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In Da Nang and Ha Long, Vietnam and in Vientiane, Laos, there was interest by local authorities in separating and composting waste in order to reduce environmental and health problems [...]

The study and development of a reduced-form model of the household welfare where social capital is treated as production factor with household income and expenditure as dependent variables has been presented. The study has found that the impact of social capital on household's income is greater than that of paper-recycling household's income.

The six papers in this special issue on Regional Science and the Environment offer a broad perspective on regional science research and the environment. The topics covered include empirical studies [...]

Waste diversion targets are a common characteristic of municipal climate change mitigation plans because about two-thirds of residential waste sent to landfills is degradable and thus contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper focuses on the challenge of achieving waste diversion targets in multi-residential buildings because their diversion rates are much lower than those for single-family homes. A case study of 15 high-rise condominium and cooperative housing buildings compares modes of governance by the City of Toronto and by multi-residential buildings to address waste diversion challenges. City responses to the challenges included mandatory building standards making waste diversion as convenient as garbage disposal, voluntary standards for in-suite storage of recyclables and organics, phase-in of organics collection and pay-as-you-throw collection fees, and delivery of promotion and education programs. For buildings, the responses were fines for poor-quality sorting, conversion of the garbage chute to an organics chute, the delivery of education material to residents, and monitoring bin capacity. Despite these initiatives, Toronto is very unlikely to meet its target of diverting 70% of residential waste away from disposal in landfill by 2030. Seven actions are recommended to increase the rate of diversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model is developed to study the recycling behavior industrial, commercial and institutional firms. Six types of waste material are considered, namely, paper, paperboard, metals, glass, plastics and wood. Results show that recycling behavior is influenced by the amount of waste generated by the firm. About 43.6% of firms also recycled paperboard compared to only 8.3% that recycled plastics.

This paper explores the extent to which Western approaches to public involvement in environmental impact assessment (EIA) have been transferred to Vietnam, constraints on their use, and their appropriateness for the Vietnamese context. The research is based on an analysis of the public involvement content found in 26 EIA reports from development banks and interviews with 26 key informants. The study found that public involvement in Vietnam is generally technocratic, expert-driven and non-transparent, similar to the early days of EIA in the West and emerging economies. Public involvement usually occurs through authorised state channels such as commune leaders, mass organisations and professional organisations. The lack of a participatory culture for EIA, the nascent nature of grassroots democracy in the country, and Vietnamese cultural norms regarding respect for authority provide a challenging context for involving the public in EIA. The paper concludes by offering a number of suggestions for culturally appropriate public involvement at a time when Vietnam has just introduced mandatory public consultation for EIAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since the mid-1990s, local community concern about the environmental impacts of landfills in Vietnam has been growing and has escalated to civil disobedience in a number of cases. This paper examines some of the root causes for the rise in concern and compares them to those which are found in industrialised countries. These causes include the negative impacts of the landfill and failure to enforce environmental regulations, increases in the value of land use rights, increases in environmental awareness, and political liberalisation. The paper concludes by suggesting several ways to alleviate community concern, including measures that have recently helped to reduce concern somewhat at a few landfills in Vietnam, such as the introduction of improved compensation packages, improved landfill design and management, and compost factories as beneficial on-site ancillary facilities. The use of public participation in both siting and management is also recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses various aspects of urban sustainability reporting in the United States. Characteristics of urban sustainability indicators; Progress towards sustainability of communities; Types of urban sustainability indicators.

Reviews the geographic softwares Geography by Datasystems; MACCHORO by Image Mapping Systems; and OPS83 by Production Systems Technologies, Inc.

Halving food waste by 2050 as per the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 is key to securing a food system that is sustainable. One approach to reducing household food waste is through education campaigns. We recruited 501 households divided into three types of intervention groups and compared with a control group to better understand the efficacy of diverse education campaign approaches. Food waste interventions included a passive approach (handouts), a community engagement approach, and a gamification approach. We conducted waste audits, household surveys (pre- and post-intervention), and a focus group at the end of the campaign. The passive and gamification groups had similarly high levels of participation, while participation in the community group was very low. The passive group and the gamification group had higher self-reported awareness of food wasting after the campaign and lower food wastage than the control group. Waste audits found marginally significant differences between the game group and the control (p = 0.07) and no difference between the other campaign groups and the control group in edible food wasted. Frequent gamers were found to generate less edible food waste than infrequent gamers. We conclude that the evidence about the potential for gamification as an effective education change tool is promising and we recommend further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An obituary for professor Leslie Curry is presented.

Despite progress in residential waste diversion, residual waste – that fraction which cannot be recycled or composted – must continue to be managed by municipalities. Zero waste and environmental groups worry that waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerators discourage diversion, while both incineration and landfill have been stigmatized in the popular consciousness such that WtE incinerators in particular are being cancelled more often than they are approved. We conducted a mail-back survey of 217 residents in Toronto, Durham and Peel, Ontario, to understand attitudes toward diversion, levels of support for WtE incineration and WtE landfill (landfill gas recovery) facilities, and predictors of facility support. Contrary to experiences elsewhere, diversion seems threatened by WtE when measured as attitudes with 18%, and 14% agreeing that they would be less inclined to divert recyclable/compostable materials if they knew materials went to a WtE landfill or incinerator. When forced to choose between four options landfill or incineration with and without energy recovery, WtE incineration is most preferred (65%) and landfill without WtE is the least preferred option (61%). However, measurement has a large influence on public opinion results in the sense that support for WtE incineration drops to 43% when asked as a “vote in favor” question and to only 36% when measured as a 4-item index of support. When the indexes of support for landfill and WtE incineration are modeled, the prominence of odor in the landfill model distinguishes it from the WtE incinerator model which is dominated more by community and concern about health effects. Implications for policy are discussed, particularly mandatory diversion targets to accompany WtE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]