Crossroads Rhode Island: Proposed Social Enterprise Business Plan

Crossroads Rhode Island provides their clients with a continuum of care that includes basic emergency needs, shelter, housing, case management and vocational services for individuals and families. In order to provide these services they rely on the generosity of their donors and supporters who have helped Crossroads to become the largest homeless services organization in Rhode Island. It is important to Crossroads that they stick to their core values of safety, respect, and effectiveness when helping the homeless or at-risk individuals and families secure stable homes

Sustainable materials: issues in implementing resource efficiency – A UK policy & planning perspective

Increasing the recovery of construction and demolition wastes, and the use of sustainable materials in construction is dependent on a range of drivers that influence design and project planning decisions, as well as mainstream practice on construction sites. In the absence of sustainable materials standards in UK Building Regulations, behaviour is influenced by a combination of sustainability assessment ratings (e.g. BREEAM and the Code for Sutainable Homes), waste regulations, landfill taxes and planning guidance. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve consistent and widespread improved waste recovery performance and procurement of sustainable materials. This paper presents the authors' views on the efficacy of current drivers, supported by a case study analysis and pilot survey of industry views. Indicating gaps between rhetoric, aspiration and delivery, it compares UK policy, regulatory and voluntary drivers with approaches in the Netherlands and Germany

Design and Production of Textile Fabrics Waste from Sudanese Garment Factories

The textile and apparel industry is one of the most significant industrial sectors in the world, however, it generates a large number of textiles and apparel waste before and after consumers' using. This study is conducted on the reusing and recycling of garment fabric waste in Sudanese garment factories and aimed to identify the causes of this waste and try to increase their economy, by collecting and reusing this waste to produce useful products. The problem was identified and working on solving it after observing the amount of fabric waste accumulated in the Sudanese garment factories, various tailors stores, and other tailors in the markets. Many several methods were used to reach these objectives, including observation and interviews with workers in this field, then conducted a questionnaire for them to help in the primary data collection. After collecting waste from different sources it was sorted and classified into subcategories, then many tests were done to obtained fabric pieces with a good quality. In the last step many designs were done by making a several patterns matched to the size and type of fabric, and the final products are (children’s clothes, bags, bedsheets, and other textiles), these products were presented to people who specialize in textile and garment industry to know their opinions about them and if it will benefit the society. From the results of this study, we found that the different garments that were produced from waste fabrics showed to have a great satisfaction among consumers. KEYWORDS: Textiles, Garments, Waste, Reusing, Recycling, Textile waste, Pattern, Design

Bringing trust and transparency to the opaque world of waste management with blockchain: a Polkadot parathread application

Scott, Ian and de Castro Neto, Miguel and Pinheiro, Flavio L., Bringing Trust and Transparency to the Opaque World of Waste Management with Blockchain: A Polkadot Parathread Application (March 22, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3825072 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3825072The majority of countries are currently struggling to achieve sustainable levels of recycling and waste treatment, particularly relating to household waste, and this area is in urgent need of new solutions. In general, the waste management sector has struggled with low consumer trust, fraud, manipulation, significant manual processes, and low levels of information and control. Here we propose a hybrid blockchain solution called a Polkadot parachain. Polkadot is a blockchain technology that allows for the development of a network of blockchains, each called a parachain that can be customised to the business needs of a given application. This solution provides the cost benefits, scalability, and control of a permissioned blockchain while providing the security, verifiability, and trust of a public blockchain. The solution combines three typically separate blockchain use cases: supply chain tracking, incentivisation through a payment system, and gamification to achieve a complete solution for waste management. We provide a detailed discussion on the design of this blockchain solution with the use of blockchain functionality assessed against the criteria and development approaches found in the literature. Finally, we demonstrate how such a blockchain can be implemented with the Substrate blockchain development framework and detail a pilot project where this system will be implemented.publishersversionpublishe

Applied DDMI: A White Paper on how Design-Driven Material Innovation Methodology was applied in the Trash-2-Cash Project

This report summarises the work of a consortium of 18 partners; designers, design researchers and facilitators, manufacturers, material researchers and technical experts, during the EU Funded Trash-2-Cash project. The applied methodology and related recommendations are the main results captured in this report with thanks to contributions from Aalto University, Material ConneXion® Italia, RISE and The University of the Arts London

The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment: 2019 Progress Report

Launched in October 2018 with over 250 signatories, the Global Commitment now unites more than 400 organisations behind a common vision of a circular economy for plastics, in which plastics never become waste. To help make this vision a reality, all business and government signatories of the Global Commitment are committing to ambitious 2025 targets. They will work to eliminate the plastic items we don't need; innovate so all plastics we do need are designed to be safely reused, recycled, or composted; and circulate everything we use to keep it in the economy and out of the environment. Credibility and transparency are ensured by a clear minimum level of ambition for signatories, common definitions underpinning all commitments, publication of commitments online and annual reporting on progress. The minimum ambition level will be reviewed — and will become increasingly ambitious — in the coming years to ensure the Global Commitment continues to represent true leadership

Zero Waste Guidelines for events and festivals

When people hear the term ‘zero waste’ for the first time, the common response is to think that it sounds unrealistic. Zero waste however is not so much about a goal as about a philosophy that says waste is never a good thing, so rather than just accept waste as inevitable - let’s work towards minimising it. Zero waste is similar to the ideals of ‘zero accidents’ at work or ‘zero defects’ in manufacturing. Zero waste is a ‘whole system’ approach that requires a rethinking of how materials flow through our society, and a redesign of those systems to minimise material requirements and maximise material use. Its main principles are known as the waste management hierarchy, or the 5 Rs of waste management - Reduce waste, Reuse items, Recycle and Recover materials, and Residual disposal in a landfill as the last option1. Zero waste takes Nature as its starting point, where there is no waste, because what represents a surplus to one part of a system inevitably becomes food or fuel for another part of the system. Zero waste envisages a society where material is constantly cycled through different systems, adding value at each point of the cycle. Hence, a zero waste approach aims to ‘design out’ waste from the system. It is not just about managing waste that is created, but about continuously seeking to improve the management of material flows so that eventually there are no materials used in an event that do not have further beneficial use

Zero Waste Guidelines for events and festivals

When people hear the term ‘zero waste’ for the first time, the common response is to think that it sounds unrealistic. Zero waste however is not so much about a goal as about a philosophy that says waste is never a good thing, so rather than just accept waste as inevitable - let’s work towards minimising it. Zero waste is similar to the ideals of ‘zero accidents’ at work or ‘zero defects’ in manufacturing. Zero waste is a ‘whole system’ approach that requires a rethinking of how materials flow through our society, and a redesign of those systems to minimise material requirements and maximise material use. Its main principles are known as the waste management hierarchy, or the 5 Rs of waste management - Reduce waste, Reuse items, Recycle and Recover materials, and Residual disposal in a landfill as the last option1. Zero waste takes Nature as its starting point, where there is no waste, because what represents a surplus to one part of a system inevitably becomes food or fuel for another part of the system. Zero waste envisages a society where material is constantly cycled through different systems, adding value at each point of the cycle. Hence, a zero waste approach aims to ‘design out’ waste from the system. It is not just about managing waste that is created, but about continuously seeking to improve the management of material flows so that eventually there are no materials used in an event that do not have further beneficial use