Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing occupational and environmental health issue around the globe. E-waste recycling is a green industry of emerging importance, especially in low-and middle-income countries where much of this recycling work is performed, and where many people's livelihoods depend on this work. The occupational health hazards of e-waste recycling have not been adequately expl...

Very quickly following the first international toxic waste trade scandals that took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the environmentally friendly word “ recycling” began to increasingly be used by waste traders to justify the export of hazardous wastes from rich to poorer countries. Today, this rationalization for toxic waste trade for industrial wastes continues. Virtually all existing...

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging concept and that is currently under creation and development. However, it has already made an impact on many research domains by providing new solutions and ideas particularly in waste management and recycling. The IoT concept has provided a new research path that is conducive with public awareness of environmental protection considerations and improv...

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging concept and that is currently under creation and development. However, it has already made an impact on many research domains by providing new solutions and ideas particularly in waste management and recycling. The IoT concept has provided a new research path that is conducive with public awareness of environmental protection considerations and improv...

This Special Issue provides several different perspectives on the complex issue of packaging waste recycling. It comprises a diverse and rich set of contributions with insights from very different disciplines that range from economics to engineering. All types of “costs and benefits” are addressed in this collection of articles. In addition to the economic and strictly financial impacts of sele...

This paper revisits work on the socio-political amplification of risk, which predicts that those living in developing countries are exposed to greater risk than residents of developed nations. This prediction contrasts with the neoliberal expectation that market driven improvements in working conditions within industrialising/developing nations will lead to global convergence of hazard exposure...

Environmental hazards as a consequence of mass consumption and waste disposal remain largely unconsidered in affluent societies. Resources embodied in waste are not recognized. In Latin America, Asia and Africa, in particular, an extensive informal sector is involved in the collecting and separating of recyclable materials. This widespread activity provides an insight into the resourcefulness o...

In order to set a reference inventory data, an extensive literature search on compost production and compost utilization has been performed. The aim is to define carbon and energy footprint of bio-waste recycling and compost utilization. The available data suggest that when bio-waste is properly collected and recycled (through composting or anaerobic digestion) and a high quality compost is pro...

Events like trade fairs are a complex service activity with a considerable economic, social and environmental impact due, among other factors, to their high level of waste generation. There are few studies of the environmental impact associated with waste generation and typology. An environmental analysis methodology has been developed to characterise the waste associated with the temporary str...

Over the last years, environmental issues have gained remarkable significance as a result of the high level of environmental awareness in society and also due to the widening of the scope of the environmental legislation and regulation. One of the major concerns within this context is the high rate of packaging waste generation. Nowadays there is a variety of technologies to deal with waste tre...