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

In January, 2009, I joined Bikes Across Borders, a local grassroots organization, on their yearly bike caravan to Mexico. The group works to promote bicycles, both here and in Mexico, as an environmentally and financially sound alternative to motorized transportation. Each winter, members ride bicycles they build out of salvaged parts to border cities in Mexico. They give these bicycles to maquiladora workers who would otherwise spend a large portion of their income on transportation. These workers make a fraction of what they would in the U.S. and live in shacks amid the pollution from the factories they work in. This is the story of one group’s attempt at making a difference in the lives of these workers. / text

<p>Syftet med mitt arbete var att undersöka sexåringars miljömedvetenhet, samt hur de har tillförskaffat sig denna kunskap. Jag har genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med samtliga 13 elever i en förskoleklass. Genom att diskutera kring 7 saker glasburk, läskedrycksburk, löv, papptallrik, plastmugg, tidning och äppelskrutt som vi lade ut i skogen under en månad fick jag kunskap om vad barnen trodde skulle ske med sakerna under tiden i skogen, var barnen skulle ha slängt sakerna samt hur de hade erhållit denna kunskap.</p><p>Barnen trodde att det var vädret som påverkade processen med sakerna i skogen. De utgår från vad de har sett och sätter in det i ett sammanhang. Det har lärt mig att utgå från barnens vardag när det gäller naturvetenskapliga fenomen.</p><p>När det gäller återvinning var kunskapen större om glasåtervinning än om plaståtervinning hos sexåringarna. Kunskapen om kompostering var obefintlig. Genom detta arbete tror jag att kompostering kan vara ett bra sätt att väcka miljöintresse hos barn.</p><p>Jag fann att mamman var en viktig kunskapsförmedlare inom detta område. 10 av 13 barn svarade att någon anhörig hade lärt dem det som de svarade i denna studie. Av dessa 10 barn nämnde 8 mamma eller mamma och pappa som anhörig. Två av barnen svarade att de hade erhållit kunskapen genom TV. Ingen av barnen nämnde förskolan eller förskoleklassen som kunskapsförmedlare.</p> / <p>The purpose of my study was to examine the environmental awareness of six-year-olds and how they have acquired this knowledge. I have carried out qualitative interviews with all the thirteen pupils in one pre-school class.</p><p>By discussing seven things, a glass jar, a soda can, a leaf, a paper plate, a plastic mug, a newspaper, and an apple core, which we put away in the forest for a month, I gained the knowledge of what the children thought would happen to the seven different things and where they had acquired their knowledge.</p><p>The children thought it was the weather that affected the process of the seven things. Their assumptions were based on what they see and put into a context. I have learnt to start from children’s everyday life when explaining scientific phenomena, to children.</p><p>When it comes to recycling, the fact was that the knowledge of recycling glass was more widely spread than the knowledge of recycling plastics among the six-year-olds. The knowledge of composting was nonexistent. As a result of this study, I think that composting might be a good idea in order to raise an environmental interest among children.</p><p>I found that mothers were important contributors to knowledge in this field. When questioned who had taught them what they knew in this field, ten of thirteen children answered that a close relative had taught them what they knew, i.e. what they had answered in the study. Eight out of these ten pupils mentioned their mothers or their mothers and fathers as this/these close relative/s. Two of the children said that they had acquired this knowledge through TV. None of the children mentioned day care centre, nursery school or pre-school class as contributors to any environmental awareness.</p>

<p>When the producers’ responsibility for packaging was introduced in Sweden in 1994 the industry set up public recycling stations to facilitate the collection of the waste material. In order to establish recycling stations at suitable locations the municipalities assist the industry’s service organization for operation of the recycling stations, the Package and Newspaper Collection Service (Förpacknings- och tidningsinsamlingen, FTI). The objectives of this thesis are to improve the service of the public recycling stations within Lidingö town and to increase the accessibility to these stations for the inhabitants of Lidingö. The Municipal authority of Lidingö in consultations with the FTI will use the collected information on the attitudes of the inhabitants in order to bring the recycling system into line with the opinions of the inhabitants.</p><p>The information on the attitudes of the inhabitants towards the public recycling stations has been collected through an opinion poll. About half of those asked are living in blocks of flats while half are living in self-contained houses. In order to secure the differences in attitudes between different forms of living, sex, and age, hypotheses tests were conducted on selected parts of the collected material. New locations for public recycling stations have been suggested and assessed on the basis of accessibility, the risk of littering, the level of noise, the traffic situation, existing hard surfaces and property ownership.</p><p>The inhabitants of Lidingö want the public recycling stations to be located near their homes, near main roads or near shops in order to be accessible. Car is the main means of transport to the recycling stations. Women and people living in blocks of flats walk to the recycling station to a greater extent than men and those living in self-contained houses. The recycling stations ought to be asphalted and well-lit in order to decrease the risk of littering.</p><p>Many inhabitants of Lidingö, living in areas where the population density is high, lack access to public recycling stations within walking distance. New recycling stations should preferably be located in these housing areas. Ten new suggested locations will, if they are adopted, increase the number of inhabitants living within walking distance of a recycling station.</p> / <p>Då producentansvaret för förpackningar infördes 1994 valde näringslivet att lösa insamlingen av förpackningar genom att sätta upp återvinningsstationer till vilka hushållen kan lämna det utsorterade materialet. För att göra det möjligt att placera ut återvinningsstationer på lämpliga platser bistår kommunerna näringslivets serviceorganisation, Förpacknings- och tidningsinsamlingen, med lokaliseringsförslag. För att anpassa insamlingssystemet till lokala förhållanden är Förpacknings- och tidningsinsamlingen ålagd att samråda med kommunerna.</p><p>Examensarbetet syftar till att förbättra servicen på återvinningsstationerna på Lidingö och öka tillgängligheten för kommuninvånarna. Informationen om lidingöbornas attityder ska användas vid samråd mellan kommunen och Förpacknings- och tidningsinsamlingen för att anpassa insamlingssystemet efter kommuninvånarnas önskemål.</p><p>Genom en postal enkätundersökning har lidingöbornas attityder till återvinningsstationerna´utretts. Hälften av de tillfrågade bodde i flerfamiljshus medan den andra hälften bodde i småhus. För att säkerställa skillnader i attityder mellan olika boendeformer, kön och åldrar utfördes hypotesprövningar på utvalda delar av materialet. Platser för nya återvinningsstationer har tagits fram och bedömts utifrån tillgänglighet, risk för nedskräpning, bullerstörning, trafiksituation, markägarförhållanden samt befintliga hårdytor och tillfartsvägar.</p><p>Lidingöborna vill att återvinningsstationer ska placeras i närheten av hemmet, större bilvägar eller i anslutning till affärer för att vara lättillgängliga. Det huvudsakliga transportmedlet till återvinningsstationen är bil. Kvinnor och boende i flerbostadshus tar sig i större utsträckning till fots till återvinningsstationen samt anser i högre grad att återvinningsstationerna ska ligga i närheten av hemmet än vad män och boende i småhus gör. Återvinningsstationerna bör vara asfalterade och välupplysta för att minska risken för nedskräpning.</p><p>Stora områden på Lidingö med hög befolkningstäthet saknar helt tillgång till återvinningsstationer inom gångavstånd. I dessa bostadsområden bör nya återvinningsstationer prioriteras. Tio lämpliga platser för nya återvinningsstationer har lokaliserats vilka, om de upprättas, ökar andelen lidingöbor som har möjlighet att ta sig till fots till återvinningsstationen.</p>

Garden refuse has been seen to constitute a significant proportion of the total waste stream received at landfills in the eThekwini Municipal Area (EMA). With the growing demand for conserving “precious landfill airspace” as a result of limited availability of land for new landfill development, there is a shift in the mindsets of landfill operators to adopt alternative methods of treatment other than the traditional way of landfilling. As a result composting of green waste stream was seen as the most appropriate treatment solution as not only would there be a direct landfill airspace saving but the added environmental, economical and social sustainable benefits to the city. The first South African Waste Summit saw the signing of the Polokwane Declaration i.e. “Reduce waste generation and disposal by 50% and 25% respectively by 2012 and develop a plan for ZERO WASTE by 2022”. Hence, the push for composting to try and achieve waste reduction to landfills. The Dome Aeration Technology (DAT) is an advanced treatment option for aerobic biological degradation of garden refuse (Mollekopf et al, 2002, Trois and Polster, 2006). The originality of the DAT system is the use of passive aeration brought about by thermal driven advection through open windrows which is induced by thermal differences between the composting material and the ambient atmosphere (Polster, 2003). Previous work on organic waste composting using the DAT on a small scale showed that good quality compost was attainable within 6 weeks of composting (Moodley 2005). This study offers comparative performances between DAT system and Traditional Turned Windrows (TTW) in composting garden refuse and recommending the most appropriate system for integration into existing landfill operations. Full scale windrows were constructed for each system at the Bisasar Road Landfill Site in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal to evaluate the influence of climate, quality of compost, operational requirements and feasibility. The process monitoring for the DAT windrow showed that temperatures reached thermophilic ranges within a week of composting which confirms that of the German studies. Waste characterisation of both input and output materials are discussed for both systems with recommendations on the most practical and appropriate system applicable to that of an operational landfill are drawn. The study further concludes with potential uses of the composted garden refuse within landfill sites and its contribution to “closed loop” landfilling yet within an integrated waste management plan. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

The aim of this study is to investigate preschools work with recycling and re-use of different materials, so that children's thoughts on sustainable development is added early in life. The aim is also to examine if and how the children are involved in the environmental work. Through research in this matter it has been concluded that it is important to begin to work for a sustainable development already in preschool. The method used to answer the questions was web surveys. They were sent out to a number of preschools in Gothenburg. The results show that most preschools in the investigation recycle and re-use many different materials. Half of them recycle daily which means that the work with recycling is well anchored in these preschools. The remaining preschools work with these environmental issues sporadically which is not sufficient to provide the basis for a sustainable development. Children are involved in the environmental work in some ways but it seems to be difficult for teachers to show how this is done. The result shows that it is mostly the pedagogues who are working with re-use and recycling. The way the children are involved is by sorting out household waste and working with different kinds of creative activities with re-used materials. Possible obstacles mentioned by the respondents to work with recycling/re-use in preschools were children's age, time and distance, the attitudes of the pedagogues and their approach. / Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka förskolors arbete med återvinning och återanvändning av material. Detta med utgångpunkt i att grunden till barns hållbarhetstänk läggs tidigt i livet. Syftet är också att undersöka om och hur barnen görs delaktiga i miljöarbetet.Det konstateras via forskning inom ämnet att det är viktigt att börja arbeta för en hållbar utveckling redan i förskolan. Metoden som användes för att få svar på studiens frågeställningar var webbenkäter. Dessa skickades ut till ett antal förskolor i Göteborg. Resultatet visar att de flesta förskolorna i undersökningen återvinner och återanvänder många olika material. Hälften svarade att de återvinner dagligen, vilket betyder att återvinningsarbetet är väl förankrat i dessa förskolor. Resterande arbetar med dessa miljöfrågor sporadiskt, vilket inte räcker för att lägga grunden för ett hållbarhetstänk. Barnen görs delaktiga i viss mån men det verkar vara problematiskt för pedagogerna att visa på hur detta görs. Resultatet visar att det är de vuxna själva som arbetar med återvinningen och återanvändningen och barnen görs delaktiga genom att de får källsortera och arbeta i någon slags skapande verksamhet med att återanvända materialet. Barnens ålder, pedagogers förhållningssätt, tid och avstånd nämndes som ett möjligt hinder för att arbeta med återvinning/återanvändning i förskolan.

A widespread phenomenon on dumpsites in the developing world, subsistence waste picking is also a common practice at the city-owned Coastal Park Landfill (CPL) in Muizenberg. Poor unemployed people from the townships of Capricorn, Vrygrond and Hillview, situated at the foot of the tip “skarrel for scrap” every day. The word skarreling is an Afrikaans term meaning to rummage or scrabble, scuttle or scurry. Thus, if one talks of “skarreling for scrap”, it generally refers to poor peo-ple trying to eke out a living by looking for recyclables in the waste that can be put to personal use or turned into money.In the two decades since the transition to democracy, South Africa and the City of Cape Town (CCT) have formulated a number of framework and subordinate policies which express their commitment to sustainable development (SD). SD aims to achieve a balance between its three components, econom-ic, environmental and social sustainability. Thus, SD is not only about increased economic efficiency and stability, while at the same time reducing pollution and handling natural resources more thought-fully; it is also about promoting social equity by reducing poverty and empowering the poor. This study is guided by the assumption that waste pickers in developing countries play an important part in recycling efforts, and that recycling in turn is an integral component of SD, which is the guid-ing principle of South African policy-making. In an ideal scenario – as implicitly promised by the policies on SD – the management of solid waste should pursue the economic and environmental goals of SD by promoting recycling and should be aligned with the goal of creating sustainable livelihoods.However, the reality in the CCT is a different one. Landfill skarreling in the CCT, and particularly at CPL, is accompanied by conflict and a criminalisation of the skarrelaars. The CCT decided to phase out landfill salvaging in 2008, and subsequently has put a lot of effort into keeping skarrelaars away from its landfills. The implications of this decision – job losses for poor people and a potential in-crease in crime – have not been thought through. There is thus a dysfunctional triangular relationship around waste recycling in the CCT, leading to tensions between (1) the City’s commitment to SD; (2) its approach towards recycling (as part of solid waste management) in policy and practice; and (3) the livelihoods of the poor in adjacent townships. In the CCT the goals of SD are undermined by the City’s recycling strategies, with adverse effects for the livelihoods of the people who live off skarrel-ing.There are several causes for this disjuncture between policy and reality. The first has to do with igno-rance on the side of the policymakers. They seem to be badly informed about the extent and nature of skarreling, perhaps assuming that this activity is performed only by a few people who need quick cash for drugs. The second cause can be attributed to the neoliberal macro-policies pursued in South Africa, as well as to the global competition between cities for investment. This neoliberal urbanism leads cities like Cape Town to re-imagine themselves as “world (-class) cities”, in which poor waste pickers are perceived as a disturbing factor. In the CCT, this goes hand in hand with an approach reminiscent of the apartheid mindset, which saw the need to control poor, black (and potentially unru-ly) people.The dissertation therefore focuses on the core themes of sustainable development, (urban) neoliberal-ism, and informality in combination with a case study of the informal waste pickers at the chosen landfill site. Writing from a political studies angle, this study is framed as a policy critique: it argues that the policies around SWM ignore South African realities, and that the SD policies and their im-plementation lack coherence. Moreover, the conflict between the skarrelaars and the CCT at the CPL is rooted in inadequate national and local legislation which does not acknowledge the role of informal waste pickers in SWM and aims at excluding rather than including them. If waste pickers were sup-ported in their recycling efforts in both policy and practice, this would be a win-win situation for the state/city (economic benefits and less crime), the skarrelaars (regular employment and incomes) and the environment (less waste buried on landfills).The case study is primarily designed as a qualitative study, but also includes quantitative elements as it attempts a first quantification of the extent and nature of skarreling at the CPL site, one of only three operating dumpsites in Cape Town. The aim on the one hand is to estimate the contribution of the skarrelaars to waste reduction (and therefore to sustainability) in the City, especially since the waste they collect is not buried on the landfill, thereby prolonging the operational life span of the landfill. The other aim is to assess the role of the skarrelaars as an economic factor in the township, in particular the question of how important the incomes generated from skarreling are for their individu-al livelihoods and for the community as a whole. / Magister Artium - MA

E-waste is an emerging issue driven by the rapidly increasing quantities, the hazards involved and the valuable materials in it. Due to a lack of environmentally sound technologies or equipment and the imperfect e-waste management system, the poor quality e-waste recycling and disposal methods commonly practiced in developing countries now have serious and hazardous effects on the environment and the workers'/residents' health. Additionally, industrialized countries are exporting increasing quantities of e-waste to developing countries, complicating the situation finther. The environmental and health issues caused by e-waste in developing countries have resulted in the search for solutions to address this problem before it becomes worse. The main purpose of this research is to find how legislation and regulations be used to improve management of e-waste in developing countries especially studying a case in China on e-waste management, which is a very helpful example to other developing countries which are also facing the same e-waste'issue. A case study methodology was used in this research. To collect data, semi-structured interviews with officers or experts from key relevant government departments/institutions involved in e-waste management/regulation, from electronic appliance producers, from customers at different levels of the value chain, as well as direct and non-participant observations were carried out in six cities of China. For another perspective, the review of relevant departmental documents/publications was also carried out to multiply the source of data. In this case study the analysis relies largely on qualitative data and interpretive methods, applied to what was found in interviews/observations and what is written down in documents/ literatures. The research found that lack of systernatic and enforceable law and regulations has become the most serious obstacle in the e-waste management system and limited the effective control of e-waste in developing countries. Developing subsidiary regulations and standards could support the enforcement of the main national law and regulations on e-waste management and it could farther urge the development of local regulations to improve the enforceýbility of the national law and regulations. Identifying the principal administrative department and coordinating the cooperation of various departments could avoid the duplication of administrative functions among government departments. It is important to construct monitoring systems to supervise the enforcement of the regulations and construct the standards and registration system to qualify the e-waste recycling and disposal enterprises, the secondhand market of electronic products and the regenerative resources market of reusable materials in ewaste. The economic differences made it possible to formulate special regulations for economically backward areas compared to the, more advanced areas even within one country. Improving the existing e-waste recovery system and regulating the payment system according to the local economic conditions for e-waste recycling and disposal could improve the integrated management of e-waste. Producers as well as government and even consumers should be responsible for e-waste together. The government needs to continuously strengthen regulatory systems to ensure that the huge economic benefits from the e-waste recycling industry are not overshadowed by the negative impact on the workers'/residents' welfare and overall environmental sustainability,

The recycling of materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is of great concern today, as increasing public awareness and the implementation of recent legislations have created a situation where industries need to 1) comply with the environmental regulations and 2) fulfil producers’ responsibility initiatives. In this context, the work described in this thesis investigates the applications of new leaching solvents, the ionic liquids (ILs), to recycle two materials, copper and decabromodiphenylether (DBDE), which are common in WEEE. A total of 18 ILs, methylimidazolium (MIM) and methylpyridinium (MPy) based, were prepared using a microwave-assisted method. These ILs were selected to allow characterisation of performance with respect to three parameters: hydrophobicity of the cation, polarity of a terminal functional group in the cation side chain, and the type of aromatic ring, in order to identify their effects on the solubility and extraction processes. All ILs were successfully characterised by IR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and NMR. Hydrophobicity was measured by HPLC, and the retention factors compared to logP values predicted from Molinspiration. High correlation (>88%) was observed, which indicated that the predicted logP values were representative of the real hydrophobicity of the cation. Copper metal was not significantly dissolved in any of the ILs, and performance was therefore assessed with the dissolution of CuO. The dissolution tests were conducted at 70°C for ten minutes and the resultant solutions analysed for Cu by using atomic absorption spectroscopy. A short side chain and the presence of a strongly polarised functional group at the terminal position were required to achieve maximum dissolution. Furthermore, the short chain methylimidazolium system was better than methylpyridinium for dissolving CuO. Consequently, 1-(2-cyanoethyl)-1-methylimidazloium bromide was found to be the best solvent and dissolved 75.5 mg of Cu in one g of IL. High impact polystyrene (HIPS), containing 4.4% of DBDE, was prepared in order to test the extraction abilities of various non-substituted ILs. The extraction of DBDE from the polymer was conducted at 90°C for 2 h 45 min. The results indicated that high hydrophobicity was required to achieve the maximum extraction of DBDE, however, the percentage extraction remained very low (<10%). The low extraction was attributed to the fact that only the DBDE present on the outer surface of the polymer was extracted during the process. In spite of being more hydrophobic, MPy-based systems did not dissolve as much as MIM-based systems because they were more viscous. The high viscosity value actually hindered the diffusion process and ultimately reduced the extraction of DBDE. The effects of different factors on the extraction process were evaluated and the maximum extraction was achieved by using 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide at 110 °C. The results described in this thesis have identified and quantified the link between the structures of the ILs and extraction efficiencies in relation to their potential use for recovery of CuO and DBDE from WEEE. The recommendations for future work have also been identified. The results obtained in this work, however, have contributed to increase the knowledge about the properties of ILs and can be used in future research to design a large scale recycling process.

There is a significant problem for the paper recycling industry known as “stickies”. “Stickies” are tacky species, present in recycled paper and coated broke, derived from coating formulations, adhesives, etc. They impact negatively on paper quality and cause web runnability problems by deposit build-up. To sustain recycling, stickies are controlled by adsorbing them onto minerals added to the recycled stock. So the aim of the project was to characterise non-porous and porous minerals suitable for paper-making, and then use the knowledge gained to improve the adsorption of stickies. The pore level properties of the minerals used to control stickies are highly relevant in regulating adsorption of the stickies. Levels of pore architecture were investigated by characterising filter media with porosimetry, porometry, electron microscopy and modelling the combined results. Seven samples were studied, with pore size distributions ranging from simple unimodal to complicated bimodal. Porometry, porosimetry and SEM, individually can only determine primary pore architecture. A combination of experimental and modelling techniques allows a full characterisation of pore architecture from primary to quaternary levels. Calcium carbonates can be modified to change the pore architecture, which affects properties such as wetting. Their pore architecture was investigated to understand why some modified calcium carbonates do not show two distinct wetting rates. The investigation implied a significant surface area could be attributed to nano rugosity. The nano rugosity was responsible for the enhanced wetting of a sample. A zero length column was used to study diffusion and desorption of benzene with calcium carbonate. Desorption and diffusion coefficients for calcium carbonate systems were calculated from the corrected concentration versus time measurements. They showed how the pore architecture affects diffusion and desorption. By comparing the experimental results with a pore network simulation, it was possible to deduce the relative effect of surface diffusion. The adsorption of stickies onto different mineral grades was investigated using a novel proxy method to determine equilibrium constants and adsorption isotherms. The results were then used to understand the influence of particle size on the adsorption behaviour, with three mechanisms proposed. The equilibrium constant and adsorption isotherm data also allowed comparisons between hydrophilic and hydrophobic adsorption onto grades of talc. Recommendations are made for the optimum use of minerals for the removal of stickies, and for in-situ methods for monitoring and optimising removal.