Elektriskt och elektroniskt avfall (WEEE) är den snabbast växande avfallskategorin inom EU, samtidigt som det är en av de mest skadliga formerna av avfall för människors hälsa och miljön om det inte samlas in och tas om hand på rätt sätt. Sverige påbörjade insamlingen av el-avfall 2001 och samlar idag in 16,27 kg el-avfall perperson vilket är av de högsta insamlingsnivåerna inom EU, men trots det slängs fortfarande smått el-avfall så som hushållsprodukter, mobiltelefoner och lågenergilampor i andra avfallsfraktioner. För att lösa detta problem talar man om behovet av ökad tillgänglighet på insamlingsplatser och information, men undersökningar av hushållsavfallets sammansättning visar att innehållet av el-avfall i stort sett är oförändrat, trots ökad tillgänglighet och information. De studier som ligger till grund för dagens förbättringsåtgärder har antingen tittat på insamlingssystemets brister utifrån ett nationellt perspektiv eller på effektiviteten av alternativa lokala insamlingssystem. Utifrån dessa har slutsatser dragits om allmänna brister och potentiella förbättringsåtgärder. Statistik visar samtidigt att insamlingen av el-avfall skiljer sig åt markant mellan olika platser i landet, och att somliga kommuner har förvånansvärt effektiva system jämfört med andra. Med hänsyn till detta så finns en uppenbar risk att dagens förbättringsåtgärder är suboptimala. Istället för att undersöka styrkor och svagheter med specifika insamlingssystem så studeras i denna uppsats skillnaderna mellan två svenska kommuner, en med hög och en med låg insamlingsnivå av diverse elektronik ochgasurladdningslampor, med syftet att skapa en bättre förståelse för vilka faktorer som bidrar till en effektiv insamling. Skillnaderna som studeras är tillgängligheten på insamlingsplatser och informationen i anslutning till dessa, kommunernas arbetsinsatser samt invånarnas kunskap, attityder och preferenser, uppgivna beteenden och subjektiva uppfattning om insamlingssystemens tillgänglighet och funktion. Vidare studeras även om kommuninvånarna informerats i enlighet med den lagstiftning som finns på området och vad invånarna har för attityder till, och preferenser kring, ett eventuellt pantsystem för lågenergilampor och smått el-avfall. Frågeställningarna studeras genom en kombination av intervjuer med nyckelpersoner, inventering av insamlingsplatser samt en enkätundersökning. Resultaten av studien visar att det finns skillnader på samtliga undersökta områden, med undantag för invånarnas kunskap. Av skillnaderna dras slutsatsen att det finns ett antal åtgärder som sannolikt skulle kunna öka insamlingen av el-avfall i Sverige. På lokal nivå kan sannolikt ett ökat kommunalt engagemang och arbete med frågan om el-avfall, i kombination med ökad tillgänglighet på insamlingsplatser samt god och välanpassad information i anslutning till dessa, öka insamlingen av el-avfall. På nationell nivå kan sannolikt en skärpt tillsyn som tvingar kommunerna att följa informationskravet i aktuell lagstiftning leda till en ökad medvetenhet bland svenska medborgare, vilket i sin tur sannolikt kan bidra till minskade mängder felsorterade lågenergilampor och smått el-avfall. Slutligen tycks ett eventuellt pantsystem för lågenergilampor och annat smått el-avfall vara ytterligare ett sätt att öka insamlingen. Studien tyder på att ett pantsystem skulle kunna öka människors benägenhet att lämna in dessa produkter till återvinning, minska mängden upplagrad elektronik i hemmen, erbjuda nya möjligheter vad gäller märkning och uppföljning av produkter samt potentiellt kunna minska insamlingskostnaderna. / Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is the fastest growing waste stream within the EU, and at the same time of the most hazardous forms of waste, threatening both human health and the environment if not properly collected and treated. Sweden started a separate collection of WEEE in 2001, and with 16,27 kg of WEEE collected per person in 2011 it has one of the highest collection rates within the EU. Despite this, small WEEE is still ending up in all types of household waste. To solve this issue, the need for increased availability of collections points and information is frequently discussed, but despite improvements in these areas the content of WEEE in household waste remains relatively stable. The studies that make up the basis of today’s improvement work, have either been looking at shortcomings of the collection system from a national point of view, or on the effectiveness of alternative local collection systems. Based on these studies, conclusions about the general shortcomings of the system and potential ways of improvement have been drawn. At the same time, statistics show that the collection of WEEE differs substantially between different parts of Sweden, and that some municipalities have surprisingly efficient collection systems compared to others. With regard to his, current improvement strategies may not be optimal. Instead of looking at the strengths and weaknesses of specific collection systems, this study looks at the differences between two Swedish municipalities, one with a high and one with a low collection rate of small WEEE and compact fluorescent lamps, with the aim of creating a better understanding of factors that may contribute to high collection rates. The differences that are studied are the availability of collection points and the information in connection to these, the municipalities’ work and the resident’s knowledge, attitudes, preferences, subjective behavior and subjective perception of the collection system’s availability and functionality. Furthermore, the thesis examines whether the residents have been informed in accordance with European and national WEEE-legislation and what their attitudes and preferences are regarding a potential deposit system for small WEEE and compact fluorescent lamps. The results show that differences can be seen in all areas but the residents’ knowledge. From the observed differences, conclusions about possible ways of improving the collection of WEEE in Sweden are drawn. On a local level, increased municipal engagement and work efforts, in combination with increased access to collection points along with appropriate and well customized information in connection to these, is likely to increase the collection of WEEE. On a national level, increased supervision that forces municipalities to comply with the information requirements in European and national legislation, may lead to an increased awareness among Swedish citizens, which may in turn lead to a decrease in wrongly sorted small WEEE and compact fluorescent lamps. Finally, a potential deposit system for small WEEE and compact fluorescent lamps may be yet another way of increasing collection rates. The results suggest that a deposit system may in fact increase the motivation of citizens to recycle these products, decrease the amount of old electrical and electronic equipment currently stockpiled in private households, offer new possibilities to mark and track products and potentially lower the costs of collection. / <p>Granskare:</p><p>Lisa Dahlén, Universitetslektor vid Institutionen för samhällsbyggnad och naturresurser, avdelningen för Geovetenskap och miljöteknik, Luleå tekniska universitet*Lisa.Dahlen@ltu.se</p><p></p><p>Thesis evaluator:</p><p>Dahlén, Lisa, University Lector (Luleå University of Technology, Division of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering)*Lisa.Dahlen@ltu.se</p>

Water source of life"! Research conducted so far, about life on earth that are proven and tested as we are today would not exist if there was no water. Any form of life depends on water for their survival and for their development; even life forms for more primitive depend on water to survive. Only 2.8%, ie a very low percentage of the universe on the Water Planet Earth is sweet and much of it is unfit for human consumption and requires the use of high technology to make water potable. In this setting, unless we take immediate action we will not have the liquid of life, and following this thought and the ways proposed in the meeting of 92 countries in Rio, in its action plan for the 21st century, aiming at the sustainability of life on Earth, in one of its 40 chapters, Agenda 21 addresses the "conservation and management of natural resources." Therefore, the adoption of measures that will qualify for the management and promote changes in the perception of how to work in relation to impacts on catchment and natural resource conservation, and "Think Globally and Act Locally" (Agenda 21) is the purpose this work. In this scenario applies today the polluter-pays principle. Thus the actual charge to the water, which is a high value, encourages water rationing benefit while minimizing the impacts of their scarcity. Innovations in saw the need to establish standards for the construction of toilets and other equipment that would reduce consumption. But that alone is not enough, it is necessary to promote alternatives to find a solution for use in a home rainwater on items that do not require investment in benefit it. It follows therefore that the various solutions over the years has been researched and proven to lower investment cost and installation of a system to capture rainwater, which allows an economy of treated water in more that 41% only use in toilets according to studies conducted in the Netherlands. The analysis of these facts justify the proposal of the work, which is looking for innovations result from a millennial issue, especially for the process of cutting costs, reducing the use of natural resources as: "Use of Rainwater without treatment in a Residential ". / Água fonte da vida ! Pesquisas realizadas, até o momento, sobre a vida na terra são provadas e comprovadas que não existiríamos como somos hoje se não houvesse água. Qualquer forma de vida depende da água para a sua sobrevivência e para o seu desenvolvimento; mesmo formas de vidas por mais primitivas dependem da água para sobreviver. Somente 2,8%, ou seja, um percentual muito baixo diante do universo da Água do Planeta Terra é doce e grande parte desta é imprópria para o consumo humano sendo necessário o emprego de alta tecnologia para tornar a água potável. Diante deste cenário, se não tomarmos uma atitude imediata não teremos mais o líquido da vida, e seguindo este pensamento e os caminhos propostas no encontro dos países na Rio 92, em seu plano de ação para o século 21, visando a sustentabilidade da Vida na Terra, em um dos seus 40 capítulos, a Agenda 21 aborda a conservação e manejo dos recursos naturais . Portanto, a adoção de medidas para que venham qualificar a gestão e promover alterações na percepção quanto à forma de trabalhar em relação aos impactos causados na captação e conservação dos recursos naturais, e Pensar Globalmente e Agir Localmente (Agenda 21) é o propósito deste trabalho. Diante deste cenário aplica-se hoje o princípio do poluidor-pagador. Com isso a própria cobrança realizada sobre a água, que é um valor elevado, incentiva o racionamento da água beneficiada, minimizando os impactos da sua escassez. Nas inovações viu-se a necessidade de estabelecer normas para a construção de bacias sanitárias assim como outros equipamentos que reduzissem o consumo. Mas somente isso não basta, é necessário à promoção de alternativas em busca de uma solução para uso em uma residência da água da chuva em itens que não necessitem o investimento em beneficiá-la. Conclui-se, portanto que das diversas soluções que ao longo dos anos vem sendo pesquisado e comprovadamente a de menor custo de investimento e a instalação de um sistema de captação de água de chuva, qual possibilita uma economia de água tratada em mais de 41% somente na utilização em vasos sanitários conforme estudos realizados na Holanda. As análises destes fatos justificam a presente proposta do trabalho, que tem por resultado buscar inovações de um assunto milenar, principalmente, para o processo de redução de custos, redução do uso dos Recursos Naturais como; Aproveitamento de Água de Chuva sem Tratamento em uma Residencial .

As a result of increased terrorist activity around the world, the development of a canine training aid suitable for daily military operations is necessary to provide effective canine explosive detection. Since the use of sniffer dogs has proven to be a reliable resource for the rapid detection of explosive volatiles organic compounds, the present study evaluated the ability of the Human Scent Collection System (HSCS) device for the creation of training aids for plasticized / tagged explosives, nitroglycerin and TNT containing explosives, and smokeless powders for canine training purposes. Through canine field testing, it was demonstrated that volatiles dynamically collected from real explosive material provided a positive canine response showing the effectiveness of the HSCS in creating canine training aids that can be used immediately or up to several weeks (3) after collection under proper storage conditions. These reliable non-hazardous training aids allow its use in areas where real explosive material aids are not practical and/or available.

The increase in population, accompanied by an increase in the availability of travel opportunities have kindled the interest in understanding how people make use of the space around them and their opportunities. Understanding the travel behaviour of individuals and groups is difficult because of two main factors: the travel behaviour's wide coverage, which encompasses different research areas, all of which model different aspects of travel behaviour, and the difficulty of obtaining travel diaries from large groups of respondents, which is imperative for analysing travel behaviour and patterns. A travel diary allows an individual to describe how she performed her activities by specifying the destinations, purposes and travel modes occurring during a predefined period of time. Travel diaries are usually collected during a large-scale survey, but recent developments show that travel diaries have important drawbacks such as the collection bias and the decreasing response rate. This led to a surge of studies that try to complement or replace the traditional declaration-based travel diary collection with methods that extract travel diary specific information from trajectories and auxiliary datasets. With the automation of travel diary generation in sight, this thesis presents a suitable method for collecting data for travel diary automation (Paper I), a framework to compare multiple travel diary collection systems (Paper II), a set of relevant metrics for measuring the performance of travel mode segmentation methods (Paper III), and applies these concepts during different case studies (Paper IV). / <p>QC 20160525</p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The aging infrastructure of a wastewater collection system can leak, capture ground water, and capture precipitation runoff. These are some of the most common problems in many of today’s US collection systems and are often collectively referred to as Rain Derived Inflow and Infiltration (RDII or I/I). The goal of this study is to investigate such optimized methods and their potential to improve flow monitor placement, especially for RDII studies, and to improve upon Stevens (2005) methodology. This project adopts a methodology from the “facility location problem”, a branch of operations research and graph theory. Solutions to a facility location problem will be adapted and utilized within a transportation GIS application to determine optimal placement.

Waste management is an integral part of sustainable urban development. In the modern world, when attitude to waste is being shifted towards “waste as resource” and “waste as income generator”, ensuring separation of hazardous waste from the general waste stream becomes increasingly important. Sorting hazardous waste is critical in light of the whole recycling idea. Hazardous elements, while bearing a certain value if properly handled, can negate the costs of the recyclable materials if found in their stream. They present enormous long-term losses, if introduced into the environment, and can negatively influence our ability to benefit from recycling. Convenience is one of the most effective tools in increasing recycling rates (Carlson 2001, p.1275). It is a personally defined concept, and often depends on the users’ lifestyle-related factors. This thesis explores users’ understanding and habits of handling hazardous waste, as well as the challenges they encounter and their views and suggestions on convenience of hazardous waste recycling systems. The main method used in this comparative case study research is qualitative interviews conducted with a variety of people with different lifestyles living in Malmo. First, the thesis develops a list of lifestyle-related factors which lower the perceived convenience of recycling. People consider recycling to be effort demanding or easy not just because they are women or men, young or old, live in a dense area or not. But this perception is influenced by having or not having access to a transporting vehicle and time available, their household’s waste producing rates, time spent living in a certain place, available space for storing waste; physical constraints or difficulties with self-organization at home; established or not recycling habits or level of environmental concern. People’s recycling behavior is determined by these personal lifestyle-related factors. Second, aspects of convenience are being presented as the focus areas which planners should consider in increasing recycling rates. The convenience aspects are developed with regards to the challenges people with different lifestyles experience in recycling. While lifestyle-related factors cannot be influenced directly, aspects of convenience can be employed in ensuring efficiency of hazardous waste collection system. It is important that the hazardous waste collection system design takes them into the full account. Detailed descriptions of the aspects of perceived convenience are presented. They are grouped into convenience of access to information and convenience through facilities and services. The final conclusion of the thesis is that involving users would assist in addressing key aspects of recycling systems’ perceived convenience and increase their efficiency. It is hoped that the information can be helpful in designing successful hazardous waste collection systems with increased capability to reach national goals in recycling and reduce the amounts of hazardous substances in general waste. / Master Programme: Sustainable Urban Management, 2011-2012Thesis: On the Way to the Convenient Hazardous Waste Collection System in Malmo, Sweden. Users’ PerspectiveAuthor: Olga Belorusova (OB)Tutor: Peter ParkerDate of Submission: 24 May, 2012.

No description available.