CO2 Emission from Brickfields in Bangladesh: Can Ethical Responsibility by Doing Reduce Level of Emission?

Recent years’ rapid urbanization and then rural to urban migration have created increasing demands of bricks usages in Bangladesh. However, brick industry has been largely using inefficient, dirty technology and burns woods-coal. It injects huge volume of CO2 in atmosphere. For policy guidance on the issue, this study analyzes the basic issues of CO2 emission from brickfields in terms of marginal damage (MD) analysis. Findings show that the marginal social costs are higher than marginal private (producer of bricks) costs where brickfields are benefiting with the expense of Bangladeshi society as a whole. As time passes by, rises of brick-prices have been causing upward trends of welfare losses where producers’ surpluses are dominating in the total surplus. This economic situation has been causing higher deadweight loss year after year. Addressing the issues, national strategies and policy actions are needed. Reforestation efforts can be achieved in multi-faucets: brick-fields’ charity, government policies on planting trees & policies on motivational efforts inspiring citizens of Bangladesh. Motivational policy can be: i) inspiring celebration individual’s “Birthday, Having 1st child in family and Event of marriage” by planting trees, ii) forcing to utilize green tech in brick kilns and iii) conducting academic research where financial supports are in need. Keywords: brickfields, effluent gases emission, causes social costs & deadweight loss, reforestation, motivational efforts of government policies

Implementation of an automated dryer with solar collector

This research work consists of the development of an automated sustainable drying system using forced and preheated air to reduce the production time of handmade bricks, so a dryer witha solar collector wasimplemented to take advantage of the energy from solar radiation. A virtualinstrument was developed, which allows to visualize the variables of temperature and humidityinside the drying chamber, additionally a temperature control was implemented, this control allows the system to maintain a constant temperature during the drying process. Samples were taken from the production of the brick kiln “El Tejar” and dried by this device, thenthe drying times and their physical and mechanical properties were compared, finding that the bricks dried with the proposed prototype retained these properties. As for the compressive strength tests for samples of both processes was around 30.6 Kgf/cm2 and 31.2 Kgf/cm2, the deflection resistance was around 1.2 Kgf/cm2 and 1.3 Kgf/cm2, the initial absorption rate was around 0.3 g/cm2/min and 0.4 g/cm2/min, and finally the percentage of water absorption for both processes were around 12.9% and 13.1%. The difference lies in the drying times, since drying in the artisanal brick kilns takes about 15 daysin the proposed dryer takes 9 days, resulting in a decrease of 40% in this process.

Extent and Determinants of Poverty among Rural Non-Farm Workers in Punjab

The economy of Punjab has been undergoing the process of structural change. The share of the primary sector in total employment has declined at a slower rate. Trends have that people are shifting to the non-farm sector as there is little potential in the agricultural sector to generate additional employment opportunities. The number of non-farm workers is increasing continuously in Punjab. In the non-farm sector, most of the regular jobs are being created in manufacturing and services. The non-manufacturing sector is mainly creating casual employment opportunities. In this background, the present paper examines the poverty status of the rural non-farm workers in Punjab. Using a sample of 659 households from the three districts of Punjab, the study reveals that about 19 percent of the non-farm workers live below the poverty line and 5.27 percent are extremely poor. The incidence of poverty is higher among the SC households than other castes. The workers, who are employed in casual jobs, are more prone to poverty. The greatest proportion of those living below the poverty line can be found in the case of the workers employed in brick kilns and in electronics repair works. About 37 percent of those working as construction workers, loaders in the grain market or in MGNREGS, are living below the poverty line. All of the wage workers in these three categories are poor and vulnerable. The proportion of non poor workers increases and that of living below the poverty line declines with the increase in the level of education and increase in the size of land ownership.

Permeability Analysis of Dredged Material and Its Stabilization Using Surkhi/Brick Dust

This study presents the permeability and strong relationship of dredged soil stabilized with surkhi/brick dust which is to be used for constructing road embankments. Tests like the unconfined compressive strength test and the falling head permeability test were conducted. The test results showed that as the percentage replacement of surkhi increases, the samples become less permeable. Showing that the surkhi tends to cover up the pore spaces of the soil, causing the water to have fewer passageways. Large amount of sediments are dredged from rivers and lakes as a result of environmental dredging in India. These dredged materials (DM) have poor Geotechnical properties and are normally treated as wastes. On the other Hand, there is a huge demand of sub-grade materials due to the increasing number of highway construction projects in the J&K. Thus, the reuse of the dredged material as sub-grade material may be considered as an Environmental-friendly and economical option. For the stabilization of dredged material various waste materials can be effectively used. brick dust is one such waste product. The surkhi/brick dust is generated from brick kilns. The amount of brick dust produced every year is in the range of 3-4 million ton. This project therefore intends to study the stabilization of dredged material procured from Sindh Nallah having a higher content of alluvial Soil using Surkhi/Brick dust as an additive. Soil stabilization by this means can be utilized on airport pavements, highway pavements, earthen dams and many other situations where sub-soils are not suitable for construction. Keywords: dredged material Sindh Nallah, surkhi, Dredged soil, CBR, UCS, proctor test, porosity, void ratio and permeability

College Students’ Willingness to Separate Municipal Waste and Its Influencing Factors: A Case Study in Chongqing, China

College students are the engine of the sustainability of the future, and their awareness of environmental protection and waste classification is very important for the sustainable implementation of urban solid waste separation projects. Chongqing is one of the first 46 waste separation pilot cities in China. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the municipal waste separation behavior of college students and its influencing factors. Data from a total of 814 questionnaires among college students from sixteen universities in Chongqing were collected. Results showed that most college students think it is necessary to separate waste, and they have executed it in their daily life. Students have a high accuracy in classifying perishable waste, but they are not familiar with the classification of waste lamps, bulbs (14.00%), expired drugs (30.71%), toilet paper (11.3%), peel (18.80%) and brick kilns (27.76%). Special attention should be paid to distinguishing recyclables and other wastes. The principal factors that affect students’ willingness to classify waste are attitude, situational factors and publicity and education, which are embodied in students’ attitude towards waste separation, the surrounding environmental hygiene, the convenience of waste separation, the ease of understanding of waste separation marks and the degree of publicity and education of the school. Four measures are recommended for improving students’ willingness to separate municipal waste based on this investigation.

Solid Biofuels Scenarios from Rural Agricultural and Forestry Residues for Mexican Industrial SMEs

In Mexico, as in the rest of the world, the industry sector is frequently highly dependent on fossil fuels; in addition, energy transformation processes are not very efficient and scarcely oriented towards climate change mitigation. Given these facts, solid biofuels (SBFs) from agricultural and forestry residues from rural areas may represent an alternative that contributes to the decarbonization of the industrial sector, especially in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). From an economic and climate change mitigation perspective, this study evaluates harnessing SBFs in SMEs related to lime, bricks, dairy products, craft beer, and artisanal mezcal (a well-known Mexican distilled alcoholic beverage), products mainly manufactured in rural areas of Mexico. For each of these SMEs, we constructed two energy consumption scenarios that span from 2018 to 2050. On the one hand, a baseline scenario (BS) that reflects the behaviour of historical energy consumption in Mexico and, on the other hand, an alternative scenario (AS) that proposes the use of SBFs with modern and efficient technologies and sustainable inputs of agricultural and forestry residues originated mainly from rural areas. According to our results, a comparison between the two scenarios reveals that two out of five SMEs industrial niches studied, appear with mitigation costs in the AS namely brick kilns, and limekilns SMEs that have mitigation costs of 9.99 and 19.74 USD/tCO2e, respectively, primarily due to the high investment cost of the new MK2 kilns and the relatively high cost of pellets, respectively. Since these niches have high mitigation potentials (7.77 MtCO2e for brick kilns and 2.83 MtCO2e for limekilns), their implementation requires adequate incentives and financing. On the contrary, the dairy, craft beer, and mezcal SMEs niches have negative mitigation costs (−14.30, −10.68, −0.98) USD/tCO2e, mainly due to the high savings in the cost of fossil fuels and their materialization, especially for the mezcal niche which has a mitigation potential of 2.97 MtCO2e, requires only an adequate regulatory and normative framework. We conclude that using commercial SBFs (pellets, briquettes, and traditional firewood) in SMEs niches contribute to generating formal markets with adequate distribution channels, both for SBFs and sustainable residual biomass inputs (residual firewood, agave bagasse, and spent barley grain). This alternative scenario also promotes the creation of green jobs in agricultural and forestry areas, adding an economic value to residual biomass inputs not previously considered and contributing to the social development of rural areas.

Geo-Spatial Distribution and Comparative Assessment of Brick Kiln Industry: Appraisal on Kulpi Block in Diamond Harbour Sub-Division, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

Brick is one of the most important building materials and the demand of it is continuously rising for high increasing of population and the demand for settlement growth. Brick kilns in India are considered by traditional types of manufacturing and established as a significant industry in the unorganized sector. Percentage of female worker is more than male and in most of the cases total family be involved. Indian brick industry is the second biggest in the world after the China which provides livelihood. Among 9 Blocks of Diamond Harbour Sub-Division, Kulpi is the largest block based on number of brick kiln industry. Total brick kiln of the Sub division is 101. But Kulpi has 44 Brick Kilns (equal to 43.46%) covering an area of 60,000 Bigha or 80.3 Sq. Kms acquiring 25.83 % area of the Block itself. Author has attempted to observe the geo-spatial scenario and analysis of brick kiln industry of Kulpi block. Keywords: Locational Status, Brick Kiln Industry, Distribution, Comparison, Analysis, Kulpi Block