Africa is not alone in its growth in domestic electronics users. Research in China and Peru has documented similar trends, with a burgeoning class of people who can afford to buy new and secondhand devices. By sometime between 2016 and 2018, domestic generation of e-waste in developing countries will outstrip generation in developed countries, says Williams.5 In the case of Peru, however, at least one company has profited by buying discarded electronics, often originating from the United States and elsewhere, and selling them to Aurubis,6 a state-of-the-art facility in Germany that is one of only five in the world equipped to properly process the hazardous components of circuit boards.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.120-a148

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There is increasing interest in the use of biodegradable materials because they are believed to be “greener”. In a landfill, these materials degrade anaerobically to form methane and carbon dioxide. The fraction of the methane that is collected can be utilized as an energy source and the fraction of the biogenic carbon that does not decompose is stored in the landfill. A landfill life-cycle model was developed to represent the behavior of MSW components and new materials disposed in a landfill representative of the U.S. average with respect to gas collection and utilization over a range of environmental conditions (i.e., arid, moderate wet, and bioreactor). The behavior of materials that biodegrade at relatively fast (food waste), medium (biodegradable polymer) and slow (newsprint and office paper) rates was studied. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyoctanoate) (PHBO) was selected as illustrative for an emerging biodegradable polymer. Global warming potentials (GWP) of 26, 720, −1000, 990, and 1300 kg CO2e wet Mg–1 were estimated for MSW, food waste, newsprint, office paper, and PHBO, respectively in a national average landfill. In a state-of-the-art landfill with gas collection and electricity generation, GWP’s of −250, 330, −1400, −96, and −420 kg CO2e wet Mg–1 were estimated for MSW, food waste, newsprint, office paper and PHBO, respectively. Additional simulations showed that for a hypothetical material, a slower biodegradation rate and a lower extent of biodegradation improve the environmental performance of a material in a landfill representative of national average conditions.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es200721s

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Co-gasification using the gasification and melting system (Direct Melting System) has a possibility to recover materials effectively. More than 90% of chlorine is distributed in fly ash. Low-boiling-point heavy metals, such as lead and zinc, are distributed in fly ash at rates of 95.2% and 92.0%, respectively. Most of high-boiling-point heavy metals, such as iron and copper, are distributed in metal. It is also clarified that slag is stable and contains few harmful heavy metals such as lead. Compared with the conventional waste management framework, 85% of the final landfill amount reduction is achieved by co-gasification of municipal solid waste with bottom ash and incombustible residues. These results indicate that the combined production of slag with co-gasification of municipal solid waste with the bottom ash constitutes an ideal approach to environmental conservation and resource recycling.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2011.10.019

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We estimated the amount of waste reduction induced by the use of refills for shampoo and hair conditioner in Japan using point-of-sales (POS) data collected by retailers. The amount of waste reduction estimated was about 276 in fiscal year 2000, and increased to about 54% in fiscal year 2008, contributing to a waste reduction of 14,700 tonnes in that year. The POS data indicated that the unit prices of refillable products were lower than those of non-refillable products, which would be the main reason for the successful proliferation of refill products. The applicability of using the POS data to estimate the amount of waste prevention for refill and other products was also examined. In cases where detailed product data exist and there is relatively a simple product substitution, the applicability of this methodology would be higher.

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2011.09.019

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Overall, this study found that there was no increase in the levels of compounds with dioxin-like activity in a population living close to an MSWI, in agreement with the literature reviewed, for plants of recent construction using state-of-the-art technology.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.09.009

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