A Tale of Garbage

In 1973, an American archaeologist named Dr. William Rathje sought to create a method that would help his students understand the intricacies of archaeological fieldwork. Dr. Rathje recognized that his students at the University of Arizona were having a difficult time understanding cultural remains from the past (Rathje, 1979, p. 4), so his idea was to use contemporary cultural material waste as a study tool. He named this method “The Garbage Project.” Given that the project took place during 1970s and students of the time were far removed from potsherds and post holes, it made sense to articulate archaeological sites in a contemporary way. Over time, this process would come to be known as garbology, which has come to inform both past research and present-day disciplines such as economics and public policy. This paper will outline the cross-discipline benefits that archaeology brings to modern society, including how it informs us about sustainability issues and how human societies interact and identify with their waste

Recycling E-Waste: a Solution through Third Party Recycler

With 50 million metric tons of e‐waste disposed worldwide each year, e-waste recycling has become an increasingly important issue globally. The U.S. alone generated a total of 3.01 million tons of e-waste in 2007, of which only 13.6% was recycled. Improper disposal of e-waste poses an immediate and prominent threat to environmental and public health. Many electronic vendors have initiated either the Expended Producer Responsibility or the Producer Stewardship and launched manufacturer-sponsored recycling programs. Many of these programs, however, are in trouble because of the fee generated for recycling, thereby blocking the road for effective actions. In this paper, we propose a third party recycler model as an alternative solution to e-waste recycling. The third party recycler works as the intermediary between consumers (source of e-waste) and electronic vendors (recipient of recycled items) to recycle disposed electronics properly. The proposed information system is composed of five modules and supports the business operations and functionalities of the third party recycler. We hope the third party recycler structure will be adopted globally in the near future

Inuit Co-Management Strategies in the Arctic

 Inuit co-management of northern resources and environments is critical to the survival of these rapidly changing ecosystems. This paper explores co-management initiatives currently present in the Arctic, as well as the creation and implementation of these strategies.  The relationship between Indigenous traditional knowledge and the success of co-management strategies is analyzed, noting that dismissive beliefs held by Eurocentric power figures affect the existence and enforcement of these strategies. The effects of climate change and faunal conservation are two of the pillars upon which co-management techniques are founded in Arctic communities, making them key players in the pursuit of a sustainable future

The Potential of Servicizing as a Green Business Model

It has been argued that servicizing business models, under which a firm sells the use of a product rather than the product itself, are environmentally beneficial. The main arguments are: First, under servicizing the firm charges customers based on the product usage. Second, the quantity of products required to meet customer needs may be smaller because the firm may be able to pool customer needs. Third, the firm may have an incentive to offer products with higher efficiency. Motivated by these arguments, we investigate the economic and environmental potential of servicizing business models. We endogenize the firm's choice between a pure sales, a pure servicizing, and a hybrid model with both sales and servicizing options, the pricing decisions and, the resulting customer usage. We consider two extremes of pooling efficacy, viz., no versus strong pooling. We find that under no pooling servicizing leads to higher environmental impact due to production but lower environmental impact due to use. In contrast, under strong pooling, when a hybrid business model is more profitable, it is also environmentally superior. However, a pure servicizing model is environmentally inferior for high production costs as it leads to a larger production quantity even under strong pooling. We also examine the product efficiency choice and find that the firm offers higher efficiency products only under servicizing models with strong pooling

Workshop Proceeding of the 2nd Workshop on Green (Responsible, Ethical and Social) IT and IS – the Corporate Perspective (GRES-IT/IS)

For the 2nd Workshop on Green (Responsible, Ethical and Social) IT and IS – the Corporate Perspective (GRES-IT/IS), extended abstracts from various fields of the information systems research community have been submitted. We received 36 extended abstracts and were happy to invite seven of them for presentation.Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operation

To Sell and to Provide? The Economic and Environmental Implications of the Auto Manufacturer's Involvement in the Car Sharing Business

Motivated by the involvement of Daimler and BMW in the car sharing business we consider an OEM who contemplates introducing a car sharing program. The OEM designs its product line by accounting for the trade-off between driving performance and fuel efficiency. Customers have different valuations of driving performance and decide whether to buy, join car sharing, or rely on their outside option. Car sharing can increase the profit from selling. This happens when the OEM prefers to serve the lower-end customers through car sharing and the higher-end through selling. In this case, car sharing increases the efficiency of the vehicles used for the lower-end, and the price charged to the higher-end customers. This is more pronounced for higher-end OEMs, which may help explain Daimler's and BMW's involvement in car sharing. Despite the higher efficiency, car sharing may lower the OEM's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) level even when it increases profit and decreases environmental impact. CAFE levels better reflect the environmental benefits of car sharing when they are based on the number of customers served and not the production volume. Finally, if anticipating aggressive CAFE standards, OEMs may include car sharing to better absorb the increase in the production cost

The Extended Producer Responsibility for Waste Oils

Currently, lubricants producers, electrical, electronic producers, and cars producers share waste oil management responsibility. The extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime for WEEE was updated to incorporate the mandate of using economic incentives correctly regarding applying the hierarchy principle in WEEE management. Moreover, EPR on end on life vehicles (ELV) was updated to accomplish the hierarchy principle. This work aims to evaluate the scope of EPR for waste oils, for which other producer responsibility organizations (PROs) have responsibility. The method consists in estimating first the cointegrating equation for the variables lubricating oil production (LP) and oil price (FRP) using Dynamic Least Squares Estimator (DOLS) for the period 2007-2020. Subsequently, the cointegrating equation between the variables LP and electric domestic appliances with oils (AWO) and LP and vehicles production (VP) are estimated using DOLS. The main results show that the variables LP and FRP are cointegrated. Besides, the elasticity of the LP variable up to FRP was negative at 0,45. In contrast, variables LP and AWO, neither LP nor VP, are not cointegrated. That context suggested that EPR for waste oils should be considered to join other economic incentives

Environmental decay and the illegal market in e-waste from a European perspective: current problems and future directions

In the last decade, the growth in electronics production and consumption has been coupled with an increase in the illegal export of electrical and electronic waste (or “e-waste”) beyond the borders of the European Union (EU). Shipped to illegal recycling facilities in less industrialized countries, e-waste is a severe threat to the integrity of local environments and a potential source of ecosystem and biodiversity loss. Although the extent of the damage caused by e-waste pollution is unknown, scientific studies have warned of the perils of hazardous substances, which are released during primitive e-waste recycling activities in countries such as China, Ghana and Nigeria.Drawing insights from the scientific literature, this paper illustrates how the problem of e-waste pollution is intrinsically linked to the issue of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. In particular, it argues that much greater attention should be paid to the EU Directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) and to the proposals to recast the two Directives because of their potential to enhance environmental protection globally. Nonetheless, underpinning this scrutiny is the contention that shortcomings in the EU legal framework on e-waste could ultimately affect the environment and biodiversity of less industrialized states

Effectiveness of Life Cycle Assessment Systems for Waste Management in Hotels

Hotels are generating a huge amount of waste. Management of these enormous amounts of waste produced by hotels is difficult. To mitigate this challenge, a systematic approach is needed, more so from the sustainable management perspective. However, implementing a sophisticated waste management system may be costly. This exploratory study focuses on how life cycle assessment system (LCAS) influences the waste management in hotels. Anchoring to organizational control theory, we argue that hotel reputation and ownership of a hotel will influence the effectiveness of LCAS. We posit that reputed, and corporate managed hotels will be able to leverage from LCAS implementation better for waste management. We also argue that the effect of reputation and ownership on waste management cost reduction will be mediated through the waste produced by hotels. Data of 1,277 hotels support our arguments. Implications and contributions are discussed