The dirty man of Europe? Rubbish, recycling and consumption work in England

England has been described as 'the dirty man of Europe'. However, the country's household recycling rate has been steadily increasing in the last decade, achieving a recycling rate of 42 per cent in 2011/12 compared to just 12 per cent in 2001/2 (DEFRA, 2012). This paper explores the combination of factors that have led to the growth of interest and participation in recycling activities by households, businesses, governments and the third sector. It charts the development of waste management policy and practice in England in order highlight how and why recycling has become incorporated into consumer?s everyday household routines. This paper has been developed as part of an ERC-funded project, 'Consumption Work and Societal Divisions of Labour', whose key aim is to demonstrate the role that consumers play in the labour process, using comparative methods. In the case of recycling, by sorting their waste, consumers play an integral role in the division of labour within waste management in England and their role differs substantially to the role of consumers in Sweden (the other country in which recycling consumption work has been explored, see Wheeler, 2013). This paper illustrates how the consumer is encouraged to perform this work, drawing attention to what the work actually comprises and the implications of its successful accomplishment for the labour processes that follow

Developing Integrated Waste Management Systems: Information Needs and the Role of Locally Based Data

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Earthquake early warning system

As the climate undergoes changes, the number of natural disasters increase and the severity of these occurrences increases over time. As the population of human race increases, natural protective terrains and barriers were destroyed for urbanization due to the exploitation of vulnerable areas on the earth. Earthquakes are unpredictable and as an initiative to adapt to climate changes and as a strategy to reduce earthquake disaster risk, early warning systems (EWS) has been internationally recognized to play a role in providing alerts to the public so that safety precaution procedures and protocols can be implemented in response to earthquake occurrences..

Carbon Free Boston: Waste Technical Report

Part of a series of reports that includes: Carbon Free Boston: Summary Report; Carbon Free Boston: Social Equity Report; Carbon Free Boston: Technical Summary; Carbon Free Boston: Buildings Technical Report; Carbon Free Boston: Transportation Technical Report; Carbon Free Boston: Energy Technical Report; Carbon Free Boston: Offsets Technical Report; Available at http://sites.bu.edu/cfb/OVERVIEW: For many people, their most perceptible interaction with their environmental footprint is through the waste that they generate. On a daily basis people have numerous opportunities to decide whether to recycle, compost or throwaway. In many cases, such options may not be present or apparent. Even when such options are available, many lack the knowledge of how to correctly dispose of their waste, leading to contamination of valuable recycling or compost streams. Once collected, people give little thought to how their waste is treated. For Boston’s waste, plastic in the disposal stream acts becomes a fossil fuel used to generate electricity. Organics in the waste stream have the potential to be used to generate valuable renewable energy, while metals and electronics can be recycled to offset virgin materials. However, challenges in global recycling markets are burdening municipalities, which are experiencing higher costs to maintain their recycling. The disposal of solid waste and wastewater both account for a large and visible anthropogenic impact on human health and the environment. In terms of climate change, landfilling of solid waste and wastewater treatment generated emissions of 131.5 Mt CO2e in 2016 or about two percent of total United States GHG emissions that year. The combustion of solid waste contributed an additional 11.0 Mt CO2e, over half of which (5.9 Mt CO2e) is attributable to the combustion of plastic [1]. In Massachusetts, the GHG emissions from landfills (0.4 Mt CO2e), waste combustion (1.2 Mt CO2e), and wastewater (0.5 Mt CO2e) accounted for about 2.7 percent of the state’s gross GHG emissions in 2014 [2]. The City of Boston has begun exploring pathways to Zero Waste, a goal that seeks to systematically redesign our waste management system that can simultaneously lead to a drastic reduction in emissions from waste. The easiest way to achieve zero waste is to not generate it in the first place. This can start at the source with the decision whether or not to consume a product. This is the intent behind banning disposable items such as plastic bags that have more sustainable substitutes. When consumption occurs, products must be designed in such a way that their lifecycle impacts and waste footprint are considered. This includes making durable products, limiting the use of packaging or using organic packaging materials, taking back goods at the end of their life, and designing products to ensure compatibility with recycling systems. When reducing waste is unavoidable, efforts to increase recycling and organics diversion becomes essential for achieving zero waste. [TRUNCATED]Published versio

The Largest Environmental Movement: Recycling and Consumption Work in Sweden

By sorting their waste for recycling, Swedes are told that they are part of 'Sweden's largest environmental movement' (Avfall Sverige, 2008). Recycling in Sweden is understood as an environmental action by all parties within society (including consumers, municipalities, and producers) and the country is proud of its identity as a world-leader on environmental issues. The system for recycling in Sweden asks a lot of the consumer who must not only sort their waste into different fractions but transport it to the appropriate bring station. Yet the country achieves high rates of materials (33 per cent) and biological recycling (15 per cent) and they proudly proclaim to recycle 99 per cent of their waste, with their belief that incineration with energy recovery is a form of recycling (Avfall Sverige, 2012). This paper explores how recycling has developed as an everyday ethical practice, considering the role of different institutions in the promotion of recycling and responsible waste management. This paper has been developed as part of an ERC-funded project, 'Consumption Work and Societal Divisions of Labour', whose key aim is to demonstrate the role that consumers play in the labour process, using comparative methods. In the case of recycling, by sorting their waste, consumers play an integral role in the division of labour within waste management in Sweden and their role differs substantially to the role of consumers in England (the other country in which recycling consumption work has been explored, see Wheeler, 2013). This paper illustrates how the consumer is encouraged to perform this work, drawing attention to what the work actually comprises. It also uncovers the organisations that shape this distinctive system of provision and moral economy of recycling

End-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling management: improving performance using an ISM approach

With booming of the automobile industry, China has become the country with increasing car ownership all over the world. However, the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling industry is at infancy, and there is little systematic review on ELV recycling management, as well as low adoption amongst domestic automobile industry. This study presents a literature review and an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach is employed to identify the drivers towards Chinese ELV recycling business from government, recycling organizations and consumer’s perspectives, so as to improve the sustainability of automobile supply chain by providing some strategic insights. The results derived from the ISM analysis manifest that regulations on auto-factory, disassembly technique, and value mining of recycling business are the essential ingredients. It is most effective and efficient to promote ELV recycling business by improving these attributes, also the driving and dependence power analysis are deemed to provide guidance on performance improvement of ELV recycling in the Chinese market

Factors Related to the Adoption of Good Agrarian Practices (GAP) in Plastic Covered Horticulture of Southeastern Spain

The adoption by farmers of Good Agrarian Practices (GAP), that favouring the environment and assure food quality and safety, is being a frequent fact. Considering the plastic covered horticulture, these kind of practices can be of different nature: use of organic fertiliser, made of crops rotations, use of recyclable plastic as greenhouse cover, good management of organic residuals (use of containers), recycling of plastic containers, etc. This paper, wich try to analyse the adoption of GAP by protected vegetable growers, is based on a survey carried out to 114 farmers in the southeast coastline of Spain, asking for the level of adoption of a set of GAP. From the information gathered on the suvey, an aggregated index of adoption has been performed, and the relationship between this index and some structural and managerial characteristics of the greenhouses, and some sociocultural variables of the growers (age, study, agrarian formation, etc) has been analysed, trying to identify factors related to adoption of GAP, which could probably help to design strategies for the increase of the level of GAP adoption in the system.Crop Production/Industries,