Assessment of the performance of cruise ship waste management: Case study of the Rio de Janeiro port, Brazil.

The significant growth of the cruise ship industry has resulted in economic benefits, but there are also waste management-related challenges. The aim of this case study was to contribute to the research of cruise ship waste management at the Port of Rio de Janeiro. A3 methodology, applied for the first time in this context, was used to create questionnaires to assess the stakeholders involved, revealing that institutional bureaucracy has a negative effect on waste management. In addition, secondary data on unloaded waste, obtained from the transport manifests, showed that 56 % contained reliable information. The main wastes were plastics (57 %), glass (17 %), metal (9 %), and others. With respect to destinations, 41 % were sent to landfills, 55 % recycled and 4 % thermally treated. Only 5 % of cruise ship moorings removed waste at the Port of Rio de Janeiro, attributed to factors such as high costs.

Sustainability of the anaerobic digestion of oil refinery secondary sludge.

Among the waste generated at oil refineries, secondary sludge from biological wastewater treatment processes (activated sludge systems) stands out. This paper aimed to assess the use of anaerobic digestion (AD) to treat sludge by SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis, ranking the different factors based on sustainability criteria. Additionally, the SWOT factors were matched (TOWS matrix) to help interpret the results. AD was found to be compatible with sustainability. The results demonstrated that the strength of AD (reduced organic load) compensates for its weaknesses (need for operational control and initial implementation costs), thereby avoiding the threat (sludge composition) and making the most of the opportunity (lower disposal cost). AD and co-digestion (added with food waste) used to treat oil refinery sludge showed that around 60% of the factors analyzed were confirmed experimentally. It was concluded that AD should be considered in the sustainable treatment of oil refinery waste activated sludge, especially when mixed with other readily biodegradable wastes.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a potential treatment for secondary sludge from refineries.AD is compatible with sustainability.Anaerobic co-digestion of refinery sludge contributed positively to sustainable treatment.The strength (reduced organic load) of AD counteract its weaknesses (operational control and implementation costs).The threat of AD (sludge composition) should be avoided and the opportunity (low disposal cost) leveraged.

Anaerobic co-digestion of oil refinery waste activated sludge and food waste.

The technology of anaerobic co-digestion to treat the excess biological sludge discharged from activated sludge systems in oil refineries was evaluated in bench scale experiments. Mixing food waste rich in fruits and vegetables with this sludge increased the reduction of volatile solids and biogas yield. An experimental design indicated that the best co-digestion condition was the use of waste activated sludge without previous dewatering (3.5% total solids) and food waste in an 80:20 ratio (% v/v), without the addition of inoculum. After 45 days at 35 °C, this condition resulted in volatile solid (VS) removal of 52% and biogas yield of 80.7 mL biogas/g VSadded, against only 19% and 38.5 mL biogas/g VSadded in mono-digestion of sludge alone. Anaerobic co-digestion demonstrates promising results and the potential for a simple and effective treatment method for excess biological sludge generated at refineries.

Management of cruise ship-generated solid waste: A review.

This article presents a literature review of solid waste management on cruise ships using a bibliographic search of the main databases. Articles that discuss waste management were spread over different research areas, demonstrating that the topic is cross-sectional and interconnected, involving social, economic and political considerations. The text is organized into four topics: generation, treatment, disposal and impacts. Recent years have seen increasing interest in cruise ship waste management, likely due to the growing tourism market, with an annual increase of 7.4% in the number of passengers between 1990 and 2018. However, this growth may aggravate environmental, social and economic impacts, making it essential to promote research and studies in the area.

The Use of Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) in PP/HIPS Blends: Morphological, Thermal, Mechanical and Rheological Properties.

Polypropylene (PP) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) are two polymers that are frequently found in disposable waste. Both of these polymers are restricted from being separated in several ways. An easier way to reuse them in new applications, without the need for separation, would require them to be less immiscible. In this work, cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), a sub-product of the cashew agroindustry, was added as a third component to PP-HIPS mixtures and its effect as a compatibilizing agent was investigated. Morphological results showed that CNSL acted as an emulsifier by promoting reduction in the domains of the dispersive phase, HIPS, thus stabilizing the blends morphology. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis suggests that CNSL is preferably incorporated in the HIPS phase. Its plasticizing effect leads to more flexible materials, but no significant effect could be detected on impact resistance or elongation at break.

Efficiency in the environmental management of plastic wastes at Brazilian ports based on data envelopment analysis.

The aim of this study was to analyze different port areas (leased, nonleased and vessels) in terms of plastic segregation (scenario 1) and how much of this plastic is recycled (scenario 2). Data envelopment analysis was applied and the variables were total amount of solid waste and percentage of segregated plastic in relation to total solid waste (scenario 1) and amount of segregated plastics and percentage of recycled in relation to segregated plastics (scenario 2). Segregation efficiency was low (49%) in the nonleased area, but all the segregated material is recycled, suggesting that the management bottleneck in this case is waste segregation. Similar segregation results were obtained in the leased areas and vessels (36 and 35%, respectively), but recycling efficiency was greater in the former (92 and 24%, respectively).