Towards integrating production and consumption to reduce consumer food waste in developed countries

Abstract

Literature analysing reasons for Consumer Food Waste (CFW) revealed that it cannot be reduced to consumer behaviour alone. In fact, CFW should not be conceptualised as the problem but as a symptom of a food system that oversupplies and encourages consumerism. This research focuses on preventing CFW in the United Kingdom (UK), as a representative of a developed country, by improving the traditional food provisioning system to better integrate production and consumption. To achieve this, five stages are identified to design a sustainable product service system (PSS) capable of supporting consumers to better manage their food operations: (1) strategic analysis of current food provisioning system, (2) exploring system level innovations leading to minimisation of CFW, (3) refinement and selection of PSS, (4) designing the most promising PSS from an environmental, economic and social perspective, and (5) evaluating designed PSS. This paper considers the first of these stages, reviews reasons for and existing solutions to CFW, and provides a strategic analysis of the current food provisioning system to identify characteristics that could be exploited within a new PSS. Initial investigations reveal applicability of PSS concept to the food provisioning system and potential for reduction of CFW if core causes are addressed.     

Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for developing truly sustainable, or ‘beneficial’, products. But do these strategies help in developing such products, and how to assess their ‘sustainability’? Based on a review of the objectives in nature-inspired design, we argue that assessing environmental sustainability is not straightforward. Whereas both Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle build on the perspective of ‘achieving sustainability’, current life-cycle assessment-based tools are geared towards reducing current impacts. As a consequence, existing tools are insufficiently equipped for the purpose of the assessment: they do not cover some of the main results that nature-inspired design is set out to accomplish. To be able to include these results, we propose two new constituents to current life-cycle-based product assessment: assessing against conditions of sustainability and assessing ‘achievement’, the extent to which these conditions of sustainability have been achieved. Furthermore, the product context needs to be included for assessing beneficial impacts. This article discusses how these constituents can contribute to an assessment tool that enables designers and engineers to assess the development of environmentally sustainable solutions.     

畜禽粪肥还田四环素类抗生素(TCs)在土壤-蔬菜系统的分布特征及风险评估

畜禽粪肥还田引起的土壤抗生素污染对蔬菜安全和土壤生态风险的影响应得到足够的重视.四环素类抗生素(TCs)在畜禽粪肥和蔬菜基地土壤中被普遍检出且含量较高.然而,目前针对土壤TCs污染对蔬菜安全和土壤生态风险的研究主要采用盆栽试验和田间调查的研究方法,较少开展田间试验.结合盆栽试验和田间试验的研究方法,调查畜禽粪肥还田引起的TCs在土壤-蔬菜系统中的分布特征,采用日允许摄入量-危害商值法(ADI-HQ法)和物种敏感性分布-风险商值法(SSD-RQ法)分别对蔬菜可食部分TCs污染的人体健康风险和土壤TCs污染的生态风险进行评估.结果表明,盆栽试验和田间试验菜心地上部和地下部TCs含量均以OTC为主;盆栽试验和田间试验菜心地上部(以干重计)ω(OTC)分别高达29.25μg·kg^-1和45.03μg·kg^-1,地下部含量(以干重计)ω(OTC)分别高达87.32μg·kg^-1和135.44μg·kg^-1;且田间试验菜心地上部和地下部3种TCs含量均显著高于盆栽试验.土壤TCs的残留以OTC为主,盆栽试验和田...     

安全产品的供求特性及其与行业安全形势的关系初探

基于安全经济学的基本原理，通过对不同行业的自动安全水平和法定安全水平之间的关系的分析，论述了不同行业安全产品的需求特性，以及与此相适应的安全产品供给特性；并对安全产品的特殊供求机制与特定行业的安全形势之间的关系进行了初步的探讨，提出了提高行业安全水平的对策。     

含油污水中固体废物固化与燃煤混烧的可行性

在含油污水处理过程中易产生含油污泥、活性污泥及浮渣等固体废物,利用传统的焚烧法、分离法、填埋法、生物降解法处理这些废物具有一定的缺陷和局限性。为了利用这些废物中的油及有机质的潜在能量,大庆炼化公司对固体废物进行了脱水固化试验。结果表明,脱水后的废物可以达到较好的固化状态,并具有一定的热值。固化废物经粉碎处理后,可按一定比例与燃煤混烧。在正常生产状况下,热电厂可保证混合燃烧的效果,其总体热值不会降低。混烧后的灰渣和炉渣可作为水泥厂的原料。该方法有利于环境保护,但其工业化生产可行性有待于进一步证实。     

产品导向的环境政策研究进展

产品在整个生命周期都可能对环境造成不同程度的不利影响,因此传统的"末端处理"或"中端处理"的环境产品政策已经不能满足环境需要,产品导向的环境产品政策正是基于这种考虑产生的。通过介绍欧盟几个国家的产品导向的环境产品政策,论述了产品导向的环境产品政策的基本理论及研究进展。     

Preventive environmental strategies for product systems

The paper describes a model for environmental quality and resource efficiency parameters to be used in evaluation of options for improvement of product systems in a life cycle and system perspective. Four main preventive strategies for product system improvements are described and discussed in the paper. (1) Reformulating user needs and requirements to the system; (2) improvement of product system performance; (3) substitution of the whole product systems or system components on different levels; (4) optimization within and between system units and components. These main strategies are discussed with respect to the structure of the product system (the domain theory), and with respect to efficiency in general. It is concluded that at present, it is not possible to make any definite rank of priorities between the different strategies, but that this should be evaluated when more systematic studies of cases are available.     

杂多化合物脱硫体系与螯合铁体系脱硫产物的对比研究

为全面了解杂多化合物体系的脱硫性能 ,本研究综合运用热重、微分量热及电镜能谱等分析手段对相同浓度的磷钼酸钠体系与螯合铁体系进行了脱硫产物的对比研究 ,结果表明 :磷钼酸钠体系的脱硫产物为仅含少量Mo、V物相的硫磺 ,而Fe EDTA体系的脱硫产物则硫磺含量较低且含有较多Fe的物相。因此 ,磷钼酸钠体系的脱硫性能比螯合铁体系稳定。     

Carbamazepine degradation by heterogeneous activation of peroxymonosulfate with lanthanum cobaltite perovskite: Performance, mechanism and toxicity

The widely used carbamazepine(CBZ) is one of the most persistent pharmaceuticals and suffers insufficient removal efficiency by conventional wastewater treatment.A synthesized Co-based perovskite(LaCoO_3) was used to activate peroxymonosulfate(PMS) in order to degrade CBZ.Results showed that LaCoO_3 exhibited an excellent performance in PMS activation and CBZ degradation at neutral pH,with low cobalt leaching.The results of FT-IR and XPS verified the high structurally and chemically stability of LaCoO_3 in PMS activation.Electron spin resonance(ESR) analysis suggested the generation of radical species,such as sulfate radicals(SO_4·~-) and hydroxyl radicals(·OH).Radical quenching experiments further revealed the responsibility of SO_4·~-as the dominant oxidant for CBZ oxidation.Ten products were detected via the oxidation of CBZ,with the olefinic double bond attacked by SO_4·~-as the initial step.Hydroxylation,hydrolysis,cyclization and dehydration were involved along the transformation of CBZ.The toxicity of CBZ solution was significantly reduced after treating by PMS/LaCoO_3.     

南方某水源水中天然有机物的特点及氯胺对氯化消毒副产物的控制

在对天然有机物分类的基础上进行了水体中有机物的特性研究，并采用氯胺对不同特性有机物的氯化消毒副产物进行了控制研究。结果表明，疏水酸占有机物总量的24％，疏水中性物质占41％，疏水性有机物占67％；对于三卤甲烷类消毒副产物生成势，疏水酸所产生的最多，疏水碱次之，亲水酸最少；对于卤乙酸类消毒副产物生成势，疏水碱产生的三卤乙酸最多，其次为疏水酸，亲水酸最少。氯胺对不同类有机物氯化消毒副产物控制程度不同，氯胺对疏水中性物质控制三卤甲烷类消毒副产物最好，其次是疏水碱和亲水碱；对疏水酸的三卤甲烷生成量控制较弱，对亲水酸的控制效果最差；氯胺对亲水碱氯化产生卤乙酸的控制效果最好，其次是疏水碱，控制效果最差的为疏水中性物质。