Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012 / The objective of the research study was to investigate how effective an eco initiative to recycle water and food waste would be when implemented in selected Cape Town hotels. Earthworm farms are able to convert organic food waste into usable compost as an alternative to landfills. Harvesting rainwater as a direct method for the reuse of waste water makes it possible to store captured rainwater for future use. This serves as an alternative source of surface water. The study further investigated whether implementing these initiatives would be successful as a future endeavour. Environmental movements were the instigators of the high demand for recycling initiatives. These movements aimed to address the deteriorating quality of water supplies, as well as growth in landfills. In South Africa, a decrease in the availability and quality of surface water has been coupled with an annual increase of 3.7 % in the demand for water. Landfills furthermore release toxic smoke when burned. Within the Hospitality Industry, travelers are increasingly seeking out environmentally friendly hotels as part of their corporate travel policy. This has occurred as a result of the increased focus on environmental initiatives by the International community. The researcher therefore aimed to provide practical examples of how existing theory regarding these initiatives is applicable to operations within hotels. The research methodology was determined through analysing the research strategy, the design and the research instruments. The research strategy was based on gathering facts relevant to the theory of the study. A descriptive approach was therefore adopted as the “-what-” question that was asked when measuring data to answer the research questions. The research design utilised a multi-strategy approach whereby both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. This resulted in questionnaires, interviews and case studies forming part of the research instruments. The researcher found it effective to corroborate the findings from both quantitative and qualitative data: that is, the findings from the questionnaires were enhanced by the findings from the interviews. The case studies were conducted to provide a practical context to the theory. Recommendations have been made according to technological and social developments. Ultimately, this study illustrates the success of eco initiatives aimed at recycling water and food waste produced by selected hotels in Cape Town and a reduction in the waste generated by the hotels.

Trabalho desenvolvido através do projeto de mestrado interinstitucional - MINTER - entre a UTFPR e o IFAM - Manaus, financiado pela CAPES e pela SUFRAMA. / Financiado pela CAPES e pela SUFRAMA. / No estado do Amazonas a questão do gerenciamento dos Resíduos de Construção e Demolição (RCD) merece atenção e soluções que sejam sustentáveis dos pontos de vista ambiental, econômico e social. O RCD gerado, bem como o Poliestireno Expandido (EPS), ainda são descartados ou conduzidos às lixeiras com os agravantes da inexistência de um projeto de gestão, visto haverem problemas com inundações, poluição dos mananciais e, significativa ocupação nos lixões controlados pelo poder público, dentre outros. Outro aspecto relevante refere-se ao uso, pela construção civil, de agregados como o seixo rolado e granito, o primeiro extraído de rios e transportado em balsas percorrendo distâncias superiores a 700 km e o segundo explorado a distâncias superiores a 150 km da cidade de Manaus, causando alto impacto ambiental e elevado custo de logística. Neste contexto, o objetivo desse trabalho foi estudar a viabilidade técnica da produção de concreto alternativo utilizando RCD e EPSR(Poliestireno Expandido Reciclado) obtido após processo de extrusão e moagem na forma de agregado graúdo ou miúdo. Os RCDs (de concreto) selecionados em obras e britados, bem como, o EPSR foram analisados granulometricamente com a finalidade de serem incorporados à concretos aplicados a fabricação de blocos de alvenaria. Os blocos produzidos foram analisados quanto a resistência mecânica e também quanto à absorção de água. O EPSR possui baixa densidade e contribui para a obtenção de blocos mais leves. / In the Amazon State, the issue of management concerning construction and demolition waste (C&D) deserves attention and solutions that are sustainable from environmental, economical and social standpoints. The RCD produced as well as the expanded polystyrene (EPS), are still discharged in inappropriate places or taken to the dumpsters with the worsening provided by the lack of a management project such as: floods pollution of the water resources (rivers lakes and others) and significant space occupation in the landfills controlled by the city council, among others. Another aspect, related with the civil engineering sector, refers to the usage of components like the pebbles and granite, the first one extracted from rivers and transported by ferries within distances over 700 km and the second one explored within distances over 150 km from Manaus City, causing high environmental impact and high logistics cost. The goal of this research was to study the technical feasibility of producing alternative concrete using RCD and post-consumpting EPS extruded and crushed to transform it in aggregate. The RCDs (of concrete) selected in construction sites and crushed, as well as the EPSR (expanded polystyrene recycled) were analyzed in its granulometric distribution to be used as aggregate on the concrete composition features to obtain wall blocks. The produced blocks were analyzed mechanically and also regarding the water absorption level. The EPSR has low density and contributing to the production of lighter blocks. / 5000-11-25

Trabalho desenvolvido através do projeto de mestrado interinstitucional - MINTER - entre a UTFPR e o IFAM - Manaus, financiado pela CAPES e pela SUFRAMA. / Financiado pela CAPES e pela SUFRAMA. / No estado do Amazonas a questão do gerenciamento dos Resíduos de Construção e Demolição (RCD) merece atenção e soluções que sejam sustentáveis dos pontos de vista ambiental, econômico e social. O RCD gerado, bem como o Poliestireno Expandido (EPS), ainda são descartados ou conduzidos às lixeiras com os agravantes da inexistência de um projeto de gestão, visto haverem problemas com inundações, poluição dos mananciais e, significativa ocupação nos lixões controlados pelo poder público, dentre outros. Outro aspecto relevante refere-se ao uso, pela construção civil, de agregados como o seixo rolado e granito, o primeiro extraído de rios e transportado em balsas percorrendo distâncias superiores a 700 km e o segundo explorado a distâncias superiores a 150 km da cidade de Manaus, causando alto impacto ambiental e elevado custo de logística. Neste contexto, o objetivo desse trabalho foi estudar a viabilidade técnica da produção de concreto alternativo utilizando RCD e EPSR(Poliestireno Expandido Reciclado) obtido após processo de extrusão e moagem na forma de agregado graúdo ou miúdo. Os RCDs (de concreto) selecionados em obras e britados, bem como, o EPSR foram analisados granulometricamente com a finalidade de serem incorporados à concretos aplicados a fabricação de blocos de alvenaria. Os blocos produzidos foram analisados quanto a resistência mecânica e também quanto à absorção de água. O EPSR possui baixa densidade e contribui para a obtenção de blocos mais leves. / In the Amazon State, the issue of management concerning construction and demolition waste (C&D) deserves attention and solutions that are sustainable from environmental, economical and social standpoints. The RCD produced as well as the expanded polystyrene (EPS), are still discharged in inappropriate places or taken to the dumpsters with the worsening provided by the lack of a management project such as: floods pollution of the water resources (rivers lakes and others) and significant space occupation in the landfills controlled by the city council, among others. Another aspect, related with the civil engineering sector, refers to the usage of components like the pebbles and granite, the first one extracted from rivers and transported by ferries within distances over 700 km and the second one explored within distances over 150 km from Manaus City, causing high environmental impact and high logistics cost. The goal of this research was to study the technical feasibility of producing alternative concrete using RCD and post-consumpting EPS extruded and crushed to transform it in aggregate. The RCDs (of concrete) selected in construction sites and crushed, as well as the EPSR (expanded polystyrene recycled) were analyzed in its granulometric distribution to be used as aggregate on the concrete composition features to obtain wall blocks. The produced blocks were analyzed mechanically and also regarding the water absorption level. The EPSR has low density and contributing to the production of lighter blocks. / 5000-11-25

Orientador: Luísa Andréia Gachet Barbosa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Tecnologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T12:45:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_FabianaMariada_M.pdf: 2221147 bytes, checksum: acb168d3d261f81f3d6f6d1d25e50816 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O reaproveitamento de resíduos na construção civil tem sido uma alternativa viável para diminuir o consumo de materiais naturais e a disposição inadequada dos resíduos no meio ambiente. Neste trabalho avaliou-se o reaproveitamento de resíduo de borracha de pneus, proveniente do processo de recauchutagem, em substituição parcial do agregado miúdo natural, para a produção de pisos táteis intertravados de concreto. O piso tátil de concreto é uma peça utilizada na pavimentação, que permite a percepção do ambiente ou rotas acessíveis, proporcionando mais segurança e autonomia para as pessoas com deficiência visual. A substituição foi feita em relação à massa da areia nas proporções de 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% e 50%. As seguintes propriedades do concreto foram investigadas: consistência no estado fresco, resistência à compressão, resistência à tração na flexão, absorção de água, índice de vazios, massa específica do concreto endurecido, resistência à abrasão, resistência ao impacto e análise de microestrutura. Embora a grande limitação do uso da borracha de pneus como agregado no concreto seja a redução das resistências mecânicas, os traços com até 50% de substituição atingiram ótimos valores de resistência à compressão e resistência à tração na flexão e apresentaram melhores resultados de resistência à abrasão. A utilização do resíduo de borracha de pneus, em substituição parcial da areia natural no concreto para a produção de piso tátil, além de contribuir com a sustentabilidade na construção civil, por meio da economia de extração de matérias-primas e redução do descarte e acúmulo inadequado de pneus inservíveis, proporcionou melhorias a algumas propriedades importantes para a eficiência e qualidade do piso tátil de concreto / Abstract: The reuse of waste in construction has been a viable alternative to reduce the consumption of natural materials and the improper disposal of waste on the environment. In this work recycled tire rubber (crumb rubber) was used as aggregate in concrete to produce tactile paving block. The concrete tactile paving block allows perception of the place or accessible routes, providing more security and independence for people with visual disabilities. The crumb rubber was used to replace sand by mass at the level of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. The concrete characterization was performed by testing its consistency, compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption, porosity, density, abrasion resistance, impact resistance and microstructure analysis. Although the major limitation using the crumb rubber as aggregate in the concrete is to reduce the mechanical strength, the mixtures with up to 50% of substitution reached optimal values ??of compressive strength and flexural strength and showed a better abrasion resistance. The use of crumb rubber in partial replacement of natural sand in concrete to produce tactile paving block, proved to be a viable alternative. Besides contributing to construction sustainability, minimizing the extraction of raw materials, and reducing improper disposal and accumulation of scrap tires, provided improvements to some important properties that assure the efficiency and quality of the concrete tactile paving block / Mestrado / Tecnologia e Inovação / Mestra em Tecnologia

The result of this project is a sustainability assessment questionnaire for the high school setting. The questionnaire fills a gap in the literature pertaining to assessing direct and indirect environmental impacts on high schools.

South Africa is a water scarce country. The expansion of the industrial, mining, and agricultural sectors to meet the needs of South Africa’s growing population requires more water. There is therefore an urgent need to develop effective wastewater treatment processes in order to recover and reuse water. This dissertation presents the treatment of an acidic wastewater stream from a platinum refinery which at present is being disposed of by contract with a waste disposal company. The major concern in treating the acid effluent stream is the high concentration of sodium ions (18 200 mg/l) and chloride ions (104 900 mg/l). The precipitation process is used to treat wastewater, but ultimately it generates more secondary waste as a sludge. The other process that is used to treat wastewater is reverse osmosis (RO). RO is usually preferred in the last stage of the treatment because the process is more expensive as membranes need to be replaced regularly. The approach used in this research focuses on evaporating liquid, consequently concentrating the remaining solution until the ions in the solution crystallize. The liquid produced is recycled back into the platinum plant for reuse, and the remaining salt crystals are collected as the useful product. The proposed water treatment process produces dilute hydrochloric acid as the condensate and a crystallized sodium chloride rich residue. The refinery is currently disposing of around 20 000 l/day of wastewater to landfills. The proposed treatment process can recover half of the volume of the wastewater stream to the refinery, helping reduce the fresh water consumption of the process by 10 000 l/day. Furthermore, this will reduce the volume of wastewater going to disposal by a half, namely only 10 000 l/day will need to be disposed of. The amount of Cl that can be recovered is variable and depends on the quantity of chloride in the wastewater. In the two samples processed the recovery was between a 2,5 w% and 10,7 wt% aqueous HCl solution. This corresponds to a saving of between 250 to 1000 kg/day of HCl. As the concentration of the recovered solution is variable, the recycling process would need to monitor the composition of the recycled stream and make up the acid concentration to some fixed value for reuse in the prices. The production of a dilute hydrochloric acid stream should be particularly attractive to the platinum refinery as the operation of the refinery requires hydrochloric acid as a feed. Thus, by recycling the wastewater, the refinery would reduce the volume of wastewater to be disposed of thereby reducing the cost of disposal of the waste while simultaneously reducing the cost of buying fresh hydrochloric acid. The proposed recovery of liquid and recycling it back to the refinery, will also reduce the environmental impact of the refinery, and very importantly in a water scarce country, reduce the freshwater consumption of the process. / Physics / M. Sc. (Physics)

Waste management is a global concern and landfill sites are facing a crisis of handling capacity. This is worsened by the fact that many consider landfilling as an environmentally responsible and cost-effective solution to waste disposal. Carnival City generates vast quantities of solid waste on a daily basis and most of it ends at the landfill, which it acknowledges that it’s a wastage of recoverable resources, hence its commitment of “zero-waste-to-landfills by 2022”. This study evaluated solid waste management practices at Carnival City Casino in Brakpan. Informed by an interpretive paradigm, qualitative methods including interviews, observations, photographs and document reviews were used to collect data. Based on abductive reasoning, the waste management hierarchy and the ISO 14001 standard were used as frameworks for recontextualising and presenting the collected data. The waste hierarchy sets out the preferred order of waste management practices, from the most favoured to the least preferred option. The effectiveness of current waste management practices is limited as Carnival City heavily depends on landfilling and implement waste minimisation, reuse, recycling and recovery on a small scale. Absence of a waste separation at source policy limits recycling activities significantly. The researcher noted the presence of some areas of conformity to South African legislation pertaining to waste management, international standards and Carnival City’s standard operating procedures, and some areas of good practice. The study showed that there is room for improving concerning Carnival City’s current waste management practices. It recommends that waste management training and awareness be undertaken on a continuous basis to improve current practices and ensure that more waste is diverted from landfill sites. Investment into waste to energy technologies should be considered to help Carnival City to meet Sun International’s commitment of “zero-waste-to-landfills by 2022”. Recycling must be maximised and its environmental and financial benefits be highlighted. The research recommends developing of a separation at source policy and its enforcement by the Environmental Committee as the absence of the documented procedures results in deviations from environmental objectives. Offenders who do not follow procedures should be duly punished. It also recommends that a disciplinary action and a fine be introduced for kitchens that will deviate from the policy. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

The research work critically analyzed the factors responsible for imprudent waste tyre management in South Africa. As an approach to determine the complexity of the problem, questionnaires were sent to one hundred and sixty (160) respondents in conjunction with interviews. Perusal of literature and interaction with industry involved in waste tyre processing to further gain knowledge of the problem and possible solutions that can be solicited to address the problem. Findings revealed that, lack of clear, focused legislation that guide the handling, disposal and processing of waste tyres remain the challenge. It is also deduced that recycling of waste tyres can provide economic benefits and opportunities. It is recommended that South Africa develop appropriate legislation that deals with handling, treatment and disposal of waste tyres, develop an incentive programme to set up initiatives as well as developing skilled and capacitated enforcement agency. / Environmental Sciences / M.A. (Environmental Management)

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing household awareness and participation in domestic waste disposal and recycling, focusing on environmental educational (EE), wealth and location of suburb. The study was carried out in four suburbs in the Tshwane Metropolitan Area (TMA), namely Waterkloof, Lynnwood, Sunnyside and Mamelodi. A literature review was conducted, covering concepts of domestic waste management - waste prevention, collection, recycling and reuse, followed by household analysis using empirical data. The analysis shows that there is a low level of household awareness about the environmental implications of domestic waste management in TMA, and hence low level of participation in domestic waste sorting, disposal and recycling. Among relevant factors are the level of EE and income of the households across all suburbs. This calls attention to the need for strengthening EE not only in schools, but also in suburbs using both formal and informal outreach programmes. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Environmental Education)

Participatory Action Research (PAR) was carried out to improve educational practices and environmental sustainability in an International School in Vietnam by undertaking two cycles of PAR to determine how the school community could use paper on a more sustainable basis. The methodology included sorting paper and encouraging the reuse of paper. Practices related to computer printing, report writing and newsletter production were also investigated. Changes in the school community, in terms of accepting responsibility and demonstrating changed attitudes and behaviours, were measured. The school community demonstrated greater awareness, increased responsibility and more action competence. Critical awareness of unsustainable practices increased. Individuals were able to effect change, but it is recommended that such actions should be institutionalised for such changes to be sustainable. Limitations and recommendations emphasise the need for continuing PAR to implement sustainability. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Environmental Education)