Disruption in Circularity? Impact analysis of COVID-19 on ship recycling using Weibull tonnage estimation and scenario analysis method

The sustainability of the ship recycling industry strongly linked with the global shipping market and international commodity flows. More than 80% of the End of Life (EoL) ships are dismantled in South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Due to measures taken to minimize the propagation of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an international supply chain is broken to a historic low, except for certain medical-related urgencies. Due to the disruption of global supply chains, the industry may submerge into uncertainty due to, perhaps, lack of adequate labor force to dismantle increased EoL ships and due to disturbances of vessel transportation to the recycling nations amid strong precautionary measures. Our estimate suggests that about 300 million Gross Tonnage (GT) available for demolition in the next five years and the inability to get them recycled would cost about 20 billion dollars. More importantly, South Asian recycling nations would suffer from economic losses and employment opportunities. In this study, we also apply a scenario analysis technique to understand the impact range of COVID-19 in the short term and in the long term. The disruption is viewed through a circular economy framework, identifying a critical lack of ‘global scale’ acknowledgment in the circular economy framework. This article suggests that a formalized global scale, paralleled with favorable policies, may reduce supply chain disruption and improve sustainable development in the receiving nations

Les conflits interculturels dans les entreprises mixtes sino-françaises et propositions de solution

Après l’ouverture vers l’extérieur, grâce à son environnement d’investissement bien organisé et à la rapidité de sa croissance économique, la Chine se classe parmi les pays ayant le plus de capacités à attirer l’investissement étranger. En tant que troisième investisseur européen, la France occupe indubitablement une place très importante dans l’investissement étranger en Chine. Parmi les nombreuses entreprises sino-françaises, certaines ont connu le succès en Chine, mais les échecs ne manquent pas. Les conflits interculturels sont un des obstacles élémentaires dans le développement de l’entreprise mixte. Dans ce contexte, les recherches portant sur la problématique de l’interculturel existant dans l’entreprise sino-française ont une pertinence certaine. Actuellement, de plus en plus d’entreprises françaises sont attirées par des perspectives intéressantes et la grande potentialité du marché chinois, elles accélèrent le pas pour l’investissement en Chine

Eigenschaften und Wertschätzung von Schmucksteinen

International audienc

Qualitätsmanagement und Social Media

Basierend auf den technischen Entwicklungen des Internets in den letzten Jahren nimmt die Nutzung sowohl im privaten als auch im geschäftlichen Bereich ständig zu. Durch seine zunehmend bessere Unterstützung der Prozessabläufe in Organisationen steigt die Nachfrage nach Lösungen für verschiedene Querschnittsfunktionen, wie beispielsweise der Dokumentationspflichten im Qualitätsmanagement. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrages wird ein Ansatz aufgezeigt, wie sich moderne Techniken aus dem Bereich des Social Media nutzen lassen, um Qualitätsmanagement-Handbücher zu erstellen und das Leben dieser Inhalte zu intensivieren. Ein besonderes Augenmerk liegt dabei auf der Zusammenarbeit aller Mitarbeiter einer Organisation

Assessment and Estimation of Particulate Matter Formation Potential and Respiratory Effects from Air Emission Matters in Industrial Sectors and Cities/Regions

International audienc

New Technology for lighting: Critical resource issues

International audienceRecently worldwide resource depletion, energy shortage, and climate change caused by energy consumption have become important global issues for national policy and sustainability. The lighting system makes up a big share in energy consumption. Currently worldwide, about 20% of global electricity consumption is used by lighting applications, which corresponds to 2,651 TWh/year (IEA, 2006). Residential lighting is around 15 to 20% of US household electricity use (Hansen, 2009). In France, more than 10% of total electricity is used for lighting (Businesscoot, 2013). 70% of this energy is consumed by inefficient lamps. It is clear that improvement of lighting system will bring a large amount of energy and cost saving. The light emitting diode (LED) lighting is expected to be the leader in the future domestic lighting system. Gana et al. (2013) conducted a technical and economic analysis of LED lighting by comparing it with conventional fluorescent lamps and estimated the feasibility of replacing the fluorescent lamps by LED. This study shows that LED has great potential to replace current lamps, mainly driven by the cost savings. On the other hand, however, the LED is consuming some critical (e.g., gallium), rare and precious raw materials. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), the term “critical and rare materials” describes naturally-occurring earth elements that play a critical role in advanced technologies for batteries, lighting, motors, energy systems, electronics, and many other uses, especially emerging technologies involving magnets. The objective of this study is to quantify and estimate the critical and valuable materials in LED system for sustainable resource management

Mercury Flow Analysis and Management

International audienc

E-waste Recycling and Valuable Resources Recovery in Europe

International audienceElectronic waste (e-waste) is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their useful life. Nowadays, due to the rapid development of technologies, marketing and compatibility issues, the lifespan of many electronic goods has been substantially shortened. For example, the average lifespan of a new computer was 4.5 years in 1992, decreasing to 2 years in 2005, with further decreases over time (Widmer, 2005). This has resulted in significantly greater volumes of computers, either being disposed of or exported to developing countries. While it is difficult to quantify the volume of e-waste generated globally, according to StEP (Solving the E-Waste Problem) reports, about 48.9 million tons of e-waste (StEP, 2012) were produced in 2012, with estimates for 2017 increasing to 64.5 million tons. This emphasizes the need for proper management and decisions to control the different economic, social and environmental impacts. During the past decade, many studies on e-waste collection, treatment, recycling and management issues have been conducted (Terazono et al. 2006; Kahhat et al., 2008; Williams et al., 2008; Brett 2009; Kim et al., 2009; Jang 2010; Kim et al, 2013; Duan et al. 2014, Lee et al., 2010, Noon et al., 2011). E-waste management has become a critical issue because of the variety of toxic substances, which can contaminate the environment and threaten human health if disposal protocols are not meticulously enacted. For example, electronic products typically contain etchants (ammonia, nitrous oxide, chlorine, hydrogen chloride etc.), acid (phosphoric, hydrofluoric, nitric, sulfuric, hydrochloric, ammonia etc.) and photolithographic products for transferring a printed image to paper path (hydrogen peroxide, acetone, sodium hydroxide etc.), all having adverse effects on human health (Terazono, 2006; Kahhat et al., 2008). In addition, they are also costly to the environment. For instance, manufacturing an electronic chip weighing 40 mg requires 30 liters of pure water, approximately 750,000 times its mass, and burns the equivalent of 800 times of its weight in oil (Terazono, 2006). Furthermore, half of the world’s production of the precious metals gallium (350,000 dollars per tonne) and indium (Kim et al, 2015; Buchert et al, 2009), along with more than two thirds of global tantalum resources, are used for information and communication technology (ICT). On the other hand, these products contain valuable materials such as copper, zinc, gold, aluminum, platinum and others that can be recovered for future use (Groupe EcoInfo, 2012). In this presentation, mostly, E-waste recycling and management as well as valuable resources recovery (e.g., European projects, resource flows and recovery technologies) in Europe will be presented and discussed

Management status of mercury waste (mainly from products) in France

International audienceMercury (Hg) has been used for various human activities, such as manufacturing or burning coal for fuel, for a long time, and is emitted to the air with elemental mercury, particle-bound mercury and oxidized mercury forms by human activities and from natural sources, such as volcanoes. As it is easily accumulated in ecosystem, it is notorious for its harmful effects on humans as well as higher levels of the food chain. However, until a recent date, mercury is used primarily for the manufacture of industrial chemicals or for electrical and electronic applications. Mercury containing items and chemicals are still used and old equipment and processes containing mercury may still be used in some facilities. Therefore, it is very important to quantify the mercury consumptions, flows and stocks in mercury-contained products in a national system. Material flow analysis (MFA) is a useful assessment method to shed light on the consumption, concentration, and accumulation of a specific material used in each boundary system, depending on the way the target material is traced. The purpose of this research is to review the characteristics and to quantify the flows of mercury emissions in lamp products in South Korea and France in order to establish an inventory for mercury. In the calculation, mercury import for lamp production and lamp products import, consumption, recycling and treatment were considered. Once the data was treated, two mercury flow maps (expressed in kilograms) were drawn. One represents flows and stocks of mercury-containing lamps and the other depicts flows and stocks of mercury in each country in 2012. Our results can be used for future national mercury inventory development, management and policy

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment on Paper and Electronic Billing & Payment System

International audienc