• Title/Summary/Keyword: sustainable waste management

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Exploring sustainable resources utilization: Interlink between food waste generation and water resources conservation

  • Adelodun, Bashir;Choi, Kyung-Sook
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2019.05a
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    • pp.408-408
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    • 2019
  • The persistence of drought periods and water scarcity is a growing public concern, as climate change projections indicate a more critical scenario in the future. The sustainability of water resources for the increasing population, and to ensuring crop production will unarguably be a daunting task for the water resources managers, with a projected 9.8 billion people by 2050 as well as the need to increase food production by 70 to 100%. Consequently, there is a need for significant irrigation water use for more crop production in the face of stiff competition among water users. However, the available natural resources are already over-constrained, and the allocation of more resources for food production is not feasible. Currently, about two-thirds of global water withdrawer is used by the agricultural sector while 48% of water resources in Korea is used for agricultural production. Despite the apparent ecological deficit and unfavorable conditions of resources utilization, a staggering amount of food waste occurs in the country. Moreover, wastage of food translates to waste of all the resources involved in the food production including water resources. Food waste can also be considered a serious potential for economic and environmental problems. Hence, exploring an alternative approach to efficient resources utilization in a more sustainable way can ensure considerable resources conservation. We hypothesized that reducing food waste will decline the demand for food production and consequently reduce the pressure on water resources. We investigated the food wastage across the food supply chain using the top-down datasets based on the FAO mass balance model. Furthermore, the water footprint of the estimated food wastage was assessed using the representative of selected food crops. The study revealed that the average annual food wastage across the food supply chain is 9.05 million tonnes, signifying 0.51 kg/capita/day and 48% of domestic food production. Similarly, an average of $6.29Gm^3$ per annum of water resources was lost to food wastage, which translates to 40% of the total allotted water resources for agriculture in the country. These considerable resources could have been conserved or efficiently used for other purposes. This study demonstrated that zero food waste generation would significantly reduce the impact on freshwater resources and ensure its conservation. There is a need for further investigation on the food waste study using the bottom-up approach, specifically at the consumer food waste, since the top-down approach is based on estimations and many assumptions were made.

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Effect of granite fines on mechanical and microstructure properties of concrete

  • Jain, Kishan Lal;Sancheti, Gaurav
    • Advances in concrete construction
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    • v.13 no.6
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    • pp.461-470
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    • 2022
  • Solid waste management is of great concern in today's world. An enormous amount of waste is generated from various industrial activities. Concrete production utilizing some of the potential waste materials will add to the benefit of society. These benefits will include reduction of landfill burden, improved air quality, riverbed protection due to excessive sand excavation, economical concrete production and much more. This study aims to utilize waste granite powder (GP) originating from granite industries as a sand replacement in concrete. Fine GP was collected in the form of slurry from different granite cutting industries. In this study, GP was added in an interval of ten percent as 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% by weight of sand in concrete. Mechanical assets; compressive strength, flexural strength and splitting tensile strength were prominent for control and blended mixes. Modulus of elasticity (MoE) and abrasion tests were also performed on control and blended specimens of concrete. To provide a comprehensive clarification for enhanced performance of GP prepared concrete samples, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were performed. Results indicate that 30% replacement of sand by weight with GP enhances the mechanical assets of concrete and even the results obtained for 50% replacement are also acceptable. Comprehensive analysis through SEM and XRD for 30% replacement was better than control one. The performance of GP added to concrete in terms of abrasion and modulus of elasticity was far better than the control mix. A significant outcome shows the appropriateness of granite fines to produce sustainable and environmentally friendly concrete.

Livelihoods and Income Diversification of Informal Recyclers: A Case Study in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

  • XUAN, Huynh Thi Dan;DUNG, Khong Tien;KHAI, Huynh Viet
    • The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.209-215
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    • 2022
  • This study aims to analyze the livelihood resources and income diversification of informal recyclers in the Mekong River Delta (MRD). The multiple linear regression model was applied to determine income diversification and total household income with the sustainable livelihood analysis framework developed by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (2000), including human resources, physical resources, natural resources, financial resources, and social resources. The results indicated that up to 25% of itinerant waste buyers worked on average more than 7.3 hours/day, which was higher than the urban near-poor level regulated by the Vietnam government. The results of the regression model revealed that total households' income was affected by the factors of health status, gender, urban location type 1, the amount of potential savings, and informal credit participation, while the factors of health status, urban location, the amount of potential savings, and informal credit participation have the effect of diversifying farm household income. Thus, if the informal waste recycling sector is supported and regulated by proper government management, it will not only help poor households diversify their income, but it will also help poor households diversify their income, particularly women's income, which is vulnerable and lower than male income in the MRD.

Evaluation of Percolation Rate of Bedrock Aquifer in Coastal Area (해안지역 암반대수층의 침누수량 평가)

  • Lee, Jeong-Hwan;Jung, Haeryong;Park, Joo-Wan;Yoon, Jeong Hyoun;Cheong, Jae-Yeol;Park, Sun Ju;Jun, Seong-Chun
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.21-33
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    • 2016
  • Estimation of groundwater hydrologic cycle pattern is one of the most critical issues in sustainable management of groundwater resources in coastal area. This study estimated groundwater percolation by using the water balance methodology and hydrogeological characteristics of land use and soil. Evapotranspiration was computed by using the Thornthwaite method, and surface runoff was determined by using the SCS-CN technique. Groundwater storage change was obtained as 229 mm/a (17.8% of the average annual rainfall, 1286 mm/a), with 693 mm/a (60.1%) of evapotranspiration and 124 mm/a (9.6%) of surface runoff. Rainfall and groundwater storage change was highly correlated, comparing with the relationships between rainfall and evapotranspiration, and between rainfall and surface runoff. This result indicates that groundwater storage change responds more sensitively to precipitation than evapotranspiration and surface runoff.

A Study on the Long-Term Integrity of Polymer Concrete for High Integrity Containers

  • Young Hwan Hwang;Mi-Hyun Lee;Seok-Ju Hwang;Jung-Kwon Son;Cheon-Woo Kim;Suknam Lim
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.411-417
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    • 2023
  • During the operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP), the generation of radioactive waste, including dry active waste (DAW), concentrates, spent resin, and filters, mandates the implementation of appropriate disposal methods to adhere to Korea's waste acceptance criteria (WAC). In this context, this study investigates the potential use of polymer concrete (PC) as a high-integrity container (HIC) material for solidifying and packaging these waste materials. PC is a versatile composite material comprising binding polymers, aggregates, and additives, known for its exceptional strength and chemical stability. A comprehensive analysis of PC's long-term integrity was conducted in this study. First, its compressive strength, which is crucial for ensuring the structural stability of HICs over extended periods, was evaluated. Subsequently, the resilience of PC was tested under various stress conditions, including biological, radiological, thermal, and chemical stressors. The findings of this study indicate that PC exhibits remarkable long-term properties, demonstrating exceptional stability even when subjected to diverse stressors. The results therefore underscore the potential viability of PC as a reliable material for constructing high-integrity containers, thus contributing to the safe and sustainable management of radioactive waste in NPPs.

A Sustainable BSC-IT based Framework for Assessing the Strategic Impacts of Green IT Initiatives (그린IT 이니셔티브들 전략적 영향들을 평가하기위한 지속가능한 BSC-IT 기반 프레임워크)

  • Ruiz, Luis;Park, Jeong-Sun
    • Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.205-210
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    • 2012
  • We don't have time to waste, time is running, and the global warming is an issue that concerns to all of us. Information technology, which on a global level is responsible for 2% of emission of greenhouse gases. However, the remaining 98% is seen as an opportunity for IT to help our planet, our companies and our society. The purpose of this paper is to analyze green information technology (IT) initiatives and their strategic impact. And to have done this, we develope and create a very useful balanced-scorecard framework to explain, understand, and identify the direct and indirect contribution of green IT initiatives. The green IT evaluation framework, called here a sustainable green IT balanced scorecard, integrates the four BSC-IT perspectives with the Zuboff's automate/informate goals of information systems and the contribution of the sustainability (economic, social and environment). This study also seeks to answer the following questions: 1) what are the driving forces for implementing green IT initiatives? 2) How can an analytical framework be built to systematically analyze the benefits and strategic contribution of green IT initiatives? And 3) how green IT initiatives impact the strategic goals of a firm and how they can contribute to the triple bottom line? The framework demonstrates to be useful as a management tool to hopefully integrate environmental and social management with the general management of a company. Besides, the strategy map and measures for each cell of the framework are provided.

Policy for the Establishment of Recycling Society (循環型 經濟社會의 構築을 위한 政策動向)

  • 오재현
    • Resources Recycling
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.3-12
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    • 2001
  • Nowadays, countries all over the world are deeply concerned about pollution in the global environment, so they are seeking various ways to adequately disposal of waste. Still, the environmental situation seems to be getting worse and worse. It is evident that such wastes and pollution have been endangering human life nestled in this globe up to the end of the 20th century. We should not, however, tolerate such human misconduct and mal-management of resources any more in the new millenium. For realizing a society that is sustainable for generations to come, it is important to establish a social system for minimizing wastes, promote re-use and recycling, and develop technology for improving recycling efficiencies, including product designs that facil-itate re-use and recycling and innovative technologies for processing wastes. In this paper, reviewing the current status of Korean waste problems, the governmental policy and specific approach for the establishment for recycling society is considered.

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STRATEGIES TO REDUCE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION FROM ANIMAL MANURE: PRINCIPLES AND NUTRITIONAL MANAGEMENT - A REVIEW -

  • Paik, I.K.;Blair, Robert;Jacob, Jacqueline
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.9 no.6
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    • pp.615-635
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    • 1996
  • The animal industry must be environmentally sound to ensure its long-term sustainable growth. Livestock wastes mostly manure, can be a valuable resource as well as a potential hazard to environment. The first option of manure management is developing an 'environmentally sound' feeding program and feeds so there are less excreted nutrients that need to be managed. Once the manure is produced it can be best utilized as a fertilizer of a soil conditioner. In many countries the amount of manure that can be spread on land depends on the nutrient requirements of the crop being grown. The laws specify maximum application rates and not animal stocking rates. Farmer who reduce the N and P component of manure can release pressure on the environment without having to reduce the number of animals. There are alternative system for housing and manure treatment which generate manure that are easier to handle and have less pollutants or more economic value. Treated animal waste may also be used as a feedstuff or fuel source. Most of the options of waste management result in increased costs to implement. It is necessary to assess the economics in order to find an acceptable compromise between the increased costs and the benefit to the environment. Animal welfare is also becoming more and more of an issue and it will lead to systems where animals are kept in less confined environment. The new system will have a great impact in the waste management system in the future.

Information Management System of Solid Waste Landfill based on 3 Dimensional Method (3차원기법을 이용한 폐기물매립지 정보관리시스템 구축 연구)

  • Park, Jin-Kyu;Cho, Sung-Youn;Kim, Byung-Tae;Lee, Nam-Hoon
    • Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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    • v.24 no.4
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    • pp.39-48
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    • 2016
  • An information management system for a solid waste landfill site was developed, in this study, to optimize the operation and management of solid waste landfill in real time in addition to provide the information of landfill status to the landfill operator, public official concerned and local residents. The landfill information management system is composed of two systems (Solid waste landfill history management system and landfill operation and performance management system). The solid waste landfill history management system based on automated RFID/LPR system allows landfill operators to provide information of waste collection vehicles and received waste. In addition, the system aids in the identification of 3-dimensional (3D) position for landfilled solid wastes. Using the landfill operation and performance management system based on 3D laser scanner delivers information about landfill volume, settlement, landfill density, and current landfill capacity to landfill operators in real time, resulting in optimum space utilization. Ultimately, this system would dramatically reduce exposure of landfill operators to hazardous materials and improve the productivity of landfill operations.

A Study on a Framework to Achieve the Sustainability of Apparel Brands (의류 브랜드의 지속가능성 실천을 위한 프레임워크 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Syn, Hye-Young
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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    • v.60 no.9
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    • pp.136-149
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    • 2010
  • One of the most important objectives that apparel company will pursue in 21 century is to achieve the critical factors of the sustainability. The concept of sustainability is to meet the demands for the valuable life of contemporary generation and to satisfy the desires for preservation of the species and the productive life of future generation by protecting the earth environment from the waste and pollution and by developing and maintaining harmoniously main economical, social, environmental and cultural factors. The practice of sustainability was focused only on the environmental factors in past. Now, the effective and efficient practice of sustainability should be fulfilled and executed in social factors of the responsibility company has, in economical factors and in the cultural factors that is the critical in fashion industry. The purpose of the study is to develop the practical framework consisting of four sustainable factors which apparel brand should refer and apply to the practice of sustainability. By executing the practical factors of the frameworks, apparel company can take a lot of advantages. By practicing the environmental factors, company can get Eco-efficiency. Apparel company can take the social responsibility by performing social sustainable factors, can make economical quality growth by fulfilling economical sustainable factors, and can understand cultural diversity by executing cultural sustainable factors. As one of the most important preparation in 21 century industry, the apparel brand should have an interest in and require the practical management of sustainability, objective setting and practice of brand unit, reflection on the sustainability in brand planning.