Biography:

Annemiek Verrips has studied both Chemistry and Economics at VU University in Amsterdam. Since 2000, she is working at CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. She has carried out cost benefit analyses in various fields of interest such as mobility, sustainable energy, physical planning, fresh water and water safety. As a Project Leader, she published a study on the circular economy of plasti

Abstract:

The circular economy aims to reduce the use of raw materials, promote re-use and recycling and limit waste. This study focuses on the circular economy of plastics and investigates what major problems are in relation to the use of plastic and to what extent government policy is effective. We carried out a literature study and paid several working visits. The production of plastic has grown enormously and is expected to increase further. The most important environmental damage caused by plastic is pollution, especially plastic soup, and carbon emissions. The depletion of natural resources, oil and gas, is not an important issue in relation to plastic. An increase in the recycling of household plastic will not automatically benefit the environment. It is preferable to augment the quality of recycled plastic over increasing quantity. Policy could provide incentives to increase the quality of recycled plastic. Furthermore, businesses could alter their strategy by using plastics that are better recyclable. The environmental benefits of recycling household plastic are currently limited. It does not reduce littering or plastic soup. Carbon reduction is limited to about 0.15 percent of total carbon emission in the Netherlands. The use of bio-based plastic (plastic made of biomass) is no solution with respect to plastic soup. Most bio-based plastic are not biodegradable. For bioplastic to be biodegradable you generally need an industrial environment. Bio-based plastic can reduce carbon emissions, but net results vary widely due to side effects (biodiversity, food, energy, use of fertilizers). Policy measures that help reduce littering and plastic soup could be: extending the packaging deposit system, regulation with respect to plastic (for example in cosmetics), innovation in removing plastics from waste water and measures to reduce plastic in organic waste which is turned into compost. 

Biography:

Fernando Coelho is currently pursuing PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Birmingham, UK. He has completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Environmental Engineering from University of Aveiro in Portugal. He is an early stage Researcher of H2020 DEMETER-European Training Network for the design and recycling of rare-earth permanent magnet motors and generators in hybrid and full electric vehicles.

Abstract:

Concerns have grown across the globe regarding within securing reliable, sustainable and access of certain raw materials including Rare Earth Elements (REEs) which play an important role in different industries such as clean energy and transportation. The high demand of REEs and low natural abundance in REE ore have aroused serious concerns in supply thus recycling has been proposed as one option to solve this supply chain balance problem. Permanent magnet is the application with highest consumption of REEs by end use and the magnets of the Hard Drive Disk (HDD) has been suggested as the most prominent source recycling source of REE. Recycling process of HDD has developed at University of Birmingham where hydrogen has been employed to decrepitate sintered neodymium-iron-boron into a powder which can then be reprocessed to produce new NdFeB magnets. However, the success of recycling methods using hydrogenation treatments is sensitive to the amount of oxidation which drops the magnetic properties of sintered NdFeB magnets. The additional oxygen mainly occurs at the finest particles of Grain Boundary Phase (GBP) in which is too small to be separate by sieving or conventional screening technology. This work focuses on investigation of different physical separation techniques (gravitational, magnetic and flotation) of the ultra-fines particles of the hydrogenated NdFeB recycled powder. It has been shown that magnetic concentration is possible when using a wet low intensity magnetic separation. Both the magnetic concentrator and flotation result in a similar performance.

Biography:

Abstract:

Every human constructed as well as natural object operates for limited lifetime. What happens to various technical objects after their end of life is reached? Frequently they are disposed somewhere in the nature and undergo slow degradation and fragmentation. The resulting particles are dispersed over the soil, atmosphere or ocean waters. Such dispersed matter, because of its very high entropy is practically impossible to recover, so it is irreversibly lost for the human community, in spite of that, it remains on the Earth. The scale of global production is so large that depletion of the resources becomes the real threat. The other problem connected to the dispersed matter is that majority of substances being dispersed in the environment are harmful for living organisms, including humans and therefore, bring damage to the global natural environment. Consequently, dispersing of substances should be avoided. The recycling of materials and other resources intuitively seems to be a remedy for both threats mentioned. Recycling, however, is a technological process, which also requires consumption of some resources and consumption of energy, what in consequence introduces similar threats as the other production processes. The mathematical model presented in this paper enables analysis of the effects of material recycling on productivity of primary technological process. It demonstrates effects caused using the fraction of recirculated material (resource), ‘α’, as well as the effect of the instant of time ‘t_z’, when this fraction of the material is recirculated. The progress of a process in such a case is represented as:

Where τ is a current time and a, k and n are parameters of a kinetic equation. The other subject concerns analysis of the choices of technological processes of recycling as well as summarizes criteria that should be fulfilled by appropriately chosen technological processes of recycling.

Biography:

Indra Prasad Dahal is an MBA from Saraswati Multiple Campus, Kathmandu from Tribhuwan University, Nepal and MPhil in Central Department of Public Administration College, Kathmandu under Tribhuwan University, Nepal. He is an Academic Coordinator, Member of research committee, an Associate Professor and teaching Project Management and Research Methodology in Lincoln College, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Abstract:

Solid waste management in Nepal has been one of the important and seriously discussed topics. Kathmandu metropolitan city is unable to handle the solid waste by itself. This study will focus on community participation in solid waste management in Kathmandu. There are varieties of study areas for my research such as Old Newar Settlement (Ashan and Jyatha), Thamel (Tourism area) and Samakhuhsi Town Planning (ward no. 29 out of 38 wards of Kathmandu metropolitan city.) Waste management in those areas has been managed through NGOs and private sectors, communities and metropolitan authority. Household questionnaire and interviews will be used as the research tools and a total of 120 respondents interviewed from study area. The study will use both qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze the information. Nearly 75% of the total waste generated in Kathmandu is of organic type which can be composted. The main aim of solid waste management practice is seen in all these settlements to segregate waste at source. All the communities have different approaches which the people follow in segregating waste. In all the settlements, bins are provided. At Ashan and Local Newar Settlement area has a central collection system, but the community members are asked to segregate waste. In Thamel too, it is a similar case, but a private company is involved (directly) in managing waste. In Samakhushi Town Planning area, people are encouraged to manage waste in individual level in their own household. This study will try to depict the status of solid waste management practices as well as the status of community participation community members in other activities such as recycling-reuse, disposal of waste, decision making within entire ward no. 29 out of 38 wards of Kathmandu metropolitan city.

Biography:

Abstract:

Nowadays, climate change is global environmental issues, so the organization should have carbon profile for management of carbon dioxide emission. The purposes of this project are to show the result of carbon footprint that is surveyed from 3rd year medical students and three departments in Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, including Department of Education, Transportation and Laboratory. This project used participatory action research among medical students and personnel to reduce carbon dioxide emission in faculty of medicine. Initially, third year medical students were surveyed about energy use in daily life. For the three departments, we used secondary data, including paper and ink use from department of education, diesel use from department of transportation, and chemical substances and electricity use from laboratory. We also created learning activity for third year medical students and collected them the opinions about carbon dioxide reduction. Finally, we presented the results and opinions to the heads of three departments. The results showed that third year medical students emitted carbon dioxide approximately 2.01-ton CO2 eq/year/person in daily life and gave the opinions about carbon dioxide reduction. Carbon footprint of three departments, including Department of Education, Transportation and Laboratory are 5.92, 6.43, 25.65-ton CO2 eq/year, respectively. For pre-test and post-test in topic climate change and carbon footprint, the third-year medical students have average score of 85.2%, 97.8 %, 54.8%, 86.6%, respectively