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This is the first systematic investigation of occupational exposure to toxic metals among waste recyclers in municipal waste recycling facilities. Concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) in the blood and urine of exposed recyclers in different jobs were compared to control groups (administrative department), identifying possible work-related and socio-demographic exposure factors. The potential relationship between HMs levels in PM2.5 and HM concentrations in the blood and urine of recyclers was studied for ten elements. Mean concentrations of HMs of recyclers were significantly higher than for the control group. Over 50% of the waste recyclers had HM levels higher than the recommended limits. The study revealed that most of the waste recyclers engaged in a minimum of three tasks, posing a challenge in establishing a correlation between specific tasks and the levels of elements monitored through biomonitoring. Co levels in blood and Fe levels in the urine of waste recyclers have a significant relationship with the increase in daily working hours. Among the variables related to the participant’s demographic information, the level of education and monthly income were significantly different compared to the control group. Also, a significant correlation was found between HM levels in PM2.5 personal exposure and recyclers’ urine and blood. Management controls include workflow or, in other words, alternate relocation of workers exposed to severe risks. Engineering controls such as ventilation systems, applying appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), and risk management methods are the implementation cases to reduce exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Halfway through the fifteen-year period stipulated for the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is evident that we are still far away from having a sustainable world and even complete compliance with the SDGs will only be a step in the right direction. The present paper reflects, with Earth Overshoot Day and the seventeen SDGs, as starting points, on the actual status as well as the possible way forward. A simple estimate discloses that we, based on the last 24 years, are lacking the resources from roughly ten additional earths due to the overexploitation of the available planetary resources. The paper looks at the relationships between the development in the Earth Overshoot Day and selected SDGs, which strongly suggests that at least in the wealthier part of the world growth, growth for the sake of growth, appears more in focus than sustainability. To actively focus on sustainability and environmental health, a stronger focus on the SDGs 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), and 17 (partnerships for the goals) is suggested as the cornerstones in a future approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision-making, bringing in the opinions of several stakeholders, may be a rather time- and resource-demanding process. Partial order-based methods like generalized linear aggregation (GLA) and average ranking appear as advantageous tools for considering several stakeholders' opinions simultaneously. The present study presents an approach where stakeholders' opinions/weights are substituted by a series of randomly generated weight regimes, leading to virtually identical rankings as demonstrated through comparisons to examples where true stakeholder opinions are applied, as demonstrated through a study on food sustainability. This study showed a high degree of agreement between the ranking based on random data and that based on real stakeholder data. The method, which is a top-down approach to the decision process, appears to be a highly resource-reducing decision-supporting process. However, the method, by default, excludes the possibility of incorporating specific knowledge from, e.g., employees or other stakeholders in the decision process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth Overshoot Day is used as an exemplary case to suggest actions to obtain better compliance between the ecological footprints and biocapacities of the world's regions. This study was based on the Global Footprint Network's free public data on Earth Overshoot Day. The analyses of the data applied a partial ordering methodology in combination with the so-called Philosophy Model, leading to a joint ranking of the regions based on the simultaneous inclusion of ecological footprint data and data on biocapacities. The ranking was topped by South America, whereas North America and the Middle East/Central Asia were at the bottom of the list. Biocapacity was found to be the most important ranking indicator. Thus, doubling the biocapacity for each region would, on a global scale, lead to a population reserve of approx. 1.5 billion, whereas a halving of the individual ecological footprint would still lead to a population deficit of approximately 1 billion. The footprints and the biocapacities are composed of six and five sub-indicators, respectively, and the carbon footprint together with the built-up land footprint is the most important sub-indicator. To comply with the corresponding available biocapacity, significant reductions in the carbon footprint are needed, close to 50% for high-income countries. The ethical issues, as well as their interconnection with the Sustainable Development Goals, were discussed, with a focus on carbon footprints and well-being, as well as educating women, as illustrative cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]