Municipal solid waste (MSW) collection is an important issue in the development and management of smart cities, having a significant influence on environmental sustainability. Door-to-door and pneumatic collection are two systems that represent a way of arranging waste collection in city´s historic areas in Spain where conventional street-side container collection is not feasible. Since door-to-door collection generates significant direct greenhouse gas emissions from trucks, pneumatic collection emerges as an alternative to the trucking system. While this technology apparently reduces local direct air emissions, it suffers from a large energy demand derived from vacuum production for waste suction. The introduction of new normative frameworks regarding the selective collection of the biodegradable fraction makes necessary a comprehensive analysis to assess the influence of this fraction collection and its subsequent recycling by anaerobic digestion. As a novelty, this work compares both conventional door-to-door and pneumatic collection systems from a life cycle approach focusing on the biodegradable waste. Results indicate that, in spite of the fact electricity production and consumption have a significant influence on the results, the energy savings from the recycling of the organic fraction are higher than the energy requirements. Therefore, the pneumatic collection could be an environmentally-friendly option for MSW management under a circular economy approach in Spanish city´s historic areas, since wastes could be a material or energy source opportunity. | This work has been made under the financial support of the Project Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE) financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain.

Speciated VOCs and regulated air pollutant emissions (CO, HC and NO) of carburetor (CB) and fuel injection (FI) motorcycles were evaluated based on engine dynamometer tests. Effects of engine loads and emission control systems were evaluated. CB was equipped with oxidation catalytic converter (OCC) and secondary air system (SAS) while FI had three-way catalytic converter (TWC) and oxygen sensor (OS). Under normal operation of the control devices, the emissions of regulated pollutants and the sum of detected VOCs (ΣVOC) were higher in CB than in FI motorcycle. Alkanes and aromatics had the highest concentrations contributing approximately 90% to the ΣVOC while xylene and toluene were most abundant among the BTEX, in both motorcycles. Emissions of all regulated pollutants and ΣVOC increased with increase in engine load. The emission control devices showed differential efficiencies on different VOC groups. Average emission reduction efficiencies of OCC with SAS (CB motorcycle) were 45.4% (ΣVOC) and 48.6% (BTEX) and TWC with OS (FI motorcycle) were 74.4% (ΣVOC) and 88.0% (BTEX). Without SAS, the efficiency of OCC dropped to 30.2% (ΣVOC) and 34.9% (BTEX) in CB motorcycle. Similarly, the efficiency of TWC reduced to 69.0% (ΣVOC) and 85.2% (BTEX) when the OS was blocked in FI motorcycle. The ozone formation potentials of VOCs ranged from 500 mg-O3/m3 (FI motorcycle with TWC and OS, TO 20%) to 2218 mg-O3/m3 (CB motorcycle without control system, TO 30%).

International audience | The present work was carried out to quantify microplastics (MP) from three sandy beaches along the Côte d’Opale coastline located in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. Three different study sites located along the English Channel were investigated due to different levels of anthropopression and hydrodynamic conditions. Sediments were collected at three different tide lines: high tide line (HTL), middle of the intertidal zone (IZ), and low tide line (LTL), to investigate the effects of tide line on microplastic contamination. Particles and fibers were counted and colors were recorded; polymer identification was then performed using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). Particle and fiber abundances ranged from 23.4 ± 18.9 to 69.3 ± 30.6 items kg−1 dry weight sediment, with a trend towards fiber predominance, were observed. No difference in particle and fiber abundance was found between the different beaches and tide lines, except for Boulogne-sur-Mer, where the particle number was significantly different between tide lines. Major polymers identified were polyethylene (36.6%) and polypropylene (10.7%). This citizen science project provided preliminary data about the abundance and polymeric nature of MP along the Côte d’Opale coastline.

The use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become a common mechanism to evaluate and report the environmental performance of services and products due to its holistic approach and for its standardised method which guaranteeing reproducibility. There is a huge ongoing effort to improve and promote the use of LCA in Europe, by means of the Single Market of Green Products Initiative, which promotes the use of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and the Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF). Although LCA has been applied in a great variety of industries, there is an even higher worldwide trend of simplification focussing on a single indicator, carbon footprint (CF), relevant to global warming, which is internationally considered as a critical environmental concern. The scope of the CF assessment could be corporate (when all production processes of a company are evaluated) or product (when one of the products is evaluated throughout its life cycle). However, sometimes product CF studies collect corporate data, since for most companies it is easier to report global annual consumptions and emissions instead of the product's specific inputs and outputs. In this framework, this study aims to apply and compare the product and corporate CF methodologies to the case study of the spirit drinks sector in Cantabria (Northern Spain). In particular, to a SME dedicated to the artisanal elaboration of premium spirit drinks such as gin and vodka. The value obtained of the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) was 0.57 kg CO2 eq. for a bottle (70 cl) of classic gin whereas the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) presented a value of 4.58×103 kg CO2 eq. for Scope 2 and 5.58×104 kg CO2 eq. for Scope 3 in the year 2017. The results indicated that significant environmental impacts were caused during the production of the glass bottle as well as the production of the electricity required in the beverage company.

Abstract: The cryosphere in South America is a very important resource because it is the main source of water for 85 million inhabitants distributed in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina [1-2]. To know the effects due to global phenomena such as arctic oscillation (AO) in the reduction of the cryosphere in this region, we proceeded to analyze sources of reanalysis information (ERA-40; NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis) and high resolution snow cover (MOD10 500m) from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Several linear adjustments were made to observe how snow cover variations (Y) responded to variations in AO (X1 ), surface temperature (X2 ) and snow precipitation (X3 ).

Pyrethroids are used in agricultural to control pests on a variety of crops. Bifenthrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, is a broad spectrum insecticide. It acts mainly on the nervous system of vertebrates as well as invertebrates. It is susceptible to the biodegradation by some soil bacteria. The present paper deals with the toxicological studies of bifenthrin and its metabolites benzene 1,1(methylthio) ethylidine, resorcinol and monochloro trifluromethane that were produced by a newly isolated strain of Paracoccus siganidrum APGM1 on earthworms, which play an important role in the improvement of the soil fertility. The toxicity was assessed by 48 hrs filter paper contact test, 14 days soil test and histopathological methods. The results of filter paper contact test revealed that the earthworms were more susceptible to bifenthrin than their metabolites. The LC50 value of bifenthrin and its metabolites was 6 ppm and 20 ppm respectively. The soil test showed that at 6 ppm concentration of bifenthrin, half the number of earthworms died after 14 days and with the increase in the concentration, mortality increased. At 10 ppm concentration, all the earthworms died. However, half the number of earthworms died after 14 days at the metabolite concentration of 20 ppm. The adverse effects of bifenthrin and very little effect of their metabolites on the morphological properties and structural integrity of the tissues were observed in histopathological studies. Thus, the metabolites of bifenthrin were less toxic to earthworms than the bifenthrin.

In the past decade, the deterioration in atmospheric quality caused by emissions of ambient particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) has become an urgent problem in China. As this problem can be mainly attributed to the large amount of coal consumption, a strategy to promote electric power substitution was initiated, and in this case, cutting the price of electricity is considered useful. However, since it was announced that the price of electric power used in the service industry will be reduced by 10%, the proper target to cut the price of electric power used in the secondary industry was under debate. By using the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, the policy to cut the price of electric power used in the secondary industry was simulated and the effects of the policy on the economy and the environment were explored. The results show that the policy to cut electric power prices will contribute to promoting the strategy of electricity substitution, and further contribute to environmental improvement. This policy can result in positive effects on the systems of the economy and the environment at the same time, and when the target to cut the price of electric power used in the secondary industry is –3%, the maximum positive effects will be obtained: gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be accelerated by 0.015‰, while PM2.5 emissions will be abated by 394.2 tons. Moreover, based on the unique cross-subsidy mechanism in China’s electric power industry, although residents’ consumption welfare can be fully compensated, less cross-subsidy will have a negative effect on the agriculture industry.

In this study an attempt was made to assess the mining associated urbanization impact on rural agricultural lands due to expansion of mining dump yards, pulverizing mills and beneficiation plants in and around Govindampalle village, YSR District, A.P by using Geospatial technologies. Various land use and land cover (LULC) classes, mainly, cropland, plantation, fallow land, mining/industrial, water body, settlements and scrub lands were recognized and their impact on the environment has been discussed. Google earth historical imagery during 2010 and 2017 are used to map and assess these land use and land cover changes in the ArcGIS flat form. LULC change detection analysis data showed that cropland, water bodies and scrublands were decreased by 10, 2, 14 and 20 percent, respectively from 2010 to 2017. On the other hand industrial areas and agricultural plantations showed an increasing trend with 14 and 20 percent growth rate respectively.