Financial sustainability of the waste treatment projects that follow PPP contracts in Greece: a formula for the calculation of the profi t rate

This paper examines the initial budget estimation process for the implementation of waste treatment projects through Public-Private Partnership (PPPs) in Greece. The study, having as strong theoretical foundation the project's financial analysis that is included in the cost benefit analysis methodology, evaluates the financial sustainability of a waste management project. Initially, the budget estimation process that is currently used under the conventional procurement of public projects in Greece is followed and the results demonstrate that the specific process, where the investor's Profit Rate (PR) takes specific values, cannot be used in the case of a PPP. Furthermore, a new formula is developed, which calculates the minimum value of the private sector's PR, in order to determine the existence of positive cash flows during the operational phase of the project and to ensure the partnership's financial sustainability. The new formula can be a useful tool to the public decision-makers in Greece, because it helps them to evaluate the financial sustainability of the waste treatment projects that follow PPP contracts, during the conceptual phase

Policy Implications. How to Support Decision-Makers in Setting and Solving Complex Problems

Stakeholders participation in the field of the public decision stimulates learning processes able to generate common knowledge based on shared information. In fact, by including different stakeholders in the decision process different knowledge domains can be integrated. To facilitate this processes, Decision Support Systems (DSSs) have been framed to support stakeholders in decision making for specific purposes. The contribution aims at reflecting on stakeholder participation and to propose a possible participatory process in the context of the location of healthcare facilities based on the methodological framework developed by Simon extended to the scale of Arnstein. Connections of the study within the line of research concerning the “Policy Analytics” perspective are proposed highlighting the importance of the combination of data-driven with value-driven approaches. Moreover, this conclusive chapter will synthetize main achievement and findings of the book

An Estimation of the Evolution of Waste Generated by Direct and Indirect Suppliers of the Spanish Paper Industry

The generation of waste by the paper industry has attracted great attention over the last decades among other reasons because the demand for recycled waste paper has considerably increased. As the paper industry is closely intertwined to the rest of industries in the production system, its activity exerts both a direct and indirect influence on the volume of waste generated by its supplier industries. The purpose of this study is to shed some light on the evolution of the volume of waste generated by the suppliers of the Spanish paper industry over the period 2005–2010 using an Economic Input–Output Life Cycle Assessment Model. In particular we focus on the evolution of the volume of waste generated by firms of the own paper industry. We employ data from different waste surveys conducted by the Spanish National Statistics Institute and input–output tables extracted from the World Input–Output Database. The results obtained show that the waste generated by suppliers amounted to 1250 thousand tonnes in 2010, an important volume if we take into account that the waste generated by the paper industry in 2010 amounted to 1739 thousand tonnes. The analysis of the evolution of the waste generated by suppliers reveals that there is a high degree of concentration, both in terms of industries and in terms of waste categories. In addition, the decrease in the volume of waste generated by supplier firms within the own paper industry reflects not only the growing importance of recycled paper as raw material for paper-making but also the important investments in technology made by this industry in Spain

A Methodology for Sustainable Management of Food Waste

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.As much as one third of the food intentionally grown for human consumption is never consumed and is therefore wasted, with significant environmental, social and economic ramifications. An increasing number of publications in this area currently consider different aspects of this critical issue, and generally focus on proactive approaches to reduce food waste, or reactive solutions for more efficient waste management. In this context, this paper takes a holistic approach with the aim of achieving a better understanding of the different types of food waste, and using this knowledge to support informed decisions for more sustainable management of food waste. With this aim, existing food waste categorizations are reviewed and their usefulness are analysed. A systematic methodology to identify types of food waste through a nine-stage categorization is used in conjunction with a version of the waste hierarchy applied to food products. For each type of food waste characterized, a set of waste management alternatives are suggested in order to minimize environmental impacts and maximize social and economic benefits. This decision-support process is demonstrated for two case studies from the UK food manufacturing sector. As a result, types of food waste which could be managed in a more sustainable manner are identified and recommendations are given. The applicability of the categorisation process for industrial food waste management is discussed