Application of Sustainability Assessment to a Novel Plastic Recycling Process

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hari P. N. Nagarajan ◽  
Karl R. Haapala
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Economic ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Pet Waste ◽  
Plastic Recycling

Plastic waste can be handled with several traditional waste management strategies, including landfilling, incineration, and recycling. Several novel strategies for recycling plastic waste have been proposed and researched for practical use, however the sustainability of the novel processes have not been analyzed in detail. This paper outlines a strategy for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste through pyrolysis. A sustainability assessment of the process is conducted to analyze the environmental, economic, and social performance of recycling PET waste into crude oil. Environmental performance is evaluated using life cycle assessment, and the ReCiPe, cumulative energy demand (CED), and cumulative exergy demand (CExD) impact assessment methods. Net present value analysis is used to assess the economic impacts of the process. To complete a holistic sustainability assessment, social benefits and impacts are presented through a qualitative review of the process. In addition, an environmental impact analysis of the production of virgin PET using the recovered crude oil is presented and compared with traditional virgin PET production in terms of sustainability performance metrics. CED and CExD impact results emphasize the conceivable evidence of plastic waste as an energy source. The research highlights the use of standardized impact assessment methods to realize the environmental, economic, and social benefits of recycling PET into crude oil. Furthermore, a review of various process improvements broadens the potential for optimization of the novel process to further elucidate the benefits of plastic recycling.

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment of Modern High-Rise Timber Buildings

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8719
Author(s):  
Laura Tupenaite ◽  
Viktorija Zilenaite ◽  
Loreta Kanapeckiene ◽  
Tomas Gecys ◽  
Ineta Geipele
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Economic ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Sustainability Indicators ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
High Rise

As woodworking and construction technologies improve, the construction of multi-storey timber buildings is gaining popularity worldwide. There is a need to look at the design of existing buildings and assess their sustainability. The aim of the present study is to assess the sustainability of modern high-rise timber buildings using multi-criteria assessment methods. The paper presents a hierarchical system of sustainability indicators and an assessment framework, developed by the authors. Based on this framework, the tallest timber buildings in different countries, i.e., Mjøstårnet in Norway, Brock Commons in Canada, Treet in Norway, Forte in Australia, Strandparken in Sweden and Stadthaus in UK, were compared across the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic/technological, and social). Research has revealed that none of the buildings is leading in all dimensions of sustainability. However, each building is unique and has its own strengths. Overall multi-criteria assessment of the buildings revealed that the Brock Commons building in Canada has received the highest rank in all dimensions of sustainability. The paper contributes to the theory and practice of sustainability assessment and extends the knowledge about high-rise timber buildings. The proposed sustainability assessment framework can be used by both academics and practitioners for assessment of high-rise timber buildings.

scholarly journals Neighbourhood Modelling for Urban Sustainability Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4654
Author(s):  
Javier Orozco-Messana ◽  
Milagro Iborra-Lucas ◽  
Raimon Calabuig-Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Policy Impact ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Climate Action

Climate change is becoming a dominant concern for advanced countries. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework whose implementation relates to all human activities and is commonly guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which set the scene for sustainable development performance configuring all climate action related policies. Fast control of CO2 emissions necessarily involves cities since they are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) is clearly involved in the deployment of SDG 13 (Climate Action). European Sustainability policies are financially guided by the European Green Deal for a climate neutral urban environment. In turn, a common framework for urban policy impact assessment must be based on architectural design tools, such as building certification, and common data repositories for standard digital building models. Many Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools have been developed but the growing availability of open data repositories for cities, together with big-data sources (provided through Internet of Things repositories), allow accurate neighbourhood simulations, or in other words, digital twins of neighbourhoods. These digital twins are excellent tools for policy impact assessment. After a careful analysis of current scientific literature, this paper provides a generic approach for a simple neighbourhood model developed from building physical parameters which meets relevant assessment requirements, while simultaneously being updated (and tested) against real open data repositories, and how this assessment is related to building certification tools. The proposal is validated by real data on energy consumption and on its application to the Benicalap neighbourhood in Valencia (Spain).

scholarly journals Beverage bottle capacity, packaging efficiency, and the potential for plastic waste reduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Becerril-Arreola ◽  
R. E. Bucklin
Keyword(s):  
Product Category ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Waste Reduction ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Pet Waste ◽  
Pet Bottles ◽  
Enormous Amount ◽  
Packaging Efficiency ◽  
The U.S

AbstractPlastic pollution is a pressing issue because authorities struggle to contain and process the enormous amount of waste produced. We study the potential for reducing plastic waste by examining the efficiency with which different polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles deliver beverages. We find that 80% of the variation in bottle weight is explained by bottle capacity, 16% by product category, and 1% by brand. Bottle weight is quadratic and convex function of capacity, which implies that medium capacity bottles are most efficient at delivering consumable product. Local data on PET bottle sales and municipal waste recovery validate the findings. A 20% shift in consumption from smaller to larger bottles could reduce the production of PET waste by over 10,000 t annually in the U.S. alone.

Volatility transmission across international markets amid COVID 19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hechem Ajmi ◽  
Nadia Arfaoui ◽  
Karima Saci
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
International Markets ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Volatility Transmission ◽  
Oil Markets ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Death Cases

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the volatility transmission across stocks, gold and crude oil markets before and during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Design/methodology/approach A multivariate vector autoregression (VAR)-Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model (BEKK-GARCH) is used to assess volatility transmission across the examined markets. The sample is divided as follows. The first period ranging from 02/01/2019 to 10/03/2020 defines the pre-COVID-19 crisis. The second period is from 11/03/2020 to 05/10/2020, representing the COVID-19 crisis period. Then, a robustness test is used using exponential GARCH models after including an exogenous variable capturing the growth of COVID-19 confirmed death cases worldwide with the aim to test the accuracy of the VAR-BEKK-GARCH estimated results. Findings Results indicate that the interconnectedness among the examined market has been intensified during the COVID-19 crisis, proving the lack of hedging opportunities. It is also found that stocks and Gold markets lead the crude oil market especially during the COVID-19 crisis, which explains the freefall of the crude oil price during the health crisis. Similarly, results show that Gold is most likely to act as a diversifier rather than a hedging tool during the current health crisis. Originality/value Although the recent studies in the field focused on analyzing the relationships between different markets during the first quarter of 2020, this study considers a larger data set with the aim to assess the volatility transmission across the examined international markets Amid the COVID-19 crisis, while it shows the most significant impact on various financial markets compared to other diseases.

scholarly journals Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of Optimized Post-Tensioned Concrete Road Bridges

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicent Penadés-Plà ◽  
David Martínez-Muñoz ◽  
Tatiana García-Segura ◽  
Ignacio J. Navarro ◽  
Víctor Yepes
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Stage ◽  
Social Impact Assessment ◽  
Weighting Method ◽  
Ecoinvent Database ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Tensioned

Most of the definitions of sustainability include three basic pillars: economic, environmental, and social. The economic pillar has always been evaluated but not necessarily in the sense of economic sustainability. On the other hand, the environmental pillar is increasingly being considered, while the social pillar is weakly developed. Focusing on the environmental and social pillars, the use of methodologies to allow a wide assessment of these pillars and the integration of the assessment in a few understandable indicators is crucial. This article is structured into two parts. In the first part, a review of life cycle impact assessment methods, which allow a comprehensive assessment of the environmental and social pillars, is carried out. In the second part, a complete environmental and social sustainability assessment is made using the ecoinvent database and ReCiPe method, for the environmental pillar, and SOCA database and simple Social Impact Weighting method, for the social pillar. This methodology was used to compare three optimized bridges: two box-section post-tensioned concrete road bridges with a variety of initial and maintenance characteristics, and a pre-stressed concrete precast bridge. The results show that there is a high interrelation between the environmental and social impact for each life cycle stage.

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