Households’ recycling efforts

Households’ recycling effort is often argued to be of an insignificant size. It is also frequently argued that this contribution, if significant, is not a cost to households, since it is voluntary. Thus households’ use of time and energy are frequently disregarded in cost-benefit analyses of stricter recycling targets. In this survey, based on 1162 interviews, we find that sorting at source involves significant extra use of time and energy in the households. On average, each of those asked reported that they use close to half an hour a week for cleaning, sorting and transporting recyclable waste. On average, 185 h is used per tonne of waste. Four out of ten reported that they use warm or hot water to clean the materials. When investigating the motives for sorting waste, we find that many perceive sorting as mandatory, while some in fact find it a pleasant activity in itself. Moral motives for sorting at source are also widespread. A majority would prefer that a company took over the sorting if this were possible, and on average, the respondents are willing to pay US$ 20/year for this service.     

Junk-buyers as the linkage between waste sources and redemption depots in urban China: the case of Wuhan

This paper locates junk-buyers in the recycling chain that includes waste source, collection system and end-user. With increasing needs of convenience for recycling at waste sources but disappearing redemption depots in city blocks of China, junk-buyers play a role of linkage between waste sources and redemption depots. It is these door-to-door collectors who make the general public aware of cash value inside recyclable waste. Also, the motivation of getting cash back pushes junk-buyers become immediate suppliers to redemption depots. Without junk-buyers as door-to-door collectors, the current waste recovery system in post-Mao's China would brake down. However, as in other developing countries, the junk-buyer occupation in urban China currently is typically driven by economic incentives, and the door-to-door collection of recyclable waste completely falls into junk-buyer individual business. It is difficult for junk-buyers who mainly come from the countryside to establish stable relations with waste sources for lack of recognition from urban society. The appropriate allocation of individual time and space becomes crucial to conducting the door-to-door activities so as to collecting more recyclables. While the collecting territory as the condition of production is positively reflected by the usual extent of the collecting distance, junk-buyers mostly spend time in finding sellers instead of simply expanding their collecting territory. This is a typical example of the cheapest and lowest skilled labor forces being in relatively unlimited supply in a developing country.     

Analysis of Scavengers’ Activities and Recycling in Some Cities of Nigeria

The state of solid waste recycling by scavengers in Onitsha, a heavily commercial city in Anambra State, and some other urban areas such as Nsukka, Enugu, and Port Harcourt was analyzed. Data were obtained through interviews of scavengers who deal with recyclables. Although the activities of scavengers are sub-optimal, they can have a great impact on Nigerian economy with respect to resource conservation, creation of job opportunities, and reduction of the magnitude of waste disposal problems. A cost analysis is presented to compare the different forms of recycling utilized by municipal solid waste management. It is shown that a well-planned recycling program with recycling and composting would result in 18.6% savings in waste management costs and 57.7% in landfill avoidance costs. However, if the compost materials are not recycled, the corresponding savings in cost become 8.6% and 28.6%, respectively. The option with the lowest cost involves encouraging individual households to separate at the source their recyclables, which are bought by scavengers. This results in 78.0% savings in waste management cost and 79.5% landfill avoidance cost. A low-cost approach aimed at the integration of scavenging activities into conventional solid waste management is presented.     

农业废弃物水热资源化研究进展

介绍了水热技术的特点,综述了水热技术在农业废弃物生产生态肥料、气化制H2、液化产酸以及生产生物柴油等资源化方面的研究进展,分析了水热技术存在的问题,并就其发展前景进行了展望。     

电子废弃物回收利用探讨

随着电子产业的快速发展与电子产品的普及,电子废弃物随之大量产生,妥善处理电子废弃物已引起社会的广泛关注.章文在对电子废弃物的特征进行分析的基础上,阐述了其处理技术与处理过程中的回收利用及其前景,并就目前存在问题提出了几点建议.     

南京市发展循环经济潜势研究

分析了国内外发展循环经济的3种主要模式和现状,对照南京市发展循环经济的状况,阐述了南京市发展循环经济的意义,找出了南京市在发展循环经济过程中与国内外先进水平之间的差距,在此基础上提出了南京市发展循环经济的潜力。     

环境监测中废液的回收利用和管理

对环境监测项目中几种主要物质的回收及再利用进行讨论分析，使废液得到回收利用，避免了二次污染．简单介绍了废液收集后的管理工作，对各级实验室废液处理具有指导意义。     

废电池的回收利用与管理

分析了我国在废电池回收利用与管理方面的现状及存在的问题，并结合我国国情提出实现废电池循环再利用的对策。     

浙江省循环经济发展评价指标体系研究

近年来能源、土地及水资源短缺给浙江经济发展带来了极大的挑战,发展循环经济是实现可持续发展的重要途径.以循环经济为指导,结合浙江省循环经济发展现状,从减量化、资源化、无害化及社会经济发展四个控制层面构建浙江省循环经济发展指标体系,运用层次分析法对浙江省近8年的循环经济发展状况进行综合评价,旨在为浙江循环经济发展重点及方向提供科学依据.评价结果表明,浙江省循环经济发展水平逐年提高,呈良好发展趋势.     

Use of inert C&D materials for seawall foundation: A field-scale pilot test

The generation rate of construction and demolition (C&D) materials in Hong Kong has well exceeded the demand rate. An innovative solution has been developed by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to use the inert portion of C&D materials, denoted as public fill, for seawall foundation construction. A field-scale pilot test has been conducted to evaluate the constructability and engineering performance of the foundation so as to establish the viability of the solution. Details of the pilot test and results of the performance evaluation are presented in this paper. More importantly, the viability of an innovation solution to achieve effective allocation of sand fill resources, and conservation and recycling of inert C&D materials has been established.