Reverse Logistics and Environmental Considerations in Equipment Leasing and Asset Management Manu Sharma 151 Pages Directed by Dr. Jane C. Ammons Today many business enterprises employ capital assets in the form of electronic equipment (e.g., personal computers, workstations and peripherals) in large quantities. As a result of rapid technological progress, these products have a very short life cycle, typically not much more than three or four years. Unfortunately, the disposal of electronic equipment (which contains hazardous materials) presents an environmental problem. In the face of rapid equipment changes, current tax laws and disposal challenges, leasing or procurement contracts with take-back considerations are attractive. For a large electronic equipment leasing company, optimal management of assets supported by good logistics decisions is crucial and may provide a significant competitive advantage. The leasing company tries to maximize operating profits through key decisions associated with the length of leases, efficient utilization of logistics facilities for material flow to and from customer sites, and equipment reuse, refurbishment and disposal actions. In this research, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to facilitate better decisions from the perspective of an electronic equipment leasing company. The model reduces to a linear program (LP) under certain cost assumptions. All computational results are based on the LP version of the model. A case study with representative industry data validates the approach and demonstrates the utility of the model in answering key research questions. Next, important problem uncertainties are identified and prioritized. The effects of these key uncertainties on optimal lease length and product flow decisions are examined in detail via an extended case study. It is also shown how the leasing company can make near-robust leasing decisions in the face of these uncertainties. The computational research results also have implications for policy formulation on electronic waste. The important insights include an understanding of the potential impacts and expected effectiveness of alternative environmental legislation in different geographic areas, and the imposition of negative externalities on other policy realms as a result of this non-uniform approach. Therefore, this research contributes new models and understanding to the intersection of the fields of reverse logistics and equipment replacement, and provides valuable insights to both business asset managers and environmental policy makers.

Submitted by Marcia Silva (marcia@latec.uff.br) on 2016-02-03T19:51:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Queila da Costa.pdf: 4793341 bytes, checksum: c506d3b0f1dbda0591f766090f48bde6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-03T19:51:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Queila da Costa.pdf: 4793341 bytes, checksum: c506d3b0f1dbda0591f766090f48bde6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-20 / Nossa sociedade, a cada dia, demonstra sinais de consumismo sem precedentes, basta que haja o lançamento de um equipamento eletrônico, rapidamente as pessoas se mostram interessadas ao ponto de substituir seu equipamento antigo, em pleno funcionamento, por um que acabou de ser lançado. O Brasil é o país que mais gera e-lixo entre os emergentes, com o problema de que a maior parte destes resíduos não tem destinação apropriada e o risco de contaminação para o meio ambiente e a saúde com metais pesados, tais como mercúrio e chumbo são inevitáveis. Os descartes inadequados de artefatos eletroeletrônicos causam impactos ambientais e podem afetar a saúde humana se não for adequadamente gerenciado. No entanto, não se observa uma política voltada para coleta e gestão desses produtos na cidade de Campos dos Goytacazes, principalmente, os tubos de raios catódicos (CRT´s) utilizados em televisores e monitores de computador antigos, que contêm várias substâncias perigosas, gerando um passivo ambiental (danos ambientais) ao meio onde são descartados, representando assim a responsabilidade social das empresas com os aspectos ambientais. Diante deste contexto, propõem-se como objetivo um modelo de gestão para o lixo eletrônico, com destaque para criação de postos voltados para esse fim no Município de Campos dos Goytacazes. Para buscar dados foram aplicados questionários que tiveram como público alvo um percentual da população adulta, moradores de bairros próximos aos pontos de descartes. A pesquisa, a coleta de dados foi realizada entre os meses de dezembro e fevereiro 2013, no terminal rodoviário urbano e entrevistou-se 58 pessoas de diversas faixas etárias e níveis de escolaridade, representando 34 bairros do município de Campos dos Goytacazes, visando levantar dados referentes ao problema da pesquisa. O segundo questionário foi aplicado em 9 lojas da mesma região da cidade, que comercializam monitores e televisores, com o intuito de verificar o interesse destes em incentivar a devolução desses equipamentos ao inicio da cadeia produtiva, tendo as lojas como referência, no caso os consumidores seriam incentivados a levar o equipamento a ser descartado à uma cooperativa subsidiada pelos lojistas pois de acordo com plano nacional de resíduos sólidos(PNRS), são um dos responsáveis na cadeia produtiva, a fim de que o equipamento tenha uma destinação correta. Por fim, foram consultados cinco especialistas para avaliar o modelo proposto e, segundo eles, o modelo funciona para a coleta de televisores e monitores de computador que usam tubo de raios catódicos. Considera-se que as questões de pesquisa foram respondidas, pois se houver união entre os stakeholders para resolver o problema do descarte inadequado no município, com certeza todos ganharão, diminuindo o impacto ambiental com o incentivo de devolução do equipamento velho na compra do novo, isto alimentaria a cooperativa sempre mantendo o setor funcionando com pessoas que não tinham oportunidades, trazendo dignidade e obtendo ganhos com a venda dos resíduos e se mantendo no negócio a fim de fazer parte da estatística de mostrar que a logística reversa funciona se bem administrada, trazendo ganhos para todos: Economia, sociedade e meio ambiente. / Our society, every day, demonstrates unprecedented consumerism signals, just as there is the launch of an electronic device, quickly people are showing an interest so far as to replace your old equipment in full operation, with one that has just been released. Brazil is the country that generates more e-waste among emerging with the problem that most of these residues is not appropriate disposal and the risk of contamination to the environment and health with heavy metals such as mercury and lead They are inevitable. Inadequate disposal of electronic devices cause environmental impacts and can affect human health if not properly managed. However, it is not observed a policy aimed at collecting and managing such products in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, mainly cathode ray tubes (CRT's) used in old computer monitors and televisions, which contain various hazardous substances, generating environmental liabilities (environmental damage) in half where they are discarded, thus representing the social responsibility of companies with environmental aspects. Given this context, it is proposed aimed at a management model for electronic waste, especially creating jobs geared to this end in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes. To fetch data were questionnaires that had as target a percentage of the adult population, residents of neighborhoods near the point of disposal. The research, data collection was carried out between the months of December and February 2013, the urban bus and was interviewed 58 people of different ages and educational levels, representing 34 districts of Campos municipality of Goytacazes, aiming to collect data referring to the problem of search. The second questionnaire was applied in 9 stores in the same area of the city that sell monitors and televisions, in order to verify the interest of these to encourage the return of such equipment to the beginning of the production chain, with stores like reference in case consumers would be encouraged to take the equipment to be disposed of to a cooperative subsidized by tenants as according to national plan for solid waste (PNRS), they are one of those responsible in the production chain, so that the equipment has proper destination. Finally, five experts were consulted to evaluate the proposed model and according to them, the model works for the collection of televisions and computer monitors that use cathode ray tube. It is considered that the research questions were answered, as if there is unity among stakeholders to address the improper disposal of problem in the city, surely everyone wins, reducing the environmental impact with the old equipment back incentive on the purchase of new, this would feed the cooperative keeping the industry working with people who had no opportunities, bringing dignity and getting gains from the sale of waste and keeping the business in order to be part of the statistics show that the reverse logistics work if well managed, bringing gains for all: Economy, society and environment.

Product life cycle (PLC) is the cycle which every product goes through from introduction to eventual demise. There are several issues with the current life cycle of a product when looked from the environmental impact perspective. These are: 1) depletion of natural resources due to the use of virgin materials for production, 2) Consumption of substantial amounts of energy during manufacturing, assembly and use, and 3) production of large amounts of waste during the lifecycle including those at the End of Life (EoL) phase. These issues impact resource scarcity, adverse effects on the environment and loss of embodied energy as waste. Some of the potential solutions to these issues, as proposed in literature, are: to recycle, reuse and remanufacture products in order to reclaim materials, components and sub-assemblies from used products and make them available for new products. In order to efficiently carry out these recovery processes, a pre-requisite is disassembly. Product disassembly is defined as the processes of systematic removal of desirable constitute parts from an assembly while ensuring that there is no impairment of the parts due to the disassembly process. The following are the major research issues in the field of disassembly. One is the conflict between environmental and economic goals, i.e. as to which should be targeted at in disassembly objectives. These conflicts lead to abandoning non-destructive disassembly techniques so as to favour the profit objective. The other issues, prevalent during EoL phase, are: corrosion due to use, less residual value in the parts, complicated structure and intricacy in parts, which together make non-destructive disassembly a task difficult for automation. This means that disassembly processes have to be carried out by human operators. The manual disassembly processes are effort intensive and pose ergonomic risks to the human operators involved in disassembling. The nature of ergonomic risks and effort spent in disassembly is influenced by the efficiency of disassembly operation. However, little research has been carried out to address the above factors of effort, profit, efficiency, environment and ergonomic risk during disassembly in an integrated manner. These factors form the major motivations for the research work carried out in this thesis. A series of empirical studies have been undertaken to assess these factors and their impact on product disassembly. The studies focus on disassembly processes for consumer electronic products in two major recycling sectors in developing countries, leading to development of metrics with which the above factors can be assessed individually and traded off in an integrated manner during the early design stages of a product. These metrics should help designers understand and improve the major disassembly aspects of a product during designing and help prevent major disassembly problems at the EoL phase while improving efficiency of recovery options. The objective of this thesis, therefore, is to develop an Integrated Framework for supporting decision making during early stages of design to improve disassembly during the EoL phase of the product. The framework is intended to help in evaluating alternative designs for easy (less effort), profitable, efficient and environment-friendly disassembly at the EoL phase of the product life cycle. The Framework constitutes new measures developed for supporting decision making on above aspects of disassembly during the early stage of designing. The Framework has been implemented into a computer based tool called ‘IdeAssemble’ and evaluated for its functionality with the help of a design experiment. The tool can be used at the embodiment stage of the design phase, when on an exploded view of the product, with information on its materials, geometry, disassembly tools and types of disassembly task are available to the designer.

No description available.

Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this study is to understand the meaning of global responsibility and toxicwaste control. The Basel Convention is the UN's international regulations on the import, export andtransport of hazardous waste. According to the Basel Convention, the export of electronic waste todeveloping countries is fully legal if the recipient country has given approval in writing. Is there a linkbetween toxic colonialism, global responsibility, justice and human rights?Material/Method: A qualitative case study of what delegates from three African countries think abouttoxic colonialism and global responsibility.Main results: The essay gives an explanation of the concept of toxic colonialism in relation to the BaselConvention and the Ban Amendment, from three African UN delegates, furthermore an analysis of theimportance it can have on global responsibility, justice and views on human rights.The essay results show that the Ban Amendment of the Basel Convention is in line with Rawl'sdifference principle and the principle of freedom and would contribute to increased justice on electronicwaste coding if the amendment goes through and is used in symbiosis with human rights: UDHRArticle 25 and ICESCR Article 12.1-2.

Rapid population growth and urbanisation has resulted in a drastic increase in the volume of waste produced by the World populace. The resulting pressure on the country’s somewhat underdeveloped waste management infrastructure emphasizes the need for waste management solutions which balance environmental protection with economic sustainability. Waste is seen as an unwanted or surplus by-product, emission or residue of any process or activity which has been discarded, accumulated or stored for the purpose of discarding or future processing. Hazardous waste is waste that may, by circumstance of use, quantity, concentration or inherent physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, cause ill-health or an increased mortality rate in humans, fauna and/or flora. General waste on the other hand, is waste that does not pose an immediate threat to human health or the environment. Currently household waste is considered general waste even though it may contain hazardous components such as fluorescent tubes and/or other household chemicals. Promulgation of NEM: WA (no 59 of 2008) provides instruments for the implementation of the steps taken by the Department of Environmental Affairs to improve waste management in South Africa. Successful implementation and enforcement of the act will place the country at the forefront of progressive international standards in waste management. One of South Africa’s largest environmental and waste management challenges remains the presence of historical, hazardous waste landfill sites. Characterisation of the dangers that these sites pose to the environment is providing extremely difficult and expensive, as is the ongoing maintenance and management of these facilities – placing economic strain on national municipalities. This study was done in two phases. The first related to the hazardous waste components of household waste that is being dumped at landfill site and the methods of classification, handling and dumping of hazardous waste have been investigated. All the legislation was taken into consideration to see if the landfill sites comply with the latest legislation. The second phase was a comparison between three landfill sites. The management, work activities and general appearance of the sites have been compared internally. Then a comparison have been done between the following landfill sites Kwaggasrand landfill site in Tshwane, Weltevreden landfill site in Brakpan and an ideal landfill site developed in accordance with the Minimum Requirements documents published by of DEAT in 1998. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography and Environmental Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Rapid population growth and urbanisation has resulted in a drastic increase in the volume of waste produced by the World populace. The resulting pressure on the country’s somewhat underdeveloped waste management infrastructure emphasizes the need for waste management solutions which balance environmental protection with economic sustainability. Waste is seen as an unwanted or surplus by-product, emission or residue of any process or activity which has been discarded, accumulated or stored for the purpose of discarding or future processing. Hazardous waste is waste that may, by circumstance of use, quantity, concentration or inherent physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, cause ill-health or an increased mortality rate in humans, fauna and/or flora. General waste on the other hand, is waste that does not pose an immediate threat to human health or the environment. Currently household waste is considered general waste even though it may contain hazardous components such as fluorescent tubes and/or other household chemicals. Promulgation of NEM: WA (no 59 of 2008) provides instruments for the implementation of the steps taken by the Department of Environmental Affairs to improve waste management in South Africa. Successful implementation and enforcement of the act will place the country at the forefront of progressive international standards in waste management. One of South Africa’s largest environmental and waste management challenges remains the presence of historical, hazardous waste landfill sites. Characterisation of the dangers that these sites pose to the environment is providing extremely difficult and expensive, as is the ongoing maintenance and management of these facilities – placing economic strain on national municipalities. This study was done in two phases. The first related to the hazardous waste components of household waste that is being dumped at landfill site and the methods of classification, handling and dumping of hazardous waste have been investigated. All the legislation was taken into consideration to see if the landfill sites comply with the latest legislation. The second phase was a comparison between three landfill sites. The management, work activities and general appearance of the sites have been compared internally. Then a comparison have been done between the following landfill sites Kwaggasrand landfill site in Tshwane, Weltevreden landfill site in Brakpan and an ideal landfill site developed in accordance with the Minimum Requirements documents published by of DEAT in 1998. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography and Environmental Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This thesis is focused on the analysis of the global lighting market and the assessment of the current position of the Czech Republic in this market. The first part is devoted to the theoretical introduction in the field of lighting technology. Furthermore, the thesis deals with the relation between lighting market and energy sector, especially with regard to energy efficiency policy. The market analysis is concentrated primarily on general lighting, which forms the largest and the most important lighting market segment. The development of the Czech lighting market is then discussed in the context of the global as well as the European market. Additionally, the thesis includes analysis of current trends in lighting technology and research conducted among manufacturers of lighting.

aaaaaRare earth elements (Sc, Y and group 15 lanthanides) and their compounds currently have significant practical use in metallurgy, glass industry, as highly active catalysts for the production of so-called. NiMH batteries, alloys for the manufacture of permanent magnets and e.g. moderators rods in the nuclear energy, but above all they have an irreplaceable role in modern electronics for phosphors TV screens, CRT earlier today, PDP and LCD monitors and displays, tablets, mobile phones etc., which give them a high-quality picture and sound. Unlike most base and precious metals are concentrated in the conquerable ore deposits, occur in the form of compounds as part of mixed minerals in the rarely economically exploitable concentrations, a mining and processing is costly and negative impacts on the environment, paradoxically towards the title but their overall content in the crust is relatively high, the average concentration in the range of about 150 to 220 ppm. The main world producer of REE, China, in 2010, significantly reduced exports by 40 %, making prices of some REE increased up to 1500 % during the month. Demand for REE is growing, so often talks about the recycling of valuable materials back into production, as called. "Urban mining", ie "urban mining", thereby reducing the amount of...