Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As the global population grows and more countries industrialise, waste streams will grow proportionately. Current waste management practices and product manufacturing processes dictate that a large proportion of waste ends up in a landfill or incinerator. The predominant manufacturing design is a linear, one-way model that extracts resources for manufacture, which eventually end up in a landfill or incinerator, rendered useless. This is an unsustainable use of resources, not only of the ones that were extracted to manufacture the product, but also of the land used to dump waste. Along with this goes the increasingly significant issue of food waste and the issues of global hunger and food insecurity. It is estimated that globally one third of all food that is produced is wasted, equalling a total of 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste a year. Wastage of food causes a loss of potentially valuable food sources, or a potential resource for other processes, such as composting or energy generation. The poor are normally the first affected by limited or dwindling resources, and as yet, there are no significant signs of poverty alleviation. Worldwide, there is a proliferation of informal settlements, or slums, and how to deal with these settlements has formed part of international political and societal discourse for a long time. In South Africa, policies dictate that informal settlements should undergo an incremental, in situ upgrading process, where possible. Although this marks a positive development from the previous housing policy, substantial uptake on the ground has as yet not occurred. Consequently, this study attempted to combine the issues of waste management, in particular of food waste, and incremental upgrading of informal settlements through a transdisciplinary case study that focuses on upgrading the food waste management system in Enkanini, an informal settlement in Stellenbosch, South Africa. A waste characterisation study undertaken by Stellenbosch Municipality showed that food waste makes up a substantial part of the waste stream generated in Enkanini. As informal settlements often lack adequate waste collection services, the food waste poses a health risk by breeding pathogens and attracting pests. Through a transdisciplinary approach, an alternative food waste treatment method was piloted in Enkanini in partnership with Stellenbosch Municipality and Probiokashi (Pty) Ltd. The method used bokashi substrate to treat food waste with microorganisms. This was then processed further into compost through the sheet mulching method and by black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae. The outcomes were assessed according to the environmental, social and economic sustainability of this method of waste processing and indicated a positive impact in all three of these categories. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Soos die globale samelewing groei en al hoe meer lande industrialiseer, sal afvalproduksie ook proporsioneel toeneem. Moderne afvalbestuurpraktyke en vervaardigingsprosesse behels dat groot volumes afval in vullingsterreine of verbrandingsoonde beland. Vervaardiging behels hoofsaaklik ’n lineêre proses, waarin grondstowwe vir vervaardiging onttrek word en uiteindelik in sodanige vullingsterreine of verbrandingsoonde beland. Hierdie produkte is dan onbruikbaar. Hierdie praktyk is ’n onvolhoubare manier om hulpbronne te gebruik, nie net wat die grondstowwe vir vervaardiging betref nie, maar ook die grond wat gebruik word om die afval op te stort. Verwant aan hierdie probleem, is die kwessie van toenemende voedselvermorsing en die probleme rondom wêreldwye hongersnood en voedselonsekerheid. Daar word benader dat een derde van alle voedsel wat ter wêreld vervaardig word, vermors word. Dit kom neer op 1.3 miljard ton voedsel per jaar. Voedselvermorsing veroorsaak ’n verlies aan waardevolle, potensiële voedselbronne of potensiële hulpbronne vir ander prosesse, soos bemesting en energievervaardiging. Die armes is gewoonlik diegene wat die gouste deur beperkte of afnemende hulpbronne geraak word en, tot nog toe, is daar geen beduidende vordering in armoedeverligting nie. Wêreldwyd is daar ’n toename in informele nedersettings, of agterbuurte, en maniere om hierdie probleem aan te spreek, vorm lankal deel van die internasionale politiese en maatskaplike diskoers. In Suid-Afrika dui beleide daarop dat informele nedersettings, waar moontlik, ’n inkrementele, in situ opgraderingsproses moet ondergaan. Alhoewel hierdie plan ’n verbetering is op die vorige behuisingsbeleid, het wesenlike vordering nog nie plaasgevind nie. Gevolglik het hierdie studie gepoog om die kwessies rakende afvalbestuur, spesifiek van voedselafval, en inkrementele opgradering van informele nedersettings in ’n transdissiplinêre gevallestudie te kombineer deur te fokus op die voedselafvalbestuurstelsel in Enkanini, ’n informele nedersetting in Stellenbosch, Suid-Afrika. ’n Studie, uitgevoer deur Stellenbosch Munisipaliteit, wat die inhoud van vullis ontleed het, het bevind dat voedselafval ’n beduidende deel vorm van die vullis wat in Enkanini geproduseer word. Aangesien informele nedersettings dikwels tekortskiet aan voldoende vullisverwyderingsdienste, hou voedselafval ’n bedreiging in omdat patogene daarin broei en dit peste lok. Deur middel van ’n transdissiplinêre benadering is ’n proefprojek aangepak waartydens ’n alternatiewe metode om voedselafval te behandel, getoets is. Hierdie projek is in samewerking met Stellenbosch Munisipaliteit en Probiokashi (Pty) Ltd (Edms.) Bpk. in Enkanini uitgevoer. Hierdie metode het van bokashi-substraat gebruik gemaak om deur middel van mikroörganismes die voedselafval te behandel. Dit is daarna verder deur swartsoldaatvlieglarwes (Hermetia illucens) tot kompos verwerk. Die uitkomste van die studie is geassesseer ten opsigte van die sosiale, ekonomiese en omgewingsvolhoubaarheid van dié afvalverwerkingsmetode. ’n Positiewe impak is in al drie hierdie kategorieë opgemerk.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Johannesburg generates in excess of 1 500 000 tonnes of general waste annually and has on average 10 years’ lifespan remaining on its four landfill sites. As a signatory to the Polokwane Declaration, the City of Johannesburg has recognised the need for new interventions to divert waste from landfills by various methods, such as separation at source; alternative treatment methods and the conversion of waste to energy. Progress has, however, been slow and this research aims to investigate alternative waste management techniques that can be applied in the City of Johannesburg to fast track the realisation of these targets. Using scenario planning techniques, the research considers implications for policy and management decisions in realising the best possible future in the area of waste management in Johannesburg. The scenario process was used to develop the following scenarios for waste management in Johannesburg: Long walk to freedom. Waste collection coverage includes pockets of the community where waste collections services are less than optimal. The residents of the city, particularly in these underserviced areas, are also not very knowledgeable of the impact that the waste generated within their communities can have on the environment and what alternatives there are to manage this. Pick it up. The City provides full services to a society that functions in relative oblivion of the implications of their behaviour on the environment. It is assumed to be the role of government to “pick up” after communities and dispose of waste. This scenario is oblivious of the waste hierarchy and the role communities could play in minimising waste. Wishing on a star. The city continues to have under-serviced areas, public awareness is high and this fuels correct behaviour and a mind-set shift with regard to waste management. Working together we can do more. The City optimises its service provision to cover all areas while also ensuring maximum public awareness and behaviour change with regard to waste management.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-28T12:26:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luanda Francine Garcia Da Costa.pdf: 1803240 bytes, checksum: 16e83d1434313cbd9f12b25f939af988 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-28T12:26:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luanda Francine Garcia Da Costa.pdf: 1803240 bytes, checksum: 16e83d1434313cbd9f12b25f939af988 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-03 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Through the perturbing phenomenon of the extension of garbage, which in the contemporaneity reaches planetary proportions, the present research proposes to bring up some discussions from the perspective of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, concerning the implication of the subject of the unconscious in the act of polluting the natural environments in society of consumer capitalism. Basing us on the psychoanalytic theory research in articulation with other knowledge areas, especially with philosophy and sociology, we intend to establish conjectures between the transitional context of the psychic structure of the neurotic subject – in what concerns their entry into language and the production of the rest Real – and in the actual historical context, researching the theme of the degradation of the environments through pollution in the horizon of the political and economical system of consumer capitalism in their specificity of rest production and the rejection of the rest Real. In the course of the research connective openings and possibilities were presented between the scopes which treat the rest as pollution, the rest as operation of constitutive loss of the subject and of the rest as indescribable opacity related to the body, as well their management through capitalist discourse in order to think the place of rest production in the contemporaneity, where we conclude that there is, beyond the phenomenon, the place of a symptom / Mediante o perturbador fenômeno de extensão do lixo que atinge proporções planetárias na contemporaneidade, a presente pesquisa se propõe a levantar algumas discussões sob a perspectiva da psicanálise freudiana e lacaniana acerca da implicação do sujeito do inconsciente no ato de poluir os ambientes naturais na sociedade capitalista de consumo. Pautando-nos na pesquisa teórica psicanalítica em articulação com outras áreas do conhecimento, em especial, a filosofia e a sociologia, tencionamos estabelecer conjecturas entre o contexto transhistórico da estrutura psíquica do sujeito neurótico – no que concerne à sua entrada na linguagem e à produção do resto Real – e o contexto histórico atual, investigando o tema da degradação dos ambientes pela poluição, no horizonte do sistema político-econômico capitalista de consumo, em sua especificidade de produção de restos e recusa do resto Real. Ao longo da pesquisa, foram apresentadas aberturas e possibilidades conectivas entre os âmbitos que tratam do resto como poluição, do resto como operação de perda constitutiva do sujeito e do resto como opacidade indescritível remetida ao corpo, bem como o gerenciamento desses pelo discurso capitalista, a fim de pensarmos o lugar da produção dos restos na contemporaneidade – o que concluímos ser, para além de um fenômeno, o lugar de um sintoma

Over the past half-century, environmental problems have become increasingly serious and seemingly intractable, and a careless, clueless, or contemptuous consumer is often portrayed as the root cause of this environmental decline. This study takes a different approach to evaluating the demand for resources by households, assessing possible pro-environmental paths forward through a study of highly ecologically-conscious households. By modeling "green" households as producers of sustainability rather than consumers of environmental products, the sustainability work that takes place in households is brought into focus. An investigation of household sustainability production makes possible the evaluation of the trade-offs inherent in these pro-environmental activities. Ethnographic interviews with 23 sustainability-oriented households with young children living in and near Portland, Oregon, provide data on how households balance priorities and get things done in day-to-day life by employing the available resources, limited by constraining factors. An orienting perspective combining neoclassical and radical political economic theories of household production frames the analysis of how households make choices between alternatives. Sociological theories of consumption and theories of social practice aid in the analysis of how these choices have evolved over time, and how household members view the social meanings of these choices. Particular attention is paid to areas of day-to-day life neglected in previous research--household waste, comfort, and cleanliness. The results indicate that there is not one "sustainability" with varying degrees across a "green" spectrum, but rather varying priorities in the sustainability realm--personal health, nature, waste avoidance, technology, and community. This analysis reveals some of the negative consequences of shifting the responsibility for environmental protection to households. Ecologically-conscious households devote substantial time and money to these sustainability efforts, but their efforts frequently stimulate conflicts, and the end results are rarely perfect. Constrained resources and limited information mean household members must make trade-offs between competing priorities, often under duress. The results suggest that policies promoting household-level sustainability efforts may be misguided, as this transfer of institutional responsibility for environmental protection to individuals and groups results in even greater burdens on households, whose time and money are already stretched to their limits.

Thesis (MTech(Environmental Health))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / This study focuses on the assessment of the Green Zone Partnership Model (GZPM), which is a partnership project that was initiated by the City of Cape Town and Bonteheuwel community as a solution towards littering and illegal dumping in public open space areas. It is reported that the City of Cape Town is spending about R350 million year to remove waste illegally dumped in public open spaces around the city. In an attempt to assess the GZPM, the study has been used the environmental partnership theory as an approach to analyse the nature and significance of this partnership project. Over the last 20 years, following the emergence of the concept of sustainability, various organisations including governments are moving towards partnerships with various stakeholders as tools to finding solutions to environmental facing the planet (Long & Arnold, 1995). The emergence of this approach was the catalyst for a partnership formation to address the waste problem within the case study area (Ibid, 1995:34). To locate the study within the broader theoretical debate, the study draws on the theory of environmental partnership. Environmental partnership refers to the partnership formed to engage stakeholder partners in order to solve specific environmental problems. Similarly, Emas (2015:2) argues that partnerships encourage participatory decision making regarding the identification and solution of the current environmental problem. They are, to a larger extent, key to achieving the vision of sustainable development. In the South African context, the popular rise of a democratic system since 1994 has coincided with the escalation of various partnership projects, specifically formed to improve environmental quality. While there is a plethora of partnerships of this nature, with some initiated by the World Bank, IMF, and European Union; there is still a need to assess whether or not these partnership initiatives attain the desirable outcome(s). It is from this backdrop that this research seeks to assess the green zone partnership to establish whether or not it has improved environmental quality with specific reference to littering and illegal dumping in Bonteheuwel community The study used qualitative research design to answer the question raised in this research. Community survey and Face to face in-depth interviews with key stakeholder partners were conducted to collect data that which helped to answer the research question. This data was triangulated with other type of data collected from a household survey conducted within the study area. The data collected revealed how the partnership arrangement (GZPM) has improved the environmental and waste conditions in the communities. The results of the study will be crucial to the environmental health practitioners and managers dealing with waste related problems at local government level. The study has contributed to the existing knowledge in the field of environmental management, environmental health, waste management and natural resource management. Finally, the study concluded that partnership of this nature should be driven by champions from the communities to ensure that the environmental solution is sustainable for the benefit of the future generation. The fact that the partnership project was initiated and funded by the City of Cape Town does not guarantee as sustained solution toward a specific environmental problem (e.g., illegal dumping in public open space areas).

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

A series of resonant column and torsional shear (RCTS) and large scale resonant column (LSRC) tests were performed to investigate the dynamic properties (shear modulus and material damping ratio) of municipal solid waste (MSW). the MSW materials were recovered from the Tri-Cities landfill adjacent to the San Francisco Bay in California. A total of 30 specimens 2.8-in. (71.1-mm) and 6.0-in. (152.4-mm) of old, fresh, and mixed MSW were reconstituted in accordance with established sample preparation procedures. Ten of specimens were small-diameter (2.8-in. (71.1-mm)) RCTS specimen and 20 specimens were larger (6.0-in. (152.4-mm)) LSRC specimens. Dynamic laboratory measurements were performed in the linear and nonlinear strain ranges. Test parameters affecting the dynamic properties in the linear range included: (1) duration of confinement, (2) isotropic total confining pressure, [sigma]o, (3) excitation frequency, f, and (4) specimen size. Other test parameters affecting dynamic properties in the nonlinear strain range were: (1) shearing strain amplitude, [gamma], (2) isotropic total confining pressure, (3) overconsolidation ratio, (4) number of loading cycles, and (5) excitation frequency. In addition, the effects on dynamic properties of MSW specimens of material parameters such as (1) waste composition, (2) water content, (3) unit weight of waste, and (4) particle size were evaluated. The total unit weights of old, fresh, and mixed MSW specimens were estimated during testing in the RCTS and LSRC devices. These estimated total unit weights in the laboratory were compared with those measured at other MSW landfills and were found to generally be less than the field measurements. At a given [sigma]o, Gmax decreases with decreasing weight percentage of soil-size (passing the 3/4-in. (19.1-mm) sieve) material. However, Dmin increases slightly with decreasing weight percentage of soil-size material. Another relationship was developed between estimated total unit weight, [gamma]t, and confining pressure, including weigh percentage of soil-size material. The Vs profiles of old, fresh, and mixed MSW specimens obtained in the laboratory tests were compared with those measured at other MSW landfills in situ. The 62 to 76% soil-size material groups are in good agreement with in-situ Vs profiles. The variation in normalized shear modulus and material damping ratio curves were patterned after the Darendeli model (2001) for different weight percentages of soilsize material. An empirical relationship between normalized shear modulus (G/Gmax) and modified material damping ratio (D-Dmin) was developed in the nonlinear strain range. As part of collaborative research project, nonlinear shear modulus reduction and material damping curves generated by The University of Texas at Austin (UT) and The University of California at Berkeley (UCB) were compared according to different weight percentages of soil-size material. Furthermore, nonlinear shear modulus reduction and material damping ratio curves generated by UT were also compared with ones previously proposed by other researchers.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration