scholarly journals Rural plastic emissions into the largest mountain lake of the Eastern Carpathians

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 172396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florin-Constantin Mihai
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Mountain Lake ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Eastern Carpathians ◽  
Rural Municipalities ◽  
Major Floods

The lack of proper waste collection systems leads to plastic pollution in rivers in proximity to rural communities. This environmental threat is more widespread among mountain communities which are prone to frequent flash floods during the warm season. This paper estimates the amounts of plastic bottles dumped into the Izvoru Muntelui lake by upstream rural communities. The plastic pollution dimension between seasonal floods which affected the Bistrita catchment area during 2005–2012 is examined. The floods dumped over 290 tonnes of plastic bottles into the lake. Various scenarios are tested in order to explain each amount of plastic waste collected by local authorities during sanitation activities. The results show that rural municipalities are responsible for 85.51% of total plastic bottles collected during 2005–2010. The source of plastic pollution is mainly local. The major floods of July 2008 and June 2010 collected most of the plastic bottles scattered across the Bistrita river catchment (56 villages) and dumped them into the lake. These comparisons validate the proposed method as a reliable tool in the assessment process of river plastic pollution, which may also be applied in other geographical areas. Tourism and leisure activities are also found to be responsible for plastic pollution in the study area. A new regional integrated waste management system should improve the waste collection services across rural municipalities at the county level when it is fully operational. This paper demonstrates that rural communities are significant contributors of plastics into water bodies.

scholarly journals Rural plastic emissions into the largestmountain lake of the Eastern Carpathians

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florin Constantin MIHAI
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Environmental Threat ◽  
Eastern Carpathians ◽  
Rural Municipalities ◽  
Major Floods

The lack of proper waste collection systems leads to plastic pollution in rivers in proximity to rural communities. This environmental threat is more widespread among mountain communities which are prone to frequent flash floods during the warm season. This paper estimates the amounts of plasticbottles dumped into the Izvoru Muntelui lake by upstream rural communities. The plastic pollution dimension between seasonal floods which affected the Bistrita catchment area during 2005–2012 is examined. The floods dumped over 290 tonnes of plastic bottles into the lake. Various scenarios are tested in order to explain each amount of plasticwaste collected by local authorities during sanitation activities. The results show that rural municipalities are responsible for 85.51% oftotal plastic bottles collected during 2005–2010. The source of plastic pollution is mainly local. The major floods of July 2008 and June 2010 collected most of the plastic bottles scattered across the Bistrita river catchment (56 villages) and dumped them into the lake. These comparisons validate the proposed method as a reliable tool in the assessment process of river plastic pollution, which may also be applied in othergeographical areas. Tourism and leisure activities are alsofound to be responsible for plastic pollution in the studyarea. A new regional integrated waste management system should improve the waste collection services across rural municipalities at the county level when it is fully operational. This paper demonstrates that rural communities are significant contributors of plastics into water bodies.

Social and Local Inequalities in Leisure. Adolescents’ Experiences in Their Living Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-194
Author(s):  
Isabelle Danic ◽  
Barbara Fontar ◽  
Agnès Grimault-Leprince
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Rural Municipalities ◽  
Geographical Accessibility

Abstract This article analyses how the political-institutional, spatial, social and symbolic dimensions of their living space influence teenagers’ leisure experiences, both separately and in conjunction with one another. We look in particular at how leisure policies for youth in France, as implemented by urban and rural municipalities, influence adolescents’ experience by defining opportunities, and how territorial inequalities combine with social inequalities. In this perspective, the article reports the results of research based on quantitative and qualitative surveys on leisure activities of teenagers living in diverse geographical and political territories, differentiated in terms of their leisure offer and its geographical accessibility. It appears that territorial inequalities in leisure and transport can be accentuated or compensated for by socio-familial resources and the representations that adolescents and their parents have of their living space.

scholarly journals Waste collection in rural communities: challenges under EU regulations. A Case study of Neamt County, Romania

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florin Constantin MIHAI
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Municipal Waste ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Municipal Waste Management ◽  
Administrative Unit ◽  
Open Dumping

The paper aims to examine the changes in the rural waste management sector at regional scale since the Romania adhesion to the EU in 2007. Traditional waste management based on the mixed waste collection and waste disposal often on improper sites prevailed in municipal waste management options of transitional economies across the globe. The lack of formal waste collection services in rural areas has encouraged the open dumping or backyard burning. The paper analyses the improvements and challenges of local authorities in order to fulfill the new EU requirements in this sector supported by data analysis at local administrative unit levels and field observations. Geographical analysis is compulsory in order to reveal the local disparities. The paper performs an assessment of waste collection issues across 78 rural municipalities within Neamt County. This sector is emerging in rural areas of Eastern Europe, but is far from an efficient municipal waste management system based on the waste hierarchy concept.

scholarly journals An Exploration of Revenue Structure Characteristics in Rural Municipalities

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Propheter
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Sales Tax ◽  
Total Revenue ◽  
Structure Characteristics ◽  
Revenue Structure ◽  
Local Option Sales Tax ◽  
Local Option ◽  
Rural Municipalities

This article tests for differences in revenue structure between small rural and nonrural municipalities. Colorado serves as a case study owing to its large number of small municipalities. Empirical analyses indicate that rural municipalities are less likely to adopt a local option sales tax, receive a smaller share of their total revenue from intergovernmental aid, and have less diversified tax systems compared to similarly sized nonrural municipalities. The article also shows these conclusions are sensitive to how one defines ruralness, indicating that what scholars know about public finance in rural communities is sensitive to the definition as well.

scholarly journals Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 369 (6510) ◽  
pp. 1455-1461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie W. Y. Lau ◽  
Yonathan Shiran ◽  
Richard M. Bailey ◽  
Ed Cook ◽  
Martin R. Stuchtey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Municipal Solid Waste ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Concerted Action ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Global Action ◽  
Stocks And Flows ◽  
Business As Usual

Plastic pollution is a pervasive and growing problem. To estimate the effectiveness of interventions to reduce plastic pollution, we modeled stocks and flows of municipal solid waste and four sources of microplastics through the global plastic system for five scenarios between 2016 and 2040. Implementing all feasible interventions reduced plastic pollution by 40% from 2016 rates and 78% relative to “business as usual” in 2040. Even with immediate and concerted action, 710 million metric tons of plastic waste cumulatively entered aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. To avoid a massive build-up of plastic in the environment, coordinated global action is urgently needed to reduce plastic consumption; increase rates of reuse, waste collection, and recycling; expand safe disposal systems; and accelerate innovation in the plastic value chain.

Marine plastic waste input between 1990-2015 and potential beaching scenarios

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Laufkoetter ◽  
Kevin Lang ◽  
Fabio Benedetti ◽  
Victor Onink ◽  
Meike Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linear Mixed Model ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Lagrangian Model ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Waste Production

<p>Marine plastic pollution has been recognized as a serious issue of global concern with substantial risks for marine ecosystems, fisheries, and food supply to people. Yet, the amount of plastic entering the ocean from land and rivers is barely understood. Currently, estimates exist for the coastal plastic input in the year 2010 on country-level resolution and for riverine plastic input for the year 2017. Key limitations are the restricted data availability on plastic waste production, waste collection and waste management. In addition, the transport of mismanaged plastic via wind and rivers is currently not well understood.</p><p>We present a model to estimate the global plastic input to the ocean for the years 1990-2015 on a 0.1x0.1° raster. To this end, we first train a machine learning model (random forests) and a linear mixed model to predict plastic waste production on country level, using data of municipal waste collection and several socio-economic predictor variables. We then estimate the amount of plastic waste that enters the environment, using high resolution population data and waste management data of each country. This is combined with distance-based probabilities of land and river transport to obtain the annual amount of plastic entering the ocean on a 0.1x0.1° spatial resolution. Our results indicate that global plastic waste production increased roughly linearly between 1990 to 2015. However, estimating the amount of mismanaged waste and the subsequent transport towards the ocean is afflicted with high uncertainties.</p><p>We then use the estimated plastic input into the ocean to force several Lagrangian model runs. These Lagrangian simulations include different parameterizations of plastic beaching, in particular they vary in terms of the beaching probabilities and the assumed residence time of plastic on beaches. We present the global distribution of beached plastic and the size of the reservoir of beached plastic in these model scenarios.</p>

How ‘age-friendly’ are rural communities and what community characteristics are related to age-friendliness? The case of rural Manitoba, Canada

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
VERENA H. MENEC ◽  
LOUISE HUTTON ◽  
NANCY NEWALL ◽  
SCOTT NOWICKI ◽  
JOHN SPINA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
World Health ◽  
Community Characteristics ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
The Social

ABSTRACTSince the World Health Organization introduced the concept of ‘age-friendly’ communities in 2006, there has been rapidly growing interest in making communities more age-friendly on the part of policy makers world-wide. There is a paucity of research to date, however, that has examined age-friendliness in diverse communities, particularly in rural communities. The main objective of the study reported in this paper was to examine whether age-friendliness varies across community characteristics, such as a population size. The study was based on surveys administered in 56 communities throughout Manitoba, a mid-Western Canadian province, in the context of a needs assessment process for communities that are part of the Age-Friendly Manitoba Initiative. A total of 1,373 individuals completed a survey developed to measure age-friendliness. Domains included the physical environment; housing options; the social environment; opportunities for participation; community supports and health-care services; transportation options; and communication and information. Community characteristics were derived from census data. Multi-level regression analysis indicated that the higher the percentage of residents aged 65 or older, the higher the ratings of age-friendliness overall and, specifically, ratings of the social environment, opportunities for participation, and communication and information. Moreover, small communities located within a census metropolitan area and remote communities in the far north of the province emerged as having the lowest age-friendliness ratings. These findings suggest that communities are generally responsive to the needs of their older residents. That different results were obtained for the various age-friendly domains underscores the importance of considering age-friendliness in a holistic way and measuring it in terms of a range of community features. Our study further highlights the importance of differentiating between degrees of rurality, as different patterns emerged for communities of different sizes and proximity to a larger urban centre.

scholarly journals Role of Waste Collection Efficiency in Providing a Cleaner Rural Environment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florin Constantin MIHAI ◽  
Adrian Grozavu
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Collection Efficiency ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Environmental Threat ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Illegal Waste ◽  
Improve Cost ◽  
Home Composting

The exposure of rural communities to illegal waste dumping practices associated with the lack of or poor waste collection schemes prior to the closure of rural dumpsites under EU regulations and the role of collection efficiency afterward in reducing this critical environmental threat constitutes a key issue in rural Romania. The present study reveals huge amounts of household uncollected waste released into the natural environment outside the official statistics of rural dumpsites. Despite the expansion of waste collection coverage towards rural areas since 2010, the problem of illegal dumping practice is difficult to solve. The improvement of collection efficiency, better law enforcement, and surveillance of environmental authorities coupled with educational and environmental awareness are necessary steps to combat this bad practice. A circular economy paradigm must be enacted in rural regions through separate collection schemes and to improve cost-efficient alternatives, such as home composting, and traditional and creative reuse practices, particularly in less developed regions.

scholarly journals Plastic Pollution, Waste Management Issues, and Circular Economy Opportunities in Rural Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Florin-Constantin Mihai ◽  
Sedat Gündoğdu ◽  
Laura A. Markley ◽  
Arianna Olivelli ◽  
Farhan R. Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Pollution Effects ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Management Issues

Rural areas are exposed to severe environmental pollution issues fed by industrial and agricultural activities combined with poor waste and sanitation management practices, struggling to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in line with Agenda 2030. Rural communities are examined through a “dual approach” as both contributors and receivers of plastic pollution leakage into the natural environment (through the air–water–soil–biota nexus). Despite the emerging trend of plastic pollution research, in this paper, we identify few studies investigating rural communities. Therefore, proxy analysis of peer-reviewed literature is required to outline the significant gaps related to plastic pollution and plastic waste management issues in rural regions. This work focuses on key stages such as (i) plastic pollution effects on rural communities, (ii) plastic pollution generated by rural communities, (iii) the development of a rural waste management sector in low- and middle-income countries in line with the SDGs, and (iv) circular economy opportunities to reduce plastic pollution in rural areas. We conclude that rural communities must be involved in both future plastic pollution and circular economy research to help decision makers reduce environmental and public health threats, and to catalyze circular initiatives in rural areas around the world, including less developed communities.

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