M. Tech. Fashion Design / The need to educate consumers about eco-friendly clothing cannot be over emphasized any longer, research has shown that consumers with environmental knowledge are likely to purchase eco-friendly products and would be willing to pay a premium price for such products. Cheap clothing rejects the central ethics of sustainability, and they catalyse unnecessary overconsumption behaviour worldwide. With an increase in purchasing power of many consumers, excessive consumption behaviour suggests that cheap fashion merchandise are purchased and disposed of rapidly by several consumer groups. The current fashion retail industry obtains new fashion styles and supplies new clothing ranges within short span of time enticing fervent consumers' with an impetuous buying behaviour, particularly the younger consumers. The majority of consumers do not understand that their buying behaviour and disposal behaviour impacts negatively on the environment. This is a particularly common in South Africa with very few retail shops offering eco-certified clothing merchandise. This study explores consumer awareness on what constitutes eco-fashion and if their knowledge could, in future, influence them towards sustainable buying behaviour. This study also considers educational measures taken by the South African government and non-governmental organisations to empower citizens with respect to environmental issues.

Thesis (MTech. degree: Environmental Management.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2012. / Determines the presence and levels of common brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in surface water and sediments in Jukskei River catchments with the aim of identifying potential pollution sources using Geographical Information System (GIS) land use map in order to provide baseline data required to protect water resources against such hazardous chemicals.

Thesis (DTech. degree: Environmental Management)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2012. / Discusses polybromobiphenyls (PBBs) and polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are among brominated flame retardants commonly used as additive flame retardants and are now well-known pollutants. They can easily be released from household and office materials if present and tend to settle on dust. Of all the PBDEs congeners, the detection of BDE-209 is considerably more difficult than the lower congeners. Furthermore, there is no available data on the presence of PBBs and PBDEs in indoor dust in South Africa, and, therefore, it was deemed necessary to conduct the present study.

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published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Applied Geosciences / Master / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

Non-point source pollution of surface waters with phosphorous (P) transported from agricultural soils has emerged as a major environmental issue in the last decade. Regulations limiting P accumulation in surface soils have been established to protect surface water quality. Yet, little information is available on the quantities of P that may leach through soils and the factors influencing P leaching in agricultural soils. One important factor may be the type of fertilizer P applied, since it is known that P solubility varies among fertilizer sources. The purpose of this thesis was to quantify P leaching in soils amended with inorganic and organic fertilizers. / In a field study, we found that the fertilizer P source (triple superphosphate, composted cattle manure, or a mixture of the two) did not affect soil test P concentration, the degree of soil P saturation, or P leaching in a sandy-loam soil. The soil test P level in the 0--15-cm depth (146 mg P kg -1) exceeded the critical limit of 66-mg kg-1 established in Quebec, and ortho-P and DOP concentrations in leachates collected from piezometers were generally higher than the provincial water quality standard of 0.03 mg P L-1. If transported from our study site, P leached through this coarse-textured soil could pose a threat to groundwater and surface water quality. / These findings were verified in the laboratory with two coarse-textured soils. We found that more NO3-N and DON were leached from soils receiving inorganic N and P fertilizers than composted cattle manure, but the amounts of ortho-P and DOP leached were not affected by fertilizer sources. In coarse-textured soils, the quantities of P leached can be substantial, but depends more on soil characteristics than the fertilizer P source.