Search

The natural rubber (NR) processing industry plays a critical role in the economies of many developing countries, particularly in Asia. Among the different types of NR, crepe rubber holds a significant position, as it is used to produce pharmaceutical and surgical rubber items, and also articles that are in contact with foods. At present, the crepe rubber manufacturing has been challenged by low productivity, rising cost of production, and environmental issues. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the feasibility in the adoption of sustainable manufacturing practices in the crepe rubber production as a case study in Sri Lanka. This study consisted of three steps: 1) quantification of material and economic losses and global warming potential (GWP) via material flow analysis (MFA), material flow cost accounting (MFCA), and life cycle assessment (LCA) on a gate-to-gate basis, 2) developing proposals of improvement options with the help of Pareto and What-if analyses, field interviews, and the existing literature; and 3) validation of suggested improvement options through the re-execution of MFA, MFCA, and LCA. For 1 MT of rubber input, the underlying economic losses and GWP impact in the current manufacturing process were identified as LKR 19,585 and 279.3 kg CO2e with the values of 7% and 13% for Relative Standard Deviation, respectively. As improvement options, reduction options of water, chemicals, electricity, milling duration were proposed. It revealed that adoption of these reduction options could mainly reduce 32,064 kg of water and 30.1 kWh of electricity resulting in 5.3% of cost savings and a 4.3% of GWP impact reduction. Other implications associated with improvement options and their limitations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper identifies emerging trends in the world economy during the next decade. The first is that China will overtake the U.S. in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), ending more than a century of U.S. leadership as the world''s largest economy. The second is that Developing Asia, excluding Japan, will overtake the G7, a group of the seven largest industrialized economies established in 1975–76. Finally, India will overtake Japan, Russia will overtake Germany, and Brazil will overtake the U.K., leading to a New World Economic Order: China, the U.S., India, Japan, Russia, Germany, and Brazil. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Using panel data from the Indonesian manufacturing industry during the Suharto era (1975–95), we assess the impact of plant-level corruption on output and productivity growth. In support of the “grease the wheels” hypothesis and the view of an Asian paradox, we find that corruption, measured as bribes and indirect tax payments, has a positive and statistically significant effect on individual plant growth. This effect persists over the entire period, which suggests improvements in the efficacy of the bribe system and a strengthening of the long-term contract between firms and the government. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]