Activity

We are facing the challenge of rapid growth in waste from electrical products (e-waste). In Europe, handling e-waste is regulated by the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, which is based on the extended producer responsibility (EPR) model as a regulatory tool forcing manufacturers and importers to take responsibility for their products throughout their lifecycles. However, the directive allows for great variations in implementations in each country, causing e-manufacturers and e-waste handling operators to face challenges in their transition to more sustainable operations. To identify the challenges involved, this study investigates the effect of the WEEE directive from a manufacturer’s perspective. A case study of an e-manufacturer operating subsidiaries in several European countries and the associated producer responsibility organizations (PROs) is presented. The case study includes interviews from 17 stakeholders in 12 organizations in eight European countries. Key findings are as follows. First, the WEEE data reported are not harmonized. Second, the calculations of the environmental fee differ across countries. Third, following up on different national WEEE obligations sometimes leads to over-reporting to avoid negative effects on environmental corporate social responsibility, brand reputation, and profitability. Fourth, outsourcing end-of-life (EoL) treatment responsibility to PROs is seen as positive by the manufacturer but results in a decoupling of the EPR and the operational EoL treatment, which may reduce efforts to transfer to a higher circularity level of its EEE products. Fifth, WEEE is considered a way for e-manufacturers to handle waste not to adopt a circular focus. This paper contributes to both practitioners and researchers within reverse logistics and sustainability by adding knowledge from real-life context of how EPR is implemented in WEEE.Numerous studies have examined how farmers are involved and behave in the use of pesticides, but what drives farmers’ intention to diminish pesticide applications is mostly unknown. This study explored farmers’ intention to minimize pesticide use, through the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and an adjusted form of the TPB, with perceived risk of loss as an additional variable to the original model. On a scale from 1 to 5, intention to reduce pesticide use had the lowest score of all variables (2.36), indicating that most farmers did not show intention to reduce pesticide use. Only 15.2% of the farmers were willing to reduce pesticide use, while 8.3% were undecided. check details Moreover, 58.2% of the farmers had high levels of perceived risk of loss by the reduction of pesticide use, which explained 37.3% of farmers’ intention. From the three variables of the TPB, attitudes had the highest score (3.34), indicating slightly favorable attitudes toward pesticide reduction, while perceived behavior control had the lowest score (2.70), indicating poor control of pesticide reduction. Also, the three basic variables of the TPB were positively correlated (P less then 0.01) with farmers’ intention to reduce pesticides, while a negative correlation (P less then 0.01) was noted between intention to reduce pesticides and perceived risk of loss. The three basic variables of the TPB were significant predictors of intention, capturing 54.7% of the variation in farmers’ intention. Adding perceived risk of loss as a construct to the TPB improved the predictive ability of the original model. Poor control of pesticide reduction (high-perceived barriers) and high perceived risk of loss drive farmers’ intention to reduce the use of pesticides. Advancing alternative crop protection methods focusing on agro-ecology and integrated pest management should be included in the work of extension services.This study aims to shed light on the determinants of energy poverty by examining the role of financial development. Notably, the study analyses the multidimensional effects of financial development (including two subsectors and three dimensions on five indicators of energy poverty). Various estimates are applied with a global sample of 65 economies, consisting of 36 low- and lower-middle-income economies and 29 upper-middle-income economies for 2002-2015. First, financial development can alleviate energy poverty. Second, the results are properly consistent across the two subsectors and three dimensions. Third, the two subsectors and three dimensions of financial development are found to reduce energy poverty in low- and lower-middle-income economies but have heteroscedastic effects in upper-middle-income economies.Tributyltin-based (TBT) antifouling paints, widely used for the treatment of flooded surfaces, have been banned in 2008 for their high environmental persistence and bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms. Although it is still present in aquatic ecosystems, oxidative stress driven by TBT has been still poorly investigated in fish. The aim of the study was to examine the time-course stress responses in liver of rainbow trout that received a single intraperitoneal injection of tributyltin chloride (TBTC) or tributyltin ethoxide (TBTE), both at a dose of 0.05 and 0.5 mg/kg. Levels of metallothioneins, total glutathione, malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase were evaluated at 3 and 6 days post-injection. Tin load was measured in the muscle of the same fish. Differences were observed in the time-course accumulation of tin with a clear dose-response relationship. Although individual oxidative stress biomarkers varied, the biomarker profile indicated different stress mechanisms caused by both TBTC and TBTE. The weak induction of metal-trapping metallothioneins and the changes of oxidative stress biomarkers suggested a stress-pressure in both TBT-treated trout, advising for an ecotoxicological risk for freshwater ecosystems.The location of emergency rescue resources is the basis for the supply of all kinds of materials required for rescue work. Appropriate selection of emergency resource locations can greatly improve the efficiency of emergency supplies. Based on the summary and analysis of the existing research on it, we aim to provide efficient and feasible models and solutions for the location and layout of emergency rescue resources. In optimizing the layout of emergency rescue resources, we have taken into account the dynamic characteristics of emergency demand, the needs of emergency efficiency, cost and fairness, and constructed an optimization model for emergency resource location and construction scale. At the same time, in order to reduce the scale of solving the multi-objective optimization problem under multiple disasters, improve the computational efficiency, and obtain the absolute optimal solution in the feasible region, two types of power function methods are proposed to solve the model basic efficacy coefficient method and unit cost utility method.