sumatra, who are reporting environmental destruction and land tenure conflicts. Conceptually, we build on political ecology and critical human geography perspectives to identify conflicts and ambiguities related to sustainability claims, deforestation and dispossession. Empirically, we draw on qualitative research in a village affected by the plantation. We confront and deconstruct the discursive framing of sustainable rubber production with our empirical findings. We show how the plantation restricts access to land and instead of providing additional income, is actually limiting development opportunities.     

Soil carbon sequestration in degraded semiarid agro-ecosystems--perils and potentials

The Kyoto Protocol opens new possibilities for using the biosphere as a carbon sink. Using agro-ecosystems as carbon sinks may be the most appropriate practice from both environmental and socioeconomic points of view. Degraded agro-ecosystems in Africa might benefit significantly from the improved land management that would be part of a carbon sequestration program. There are vast areas of these agro-ecosystems in Africa and their rehabilitation is an urgent matter. We agree with UNEP that there are potentially important synergies to be made between the Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the UN Convention on Biodiversity. In this paper, we have investigated the potential for increasing soil carbon content in semiarid agro-ecosystems in the Sudan and found that increasing fallow periods will result in increased soil carbon content and converting marginal agricultural areas to rangeland will restore the carbon levels to 80% of the natural savannah carbon levels in 100 years. The economic gain from a future carbon sequestration program has the potential of a significant contribution to the household economy in these agro-ecosystems.     

The Use of Marine Molluskan Shells for Roman Glass and Local Raw Glass Production in the Eifel Area (Western Germany)

 Relatively high strontium concentrations and their isotopic composition in Roman glass of the Imperial period indicate the general use of shells as carbonate raw material. Lead, iron, and barium concentrations and lead isotopes of glass of the late fourth century from Hambach and Gellep (western Germany) are conformable with the use of glass sand from Eifel rivers. Each of three pairs of six simultaneously operating Roman glasshouses in the Hambach area made its own raw glass from different quartz sands. Received: 2 July 1999 / Accepted in revised form: 13 December 1999