scholarly journals Dealing with Plastic Waste from Agriculture Activity

Agronomy ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Teresa Batista ◽  
Isabel Pestana da Paixão Cansado ◽  
Barbara Tita ◽  
Ana Ilhéu ◽  
Luis Metrogos ◽  
...  

The increase in agricultural production and food quality has forced the growing use of plastics in various activities. The plastic wastes are partially recycled in or outside Portugal; nevertheless, the contaminated wastes are sent to landfill. It is crucial to consider new models for their valorization at a regional level and from a circular economy perspective. In the scope of the Placarvões project, a study was elaborated, which included the types and quantities of plastics used in the irrigation area of the Alqueva Dam, in southern Portugal. The crops that use the most plastic are intensive olive groves, almonds, and table grapes, which represent more than 91% of total plastic waste. The production of activated carbons (ACs) is a solution to avoid plastics landfill. ACs were produced from plastic used on food packaging (PB-Samples) and sheeting film (PS-Samples) by activation with K2CO3. ACs presented well-developed textural properties (PB-K2CO3-1:1–700 and PS-K2CO3-1:1–700 exhibited a volume of 0.32 and 0.25 cm3 g−1 and an apparent surface area of 723 and 623 m2 g−1, respectively). Both ACs performed very well concerning four pesticide removals from the liquid phase. This solution is very promising, such these ACs could be applied in effluent treatments on a large scale.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bùi Thị Bích Lan

In Vietnam, the construction of hydropower projects has contributed significantly in the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country. The place where hydropower projects are built is mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities - communities that rely primarily on land, a very important source of livelihood security. In the context of the lack of common productive land in resettlement areas, the orientation for agricultural production is to promote indigenous knowledge combined with increasing scientific and technical application; shifting from small-scale production practices to large-scale commodity production. However, the research results of this article show that many obstacles in the transition process are being posed such as limitations on natural resources, traditional production thinking or the suitability and effectiveness of scientific - technical application models. When agricultural production does not ensure food security, a number of implications for people’s lives are increasingly evident, such as poverty, preserving cultural identity, social relations and resource protection. Since then, it has set the role of the State in researching and building appropriate agricultural production models to exploit local strengths and ensure sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oskar Englund ◽  
Pål Börjesson ◽  
Blas Mola-Yudego ◽  
Göran Berndes ◽  
Ioannis Dimitriou ◽  
...  

AbstractWithin the scope of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, in coherence with other EU policies, new incentives are developed for farmers to deploy practices that are beneficial for climate, water, soil, air, and biodiversity. Such practices include establishment of multifunctional biomass production systems, designed to reduce environmental impacts while providing biomass for food, feed, bioenergy, and other biobased products. Here, we model three scenarios of large-scale deployment for two such systems, riparian buffers and windbreaks, across over 81,000 landscapes in Europe, and quantify the corresponding areas, biomass output, and environmental benefits. The results show that these systems can effectively reduce nitrogen emissions to water and soil loss by wind erosion, while simultaneously providing substantial environmental co-benefits, having limited negative effects on current agricultural production. This kind of beneficial land-use change using strategic perennialization is important for meeting environmental objectives while advancing towards a sustainable bioeconomy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-cai Fan ◽  
Quan Jin ◽  
Hua-li He ◽  
Ren Ren ◽  
Shu-ting Wang

Abstract Background: Phthalate esters (PAEs) are a group of chemical compounds widely used as plasticizers to increase the flexibility of plastics that are used in the manufacturing of kitchen utensils and food containers. Objective: In this study, a simple, rapid, and sensitive method for the determination of 20 PAEs in different kinds of food packaging materials has been developed. Methods: Samples injected with five internal standards were extracted with acetonitrile saturated with n-hexane and then detected by GC-MS/MS without a purification step. Results: The standard calibration curves were linear for all analytes over the concentration range of 5–500 μg/L, and the correlation coefficients ranged from 0.9913 to 0.9999. The LODs and LOQs were in the ranges of 1.7–62.5 and 5.5–208.3 μg/kg, respectively. The accuracy of this method was evaluated by measuring the recovery from spiked samples. The recoveries of all 20 phthalates from samples spiked at three different concentrations were measured, and the recovery was in the range of 82.1–110.8% and the relative standard deviation range of recovery result (n = 6) was 0.3–9.7%. Conclusions: The method presented here is simple, rapid, and sensitive and can be applied to large-scale detection of PAEs in plastic materials. Highlights: Instead of only one solvent, acetonitrile saturated with n-hexane was used as the extraction solvent. Samples were pretreated without a purification step. Five internal standards were used for quantitative determination.


2018 ◽  
Vol 295 ◽  
pp. S96
Author(s):  
M. Smieško ◽  
C. Don ◽  
R. Meuwly ◽  
S. Kucsera ◽  
B.J. Brüschweiler

Author(s):  
А.И. Клименко ◽  
М.А. Холодова

Современная трансформация сельскохозяйственного производства, обусловленная переходом к цифровым технологиям и масштабным обновлением материальнотехнической базы, влечет за собой необходимость разработки научно обоснованной методики планирования потребности аграрного производства в рабочей силе и ее адаптации к новым вызовам. Статья посвящена разработке методики планирования кадрового потенциала аграрного сектора экономики в условиях цифровых технологий. Разработан алгоритм планирования кадровой потребности отрасли на среднесрочную перспективу. Ключевыми показателями плановой работы по определению потребности в кадровом обеспечении согласно методике должны выступить контрольные цифры приема в образовательные учреждения и создание условий по обеспечению трудоустройства выпускников. С целью обоснования прогноза ежегодной дополнительной потребности аграрного сектора экономики в кадрах предложен расчетно-аналитический инструментарий с применением технологий стратегического форсайтинга, который позволяет в условиях формирования аграрной экономики инновационного типа сформировать новую парадигму прогнозирования кадровой потребности для сельскохозяйственного производства, демонстрирующую переход от сценарного (вариативного) подхода к подходу «тройная спираль». Подход «тройная спираль» не только позволит прогнозировать качественную динамику кадрового потенциала сельского хозяйства, учитывающую изменение условий труда, тенденции масштабной модернизации производственных фондов, применение современных технологий, достигнув максимального соответствия между ресурсным потенциалом отрасли и ее ежегодными кадровыми потребностями, но и будет способствовать созданию системы объективного государственного регулирования общего профессионального и дополнительного аграрного образования на региональном уровне. Практическая значимость исследования заключается в разработке организационно-экономического механизма государственного регулирования вопроса кадрового обеспечения на основе проектных методов управления в сельском хозяйстве, позволяющего сбалансировать ситуацию на аграрном рынке труда. The modern transformation of agricultural production, due to the transition to digital technologies and large-scale modernization of the material and technical base, entails the need to develop a scientifically based methodology for planning the needs of agricultural production in the labor force and its adaptation to new challenges. The article is devoted to the development of a methodology for planning the personnel potential of the agricultural sector of the economy in the context of digital technologies. An algorithm for planning the personnel needs of the industry for the medium-term perspective has been developed. The key indicators of the planned work to determine the need for personnel support according to the methodology should be the control figures for admission to educational institutions and the creation of conditions for ensuring the employment of graduates. In order to justify the forecast of the annual additional demand for personnel in the agricultural sector of the economy, a calculation and analytical tool is proposed with the use of strategic foresight technologies, which allows, in the conditions of the formation of an innovative agricultural economy, to form a new paradigm for predicting the personnel need for agricultural production, demonstrating the transition from a scenario (variable) approach to the «triple helix» approach. The «Triple Helix» approach will not only predict the qualitative dynamics of the human resource potential of agriculture, taking into account changes in working conditions, trends in large-scale modernization of production assets, the use of modern technologies, achieving maximum compliance between the resource potential of the industry and its annual human resource needs, but will also contribute to the creation of a system of objective state regulation of general professional and additional agricultural education at the regional level. The practical significance of the study lies in the development of an organizational and economic mechanism for state regulation of the issue of labor security on the basis of project management methods in agriculture, which allows to balance the situation in the agricultural labor market.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-109
Author(s):  
Herling A Watania ◽  
Ellen Eva Poli ◽  
Xaverius Erick Lobja

The research objective was to determine and describe how the participation and role of the community around Lake Tondano to preserve Lake Tondano from the silting process. To get accurate data, there are several ways to collect data which are often called data collection techniques, including (1) Interview, (2) Observation, (3) Documentation study. This research uses qualitative methods with qualitative descriptive analysis, namely by collecting, managing, presenting, and describing the research results as they are. Based on the results of the research, it is known that the form of community participation in the rehabilitation of Lake Tondano includes: (a) Community participation in the South Tondano sub-district is actively planting replacement trees around the lake, making terraces in the hills around the lake, continuous socialization to the community around the lake, and The community no longer throws plastic waste into waterways, either sewers or rivers, so that the lake ecosystem is maintained. Another participation is that the local community is also obliged to provide information to the sub-district or village government if there are people who try to destroy the forest carelessly around the lake and people who deliberately dump plastic waste on a large scale into waterways in the form of ditches and rivers. Also, the local community has followed government regulations regarding the preservation of Lake Tondano; (b) Other types of participation contributed by the community in South Tondano sub-district, including; a) participation of ideas or ideas, b) participation of personnel, c) participation of assets, d) participation of skills and skills and e) social participation. Forms of community participation in the environmental conservation of Lake Tondano are in the form of; a) active participation, b) passive participation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Maja PODGORNIK

The more frequent and intense extreme weather events (higher temperatures – the intensity and frequency of heat weaves, more and longer periods of drought) and weather-related diseases and pests, that have caused the greatest damage to olive production in the recent years, are a warning that urgent changes to Slovenian olive culture are needed. Due to the realisation that adaptations of agricultural production to climatic changes can have negative effects on the environment (water, soil), we conducted an experiment to determine the actual effect of adaptations of agro-technical management on the dynamics of nitrate and copper in the soil. The results of the study have shown that irrigation in combination with the technology of soil cultivation have effect on the allocation, migration and content of nitrate and copper in the soil of olive groves. Along with the fact that applied water allows the undisturbed absorption of nutrients into the plant, it can also improve the conditions for mineralisation and decomposition of organic matter, which is heavily dependent on the type of soil cultivation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Bernardo ◽  
Nuno Lapa ◽  
Isabel Fonseca ◽  
Isabel A. A. C. Esteves

Porous carbon materials, derived from biomass wastes and/or as by-products, are considered versatile, economical and environmentally sustainable. Recently, their high adsorption capacity has led to an increased interest in several environmental applications related to separation/purification both in liquid- and gas-phases. Specifically, their use in carbon dioxide (CO2) capture/sequestration has been a hot topic in the framework of gas adsorption applications. Cost effective biomass porous carbons with enhanced textural properties and high CO2 uptakes present themselves as attractive alternative adsorbents with potential to be used in CO2 capture/separation, apart from zeolites, commercial activated carbons and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The renewable and sustainable character of the precursor of these bioadsorbents must be highlighted in the context of a circular-economy and emergent renewable energy market to reach the EU climate and energy goals. This mini-review summarizes the current understandings and discussions about the development of porous carbons derived from bio-wastes, focusing their application to capture CO2 and upgrade biogas to biomethane by adsorption-based processes. Biogas is composed by 55–65 v/v% of methane (CH4) mainly in 35–45 v/v% of CO2. The biogas upgraded to bio-CH4 (97%v/v) through an adsorption process yields after proper conditioning to high quality biomethane and replaces natural gas of fossil source. The circular-economy impact of bio-CH4 production is further enhanced by the use of biomass-derived porous carbons employed in the production process.


2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1283-1309 ◽  
Author(s):  
PALLAVI V. DAS

AbstractRecent studies have stressed the need for micro-histories of the environment so that important differences and similarities at local, regional and national level might be revealed. This paper analyses the process and patterns of environmental degradation at regional level by taking the case of deforestation in colonial Punjab by studying its implication at the level of empire. More specifically, it examines three aspects of how the operation and expansion of railways from 1869 to 1884, a peak period of railway expansion, affected the forests of the Punjab's plains. First, the paper analyses the reasons for large-scale railway expansion in the Punjab by discussing spatial and temporal expansion. Secondly, the impact of the railway firewood demand on the Punjab's forests between 1860 and 1884 is examined, specifically, the conditions that facilitated the increased dependence of the railways on firewood. Next follows an examination of the temporally varying nature of deforestation, given that railway firewood demand was determined by railway line openings. This section also includes a discussion on the nature of the colonial state response to the deforestation crisis and its role in maintaining the fuel supply to the railways. Finally, in the context of deforestation in the Punjab, the paper discusses how and why railway fuel changed from firewood to coal.


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