This research aims to analyse and understand recycling phenomena and competition between large-scale and small-scale enterprises under different public attention. It mainly emphasizes service-providing behaviours to the consumers in the recycling industry, where recyclers are struggling to enhance their profits. The government strives to protect the environment by promoting an efficient recycling industry. As fast-growing waste products, the recyclers should achieve the advantage of number and be equipped with service capability for the consumers. Thus, this study employs an evolutionary game model to analyse the competition for waste products acquisitions between large and small recyclers. Due to a significant association between the service and acquisition waste product price for the consumers and recycling quantity, there is a strong mutual influence between the acquisition price of waste products and the price strategy-taken rate of large and small recyclers. Results also reveal that the market acquisition price and processing cost play a crucial role in recyclers' decision-making on setting prices for acquiring waste products from consumers. Furthermore, it is also found that waste products acquisition price and recyclers' processing cost are the key factors that affect large and small recyclers' recycling quantity.
Food waste is a global challenge that threatens the sustainable development of human societies. Although food waste is produced in all stages of the food supply chain, household food waste is the biggest contributor to the food waste fraction. In this research, we systematically reviewed 54 empirical studies to explore drivers and barriers to household food waste reduction and prevention. Key aspects, such as comprehension and perception of food waste issues, practices and lifestyles, were examined. Our findings suggest that a great understanding of the impact of one's food waste on health, environment and economy directly promotes food waste management. Additionally, the food waste issue is not attributed to a single factor, it may differ varies across countries. The majority of the reviewed literature on household food waste comes from European countries, where similar geographical, economic and cultural characteristics may lead to comparable drivers and barriers. This could be the reason for showing optimistic experience to the respective food waste management interventions. However, the applicability of these findings and interventions to regions beyond Europe are uncertain. Future studies should also be expanded to include regions such as Asia, North America, Africa, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean. To support the sustainable management of household food waste, mapping country-specific food waste determinants is crucial in developing easy-to-implement food waste interventions that can specifically address the food waste issue in each country.
This paper examines the factors that might influence recycling behaviour of the households in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Information on recycling activity, socio-economic characteristics, and attitudes of the households towards recycling were obtained from interviews with 456 households in Dhaka. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the dominant factors that might influence the recycling behaviour of the households. The results showed that environmental consciousness, the availability of storage space, and age (25-35 years) are significant positive predictors of recycling behaviour (at the 1% level). Another variable Income 2 (TK3,000-15,000) is also positively correlated with recycling (at the 5% level). Establishment of a recycling programme could be an effective strategy in implementing sustainable waste management in Bangladesh. For this strategy to succeed, however, active partnership between households and the waste management service department is required. The households' attitudes toward recycling should, therefore, be taken into consideration as should the results of this study, which are important indicators of households' positive attitudes toward sustainable waste management in Dhaka.
Plastic waste circularity is a priority at a global level. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) set the ways to go, and the circular economy principles underlined the 'green' strategies to be employed. However, in practice, there is still much to do, especially in developing countries, where open burning and open dumping still represent the common way of plastic waste disposal. This review aims to analyse current plastic waste circular approaches in low-middle income settings. Seven countries were selected based on the economic level and data availability from the authors, and analysed to collect and critically discuss the actions implemented at a city level. Examples of waste minimization and recycling strategies, selective collection systems and public campaigns are reported from Africa, Asia and Latin America. First, a background analysis related to physical and governance aspects of municipal solid waste management systems of the chosen settings was conducted. The assessment was focused on the treatment processes or minimization actions. Then, the applicability of the projects to achieve the SDGs was commented on. The outcomes of the research underline the need to: (1) scale up small-scale and pilot projects, (2) disseminate good practices in more low- to middle-income settings, (3) create synergies among international partners for further replications in cities. Urgent solutions to plastic waste pollution are needed. The review presented practical actions to be implemented now to boost plastic waste circularity in developing cities.
A one-step self-sustained carbonization of coconut shell biomass, carried out in a brick reactor at a relatively low temperature of 300-500°C, successfully produced a biochar-derived adsorbent with 308 m2/g surface area, 2 nm pore diameter, and 0.15 cm3/g total pore volume. The coconut shell biochar qualifies as a nano-adsorbent, supported by scanning electron microscope images, which showed well-developed nano-pores on the surface of the biochar structure, even though there was no separate activation process. This is the first report whereby coconut shell can be converted to biochar-derived nano-adsorbent at a low carbonization temperature, without the need of the activation process. This is superior to previous reports on biochar produced from oil palm empty fruit bunch.
Rapid population growth of major urban centres in many developing countries has created massive landfills with extraordinary heights and steep side-slopes, which are frequently surrounded by illegal low-income residential settlements developed too close to landfills. These extraordinary landfills are facing high risks of catastrophic failure with potentially large numbers of fatalities. This study presents a novel method for risk assessment of landfill slope failure, using probabilistic analysis of potential failure scenarios and associated fatalities. The conceptual framework of the method includes selecting appropriate statistical distributions for the municipal solid waste (MSW) material shear strength and rheological properties for potential failure scenario analysis. The MSW material properties for a given scenario is then used to analyse the probability of slope failure and the resulting run-out length to calculate the potential risk of fatalities. In comparison with existing methods, which are solely based on the probability of slope failure, this method provides a more accurate estimate of the risk of fatalities associated with a given landfill slope failure. The application of the new risk assessment method is demonstrated with a case study for a landfill located within a heavily populated area of New Delhi, India.
Management of waste is one of the major challenges faced by many developing countries. This study therefore attempts to develop a circular economy (CE) model to manage wastes and closing the loop and reducing the generation of residual wastes in Indian municipalities. Through extant literature review, the researchers found 30 success factors of CE implementation. Using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) SIMOS approach, the rating and weight of decision makers (DMs) for each factor were collected. A structured questionnaire has been developed incorporating all these 30 factors, to extract the most important factors. The data was collected from top 10 officials (DMs) from the Chennai municipality, who handle three regions (metropolitan, suburbia and industrial). Based on the TOPSIS SIMOS analysis, nine CE implementing factors (critical success factors (CSFs)) among the 30 variables that were significant based on the cut-off value was identified. A CE model has been proposed based on these nine CSFs for waste management in India.