Recycling and Disassembly Planning

For some years, the massive spreading of technically complex products as well as the shortening of product life cycles have led to a constantly rising return flow of discarded technical devices. The removal of these devices today occurs mostly through disposal-oriented strategies, i.e. used products are shredded and finally stored in dumps or eliminated thermally in domestic refuse combustion plants. For a long time, the product flow was a one-way street. Public and legal pressure have led to an increase in the importance of environmentally-oriented aspects in both the industrial and private sector. This leads to a rising demand for the establishment of a cycle-oriented economy. The cycle-oriented economy aims to keep materials and products in economic circulation as long as possible. The objective of the cycle-oriented economy is motivated by the shortage of resources (energy and raw materials) and the shrinking of disposal areas (air, water, soil), as well as the realization that economically usable potentials are currently being thrown away (Gupta and Veerakamolmal, 1999). Disposal, as central component of the cycle-oriented economy, includes recycling. Recycling includes disassembly as a type of treatment. In contrast to other types of treatment, disassembly permits a higher maintenance of value of old products; however, it usually requires a higher expenditure as well. In contrast to alternative types of treatment (i.e. shredding), the recovery of functional components and assemblies for reuse (product recycling) and the possibility of the recovery of materials (material recycling) are possible advantages of conducting a disassembly process (Seliger and Kriwet, 1993). In general, disassembly follows the same objectives as production; thus remanufacturing is often spoken of (Rautenstrauch, 1999).

Spatial Monitoring and Routing System for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials

The concept of Environmental Information Systems (EIS) emerged from the concerns and the efforts carried on by world wide private and official organisations in order to promote an effective use of environmental data. These data are of various natures such as statistics, thematic maps, or documents describing the identification and the quantification of the environmental resources. The Environmental Information Systems became institutional tools providing pragmatic solutions for sustainable development in various fields. The objective of an EIS is to increase the quality and the efficiency in the decision-making process. To achieve this goal, the EIS requires the integration of various information processing technologies: Geographical Information Systems (GIS); Database Management Systems (DBMS); Space Imagery; Decision Support Systems (DSS); etc. However, the implementation of such an integration generates new requirements, namely data interoperability, data description by metadata, reverse engineering from existing applications and remote data access and data processing. This leads to the reconsideration of the analysis and design methodology.

A Structured Basket of Models for Global Change

This contribution presents four modelling frameworks that can be structured along their level of detail, their geographic coverage and their degree of quantification that are typical for each of these environmental information systems. All four describe a subset of the various aspects affecting global change: • Emissions • Energy • Land Use and Biomass • Economic and Social Parameters. The specific objective of this chapter is to present, discuss and evaluate the usability of the model concepts and their present stage of IT implementation for the target of inter-subjective assessment of the driving forces, mechanisms and effects of global change for the needs of practical planning on a local, national and/or global level. For each presented model, portfolios are displayed that briefly describe their positions and abilities. Target groups are public administrations and bodies representing economy and industry who are motivated to break down the concept of sustainability to practical action options while maintaining the larger scope, as is proposed by the traditions of technology assessment and systems thinking.

Cognitive Aspects on the Representation of Dynamic Environmental Phenomena Using Animations

Measurements from dynamic environmental phenomena have resulted in the acquisition and generation of an enormous amount of data. This upsurge in data availability can be attributed to the interdisciplinary nature of environmental problem solving and the wide range of acquisition technology involved. In essence, users are dealing with data that is complex in nature, multidimensional and probably of a temporal nature. Also, the frequency by which this data is acquired far exceeds the rate at which it is being explored, a factor that has accelerated the search for innovative approaches and tools in spatial data analysis. These attempts have seen both analytical and visual techniques being used as aids in presentation and scientific data exploration. Examples are seen in techniques as in: data mining, data exploration and visualization.

Environmental Informatics - Methods, Tools and Applications in Environmental Information Processing

The protection of our environment remains one of the greatest challenges in industrialized societies. This challenge is addressing politics, economy as well as technology and research. It is clear that the various problems in environmental protection, environmental planning, research and engineering can be only solved on the ground of a comprehensive and reliable information basis. State and dynamics of the environment are described by biological, physical, chemical, geological, meteorological, and social-economic data. This data is time and space dependent and addresses past or current states. The processing of this data and the production of information on the environment, on its stress factors, and on mutual influence mechanisms are fundamental for any kind of environmental planning and preventive measures. Therefore, environmental problem solving is mainly an information processing activity handling a wide range of environmental data. Solutions to our environmental problems are strongly dependent on the quality of accessible information sources. Certainly, information is a very critical factor in making decisive political actions and in changing people’s attitudes on the environment. This information on environmental aspects is just as important as basis for decisions on actions in environmental protection as for gaining knowledge in environmental research.

Meta Information System for Environmental Chemicals

Chemistry and the environmental sciences are scientific disciplines with an enormous output of and demand for data. As of June 8th, 2000, 16,813,792 organic and inorganic substances have been registered in the Registry File of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS, 2000). Since there is no indication that the increase in information in these fields will slow down within the foreseeable future, we shall have to cope with a growing flood of chemical and environmental information. A scientific approach is urgently needed to deal with this information abundance (Luckenbach, 1996). The enormous increase in chemical and environmental information implies a rise in on-line databases, CD-ROMs and Internet resources in these fields. With the estimated number of 304 million Internet users worldwide in March 2000 (NUA, 2000), many people have the tools to use these datasources. In contrast to that citizens of the European Union do not feel well informed about environmental affairs – despite the fact that environmental problems are an issue they are concerned about (Europäische Umweltagentur, 1999). This is a problem of availability and accessibility. The Internet and the World Wide Web offer a suitable platform for the dissemination of information, but in contrast to other information sources the Internet is still too unstructured, and searches lead to unpredictable, sometimes unusable results (Streuff, 2000).

Estimation of Amounts of Waste Generated from Healthcare Facilities

In response to government and public pressures, the healthcare industry has in the past few years directed a significant effort toward the proper and safe management of its medical waste streams. Medical waste is classified as a biohazardous waste, which according to a study published by the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (1990), may result in human infection and transfer of disease. This includes injury and infection with the Hepatitis B Virus (HVB) and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), by janitorial and laundry workers, nurses, emergency medical personnel, and refuse workers who may come into contact with medical waste. In a recent survey conducted in the United States and Japan, and reported by the World Heath Organization (WHO) (1994), it was found that injuries by sharps constitute about 1% to 2% per annum for nurses and maintenance workers and 18% per annum for outside waste management workers. In Japan, the survey indicated that injuries by sharps constitute about 67% for in-hospital waste handlers and 44% for outside waste management workers. In order to reduce the risks associated with medical waste, proper management mechanisms should be adopted by healthcare facilities to protect the health of the staff within the medical facility, waste collectors/workers, and the public once the waste has left the facility for final disposal. These mechanisms include waste identification, segregation, storage, and treatment. However, and as a first step in the implementation of a waste management system, the management of a medical facility should conduct an audit of the generated waste streams.

Using Environmental Information Efficiently

Environmental information systems have gained more importance both in the public administration and industry since the beginning of 1990. For example, in public administration, every state in the Federal Republic of Germany has developed a type of environmental information system. National and European legislation demanding far reaching transparency in the state of the environment encouraged this development. In industry on the other hand, environmental information systems are used for cost- and product-specific recording of waste flows. These are used to point out weak points within the companies’ processes.

Foundations and Applications of Computer Based Material Flow Networks for Environmental Management

This chapter describes the foundations of Material Flow Networks for environmental management and gives an overview about their application fields. Material Flow Networks describe the flow of materials and energy within a defined system. The representation and evaluation of these material flows - especially when these flows have an impact on our environment and are caused by human business activities - has become one of the most important tasks of the so-called environmental management. The more familiar we become with the material and energy flows, the more we come to understand the relationship between human activities and our natural environment. The kind of techniques and tools required for material and energy flow analysis focuses on understanding the underlying material and energy transformations and the environmental impact of the resulting material and energy flows. Given the above, a possible definition of material and energy flow analysis is the process of collecting material and energy flow data and of computing derived values from the collection of data. The resulting material and energy flow model is a representation of the underlying system. The model must allow the user to evaluate different aspects of a system (see also, Schmidt, 1997): In input/output balances of companies, plants or production processes within the system refers to a site-specific view and a certain period of time, whereas in a life cycle assessment (LCA) a product or service is the item of interest, which usually is far beyond the temporal and spatial dimension of a common input/output balance. In fact, the same system is modelled in both cases, but interpreted with regard to different perspectives and boundaries.

An Integrated Approach for the Planning and Control of Flexible Retro-Production Systems

While in the past only the product phases of development, production, distribution as well as use and service were considered, today, more complete consideration up to the end of a product life is common. Along with the demand for an environmentally-friendly handling of important resources, recycling of worn-out products, for example, in the automotive sector, electrical and electronic equipment, or industrial goods, will gain crucial importance in the near future. In addition, comprehensive environmentally-related legal demands force the industry to take recycling of products into consideration (BMU, 1999; EU, 1999; Griese, 1997; Seliger et al., 1997; Thierry et al., 1995). Additionally this includes several processes (Figure 1) of the post-usage phase, such as: • systematic take-back of used products to specific facilities, • definition of adequate recycling strategies, • dismantling of products, • reprocessing of components, • mechanical treatment, • reuse of components and utilization of materials as well as • redistribution of the recycled goods into production and secondary raw material market.