Challenges and strategies for bio-based and biodegradable plastic waste management in Europe

In recent years, an increasing trend towards replacement of conventional fossil-based plastics with bio-based plastics was noticed, i.e., production of plastics partly or fully made from biomass is rapidly expanding. Currently, bio-based and biodegradable plastics have a very small market size, approximately only 1% of all plastics produced. However, the forecast of the global bioplastics production capacities predicts an increase from approximately 2.417 million tonnes in 2021 to approximately 7.593 million tonnes in 2026, more than three times the current capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the challenges and identify the barriers for bio-based and biodegradable plastics for waste management and to evaluate the effectiveness of current plastic waste management strategies for the efficient waste management of bio-based and biodegradable plastics. The main barriers and motivators of the biodegradable and biodegradable plastics market that have been identified include macroeconomic factors, regulatory factors, technological factors, and social factors. The bio-based and biodegradable plastics have to be separately collected and treated under mostly controlled, regulated conditions. However, currently, there are no legal provisions providing for the separate collection of bio-based plastics, leading to their disposal with either hazardous waste, conventional plastics, or municipal waste. Since the effective plastic waste management strategy relates to good performance in each step of the waste management process, bio-based and biodegradable plastic waste management could, therefore, be based on an effective strategy for the management of plastic waste. However, there is a need for standardizing waste collection systems and creating a harmonized waste collection infrastructure, which would lead to effective sorting of bio-based plastic waste

An assessment of attitudes towards plastics and bioplastics in Europe.

Over the last 50 years, conventional fossil-based plastics have become an integral part of our everyday lives. Apart from their low production costs, this is due to a number of their unique properties, including durability, strength, lightness, electrical and thermal insulation, resistance to chemicals and corrosion. The production of plastics has increased from 1.5 million metric tons in 1950 to 359 million metric tons in 2018. Of this total, 61.8 million metric tons were produced in Europe. There are various problems associated with plastic use and disposal that pose a serious threat to both the physical environment and human health. Since public behaviour plays a key role when it comes to the use of plastic, this paper reports on a study that focused on an assessment of attitudes towards plastics and bioplastics in Europe. The results showed that packaging is the most frequent modality of plastic used among participants. In addition, majority of participants are aware that plastic waste can affect environment and human health and therefore segregate and properly dispose plastics. Also, even though most respondents were aware of the environmental problems related to plastic use and showed a positive inclination towards using bioplastic materials, their limited availability and lack of relevant information about bioplastics pose a problem for wider use. Departing from the assumption that the public attitude is a determining factor in the consumption of plastics as a whole and bioplastics in particular, this paper also sheds some light on the current situation, identifying some trends and information gaps which should be addressed in order to encourage a more rational use of plastics in Europe

Business processes within enterprises providing public services: reference model development

This study focuses on the development of a reference model of business processes within enterprises providing public services in the field of real estate. The study revealed key features of process approach in the system of state regulation of the real estate market, considered organizational foundations of activities and technological processes of public institutions, and modelled the main business processes of public regulation enterprise at the top detail level. Based on a detailed representation of the main, managing and supporting business processes, the reference model was developed

Modern information technologies in the hotel business: development trends and implementation issues

This article discusses the main developments in information technologies of the hotel business, which is especially relevant due to the fact that today the process of economy digitalization in the Russian Federation significantly influences hospitality industry. Automation of hotels associated with the use of modern technologies particularly improves the quality of customer service. In this research major trends in the development of information technologies in hotel business were identified. They include: cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented reality, etc. This paper defines the main problems of introduction of modern information technologies in hospitality industry. The study revealed that currently, information technologies are improving rapidly, directly impacting hotel business, but also assessing hotel market of the Russian Federation. In terms of development and use of modern information technologies it is important to note that a lot depends on management of a specific hospitality enterprise

Business architecture design for project management systems in the FMCG companies

The article considers the project management system as a tool for achieving strategic goals of network trading companies. This study is relevant, because in retail project management is widely used to solve unique and large-scale business problems, but the degree of prevalence of the project approach is still low, which affects the income of companies. In the course of the research, the classification of the activities of network trading companies, the functional-oriented organizational structure of project management of a network trading organization is presented, the model of the business architecture of project management of a network trading company is developed, and the algorithm of selection and the main functions of the software for project management are considered. As a result of the research, a standard project portfolio and a top-level model of the business architecture of a network trading company with an implemented corporate project management system were developed