Journal: Resources, Conservation and Recycling

Abbreviation

Resour. Conserv. Recycl.

Publisher

Elsevier

Journal Volumes

ISSN

0921-3449
1879-0658

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Publications1 - 10 of 79
  • Multi-objective optimization of waste and resource management in industrial networks - Part II
    Item type: Journal Article
    Vadenbo, Carl; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo; Saner, Dominik; et al. (2014)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
  • When to replace products with which (circular) strategy? An optimization approach and lifespan indicator
    Item type: Journal Article
    Hummen, Torsten; Desing, Harald (2021)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
    A longer product use requires less resources, causing less environmental impacts. Even though this assumption may appear intuitive, it is not necessarily the case for all products. Consider a product that causes significant impacts during its service life and loses performance through wear and degradation. Its extended use may cause higher impacts overall than replacing it before it reaches its end-of-life with an evolved alternative. In this paper, we propose a method for finding the replacement time when impacts become minimal, i.e. the optimal environmental lifetime (OEL), taking into account non-linear dynamics of technological efficiency improvements and efficiency degradation during usage. Different replacement options, including lifetime extension strategies such as re-manufacturing, are considered. Based on this, we define an indicator to measure the environmental performance of an achieved lifetime in comparison to the optimum. This lifespan indicator ϕ measures the relative achievement of the maximum possible impact savings, when replacing the initial product at OEL. It accounts for unsustainable throughput of materials and waste of resources when deviating from it. To illustrate the application of the method and lifespan indicator, the OEL of residential heating systems are calculated. It reveals that gas boilers shall be replaced in short intervals with evolved gas boilers or – more effectively – with a heat pump. This case study nullifies the common hypothesis that “durability is per se environmentally beneficial”, requiring to evaluate OEL on a case by case basis.
  • Strategic management of WEEE in Switzerland—combining material flow analysis with structural analysis
    Item type: Journal Article
    Duygan, Mert; Meylan, Grégoire (2015)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
  • Decisions on recycling
    Item type: Journal Article
    Knoeri, Christof; Binder, Claudia R.; Althaus, Hans-Jörg (2011)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
  • Removal of pharmaceuticals from human urine during storage, aerobic biological treatment, and activated carbon adsorption to produce a safe fertilizer
    Item type: Journal Article
    Özel Duygan, Birge D.; Udert, Kai M.; Remmele, Annette; et al. (2021)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
    Urine has great potential to be an effective fertilizer due to its high nutrient content, however, it can contain potentially worrying pharmaceuticals. Our objective was to study whether urine storage and aerobic biological treatment, i.e. nitrification, was sufficient to remove pharmaceuticals or an additional treatment with activated carbon was necessary to produce a fertilizer from urine. We investigated the abatement of twelve pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and antivirals, in laboratory experiments representing the treatment steps of anaerobic storage of source-separated human urine, stabilization using partial and full nitrification under acclimatized and non-acclimatized conditions, and treatment of nitrified urine using powdered activated carbon (PAC). Two-month-long-term storage of urine was insufficient to substantially degrade the pharmaceuticals, except for hydrochlorothiazide (>90%). In the partial and full nitrification fed-batch reactors, atazanavir, ritonavir, and clarithromycin were rapidly removed, with biotransformation rate constants greater than 10 L gSS−1d−1. Darunavir, emtricitabine, trimethoprim, N4-acetylsulfamethoxazole, sulfamethoxazole, atenolol, diclofenac, and hydrochlorothiazide were degraded slowly, with biotransformation rate constants of < 1 L gSS−1d−1. With 200 mg PAC L−1, at least 90% of each investigated pharmaceutical was removed. Yeast estrogen screen tests and bioluminescence inhibition tests revealed efficient removal of estrogenicity (99%) and toxicity (56%) using nitrification, and a reduction of 89% and 64%, respectively, using 200 mg PAC L−1. With our study, we provide biotransformation rate constants of compounds never previously investigated. We also show that a combination of nitrification and PAC adsorption enables the production of a safe fertilizer with sufficiently low pharmaceutical concentrations and no removal of beneficial nutrients.
  • Sourcing phosphorus for agriculture: Life cycle assessment of three options for India
    Item type: Journal Article
    Goel, Snigdha; Kansal, Arun; Pfister, Stephan (2021)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
    Life cycle assessment of three sources of phosphorus (P) to agriculture is presented, comprising a conventional source, namely a chemical fertilizer (DAP, or diammonium phosphate), and two alternative sources, namely P recovered from septic tank liquor (decentralized system) and that recovered from sewage sludge (centralized system). Impacts of each option on the following aspects were measured using the ReCiPe methodology, in addition to the total impact: global warming, formation of particulate matter, terrestrial acidification, eutrophication of freshwater, and consumption of non-renewable resources (fossil fuels and minerals). The cumulative energy demand of each option was also estimated. The three options differed in terms of their impact on environmental externalities. The energy demand of DAP production was the lowest, and its impact on global warming was 38% of decentralized system and 37% of the centralized system. Production of DAP was associated with maximum mineral resource consumption because of extraction of rock phosphate. The decentralized system had the least impact on eutrophication of freshwater and most on particulate matter formation. Overall, the centralized system had the highest impact score – 2.3 times that of DAP production – followed by decentralized process, its impact being 1.4 times that of DAP production. If the phosphogypsum waste produced in manufacturing DAP is landfilled, DAP production had highest overall impact. The decentralized system was better than the centralized system – impacts lower by 40%. Change of source of energy from coal to solar power makes the centralized system most favourable option and is thus recommended for implementation.
  • Invasive alien plants as an alternative resource for concrete production – multi-scale optimization including carbon compensation, cleared land and saved water runoff in South Africa
    Item type: Journal Article
    Göswein, Verena; Silvestre, José D.; Lamb, Stephen; et al. (2021)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
    Today’s cities are ever-growing, especially in the Global South, inducing massive construction activity. To satisfy these needs we need feasible and environmentally sustainable construction materials, the use of local solutions and, if possible, to enable synergies between sectors for maximum environmental benefit. In South Africa and beyond, invasive alien plants are threatening the indigenous ecosystem while exacerbating water security by affecting water surface runoff and fueling wildfires that release carbon to the atmosphere. The literature suggests that bio-based construction materials can turn buildings into carbon pools. However, the dynamics of using bio-based materials at the urban scale are not yet well known. This paper tests a new type of non-structural bio-concrete, using invasive alien wood chips as a substitute for sand and gravel as aggregates, for future residential construction in Cape Town, comparing this new material to conventional and to earth-based materials, and benchmarking different policy scenarios. Firstly, the material is optimized within technical possibilities achieving the capture of 897 kg of CO2 equivalents per m3. Secondly, a reverse-engineered approach is employed to uncover the limitations of the material. Additionally, C02 emissions from cradle to gate and additional land and water use benefits are analyzed, considering spatial dynamics for transportation impacts. The optimized mix design using invasive alien plants as an alternative resource, combined with a policy that promotes multi-story buildings, offers great potential to achieve near carbon neutral cities, clearing land of invasive alien plants and thus saving annual water surface runoff.
  • Potential environmental benefits from food waste prevention in the food service sector
    Item type: Journal Article
    Beretta, Claudio; Hellweg, Stefanie (2019)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
  • Characteristics of effective battery recycling slogans: A Swiss field study
    Item type: Journal Article
    Hansmann, Ralf; Loukopoulos, Peter; Scholz, Roland W. (2009)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
    An initial survey (N = 183) revealed that overall impressions of 10 different slogans for the promotion of battery recycling were significantly correlated with participants’ survey judgements of their effectiveness. Estimates of slogan effectiveness were positively related with ratings for good and ecological argumentation, creativity, humour, and easy comprehensibility. The overall impression of the slogan was also positively related to these characteristics and, additionally, negatively related to an authoritative wording. The behavioural effectiveness of a humorous slogan urging people to return used batteries, and a prosaic factual slogan informing people that batteries are separately collected were then investigated in a 9-week field experiment in supermarkets (N = 21). The informative and easily comprehensible factual slogan achieved an increase of 35.8% in the weight of returned batteries. The prescriptive humorous slogan did not show a positive effect as compared to the pre-intervention baseline. These results contradicted the judgements of the initial survey, where the humorous slogan was better liked and was expected to be more effective than the factual slogan. The results are consistent with previous research, which suggests that factual communication avoids the elicitation of reactance, thereby facilitating behavioural effectiveness.
  • Towards sustainable resource management: identification and quantification of human actions that compromise the accessibility of metal resources
    Item type: Journal Article
    Dewulf, Jo; Hellweg, Stefanie; Pfister, Stephan; et al. (2021)
    Resources, Conservation and Recycling
    Although metals and minerals represent a prominent asset for sustainable development, continuous population growth and the current accelerations in energy and mobility transitions are increasing concerns regarding their accessibility for current and future generations. As recent insights have identified access rather than depletion to be the dominant factor for resources, this paper elaborates on the (in)accessibility concept of such raw materials once they have entered the technosphere. It identifies six human actions that compromise accessibility: emitting, landfilling, tailing, downcycling, hoarding and abandoning. It analyses the degree of the generated inaccessibility and proposes estimated duration of inaccessibility as a proxy. It further explores how current sustainability management tools like material flow analysis and life cycle analysis could be further developed to address resource (in)accessibility. Finally, the paper presents a case study on cobalt in the EU, where five compromising actions make 70% of the extracted cobalt inaccessible due to tailings (21.3%), landfilling (31.2%), downcycling (11.6%), dissipation (1.4%) and hoarding (4.3%); only 30% is used to expand the functional stock. © 2021 The Authors
Publications1 - 10 of 79