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Marine plastic pollution has become a major threat to the ecosystem. The increasing production and use of plastic, combined with limitations of waste management practices, mean the leakage of plastic waste into the environment is bound to increase. This study focuses on the determination of plastic recovery potential from dumpsites and landfills in Thailand, to potentially prevent marine plastic pollution. In this study, two dumpsites were analysed wherein an average of 42% of plastic was found to be present. This value, when extrapolated for Thailand, is equivalent to 187.9 million tonnes of plastic waste in dumpsites and landfills. While there are 2380 dumpsites in the country, this study suggests that 973 of these spread over 42 provinces are located near water bodies or coastline, which should be considered as a priority. The plastic waste recovered from these dumpsites can be treated by co-fuelling in cement industries. Cement kilns can valorise plastic waste as they can reach up to 75% energy recovery from waste, which is much higher compared to traditional waste-to-energy plants. With adequate incentives and sound regulations, cement industries could help in the reduction of marine plastic pollution with controlled emissions and a very large capacity to co-fuel cement production, there is a readily available solution to manage the large volumes of solid waste generated.

Although the use of personal automobiles in the United States continues to grow, there are increasing concerns about the possible effects of automobile-dependent transportation, including environmental concerns, the reduction in the quality of life caused by long commutes, and a decline of community and societal interactions. These concerns have led to discussions on the revitalization of public transportation systems. To counter the problem of congestion resulting from modern urbanization, urban planners have developed the idea of transit-oriented development (TOD), designed to encourage the use of public transit and the creation of pedestrian-friendly environments. The plethora of literature on this subject is no surprise, considering the issues of revitalization of community living and affordable housing and related factors directly influencing and getting influenced by TOD. Notwithstanding the abundance of literature on TOD, the literature review uncovered few studies that somewhat address the important question, “How can a transit agency choose between alternative TOD sites to develop or build?” Given this, the purpose of this research is to develop a decision support framework that can be used by different transit agencies when choosing a TOD site to develop or build by incorporating and assessing unique success factors and their weights. This research uses a multiple-criteria decision-making tool called the analytic hierarchy process in developing that framework. The paper presents two implementation examples that demonstrate the feasibility of the developed decision support framework for both a large, urban transit district and a smaller, more rural transit agency.

Although the use of personal automobiles in the United States continues to grow, there are increasing concerns about the possible effects of automobile-dependent transportation, including environmental concerns, the reduction in the quality of life caused by long commutes, and a decline of community and societal interactions. These concerns have led to discussions on the revitalization of public transportation systems. To counter the problem of congestion resulting from modern urbanization, urban planners have developed the idea of transit-oriented development (TOD), designed to encourage the use of public transit and the creation of pedestrian-friendly environments. The plethora of literature on this subject is no surprise, considering the issues of revitalization of community living and affordable housing and related factors directly influencing and getting influenced by TOD. Notwithstanding the abundance of literature on TOD, the literature review uncovered few studies that somewhat address the important question, “How can a transit agency choose between alternative TOD sites to develop or build?” Given this, the purpose of this research is to develop a decision support framework that can be used by different transit agencies when choosing a TOD site to develop or build by incorporating and assessing unique success factors and their weights. This research uses a multiple-criteria decision-making tool called the analytic hierarchy process in developing that framework. The paper presents two implementation examples that demonstrate the feasibility of the developed decision support framework for both a large, urban transit district and a smaller, more rural transit agency.