Wasted: understanding the economic and social impact of food waste

Over one-third of global food production goes to waste while over 850million people are fighting chronic hunger. The United States is the world’s largest food waster. One third of America’s food with an economic value of US$161 billion is wasted and less than 7% is recycled. American food waste ends up in landfills creating powerful methane gas emissions. South Korea, on the other hand, has implemented the world’s strictest food waste laws, and today diverts 93% of wasted food away from landfills turning such waste into powerful economic opportunities. This Master Thesis investigates the reasons behind global food waste by comparing South Korea and the US. It explores what these two nations are doing to address their respective food waste problems, South Korea successfully, the US not. The paper looks at the two countries’ respective policies and national characteristics, which impact decision-making and recycling processes. The effort concludes that South Korea has embarked on a necessary paradigm shift turning food waste into powerful economic drivers leading to a sharp decline in food waste. In the US, food waste continues to be a major problem without a national strategy to remedy waste. Any effort in the US, while laudable, is sporadic and local, and hence the US misses out on possibly important economic growth opportunities.

Geoenvironmental site investigation using different techniques in a municipal solid waste disposal site in Brazil

Different geoenvironmental site investigation techniques to assess contamination from a municipal solid waste disposal site in Brazil are presented here. Superficial geophysical investigation (geoelectrical survey), resistivity piezocone penetration tests (RCPTU), soil samples collected with direct-push samplers and water samples collected from monitoring wells were applied in this study. The application of the geoelectrical method was indispensable to identify the presence and flow direction of contamination plumes (leachate) as well as to indicate the most suitable locations for RCPTU tests and soil and water sampling. Chemical analyses of groundwater samples contributed to a better understanding of the flow of the contaminated plume. The piezocone presented some limitations for tropical soils, since the groundwater level is sometimes deeper than the layer which is impenetrable to the cone, and the soil genesis and unsaturated conditions affect soil behavior. The combined interpretation of geoelectrical measurements and soil and water samplings underpinned the interpretation of RCPTU tests. The interpretation of all the test results indicates that the contamination plume has already overreached the landfill's west-northwest borders. Geoenvironmental laboratory test results suggest that contamination from the solid waste disposal site has been developing gradually, indicating the need for continuous monitoring of the groundwater.

Municipal solid waste compost amendment in agricultural soil: changes in soil microbial biomass

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Financial crisis and national policy issues: an overview

Includes bibliography

Oportunidades de melhorias no gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos em uma indústria de plásticos: um estudo de caso

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

Estudo da viabilidade econômica da coleta seletiva e da compostagem dos resíduos sólidos do município de Guaratinguetá (SP)

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Civil e Ambiental - FEB

Políticas Públicas de Resíduos Sólidos e a Coleta Seletiva em Regente Feijó - SP

This research was mainly focused on public policy analysis of solid waste, and the National Policy and State Solid Waste, as well as determining the performance of the Blue Green Municipality strategic project in relation to the management of municipal solid waste in Regente Feijó, São Paulo. The objective of this research was to analysis of the consequences of the deployment project of selective collection and integration of recyclable material collectors in an association of collectors, called the Association of Recyclable Material Collectors Rock, held in the city from the year 2008, with effective implementation in 2010. We analyzed the actions of the municipal government since the implementation of selective collection, to the development of the Association. The methodology used was literature concerning the issue; routine field surveys to monitor the activities in the landfill and association of collectors, collecting data from questionnaires appropriate to the research topic. We sought to examine old and new forms of urban solid waste management, the evolution of the historical process of this issue in the city and its social and environmental impacts, and the collectors the main social actors in this process. The complexity that addresses this issue was dealt with in this dynamic study, analyzing all parts involved

A política nacional de resíduos sólidos e o plano diretor municipal de Rio Claro/SP: o uso como instrumento para a gestão urbano-ambiental municipal

Due to the large economic development associated with the growing consumerist lifestyle of our capitalist society, the problem of uncontrolled solid waste generation worsens, which one is considered to be one of the main responsible factors for environmental degradation. As a case study and in order to solve the problem of large generation of municipal solid waste, this work aims to study the “plano diretor” of Rio Claro city, São Paulo. The “plano diretor” is a municipal law that provides guidelines for the administration of the city, which include guidelines for the management of solid waste generated in the city. The guidelines required in order to write the “plano diretor” are provided by the national law “estatuto da cidade”, providing information for the planning and development of the cities, as well as the management of the urban environment. However, only the “estatuto da cidade” does not provide enough instructions for creating management plans in order to solve the many problems from the urban environment. Thus, studies have been done about urban and environmental management, to understand how municipal management plans should be structured. As a form of seeking information that can complement the “plano diretor” to the creation of policies for managing solid waste of the city, the “Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos”(PNRS) emerges in 2010 as a document which provides principles, objectives and guidelines to create plans for Solid Waste Management at the national, state, regional and municipal levels. Therefore, it was possible to make a joint analysis of the “plano diretor” of Rio Claro with the PNRS to identify what is already done within the municipality about the solid waste management, and identify which aspects are most significant in the municipal solid waste management that the national policy provides. Yet studies have been done on the current municipal solid waste management...

Proposição de modelo de logística reversa de resíduos sólidos domésticos recicláveis para o municípios de Rio Claro - SP

The approval of the Solid Waste National Policy on August 2, 2010, brought important advances on the issue of solid waste nationwide. Several requirements were imposed causing public and private sectors to direct the problem more diligently. At the same time, the growth of human consumption and the negative impacts of related activities are increasing pressure for new ways to manage wastes. This study was carried out in order to bring proposals for a new model of solid waste management in the city of Rio Claro. To do so, it was used methodologies which stick to collaborative approaches in order to co-create a new vision considering different points of view . This new proposal includes four main initiatives: the integration of a reverse logistics system and collection of recycling materials in all kinds of educational institutions; the use of a routing platform for collection of solid wastes and recycling materials; the application of a garbage fee to residents who use the collection of solid waste system; and a bonus system developed by the private sector as a marketing strategy, encouraged by the public sector, enabling residents to separate their wastes correctly and leave them in one of the educational institutions to exchange points for discounts at local markets

Life cycle assessment applied to municipal solid waste management: a case study

This study analyzes the environmental performance of the Municipal Solid Waste Management System (MSWMS) of Piedade, São Paulo, from a systemic perspective. A life cycle assessment (LCA) technique was applied according to an attributional approach to evaluate both the current operational situation and different prospective scenarios, which were devised based on the application of targets for recycling dry and wet waste suggested by the pre-draft version of the Brazilian Plan for Solid Waste. The life cycle impact assessment method EcoIndicator 99, in association with normalization and weighting procedures, was used to conduct the analysis. It was observed that the adoption of goals of 30%, 50% and 70% for recovering of the recyclable dry waste, resulted in improvement of the environmental performance of the waste management system under analysis, respectively of 10%, 15% and 20%. It was also possible to detect an evolution in the order of 54% in reducing impacts resulting from the adoption of targets for composting. LCA proved to be effective for the evaluation of the environmental performance of MSWMS-Piedade. However, for future evaluations, the attributional approach should be replaced by the methodological practice of substitution to enable the avoided burdens to be considered in estimations of the environmental performance municipal solid waste management systems.

Physical characterization of particleboard produced with waste from ethanol and sugar mill

The problem of proper disposal of solid waste generated in different industrial processes is one of worldwide environmental concerns nowadays. Thus, this study aimed to establish a new alternative for the disposal of two agro-industrial residues employing them to produce particleboard for different purposes in building construction. The focus was given to the reuse of the sugarcane bagasse (SB) originated during the processing of Saccharum officinarum for sugar and ethanol production, and bamboo stem leaves of Dendrocalamus giganteus(BB). For this, six particleboards were produced in the following compositions: with 100% SB, 75% SB + 25% BB, 50% SB+50% BB, 40% SB +60 BB, 25% SB+ 75% BB and 100% BB in the total mass of the composites. The particleboards physical characterization followed Brazilian Standard ABNT NBR 14810-3 to density, moisture content and water absorption. Results showed these raw materials are compatible to particleboard production.

Resíduos sólidos no Brasil: contexto, lacunas e tendência

The theme of solid waste is in high evidence today, a fact noted by the recent implementation of the European directive, and in Brazil, by the National Solid Waste Policy. Understanding the impact of this policy on the national scientific production is essential to plan new directions and research trends. Through a bibliometric and scientometric studied, this research analyzed the national and global context of the last 20 years and found areas in which research progressed, as municipal solid waste, and essentials gaps to develop more the national state-of-the-art, as solid waste of transport. So, the results of this study are a plausible tool to justify for further research on this topic.

Diagnóstico e proposta de diretrizes para o gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos no município de Rio Claro (SP)

Over the last few years, Brazil has some problems related to the management of solid waste, mainly related to the final disposal of materials, resulting in serious environmental risks to the municipalities that suffer from this type of situation. Poorly designed landfills and weak management systems after the termination of their employment, for example, is currently showing as a major problem for urban expansion and the subsoil of these sites, endangering all the environmental quality of the areas where they are located . Because of this scenario, this work produced a diagnosis of the current situation of the management of solid waste in the city of Rio Claro (SP) from its generation, through selective collection and sorting, as well as its final destination, in order to propose a reflection on current form management, in order to present some guidelines based on Federal Law 12.305 / 2010 - National Solid Waste Policy for improvement of this issue in the city. Although the situation found in the city can be considered reasonable for good, there is a need to improve and how to manage, especially in the operational issue of selective collection and also the participation of society in the category Environmental Education, converging in the search for improvements to the common good