Determining advanced recycling fees and subsidies in "E-scrap" reverse supply chains

Primarily due to environmental concerns and legislative mandates, the disposition of end-of-life (EOL) electronics products has attracted much attention. Advanced recycling fees (ARFs) and government subsidies may play important roles in encouraging or curtailing the flows of recycled items. We present a Stackelberg-type model to determine ARFs and socially optimal subsidy fees in decentralized reverse supply chains where each entity independently acts according to its own interests. The model consists of one leader (the government) and two followers (a group of manufacturers, importers, and sellers (MISs) and a group of recyclers). To maximize social welfare, the government determines the ARFs paid by MIS and the subsidy fees for recyclers when MIS sells new products and recyclers process EOL products. We find that MIS and recyclers behave at the equilibrium status by choosing optimal selling quantity in the market and optimal reward money for customers bringing EOL products to recyclers. Under this approach the two fees achieve the maximum of social welfare at the equilibrium status, while both MIS and recyclers gain the maximum of profits. For comparative purposes, we also develop a conceptual model describing the current practice by which ARFs and the subsidy fees are determined on the basis of fund balance between revenues and costs along with recycling operations. We conclude that our results outperform current practice.     

Sustainable recycling model: A comparative analysis between India and Tanzania

Higher economic growth in developing countries has caused higher amounts of wastes. Local government authorities in these countries usually fail to provide adequate services to dispose the increasing amounts of waste, resulting in threats for both the population and environment health. There is therefore an urgent need for recycling as a form of waste management in order to stop the devastating effects of solid waste in developing countries. Using a qualitative method of analysis, this study presents a model to measure and rank the sustainability of recycling programs in India and Tanzania. The model consists of six main constructs including “production, economic, governmental, social, technological, and international factors”. The results showed that India outperforms Tanzania in sustainable recycling programs: per capita waste generated per day in Delhi is higher than in Dar es Salaam; the government of India focuses more on developing recycling plans and techniques as compared to the government of Tanzania where the country is not actively involved in the recycling process; and the solid waste management planning in India is being performed better than Tanzania.     

Location set covering for waste resource recycling centers in Taiwan

The efficiency of Taiwan's waste management and resource recycling systems has been well recognized in recent years, but the present model used to locate recycling centers and to assign collection depots to those centers continues to show low efficiency. To address this issue, the study herein suggests implementing a new location-planning and assignment model to reduce the number of existing recycling centers. Such a reduction would reduce the use of land resources. Moreover, the total transportation distance would decrease through the efficient assignment of collection depots to recycling centers. On the basis of results from previous studies, this study proposes a 2-stage location set covering problem-P-median integrated model that obtains exact solutions using heuristic algorithms on the basis of set operations. The results of numerical analyses show that the model introduced in this study is effective in solving the problems stated above as well as in improving the layout of Taiwan's existing recycling centers.     

Forest law compliance and enforcement: the case of on-farm timber extraction in Ghana

The paper investigates law compliance in case of on-farm timber extraction in Ghana. It empirically investigates compliance with rules that (i) require timber operators to obtain prior and informed consent from the farmers, (ii) require timber operators to pay appropriate and timely compensation for crop damage caused by timber extraction and (iii) ban chainsaw lumbering. The study documents a low level of compliance in all three domains. Subsequently, the paper discusses the underlying causes for the observed low compliance. The low compliance level is attributed to a legislation, and enforcement, that provides huge financial incentives for non-compliance for both farmers and timber operators, and in the latter case both with and without legal permits. At the same time the regulation is perceived to violate their moral values. The paper underlines the interests of the political elite as decisive in shaping the current regulation and the way it is implemented on the ground. It asserts that eliciting compliance requires consideration of both the instrumental and normative perspectives; else it becomes illusive. The study thus challenges the typical response of governments in developing countries, who, supported by donor agencies, attempt to elicit compliance through enhanced law enforcement efforts. The results presented on the Ghana case suggest that such an approach is unlikely to elicit compliance.     

废催化剂中金属组分回收利用概述

废催化剂中金属组分的回收利用具有经济性和环保性,从工程项目开发的角度,对废催化剂中金属组分回收利用技术与经济等方面的问题进行了概述,主要包括废催化剂原料的收集与分类、回收技术方案选择、经济评价及关键理论,同时也指出了相关问题及发展前景。     

依靠科技进步 发展低碳农业

在全球携手应对气候变暖、减少温室气体排放的背景下,发展低碳经济是解决气候变化与经济发展矛盾的有效途径。通过描述气候变化、固碳减排对粮食安全、土壤碳汇、森林固碳、资源循环利用等影响和促进作用,深入分析发展低碳经济与可持续发展的关系,探讨如何在农业领域内开发高效循环生产体系,从而实现农业生产过程的固碳减排目的。由此,提出发展低碳农业是实现低碳经济的目标之一,它是一个复合技术体系,涉及了绿色农业、循环农业、生态文明、可持续发展理念。必须通过科学技术的突破,改造、提升低碳农业技术,改变农业现有的＂高能耗、高污染＂的生产状况,实现低碳生产、生活方式的转变。最后提出发展现代的低碳农业产业经济的对策和思考。     

Environmental input-output model and its analysis with a focus on the solid waste management sectors

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＳｉｎｃｅｔｈｅｆｉｒｓｔｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌｉｎｐｕｔｏｕｔｐｕｔｍｏｄｅｌ(ＥＩＯＭ)(Ｃｕｍｂｅｒｌａｎｄ,1966)ｗａｓｅｓｔａｂｌｉｓｈｅｄｂｙｉｎｃｏｒｐｏｒａｔｉｎｇｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌｆａｃｔｏｒｓｉｎｔ?..     

基于PSR模型的三峡库区生态经济区土地生态安全评价

针对三峡库区生态经济区土地资源的特点及所面临的主要问题,基于PSR框架模型的发展,构建了一套评价指标体系.采用熵权赋权法确定权重,运用土地生态安全综合模型,对该区域2003~2006年的土地生态安全综合指数进行了计算.结果表明,区域土地生态安全综合指数由2003年的0.134(敏感级)升高至2006年的0.269(临界安全级),整体生态安全状态呈好转趋势,土地所受的生态压力整体上有所加大.现有土地生态安全状况的改善主要依赖于对现有土地生态问题的治理.现阶段土地的生态压力依然严峻.对2003~2006年的土地生态安全变化进行分析显示,土地生态安全综合状况已进入快速改善阶段.     

以生态产业推动辽宁老工业基地的振兴与发展

建立可持续发展生态产业．是推动辽宁老工业基地振兴．实现其环境-经济协调发展的重要举措。本文分析了辽宁省发展生态产业的背量条件和生态产业发展现状．解析了其发展生态产业面临的主要问题，探讨了生态产业的发展潜力．并提出相应的策略     

论绿色经济网络

绿色经济的发展过程是对传统经济的扬弃过程，在这一过程形成了各种形式的绿色经济系统，这些系统组成了一个绿色经济网络。绿色经济网络本身也在不断演进，范围逐步扩大，绿色内涵逐步深化。本文论述了绿色经济网络的形成与演进过程，并构建了绿色经济系统演进的推进模型。