Documents waste 36 results

"The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the world, and its impact has permeated virtually all facets of society. The next wave of the COVID-19 shock will trigger another or more protracted recession in many countries, with annual growth projected to fall below recessionary thresholds. The resulting hit to global income as compared with forecasts for 2020 and 2021 will be enormous. The situation will be more precarious for developing countries across different income categories that are struggling with unsustainable debt burdens. Firms should implement business-continuity plans and ensure readiness for business constraints by prioritizing critical business activities and creating contingency plans for disruption. Governments should implement support programs to avert these difficulties. The shock to labor supply in each country should be managed in a manner that does not leave a post-COVID-19 world more disastrous. Close cooperation among all relevant actors is key to containing COVID-19 and mitigating its economic repercussions on countries around the globe. In addition, better waste management and commitment to climate change must take center stage to reduce the environmental impacts of COVID-19 on countries and the world."

"This volume addresses the controversial nature of the relationship between science and environmental law. Much as politicians might wish otherwise, environmental decisions cannot be made solely by a scientific analysis of the situation, since they ultimately involve political choices, frequently between fundamentally divided interests. There is an increasingly apparent tension between the need for independent expert input, in technical areas such as cost benefit assessment as well as in the natural sciences, and adequate public involvement. The second part of this volume looks at the area of waste, in particular the Landfill Directive and the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive and their implementation in Italy and the UK. These essays demonstrate very clearly that waste regulation is far from a simple technical or scientific issue, but is capable of provoking serious political and cultural questions.

This volume includes contributions from some of Europe's leading commentators in this area, from diverse professional and national backgrounds."

"Time to connect the dots: what is the link between climate change policy and the circular economy?
In December 2015, the European Commission published the new Circular Economy Package, containing a host of initiatives to reduce waste and to increase the longevity of products and materials, but it failed to set a headline target for reducing the EU's use of resources. Such a target could help to increase political attention and visibility of the issue, stimulate long-term ambitions and streamline the action of all actors – both public and private – towards reducing the consumption of natural resources.

In order to gain political support for such a target, this CEPS Policy Brief highlights two preconditions that need to be obtained:

i. First, the target needs to be based on an attractive vision for change shared by a majority of stakeholders (including business and industry).

ii. Second, it needs to be based on robust and consistent indicators across the EU – both on the public and on the company level.

Meeting these two preconditions will considerably ease the introduction of a policy mix aimed at fostering more circular business models."

"Nanomaterials are employed in extensive variety of commercial products such as electronic components, cosmetics, food, sports equipment, biomedical applications, and medicine. With the increasing utilization of engineered nanomaterials, the potential exposure of human to nanoparticles is rapidly increasing. Nowadays when new nanomaterials with new applications are introduced, mostly good and positive effects are mentioned whereas possible hazards arising from nanosize of the compounds are undermined. Toxicology studies of nanomaterials demonstrate some adverse effects in some human organs such as central nerve system, immune system, and lung. There is lack of complete information about human toxicity and environmental waste of nanomaterials. We aimed to highlight current toxicological concerns of potentially useful nanomaterials which are now used in pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences."

"L'Italia è stata fino agli anni ‘90 tra i maggiori produttori mondiali di amianto e nel 1992, è stata tra le prime nazioni a bandire tale sostanza a scala internazionale, stabilendo con Legge n. 257 del 27/3/1992 il divieto di estrazione - importazione - esportazione - commercializzazione - produzione di amianto - di prodotti di amianto - di prodotti contenenti amianto. Tale Legge non impone però l'obbligo di dismissione di tale sostanza o dei materiali che la contengono, pertanto ancor oggi risultano numerosi i siti contaminati da bonificare e rilevanti sono i quantitativi dei Rifiuti Contenenti Amianto da smaltire.
L'Italia ha emanato numerose norme tecniche di settore tra cui le principali sono il D.Lgs. 277/1991, D.M. 6/9/1994, D.P.R. 8/8/1994, D.M. 26/10/1995, D.M. 15/5/1996, D.M. 20/8/1999, L. 93/2001, D.M. 101/2003, D.M. 248/2004, D.Lgs. 81/2008. Dette norme consentono di tutelare la sicurezza dei lavoratori esposti ad amianto, forniscono istruzioni in merito alla corretta mappatura su tutto il territorio nazionale dei siti contaminati da amianto e indicano come procedere alla gestione in sicurezza delle attività di bonifica dei siti inquinati da tale sostanza cancerogena. Pertanto è considerata paese leader nelle tecniche di individuazione e prevenzione del rischio di esposizioni indebite a tale sostanza cancerogena, sebbene si rilevino ancora significative lacune nella gestione dei flussi di Rifiuti Contenenti Amianto (RCA).
Nel corso della II Conferenza Governativa sull'Amianto del Novembre 2012, l'INAIL DIPIA ha presentato le risultanze della prima mappatura degli impianti di smaltimento che accettano Rifiuti Contenenti Amianto da cui è emerso che, a fronte degli elevati quantitativi di RCA ancora da smaltire, sul territorio nazionale vi è una insufficienza di discariche per tale tipologia di rifiuti. Tale carenza è stata altresì confermata nel Piano Nazionale Amianto e viene ribadita dal presente studio che, di seguito, illustra i dati aggiornati al 2013. Esso riporta il numero di discariche chiuse, in esercizio, sospese e in attesa di autorizzazione che accettano RCA. Inoltre vengono indicati i volumi smaltiti nell'anno 2012, il trend evolutivo rispetto al 2011, le volumetrie residue, le volumetrie future in attesa di autorizzazione ed alcune valutazioni delle informazioni acquisite considerando i dati sia a scala regionale che nazionale."

"Background
The population exposed to potentially hazardous substances through inappropriate and unsafe management practices related to disposal and recycling of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment, collectively known as e-waste, is increasing. We aimed to summarise the evidence for the association between such exposures and adverse health outcomes.
Methods
We systematically searched five electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycNET, and CINAHL) for studies assessing the association between exposure to e-waste and outcomes related to mental health and neurodevelopment, physical health, education, and violence and criminal behaviour, from Jan 1, 1965, to Dec 17, 2012, and yielded 2274 records. Of the 165 full-text articles assessed for eligibility, we excluded a further 142, resulting in the inclusion of 23 published epidemiological studies that met the predetermined criteria. All studies were from southeast China. We assessed evidence of a causal association between exposure to e-waste and health outcomes within the Bradford Hill framework.
Findings
We recorded plausible outcomes associated with exposure to e-waste including change in thyroid function, changes in cellular expression and function, adverse neonatal outcomes, changes in temperament and behaviour, and decreased lung function. Boys aged 8–9 years living in an e-waste recycling town had a lower forced vital capacity than did those living in a control town. Significant negative correlations between blood chromium concentrations and forced vital capacity in children aged 11 and 13 years were also reported. Findings from most studies showed increases in spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and premature births, and reduced birthweights and birth lengths associated with exposure to e-waste. People living in e-waste recycling towns or working in e-waste recycling had evidence of greater DNA damage than did those living in control towns. Studies of the effects of exposure to e-waste on thyroid function were not consistent. One study related exposure to e-waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment to educational outcomes."

"The information in this document relates to Health and Safety Statistics for 2012/13. There is a general downward trend in the rate of injury over the last eight years, but there is also significant year-to-year variation, especially in the number of fatalities. Injury numbers have been falling for the last four years or longer. Nevertheless, waste and recycling remains a high-risk industry. Although it accounts for only about 0.6% of the employees in Britain it still accounts for 2.8% of reported injuries to employees (11% fatalities, 2.6% major and 2.8% of over seven day injuries)."