An emergy-based evaluation of a reverse logistics network for steel recycling

Efficient implementation of recycling networks requires appropriate logistical structures for managing the reverse flow of materials from users to producers. The steel sheet distributor studied had established a protocol for scrap recovery with the steel plant and its customers. The company invested in producing containers, hiring a specialized labor force and in purchasing trucks for container transportation to implement the logistics network for recycling. That network interconnected the company with two kinds of customers: the ones returning scrap and the ones who preferred to continue business-as-usual. The logistical network was analyzed using emergy synthesis, and the data obtained were used to evaluate and compare the system's environmental costs and benefits from the perspective of the distributor and the steel plant operator. The use of emergy ternary diagrams provided a way to assess recycle strategies to compare the relative economic and environmental benefits of the logistical network implemented. The minimum quantity of scrap that the distributor must recover to improve environmental benefits was determined allowing decision on whether it is worth keeping the system running. The new assessment method proposed also may help policy-makers to create strategies to reward or incentive users of reverse logistics, and help to establish regulations, by decreasing taxes or stimulating innovation, for effectively implement the National Policy on Solid Waste. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HYGROSCOPIC PROPERTIES OF ORANGE PULP AND PEEL

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Greening the campus of a Brazilian university: cultural challenges

Purpose - This study examined the relationship between environmental management practices developed at a campus of a Brazilian university (University of Sao Paulo) and the greening of its organizational culture. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach - This article presents a theoretical background based on the concepts of environmental management, organizational culture and environmental management in higher education institutions. The main framework of this research is the model proposed by Harris and Crane.Findings - The studied university has an environmental management program that is sometimes constrained in the following ways: the university bureaucracy and hierarchy; the main performance indicators for lecturers and professors are based on scientific production and publication, giving them little time for complementary activities; and some units develop their own environmental management practices, but they are not disseminated as best practices for use by other units. Some academic units showcase the proactive actions of professors who incorporate environmental management into their daily activities. The general perception is that the phrase environmental management is almost synonymous with solid waste management.Originality/value - This research details the first Brazilian application of the Harris and Crane model. It contributes an original analysis of environmental management and green organizational culture of a Brazilian university, an organizational type that has seldom been studied to date.

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

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

Obtenção de compósitos de borracha natural com resíduo industrial de couro reticulados com diferentes peróxidos

Pós-graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais - FC

Estudo da variação da porcentagem e da estimativa de geração de gás metano para o aterro sanitário do município de Rio Claro - SP

Increased demand for energy and the search for alternative energy sources are remarkable and current facts. The management of domestic solid waste is also part of the issue in view of the possibility of power generation in existing landfills, which could provide financial autonomy to the system of waste management and improve the environmental balance of landfills in Brazil, currently only used for final solids disposal. Landfill gas is a viable alternative energy source has been tested in landfills in the World and in Brazil. Thus, the research aimed to evaluate the percentage of methane (CH4) present in three sinks of gases from a landfill in the municipality of Rio Claro – SP (Brazil), and to estimate the potential methane generation over its life through the application of a mathematical model. As a result it was found that in general the percentage of methane present in the gases is significant, between 50 and 62%. It was also noted that waste with disposal time between 8 and 12 months already are in the methanogenic stage. Finally, there was a tendency to increase the generation of methane in the transition periods of rain and drought

Diagnóstico da gestão e do gerenciamento dos resíduos eletroeletrônicos gerados no campus da Faculdade de Engenharia de Guaratinguetá/Unesp

Currently, in Brazil, the quantity and quality of new types of wastes, discarded without criteria in urban areas, has been responsible for considerable impacts on public health and the environment. According to a report prepared by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), the country loses about U.S. $ 8 billion annually, due lack of waste recycling, which go directly into landfills or dumps. Among these solid wastes are waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), whose characteristics are complex, by having in its composition substances of high value-added and other health hazards which require different treatment of household waste. Aiming to fill the gap in Brazilian environmental legislation, on 02/08/2010, was sanctioned the National Policy Solid Waste (Law No. 12,305), already regulated on 23/12/2010 (Decree No 7404), whose based on the following principles:reduction of waste generation and toxicity of shared responsibility, proper planning management, social inclusion of waste pickers and sustainable production and consumption. Given the above, this work presented here, aims generally present a diagnosis of the current situation of electronic waste generated in the Faculty of Engineering, Campus Guaratinguetá, FEG / UNESP, to provide data for management and management of these waste, based on sustainability, the economic losses and minimizing environmental impacts and public health related to the flow and the improper disposal of these wastes

Análise comparativa entre a produção de biogás em aterro controlado e variações no potencial elétrico natural por meio de perfilagem geofísica

This work aims to analyze data from a Natural Electric Potential landfill type ditch located in Cordeirópolis (SP). The procedure measures initially involved the assembly and installation of an apparatus cables, sensors and drain geophysical measurements and flow rate of biogas in a ditch later filled by solid waste. Biogas is a product of degradation of organic matter in waste by the action of microorganisms in an anaerobic environment. Its features high methane content in the gas potentially usable as fuel in energy generation systems or steam. The study area is characterized by clayey soil composition change from the diabase sill correlated to the event Serra Geral Formation siltstones overlapping Tatuí with groundwater level site around 50m. The cables were installed vertically in parallel with drain gas manifold, which allowed the collection of data by the technique geophysical logging every 15 days over a period of eight months. For data analysis we used four parameters in the study, the closing time of the ditch, natural electric potential, the flow velocity of biogas and rain. With the tabulated data plots were constructed for each collection day showing values in the range of the cable is in contact with waste (200 cm - 400 cm) and range of the cable in contact with the soil (600 cm - 800 cm). Subsequently graphs were generated with the period of eight months to analyze the data tabulated. A statistical correlation data, which show the influence of rainfall on the production of biogas. The results were satisfactory and demonstrated the feasibility of the research method in studies for the feasibility analysis for the capture of biogas energy

Avaliação do comportamento da temperatura na massa deresíduos com diferentes tempos de disposição no aterro sanitário de Rio Claro - SP

The present work investigates solid waste temperature behavior in different depths in two cells in the Rio Claro-SP city’s sanitary landfill. One of the cells is in operation with waste disposal beginning about one year ago. The other one is located in an closed area and contain waste disposed from five to seven years before. Measures were also made in an area that have no disposed waste in order to collect reference values. The data were obtained every fifteen days. The temperature results shows higher values in the operating cell, with maximum 38,1 °C in a depth of 4,0 m. In the closed cell the highest values were 36,3 °C in a depth of 8,5 m. The highest temperature values were obtained in the operating cell due to wider substract availability that indicates a more intense biological degradation activity. With three meters depth, the temperature results were 36,6 °C in the operating cell, 33,8 °C in the closed cell and 24,5 °C in the reference area. Therefore the temperature can be used as a biological activity indicator in sanitary landfills, supporting biogas studies

O valor da elaboração de relatórios de sustentabilidade para as empresas de mineração

Sustainability has been moving up on the business agenda in recent decades, and many methods to assess corporate sustainability have already been created. One of the most used and reliable methods is the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Given the importance of sustainability for society and organizations, this study examined sustainability reports published by mining companies – Alcoa, Vale and Samarco – since 2006. The objective was to verify the indicators that contribute most to the minimization of environmental impacts and the improvement of environmental performance. The methodology consisted of collecting and analyzing data from the GRI sustainability reports. It was discovered that the sustainability reports helped the companies to identify improvement opportunities and it is essential companies provide in their reports an economic, environmental and social context of their activities. Furthermore, it was found out that the indicators related to atmospheric emissions, solid waste generation, environmental protection expenditure, and the consumption of raw materials, energy and water are the ones more attached to the production process, which means they are the main contributors for the environmental performance improvement

Aproveitamento de resíduos na composição de painel sarrafeado amarrado: um estudo econômico

The manufacture of plywood panel already has about eighty years in Brazil. In general, plywood panels differ by their nature, composition and manufacturing; the most common MDF, OSB, particle and the joist. Some of these products can be generated fromindustrial waste, as the panelblockboard, you can use in their training waste destop boards (Battens), from industrial processes or processing of primary wood. This work aims to present the detailed study of the economic viability of utilization of industrial solid waste timber through the acquisition of a machine amarradeira of joists in a wood processing unit in city Itapeva-SP. We studied the application of wastein the composition of kernels blockboard panel tied its commercial acceptance and future prospects market. We noticed great economic advantage in investing in the study, compared with the transformation process of the joists in biomass energy, although the investment decision involves not only financial matters but also the acceptance market the product to be manufactured

Análise ambiental em um canteiro de obras

The building sector can cause the environmental degradation, by the natural resources consumption, machinery use and natural landscape modifying. The environmental management system (EMS) improves the environmental quality and makes the companies more competitive. So, this work developed an environmental management system in a building site focused on the solid waste and in the development of mitigation proposals for the most significant environmental impacts. To develop this work it was necessary to follow the building site activities; evaluate the solid waste management; identify the law requirements; identify the environmental aspects and impacts; evaluate the environmental impacts; and propose alternatives for mitigating the adverse environmental critical impacts. The main proposals are the reduction of the waste generation in the place that it’s generated; the reuse and correct final disposal of that wastes; the treatment and reuse of the effluent; and the supervising in the trucks and machineries avoiding the oil spilling and the air pollution

Geofísica aplicada no diagnóstico preliminar do antigo lixão do município de Rio Claro - SP

The issue of solid waste disposal and urban growth are conflictive, since the areas where old uncontrolled refuse disposal were away from the city today are incorporated to the urban area population. Thus, now population is closer to the degradation of contaminants coming from waste disposal, and, in some cases, these areas become housing subdivisions. This work aims to support the diagnosis of a former landfill in the municipality of Rio Claro (SP), using geophysical methods through resistivity anomalies. In order to develop the diagnostic, it was utilized water and soil analysis of a preliminary report and techniques of vertical electrical sounding and electrical profiling. The areas influenced by the garbage presented less resistivity than the one of the natural subsoil. Through the interpretation of results, the local potentiometric map was elaborated, as well as a map of calculated resistivity. The interpretation of these products indicated a disagreement between the groundwater flow and the current topography, leading to an identification of a preferential direction of the contamination plume in the NE-SW. These observations prove the applicability of geoelectrical methods in areas of former waste disposal with little information.

Considerações gerais sobre a aplicação de esterco no processo de compostagem dos resíduos de poda e capina

In the category of the solid waste, are included the yard solid waste, this kind of solid waste are noble raw material and uncontaminated being recycled through the composting processing. Inside this context, it was studied the influence of horse manure in yard solid waste composting process, analyze the viability to compost the yard solid waste in UNESP Bela Vista. It was made four piles of composting, two of them are composed only by yard solid waste and the others are composed by horse manure and yard solid waste. The experiments were operated during 45 days. The evaluation of the process was made through temperature measurements of the piles daily during the test period. On the contrary of the piles with horse manure, the piles with no horse manure didn’t undergo complete maturation in the end of the experiment. Through the results obtained concluded that it was important to use manure horse in yard solid waste composting process to accelerate this process, because the piles without horse manure didn’t reach temperatures that characterize the composting process.

Monitoramento geofísico no aterro controlado do município de Cordeirópolis (SP)

The geophysical methods are widely applied in environmental characterization and monitoring studies. The resistivity method, in particular, has a wide area of applications, being effective in studies of solid waste landfills. The present work propose a geophysical monitoring in the Cordeirópolis city controlled landfill and analyze relationships between variation of electrical resistivity parameter, the residence time of the solid waste in landfill, the rainfall in the region and the organic matter biodegradation processes. The study has no monitoring system to control the products generated in the organic matter decomposition found in waste such as sealing blanket or leachate or gas drains. The results shows that the electrical resistivity parameter was effective in monitoring the landfill contamination plume