published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Both liquid and solid wastes from Pacific whiting surimi manufacturing were characterized and value-added products were recovered. A proteinase in surimi wash water (SWW) was determined to be cathepsin L with Mr 54,200 on SDS-substrate gel. Heat treatment and acidification shifted the activity zone to M [subscript r] 39,500. No evidence of calpain, cathepsin B or H activity was found. Cathepsin L from SWW was recovered by ohmic heating (55°C for 3 min), ultrafiltration, and freeze-drying with overall yield of 0.83 g protein/L SWW and 78% recovery of activity. A 5.9 purification fold was achieved by these processes. The recovered enzyme had an optimum activity at pH 4.0 and showed preferable hydrolytic activity towards casein, acid-denatured hemoglobin and myofibrils. β-Mercaptoethanol, dithiothreitol and urea enhanced the enzyme activity. The recovered proteinase showed 18.5% residual activity after 7 wk storage at 4°C. Proteolytic activity in solid waste and digestive organs from Pacific whiting was investigated. Pepsin-like proteinase predominated in solid waste, while trypsin-like proteinase was predominant in viscera. Carboxypeptidase b was found in both viscera and solid waste. Protein hydrolysate was produced from Pacific whiting solid waste (PWSW) using commercial proteinase, Alcalase, under optimum hydrolysis conditions. Enzyme concentration, reaction time and waste/buffer ratio affected the hydrolysis and nitrogen recovery (NR). Correlation between the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and NR was high (R₂=0.978). Freeze-dried hydrolysate contained 79.97% protein and showed similar amino acid composition to PWSW and Pacific whiting muscle but tryptophan was reduced. With different DH (20, 30, 40, 50, 60%), surface hydrophobicity, total and surface sulfhydryl content decreased as the DH increased. The hydrolysate showed a high solubility over a wide pH range. Fat adsorption and fat binding capacity were reduced, while foam expansion was enhanced with an increased DH. Hydrolysate with DH of 30% showed highest emulsifying activity. Low emulsion stability and high foam stability were obtained in all hydrolysates tested. Hydrolysate showed antioxidant activity, but no obvious differences in activity were found with varying DH and hydrolysate concentrations. / Graduation date: 1997

Forty-two commercially collected dumpsters from Denton’s Municipal Solid Waste Stream were emptied, sorted and weighed to characterize the material types and make preliminary recycling policy recommendations. The general composition of Denton’s solid waste stream was not significantly different from the composition of the nation’s solid waste stream. Fifty-eight percent of the observed waste stream was recyclable. Paper made up the largest portion of recyclable materials and the "grocery" source category had more paper than any of the other five categories. Based on these findings, an incrementally aggressive approach is recommended to reduce certain types of wastes observed in the waste stream. This would include a Pay-As-You-Throw Program followed by an Intermediate Processing Center that can be converted to a Materials Recovery Facility.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-90).

Background: Due to the fashion industry being one of the most polluting industries in the world with more clothing than ever being thrown away, attention has been brought to the need for more sustainable clothing behaviours. Therefore, the in-store recycling boxes have been introduced as an alternative for recycling. Previous literature has focused mainly on companies’ perspectives or consumers purchasing behaviours, hence there is a gap for literature on consumers’ disposal and recycling behaviours. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine what factors influence consumers’ intentions to use in-store recycling boxes. This will be done by applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1991). Method: A qualitative approach in terms of two focus groups and two individual interviews was applied. The study was made on the consumers’ perspectives, and therefore the participants were 11 Swedish female students. Conclusion: The empirical findings and analysis toward previous literature and theoretical framework revealed that the main factors influencing consumers’ intentions to use in-store recycling boxes are lack of information about the recycling process, the possibility to drop off damaged clothing, and the developing possibility to make new clothing out of recycled materials. The lack of information had the greatest impact, which was unfavourable toward the intention to perform the behaviour and hence obstructed the participants from using in-store recycling boxes.

A key dimension to improving urban economic and environmental sustainability is the efficient use of resources through recycling. A thriving recycling system requires not only effective institutional policies and community-wide diversion efforts, but also a competent local and regional recycling industry. Although the recycling industry has traditionally been recognized as a local service and fringe industry, it has noticeably transformed into an integral segment of industrial production systems as manufacturers have increasingly begun to adopt the principle of extended producer responsibility. Despite such changes, urban and regional theory and planning research has largely disregarded the industrial aspect of recycling, contributing to the dearth of information about the organizational and spatial patterns of the recycling industry and the impact of the establishment of recycling systems on local and regional scales. Given the knowledge gap, this dissertation addresses two questions: 1) What is the logic of the industry organization and spatial pattern of recycling industry in different institutional contexts? and 2) How is the economic and environmental impact of recycling systems determined in cases of construction and demolition waste recycling and waste carpet recycling? To answer the first question, this research develops a theoretical model that explains how recycling industrial activities are spatially distributed in light of institutional and organizational theories. The theoretical model characterizes organizational decisions pertaining to recycling functions and suggests spatial patterns of recycling systems. With respect to the second question, this research constructs a regional environmental input-output model on the metropolitan scale. It estimates regionalized energy use coefficients and greenhouse gas emission coefficients using various sources of data mainly compiled from the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey 2006, the State Energy Consumption Estimates, and the Commodity Flow Survey 2007. Based on regional input-output tables coupled with the regionalized environmental coefficients, this research quantifies, through simulations, the net economic and environmental impact of a localized construction and demolition waste recycling system in the San Francisco metropolitan area and regional carpet recycling systems in the Atlanta and Seattle metropolitan areas. Results of the simulations reveal that 1) the localized construction and demolition waste recycling system provides moderate economic benefits because of the limited job creation potential of mechanized recycling processes and yields relatively small environmental benefits with respect to the total weight processed; 2) wider adoption of the deconstruction technique expands job opportunities, increases energy savings, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions during the course of construction and demolition waste recycling; 3) regional-scale waste carpet recycling systems, in particular recycled nylon 6 production, create sizable new job opportunities and provides environmental benefits of energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reduction despite the long-distance transportation of waste carpet. These results suggest that policies that promote recycling industrial activities can significantly contribute to the economic and environmental sustainability of metropolitan areas.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Textilåtervinning är mycket aktuellt, främst för syntetiska fibrer då dess framställningpåverkar miljön i hög grad. Dessutom utvinns de ur petrokemisk källa som är en ändbarresurs. Återvinningsindustrin för textilier fungerar i dagsläget inte optimalt, vilket motiverardetta examensarbete. Återvunnen polyester, från PET-flaskor eller textilier har funnits i ca 10år men nu börjar även återvunnen polyamid lanseras på marknaden. Denna rapport ger enöverskådlig bild över textil- och polyamidåtervinning. En parallell har dragits tillmattindustrin där den tekniska apparaturen för återvinning är mer utvecklad. För att bliframgångsrik måste ett företag visa att det eftersträvar hållbar utveckling och ansvarar för det”ekologiska fotavtryck” som dess produkter efterlämnar.Examensarbetet har utförts i samarbete med Houdini Sportswear AB, ett företag somtillverkar konfektion för sport- och friluftsliv. Syftet med rapporten är att undersöka om det ärlönsamt för företaget att implementera återvunnen polyamid med avseende på pris, prestandaoch miljö. Kemiskt återvunnen fiber anses vara av samma kvalitet som jungfrulig, för attundersöka om detta påstående är korrekt samt påvisa den återvunna polyamidens prestandahar mekaniska dragprovningstester utförts.Textile recycling is a very current subject, especially for synthetic fibres because theirproduction has a high influence on the environment. It is also extracted from petrochemicalresources, which is limited. The present situation regarding the recycling industry for textilesis not optimal, which motivates this thesis work. Recycled polyester, from PET bottles andtextiles have been established in approximately 10 years but now recycled polyamide islaunched at the market as well. This report gives a foreseeable view of textile- and polyamiderecycling.References have been drawn to the carpet industry where the technical apparatusfor recycling is much more developed. To be successful, a company have to show that itdesire sustainable development and take responsibility for “the ecological footprint” that theirproducts leave.The thesis work has been made in cooperation with Houdini Sportswear AB, a company thatmanufactures confection for sports- and outdoor-life. The aim with the report is to investigateif it is profitable for the company to implement recycled polyamide bear reference to price,performance and environment. Chemical recycled fibres are considered to be the same qualityas virgin, to investigate if this statement is correct and to indicate the performance of therecycled polyamide a determination of the tensile properties has been made. / Program: Textilingenjörsutbildningen

Electronic waste has become a growing concern in the world among governments, businesses, and consumers. These concerns are well founded as electronics waste presents economic, social, and environmental challenges. Economically, discarding electronic waste into landfills represents inefficient use of valuable materials and energy resources. Socially, improperly recycled electronic waste that takes place in third world countries with poor labor standards represents a moral dilemma for developed countries. Environmentally, electronic waste is a threat to all living organisms as it contains proportionally high levels of poisonous and toxic materials. To deal with these growing challenges a strong response needs to be made by all the stakeholders in the life-cycle of electronic devices. However, despite the apparent need, compared to the rapid increases in electronic technology that make it faster, more available, and more affordable, the technology to process electronic waste has not kept pace. This fact alone points to the inadequate funding, attention, and research that has been invested in the problem. Though it also points to an opportunity; the opportunity to build an efficient system to deal with the problem using what is already known about the lifecycle of electronic devices. Therefore, the goal of this work is to create a modeling tool to help stakeholders in the lifecycle of electronic devices understand the consequences of their choices as they affect the use of material and energy resources. To focus the research, LCD computer monitors are chosen as a case study. LCD computer monitors provide a level of sophistication high enough to be interesting in terms of the stakeholders involved, yet simple enough to provide a reasonable scope for this research that is still accessible to the layman As a corollary to this modeling effort, the relatively new systems modeling language SysML and ParaMagic, a program that integrates analysis modeling capability into SysML, will be evaluated. SysML was designed with Model Based Systems Engineering principles in mind thus it seems that it is a natural fit to the problem domain. Furthermore, testing SysML will provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the new language. The findings with respect to LCD computer monitors show that increasing the number of end of life options and the amount of monitors flowing into those options could result in substantial network wide material and energy savings. The findings with respect to SysML and ParaMagic are mixed. Although SysML provides tremendous modeling freedom, this freedom can result in increased upfront costs for developing executable models. Similarly, ParaMagic was found to be an effective tool for creating small executable models, but as the size of models increase its effectiveness tends to zero.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 64-66).