This May 2014 issue of Waste and Research Management comprises four papers focusing on assessment, design, introduction or improvement of waste management in various aspects and challenges. The themes cover landfill mining, determining criteria for environmental performance, logistics and constraints. These topics should be of interest to those from research institutes, universities, governments and industry.
Landfill mining has, for many years, been put forward as a concept but has recently been attracting more and more attention. More than 60 projects have been carried out in the past two decades (Frandegard et al., 2013; Ortner et al., 2014), the majority of which have focused on solving local concerns, such as increasing landfill lifespan, saving land resources, recovering valuable recyclable materials, remediation or other traditional waste management issues (Armisheva et al., 2013; Mali et al., 2011; Paap et al., 2010). Landfill mining is potentially advantageous for countries with large populations where land is not available for new landfill sites. In the current issue, Ortner et al. (2014) review previous achievements in landfill mining, focusing on the objectives, trends and findings of 60 landfill mining projects conducted during the period 1953 to 2009. This work shows that the focus has shifted from organic and mineral fractions for compost or cover material to the extraction of more valuable fractions such as metals. The major challenges are the integration of long-term environmental impacts, the quantification of socio-economic effects and the availability of reliable and suitable data sources. Attention should be focused on technological innovations and the development of standardised frameworks for evaluating performance so as to facilitate the implementation of resource recovery from landfills.
The lack of information on waste management in low-income countries, especially those in Africa, is a concern. Expertise and the use of appropriate technologies for solid waste collection, recovery and disposal in developing countries is still insufficient. In addition, the constraints emerging from the application of technologies to improve solid waste management systems in developing countries are seldom discussed. Di Bella and Vaccari (2014) investigate five main cities in Somaliland and analyse the difficulties and challenges of waste collection, recycling and disposal. They found the practical constraints in the field include a lack of machinery and technology, problems in the operation of facilities, lack of knowledge and awareness, difficulties in collaboration with local stakeholders, a lack of supervision, issues of land ownership and the lack of specific policies.
Environmental performance assessment is an important consideration in environmental management. Environmental performance assessment could help improve performance by providing information about achievement in environmental policies, objectives, targets, actions and responsibilities within an organisation. It can also measure, analyse and assess organisational environmental performance. Environmental performance assessment is a critical part of an environmental management system: checking, reviewing, monitoring and evaluating the performance. Based on more than 110 questionnaires sent to construction and related practitioners in Hong Kong, Tam and Le (2014) identified that frequency of audit was the most significant/dominant environmental performance assessment criterion. In addition, there are strong correlations among the frequency of auditing activities and pre-auditing planning, monitoring of energy usage, quality of maintenance and the use of water sprays for minimising airborne dust particles. Organisations in the construction industry can use this information to devise effective ways to improve environmental performance and prevent further damage to the environment.
Tischer et al. (2014) investigated two construction projects in Germany and introduced an approach for efficient construction logistics that can ensure successful implementation of an industrial network in the construction industry. They found that the total number of material streams separated directly on site in each project could be increased from 1 to 7 and from 1 to 19 for different fractions. The study also revealed that the reuse and recycling rate could be increased to over 75%. These achievements help to secure smooth on-site waste management and enable the establishment of an industrial network around a site promoting efficient resource recycling.
