Related papers: A plastics hierarchy of fates: sustainable choices…
The development of critical systems is becoming more and more complex. The overall tendency is that development costs raise. In order to cut cost of development, companies are forced to build systems from proven components and larger new…
This article examines household plastic recycling in Finland through two qualitative studies and four design concepts. Study 1 reports short interviews with residents about how they store, sort, and dispose of plastic packaging in their…
Third world countries tend to have a higher share of plastic waste that is inadequately managed while the First world countries have higher plastic waste generation per person. A difference in the characteristics of plastic pollution…
Non-degradable plastic waste stays for decades on land and in water, jeopardizing our environment; yet our modern lifestyle and current technologies are impossible to sustain without plastics. Bio-synthesized and biodegradable alternatives…
The linear take-make-dispose paradigm at the foundations of our traditional economy is proving to be unsustainable due to waste pollution and material supply uncertainties. Hence, increasing the circularity of material flows is necessary.…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly emerging as a new paradigm of scientific discovery, namely data-driven science, across nearly all scientific disciplines. In materials science and engineering, AI has already begun to exert a…
Decision making in large scale urban environments is critical for many applications involving continuous distribution of resources and utilization of infrastructure, such as ambient lighting control and traffic management. Traditional…
The aim of this paper is to discuss the current status of ecodesign in the industry and its future implications for materials. There is today more and more focus on the environmental impacts of products during their whole life cycle. In…
In the commons, communities whose growth depends on public goods, individuals often rely on surprisingly simple strategies, or heuristics, to decide whether to contribute to the common good (at risk of exploitation by free-riders). Although…
Plastic pollution is one of the most challenging problems affecting the marine environment of our time. Based on a unique dataset covering four European seas and eight European countries, this paper adds to the limited empirical evidence…
A formal hierarchy of exact evolution equations are derived for physically relevant space-time averages of state functions of microscopic dislocation dynamics. While such hierarchies are undoubtedly of some value, a primary goal here is to…
The human ability to repurpose objects and processes is universal, but it is not a well-understood aspect of human intelligence. Repurposing arises in everyday situations such as finding substitutes for missing ingredients when cooking, or…
Linear waste management systems are unsustainable and contribute to environmental degradation, economic inequity, and health disparities. Among the array of environmental challenges stemming from anthropogenic impacts, the management of…
The rapid and constant increase in urban population has led to a drastic rise in urban solid waste production with worrying consequences for the environment and society. In many cities, an efficient waste management combined with a suitable…
Social foraging is a widespread form of animal foraging in which groups of individuals coordinate their decisions to exploit resources in the environment. Animals show a variety of social structures from egalitarian to hierarchical. In this…
This paper presents a modeling framework---mathematical model and computational framework---to study the response of a plastic material due to the presence and transport of a chemical species in the host material. Such a modeling framework…
We live in an age of consumption with an ever-increasing demand of already scarce resources and equally fast growing problems of waste generation and climate change. To tackle these difficult issues, we must learn from mother nature. Just…
Transitioning to a Circular Economy requires policies to drive sustainable practices. This study proposes a bilevel optimization framework to evaluate the combined use of carbon taxes and subsidies in promoting circular supply chains under…
The global production of electric goods is at an all-time high, causing negative environmental and health impacts as well as a continuing depletion of natural resources. Considering the worsening global climate change, a transition of…
Much of today's sustainability discourse emphasizes efficiency, clean technologies, and smart systems, but largely underestimates fundamental physical constraints relating to energy-matter interactions. These constraints stem from the fact…