Circular Economy最新文献

China has established a government recycling fund system based on the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR). The principle of EPR is the key to the sustainable development of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling. The implementation of the recycling fund system has been facing major problems. This article proposes a plan on refining the producer's recycling target to improve the current fund system in China. With the aim to maximize the amount of WEEE recycling, minimize the overall producer's recycling cost, and providing the best supports to the recycling industry, a multi-objective decision-making model is constructed to identify the optimum producer's recycling target for WEEE. Data from the recycling fund system and EPR pilot project of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are used to test the model. The results show that, under the condition that the amount of recycling is equal to the current level, the levy of recycling fund can be reduced by 20%, which can effectively drive the producers to take more responsibility in the collection and recycling of their end-of-life products. The multi-objective decision-making model for producer's recycling target provides a basis for the adjustment of China's WEEE recycling fund system policy, which will alleviate the challenge at present, and involve more producers to devote in collection systems. It also shows the alternative solution for EPR in non-fund business models in the recycling industry.

Plastic is one of the most basic materials for many industries. Enterprise, as an important stakeholder in plastic pollution control, still lack methodology for investigating the performance of mitigating its plastic pollution. In this work, we proposed a methodology, integrating material flow analysis, life cycle analysis, and scenario analysis for analyzing plastic footprint (incl., material and environmental footprint) at enterprise level and from the perspective of supply chain. A clothing enterprise was chosen as the studied case, and three pathways of plastic reduction were analyzed, incl., reducing unnecessary plastic packaging, using alternative materials, and using recycled materials. The indexes of the plastic footprint of the case enterprise were obtained. In 2019, the weight of plastic packaging used by the case enterprise was 1,949.10 t. The average weight of plastic packaging used for each garment was 19.67 g. The weight of plastic packaging consumed per 10,000 USD of revenue was 0.25 kg. It was found that promoting lightweight plastic materials in supply chain (∼14% reduction in thickness of plastic packaging bags), reducing unnecessary plastic use within the enterprise, increasing the number of plastic packaging cycles (∼50% reused), and using recycled plastic materials (∼15%) are effective ways for enterprises to achieve environmental benefits.

Mismanagement of recyclable materials contributes to an inefficient economy and demands use of more raw resources, while wasting valuable secondary resources in the process. Historically, the onus for coordinating recycling programs has fallen onto taxpayers and governments, which requires significant capital financing and labour for solid waste management. Large volumes of packaging and printed paper (PPP) materials in the marketplace has municipalities, including in the Atlantic Canadian province of Nova Scotia, shouldering the burden of residential recycling programs that are increasingly costly to the administer. A waste management approach known as the extended producer responsibility (EPR) principle leverages financial resources of producers to fund the recycling of their products. Several EPR for PPP programs already exist across Canada, and efforts are underway by local governments across Nova Scotia to pursue EPR for PPP. This research examined potential impacts of EPR for PPP on Nova Scotia's business community, comprised of many small enterprises. Through a combination of literature review, classification of national steward data, and analysis of provincial business data, findings show that a small subset of industries are most impacted by EPR for PPP across Canada, and higher grossing businesses are required to fund EPR for PPP, and less so small, local enterprises. Analysis revealed that only 8.3% of all businesses operating within Nova Scotia would likely become obligated stewards in the province's proposed program. Lastly, recommendations are proposed to both reduce detrimental impacts on provincial businesses, and to gain the maximal benefits of EPR for PPP for improved recycling systems. Recommendations focussed on fair exemption conditions appropriate to the local region, harmonization of EPR for PPP across Atlantic Canada, developing material specific fees, and investments in local recycling end-markets.

Extending the responsibility of producers to the entire lifecycle of their products requires additional incentives for the companies to align the efforts of all stakeholders in production and consumption. Using corporate information disclosure as a tool in extended producer responsibility has been a solution in the automobile industry in China to encourage the producers to actively take responsibility in their supply chain. Meanwhile, the low-carbon transition has become a critical incentive for producers to seize the opportunities in carbon emission reduction through the closed-loop supply chain. This study reviews the carbon emission information disclosed by automobile manufacturers in their open reports on sustainability to identify the strategic links between circularity and low-carbon transition from the perspective of producers. The findings are as follows: (1) The global disclosure systems, such as Carbon Disclosure Project, have been increasingly adopted in automobile industry in China; (2) the carbon trading market is crucial for long-term incentives; (3) information sharing mechanism is needed for supply chain cooperation in capturing the low carbon value through closed-loop strategy.

Resource recovery and better use of food processing wastes are topics of significant attention. Fruit wastes in particular are perishable yet contain a wealth of unrealized advantages. This study presents the 3D printability of banana peel (BP) powder with the addition of guar gum (GG). The particle characteristics of BP powder were analyzed. The microscopic morphology of the BP powder was found to be erratic and clumped. The printability of extruded material supply was optimized after the characterization of BP and BP + GG material supplies. When 6 bar pressure was used and the motor speed was 150 rpm, it was found that the BP + GG material supply could be printed utilizing a 1.2 mm nozzle diameter. Printing speed and printing rate was optimal at 500 mm/min and 0.186 ± 0.002 g/min, respectively. A nozzle height of 0.8 mm was found to be optimal for printing. Thus, non-printable BP was made printable and the concept can be applied to the development of unique and customized food packaging casings. The results of this study shed light on how various agri-food wastes can be used to create biodegradable 3D-printed structures.

The implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) promotes upgrading and standardization of the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in China, reducing the risk of environmental pollution. This paper discusses China's WEEE management via EPR and identifies the four phases and their features of the development of WEEE recycling since the fund subsidy scheme was implemented in 2012. Using GEM Co., Ltd. as an example, this paper explains how the recycling company closed the loop on WEEE recycling, improved the added value of dismantling WEEE through technological innovation, recycled high-quality secondary materials, established a whole waste plastics traceability system, and explored the non-fund subsidies for recycling WEEE. It is suggested that the government take new measures to eliminate outdated enterprises and promote a WEEE disposal industry in the direction of company groups. China might also vigorously advocate for new technologies and equipment to reduce labor costs and enhance the added value of dismantled products. Such efforts would encourage all enterprises to actively participate in EPR, strengthen their ability and willingness to recycle WEEE and reuse recycled materials, and build a closed-loop green supply chain for electrical and electronic products.

Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the relatively fast-growing solid waste streams, with an annual growth rate of 3%–5%. Although international policies have been formulated to better limit the global transboundary movement of hazardous waste, the existence of illegal trade and “informal” recycling has exacerbated the global recycling of e-waste. At present, residents in many low-income areas are still illegally and unscientifically disposing of e-waste to profit from it. The toxic and harmful substances produced affect the global ecological environment through the geochemical cycle. In this review, we provide a systematic overview of the status quo of e-waste recycling globally. E-waste is placed into a framework, grouped by product type, quantity, composition, environmental health risk, and global impact. Management measures, legislative policies, current disposal, and transboundary movement are summarized at international, regional, and national levels, illustrating the status and challenges of e-waste collection and disposal. Techniques such as physical dismantling, component recycling, metal extraction, and re-utilization of non-metallic materials are described, which can have long-term impact on the ecosystem. We advocate that the global sustainable recycling of e-waste be supported by regional cooperation, legislative management, technology development, and eco-friendly design. This study provides a global solution for the recycling of e-waste.

This study is aimed at helping third-party logistics companies to achieve carbon neutrality, which is a challenge they will face in the near future. From the perspective of carbon neutrality, this paper studies two types of vehicle routing problems (VRP) regarding third-party logistics: One is the carbon-neutral vehicle routing problem (CNVRP), and the other is the multi-stage carbon-neutral vehicle routing problem (MSCNVRP). In this paper, we consider three objective functions for the CNVRP and MSCNVRP models respectively: total cost minimization, fleet size minimization, and carbon emission minimization. We first linearize the constructed nonlinear CNVRP and MSCNVRP models, and then verify the validity and reliability of the models through numerical examples. Numerical experimental results show that considering the total cost minimization objective leads to a better solution for fleet size and routing in transportation. In addition, in terms of the uncertainty of carbon sink price, the MSCNVRP model has more advantages than the CNVRP model. Changes in carbon sink prices and the availability of funds to achieve carbon neutrality have no effect on fleet size and vehicle routing for models whose objective functions are to minimize total costs, but models with the objective functions of minimizing fleet size or carbon emissions are more sensitive. The results also showed that companies with multiple types of vehicles have an advantage in transportation costs. In particular, the models proposed herein can provide flexible solutions for companies in third-party logistics to achieve carbon-neutral transportation.