Resources, conservation & recycling advances最新文献

Rubber production plays a critical role in tropical livelihoods. Identifying factors that balance environmental and socio-economic dimensions of rubber is important for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Here, we assess smallholder data of unprecedented coverage, spanning across 20,000 farmers from Thailand, Indonesia, and Côte d'Ivoire, collected via interviews through the Rubberway initiative. We found that agricultural extension and rubber clonal varieties were associated with higher farmers’ income. Absence of land tenure was negatively linked to workers’ income. Further, family tenure rights were positively associated with plantation expansion, but, with a lower probability of expanding into natural habitats. Interestingly, higher farmers’ income was also linked to expansion, suggesting trade-offs between the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Interventions, including agricultural extension and distribution of clonal varieties, need to be carefully coupled with safeguards on land tenure to prevent further expansion of rubber into natural habitats.

Existing building stocks (BS) were not designed or constructed with circular economic (CE) strategies. Hence, recycling is vital in enabling CE in such BS. However, the lack of information about the scale and scope of the forecasted BS waste and its geo-located data hinders decisions on the selection of locations for recycling centres and proper landfills and evidence-based policy developments. BS mining, assisted with geographic information systems (GIS) and remotely sensed data are ideal for generating BS data and assisting end-of-life decisions for CE. However, the number of studies that have compared different BS data collection methods and analysis techniques is limited. This study investigates the research maturity of GIS, remote sensing, spatial analysis, and complementary methods adopted in BS mining and CE studies using a systematic literature review. As a critical outcome, a conceptual framework was developed to assist future BS mining, CE studies and industry practice.

Although soil erosion is a major threat to agriculture in Ethiopia still, a lower proportion of the cultivated land is treated with appropriate soil and water conservation (SWC). This study aims to investigate the main factors of adopting SWC and challenges limiting its effectiveness in Gumara watershed. Data were collected from 330 sample farmers using structured questionnaire, interviews, and focus group discussions. Logistic regression model was employed for analysis. The age, education, farm size, family size, extension services, livestock units, and perceived benefits significantly affect the adoption of conventional SWC (P < 0.05). Although some farmers practiced different SWCs, the effectiveness has been threatened by the poor foundation and planning (12.1%), very low attention to recurrent maintenance (39.7%), free animals grazing (15.2%), limited assistance from the local government (24.5%). Therefore, the local government and all stakeholders should work on determinants of SWC adoption and the main bottlenecks of its effectiveness.

Household recycling is a common response to problems of waste generation, particularly in high-income countries. Understanding the behavioural influences on whether and how well people at home recycle is important for optimising recycling outcomes. Human behaviour is complex, and recent literature has demonstrated that understanding it fully requires drawing on insights from many disciplines. However past reviews of recycling behaviour research revealed that the field is mostly fragmented into single discipline endeavours, and highly concentrated on psychological approaches. The objective of this paper was therefore to conduct a systematic review across a wide range of disciplines on what influences households recycling behaviour of adults in urban areas of high income, OECD countries. The resulting factors were methodically synthesised using a configurative approach to produce a comprehensive multi-level hierarchy of potentially influencing factors. Insights from the hierarchy reveal potential directions for future research to improve the field's understanding of the influences on recycling behaviour, which could ultimately increase the effectiveness of interventions that address household waste and recycling issues.

Green patents are valid instruments to measure eco-innovation which aims at reducing the negative impact on the environment and providing an efficient use of resources. There are three methodologies available to identify green patents based on the code classification: ENV-TECH (developed by OECD), IPC Green Inventory (WIPO) and Y02/Y04S Tagging scheme (EPO). Our results are: the systematic organisation of green codes for each methodology and the development of algorithms for their periodic update; the application of these methodologies to two large datasets; the comparison of the three methodologies. The relevant findings are that ENV-TECH and IPC Green Inventory should be used in combination to identify more green patents, with the inclusion of the "CPC" ENV-TECH green codes when applicable. The Tagging scheme identifies fewer green patents than the combination of the other two methodologies. The three methodologies overlap only partially (in 22.47% of cases) and their mutual integration is recommended.

This paper is aimed at analyzing the consumers’ willingness to use mobile apps that claim to contribute to mitigating the food waste problem. We study the extent to which such willingness is influenced by three factors related to the consumers’ willingness to use mobile apps in general (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived risks) and three factors related to the consumer behavior against food waste (food neophobia, moral attitude, and knowledge about food conservation). A survey was conducted on 283 Italian consumers. Results show that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use positively affect the willingness to use mobile apps against food waste, while perceived risks by potential users negatively impact such willingness. However, none of the three consumer-related factors has been proved to be significant. The results of this paper offer managerial implications to developers, related to how to advertise the app and how to improve the app functionality, in order to enhance the consumers’ willingness to use.

The building and construction industry is responsible for up to 25% of the total waste generated globally. Most construction sites in Norway on average generate 40–60 kg waste per gross floor area built and the average material recovery rate is ca. 46%. Existing requirements focus on waste sorting as a measure to increase material recovery rates. There are on-going national activities with an ambition to achieve waste free construction sites. However, there is lack of a common definition, standard and transparent data collection, and reporting system. This study presents a method for the evaluation and follow-up of construction waste and the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The methodology was tested using the actual construction waste data collected from 36 Norwegian building cases to evaluate the quantity of construction waste, waste-related GHG emissions per building typology, sorting grade and waste recycling rate. The buildings in total generated ca. 7800 tonnes of waste and ca.12900 tonnes CO₂eq and on average ca. 51 kg/m² waste and 88kgCO₂eq/m². The building projects had a high average sorting grade (89%) and a low average recycling rate (32%). Gypsum, mixed wood, clean wood, and mixed waste are the top waste fractions representing ca. 56% of the total waste volume. This highlights there is still a long way to go to achieve waste free construction sites ambitions. The results also suggest the need for using transparent data collection and communication methods, collaboration in the value chain, stricter regulations, and incentives for encouraging the development of new and existing waste prevention solutions and technologies.

Agriculture and industry are seeking healthy food and enough goods to meet the global demand without causing environmental impacts, which motivates the search for sustainable and eco-efficient technologies. This study focuses on reverse logistics in the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) industry.  Chrome-tanned leather shavings from the manufacture of PPE and post-use leather PPE were used to produce leather-based fertilizers (LBFs), which were evaluated for their agronomic efficiency and food safety. N-rich liquid LBFs were successfully produced through hydrolysis, either with or without previous chromium extraction. At the dose of maximum technical efficiency, LBFs are safe, with acceptable levels of Cr in the plant biomass and the soil compartments. However, LBF overdoses promote Cr accumulation in plants and soils, which demonstrates the need for a rigorous control over the fertilization management to ensure successful PPE reverse logistics.

This study relied on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to analyze the control of toxic substances based on schooling and ethnicity as personal variables and attitude and environmental knowledge as behavioral variables. The article contributes to the study of the direct relationships of these variables and the analysis of the control of toxic substances as a type of specific environmental behavior little evaluated in the scientific literature. The article also points out the health and safety problems that traditional pottery artisans face with the use of toxic substances in making their handcraft pieces and identifies strategies that minimize the occupational risks of artisans and provide them with social security. A model is empirically validated using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) based on survey data of Mexican handicraft small businesses. The control of toxic substances was objectively measured through instantaneous lead detectors called “Lead Check Swabs”. The results suggest that the schooling, mostly artisans with complete primary up to bachelor's degrees, and the environmental knowledge, particularly the knowledge that the artisan has regarding the damage that toxic substances cause to his health and the natural environment, as well as his knowledge regarding the impact that his activity causes in the environment, all explain the control of toxic, harmful substances. However, ethnicity and environmental attitudes do not influence artisans’ decision to use or not this type of substance.