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Plastics are one of the most used materials in human activities, where consumer consumption and industrial production together has imposed vast rise in demand for this material in last century. While plastic is ideally derived from crude oil as a primary source from manufacturers’ perspective, varying crude oil prices are driving manufacturers economically to seek for alternative sources for plastics production. Waste plastic recovered from obsolete consumer products thus becomes an economic substitution for virgin plastics, which is further intensified with the possibility of international waste plastic trading. This study focuses on waste plastic trade between the US and mainland China by performing a correlation analysis of trade data. It is suggested in this study that although waste plastics are traded from the US to mainland China in general, as many of us believes, the route is gradually shifting in the past years. With tightening Chinese customs regulations, waste plastic from the US now tends to take a transit in a third destination (Hong Kong SAR for instance) for preliminary treatment to bypass Chinese customs inspection. Such phenomenon is worth noting, as a complication in waste plastic trading route hinders waste plastic transboundary movement monitoring. Furthermore, it will have adverse consequent consumer, industrial, and environmental impacts. It is thus necessary for national competent authorities to strengthen cooperative study and communication capacity in the future as a response to the changing waste plastic trade pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) nations account for one-quarter of the world’s land area, having more than 40% of the world’s population, and only one-quarter of the world gross national income. Hence the study and review of waste electrical and electronic equipment management systems in BRICS nations is of relevance. It has been observed from the literature that there are studies available comparing two or three country’s waste electrical and electronic equipment status, while the study encompassing the BRICS nations considering in a single framework is scant. The purpose of this study is to analyse the existing waste electrical and electronic equipment management systems and status of compliance to Basel convention in the BRICS nations, noting possible lessons from matured systems, such as those in the European Union EU) and USA. The study introduced a novel framework for a waste electrical and electronic equipment management system that may be adopted in BRICS nations and revealed that BRICS countries have many similar types of challenges. The study also identified some significant gaps with respect to the management systems and trans-boundary movement of waste electrical and electronic equipment, which may attract researchers for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the accelerating process of urbanization, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation increases continuously. Landfill occupies a lot of land resources, leading several cities run into a condition being surrounded by MSW. In recent years, MSW incineration rises gradually. Incineration can reduce the MSW volume by 85%∼90% and the mass by about 80%, and incineration with energy recovery is one of the several waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies [1–3] . However, municipal solid waste incineration fly ash, byproducts of MSW incineration, contains large amounts of heavy metals and dioxins, improper disposal will cause serious environmental and human health hazards. This review summarizes the MSW incineration fly ash management system and related policies and regulations in United States, as well as the main disposal methods and utilization technology, in order to provide reference for the management of MSW incineration fly ash in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Temporally explicit LCA highlights annual environmental impacts at Bear Lodge rare earth project. • Grades and mineral composition impact global warming impact. • LCA can be performed at pre-feasibility stage. Abstract The study shows that a detailed LCA can be carried out for a proposed mining project as soon as Prefeasibility (PFS) data are available. The prefeasibility study is one of the key early steps in bringing a deposit towards production and results are often publically available. This study applies the technique to a rare earth deposit because rare earth element (REE) consumption is increasing owing to their use in low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. It is therefore particularly important to understand the environmental impacts of the raw materials. A number of REE deposits are under development to give additional supply and many possess novel mineral compositions and will require different processing methods than previously used. Assessing the environmental performance of the production of REE during the development of projects offers significant insights into how to improve the sustainability of a project. In this study we used life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts for producing rare earth oxide (REO) from the Bear Lodge Project, United States. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment results were produced for each year over the life of the project, generating insight about the relationships between ore composition, grade, processing method and environmental impacts. The environmental impacts vary significantly during the life of a project and a temporally explicit LCA can highlight these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]