Search results

India generates a massive 9.4 million tonnes of plastic waste annually; out of which approximately 5.6 million tonnes go for recycling and 3.8 million tonnes are left uncollected or leaked from after-use collection systems. Reckless production and consumption of non-biodegradable plastic has serious implications, especially for developing nations where plastic use is predominant for fulfilling needs of increasing population and rapid urbanisation. Despite the harmful impacts of plastic, its desirability is inevitable due to its versatility. For the stringently growing economies, affordable and durable solutions will always be priorities over mindfulness. Imprudent plastic waste has precipitated the ban-change-collect challenge. Options like banning single use plastic (SUP), using alternative bio-benign products and improving waste collection systems are not proactively embraced by businesses and governments. Also, user-awareness and behaviour change for make-use-dispose is not instantaneous and easy. Optimistically, the government, NGOs and industry units have started exhibiting sensitivity to the cause and the emergence of start-ups is decentralising waste management in India. Inclusion of informal waste pickers in the formal waste management system has increased the reach and social impact of start-ups in India, imparting a distinctive and promising twist to the waste management sector. This chapter investigates the plastic waste management scenario in India through extensive literature review. It scrutinises the social aspects associated with the plastic waste management sector and attempts to comprehend connotations of ‘socially responsible plastic’ through semi-structured interviews with service providers in the sector. Thematic analysis was used to analyse interview data. The research indicated the initiation of systemic efforts towards formalisation of the sector. It emphasised the importance of role of waste pickers and their recognition as enablers of the system. Need of an ecosystem approach to nurture start-ups and facilitate better transparency and integration in the waste management system is also illustrated in this research.

Due to the increasing awareness of the need to protect the environment, reverse logistics (RL) is being promoted to improve the ecological sustainability of production. RL can lower the costs of waste disposal, increase market competitiveness, and maintain a good corporate image. Hence, modern companies are focusing on environmental protection to demonstrate social responsibility. According to the OECD report of 2003, buildings consume 32 percent of resources, 12 percent of water, and 40 percent of energy worldwide, and the building waste comprises almost 40 percent of the all waste in the world. Therefore, controlling waste from the interior design sector may help slow global warming. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

This investigation models the current and new RL of disposing interior design waste in Taiwan. Modeling the carbon footprint (CF) of disposing interior design waste can help companies be aware of the environmental impact of disposing of waste, and how to improve it through RL. This investigation models the CFs of disposing interior design waste based on studies from Benjaafar et al. (2013), Pishvaee et al. (2009, 2010), and Tascione et al. (2014).

Analytical results showed that the RL significantly decreases the environmental impact of wastes. Companies can control carbon emission through the findings of this study and find how to improve their recycling process through RL.

This study used the model proposed by Tascione et al. (2014) to develop an RL model for Taiwan. Whereas most studies in the literature analyze the carbon emissions from the comparison between cost and benefit, this study considered the logistics for the whole lifecycle of a product. The analytical results of this study reveal that that RL can reduce the environmental impact of wastes. This case study is the first to obtain results that can be extended to other countries. This study also reveals the importance of recycling plants that can process demolition waste for reuse.

This is the first study to model the RL based on literatures. The findings of this study can be extended to other cases.

This study investigated medical waste management (MWM) practices in Bangladesh: its present constraints, the health effect of existing practices, and the weaknesses of the current system. Suggestions for improvement of the MWM situation have also been offered. Those interviewed included hospital staff, waste pickers and local residents. In‐depth field observations and a questionnaire survey were conducted in June‐July 2000 and March 2001. Laboratory analyses of medical waste were done on different occasions from 1998‐2001. Analyses of medical waste showed severe contamination of pathogenic microorganism and respondents suffered from various infectious diseases. The study identified the absence of rigorous laws related to MWM practices. It is a necessity to improve the handling and disposal methods of medical waste in almost all the available medical facilities.

The primary aim of this study was to better understand the grounds to develop a monitoring and performance measurement method to support the environmental management of construction operations. The practical purpose was to improve environmental activities in construction sites. This study helps to fill the gap between environmental needs and practices on construction sites.

Action research was the principal research method. The research procedure was executed in collaboration with construction companies. The EICS meter was originally developed to create rules for environmental competition between construction sites. Since the time of this competition, the meter has been further improved in other studies.

Based on the literature and feedback gained in the testing round of the EICS, five relevant categories were formulated to evaluate environmental operations: environmental information management, waste management, material handling and shielding, energy use and emissions. A simple index method was applied for these five categories. Furthermore, observation targets and acceptance criteria were defined for these categories. The meter supports environmental management in practise. The method can be used to analyse the starting point level when developing environmental processes.

This study offers insights based on action research for both academics and practitioners. The meter is outlined for Nordic conditions, but the structure of the method is also suitable elsewhere. The national demands can be locally fine-tuned.

This research studies a plastic recycling system from a reverse logistics angle and investigates the potential benefits of a multimodality strategy to the network design of plastic recycling. This research aims to quantify the impact of multimodality on the network, to provide decision support for the design of more sustainable plastic recycling networks in the future.

A MILP model is developed to assess different plastic waste collection, treatment and transportation scenarios. Comprehensive costs of the network are considered, including emission costs. A baseline scenario represents the optimized current situation while other scenarios allow multimodality options (barge and train) to be applied.

Results show that transportation cost contributes to about 7 percent of the total cost and multimodality can bring a reduction of almost 20 percent in transportation costs (CO₂‐eq emissions included). In our illustrative case with two plastic separation methods, the post‐separation channel benefits more from a multimodality strategy than the source‐separation channel. This relates to the locations and availability of intermediate facilities and the quantity of waste transported on each route.

This study applies a reverse logistics network model to design a plastic recycling network with special structures and incorporates a multimodality strategy to improve sustainability. Emission costs (carbon emission equivalents times carbon tax) are added to the total cost of the network to be optimized.

With the rapid increase in the consumption of electrical and electronic innovations, responsible management and recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) or waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been a significant concern for the governments, stakeholders, researchers and industry practitioners around the world. Consumer awareness, disposal behaviour and perception are chief facets of designing sustainable management strategies. Although researchers have widely studied e-waste over many years, the research focusing on consumer awareness about e-waste recycling has gained momentum recently. This paper aims to systematise the existing literature and explore future research prospects on household e-waste sorting behaviour.

Web of science (WoS) core collection was searched using selected keywords to identify relevant articles published from 2001 to 2021. The search resulted in 1,156 research articles published from 2001 to 2021. After a detailed study, 85 articles were shortlisted for in-depth review. The review was conducted based on global trends, top journals, most prolific authors, most active e-waste research countries, and institutions centring on consumer participation in e-waste disposal and recycling behaviour. The present research has also identified around eleven factors that seem to have a bearing on consumer behaviour towards storage, disposal and recycling of e-waste.

E-waste research has gained increased attention in the last five years. The majority of the studies has focused on motivational factors and ignore the risks associated with handling e-waste. The present study reports the pertinent issue of lack of awareness among the masses about e-waste handling and disposal. Thus, bringing to the fore the lack of awareness programmes and initiatives. The analysis presents the gaps in the literature and future research agendas.

The review article will help in providing an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour towards storage, disposal and recycling of e-waste and delineates the future direction of research that may be undertaken in this field of study.

The UK construction industry produces up to one third of all waste to landfill. This study aims to identify specific project practices impeding the reduction of waste in construction projects as well as uncovering potential waste solutions throughout the project delivery process. The rationale being that for such a drastic reduction in waste to landfill, holistic and extensive measures would be required.

A two‐way methodological approach was used. This comprised qualitative unstructured interviews and a quantitative questionnaire survey of three major stakeholders in the UK construction industry: clients, architects and contractors.

Design factors remain the major cause of impediments to waste reduction to landfill. Critical impediments include clients making waste prevention a top priority in projects, overly complex designs, waste taking a low priority compared to project time and costs, lack of concerns by designers for buildability, among others. Critical solutions include early supply chain involvement in design process, choosing materials for their durability, early communication of design changes to all parties, longer project programmes and better lead times, among others.

In all, the target of halving construction waste to landfill based on the 2008 benchmark is achievable but would require construction companies to take it upon themselves to implement the proposed solutions suggested by this study.

The value of this research is to provide UK construction companies with solutions to reduce waste and aid the reaching of the landfill target, as landfill is decreasing as a solution to waste. In addition the cost savings on reducing waste could be crucial for companies in this current economic climate.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the type of waste generation and the management of waste in order to reduce pollution in the health care sector with special reference to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The paper further aims to determine the relationship between top management and staff attitudes toward waste management and to identify the level of technology used in medical waste management in various types of health care organizations.

A survey questionnaire was developed using the designed conceptual framework to achieve the objectives of the study.

The study identifies that, though governments provide legislations and regulatory support, organizations of any size must have a positive attitude, awareness, capability and technology to initiate improvements for waste management processes and be prepared to adapt to new trends. Developing positive attitudes and improved knowledge on changes in waste management technology will assist in encouraging organizations to invest in this area.

The scope of this project is limited to private health care institutions in the Colombo district in Sri Lanka from where data were gathered.

Health care center waste management is a relatively new discipline in the Sri Lankan health sector. This study provides an opportunity for management to identify the level of waste generated by health care institutions and the methods followed for the disposal of waste. Environmental groups can gain benefit through this project, since they can identify whether the private institutes in the health care sector are following world-accepted methods in disposing of waste.

All disasters produce wastes of some kind, be it the trees fallen by a cyclone, a house destroyed by an earthquake, a beach coated by an oil spill, or animals killed by a flood. Postdisaster responses also produce wastes – from the human excreta of people staying in the camp to day-to-day household wastes. The issue of management of wastes created by disasters is becoming an increasingly important issue to be addressed in postdisaster response due to their scale, complexity, and cost. The cost of disaster waste management (DWM) has crossed the billion dollar mark in some of the major disasters, which is necessitating and prompting the emergence of a separate stream of expertise in DWM. In January 2011, the Joint Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme and Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) came out with Disaster Waste Management Guidelines (2011).