Increase Resource Productivity Research Articles

Impact of Material Consumption and Circular Economy on National Income in Europe – Chapter 1

Objective: This study investigates resource productivity by exploring the factors that influence it and the strength of their impact using sustainability statistics from Eurostat. Theoretical Framework: The research analyzes the interdependence between national income and material consumption, with a focus on the paradoxical effects of circular material use on these variables. Method: Data from bibliographic sources are analyzed using statistical methods, including regression and path models, to assess the relationships between material consumption, national income, and the use of circular materials. Results and Discussion: The study concludes that national income and material consumption are interdependent, with material consumption directly affecting national income. Notably, the use of circular materials, contrary to expectations, increases material use and decreases national income. The cases of Hungary and the Netherlands are specifically examined to illustrate these findings. Research Implications: The findings suggest that strategies to increase resource productivity and sustainability performance need to consider the complex and sometimes counterintuitive impacts of circular material use on national income and material consumption. Originality/Value: This study provides new insights into the relationship between resource productivity, national income, and material consumption, highlighting the unexpected effects of circular material use. It contributes to the broader understanding of sustainability performance, particularly in the context of Hungary and the Netherlands.

Impact of Material Consumption and Circular Economy on National Income in Europe – Chapter 2

Objective: This study investigates resource productivity by exploring the factors that influence it and the strength of their impact using sustainability statistics from Eurostat. Theoretical Framework: The research analyzes the interdependence between national income and material consumption, with a focus on the paradoxical effects of circular material use on these variables. Method: Data from bibliographic sources are analyzed using statistical methods, including regression and path models, to assess the relationships between material consumption, national income, and the use of circular materials. Results and Discussion: The study concludes that national income and material consumption are interdependent, with material consumption directly affecting national income. Notably, the use of circular materials, contrary to expectations, increases material use and decreases national income. The cases of Hungary and the Netherlands are specifically examined to illustrate these findings. Research Implications: The findings suggest that strategies to increase resource productivity and sustainability performance need to consider the complex and sometimes counterintuitive impacts of circular material use on national income and material consumption. Originality/Value: This study provides new insights into the relationship between resource productivity, national income, and material consumption, highlighting the unexpected effects of circular material use. It contributes to the broader understanding of sustainability performance, particularly in the context of Hungary and the Netherlands.

Role of digitalization to increase resource productivity (Balkan cluster case study)

Purpose: In today's dynamic conditions an important determinant of economic growth and well-being in each country is increasing resource productivity, which is a prerequisite for the transition to sustainable production and consumption. The aim of the study is: 1) Analysis of resource productivity in selected nine countries in the Balkan region, 2) Assessment of the role of digitalization (and four key characteristics) as a factor for increasing the productivity of resources in the Balkan cluster. Method: The survey uses a method based on statistical analysis of Eurostat data and data collected in an open and standardized way, using a correlation coefficient. Results: The results of the empirical study should demonstrate the link between the digitization process in the Balkan cluster and increasing resource productivity. The survey was conducted among 25 working clusters in Bulgaria and all of them have active cooperation with partners from the Balkan countries. Conclusions: The study and conclusions demonstrate the significant opportunities for increasing resource productivity in the Balkan region by digitizing processes, resulting in optimizing consumption and separation of economic activity from material consumption. This process requires a new development strategy, strategic and flexible cooperation between the private and public sectors, between different companies, educational and research institutes, between companies from different countries in a region, which can be most effectively implemented in the cluster union.

Striving for a less toxic production of metallized textiles - Environmental impact assessment

Metallized textiles are novel materials that can be used in high value added functional goods, such as Assistive Technologies (AT) products. Potential issue with innovative metallization of textiles is the toxicity and environmental impact of the substances used in the process. To investigate this issue, this paper utilizes an original methodology of linking the analysis of toxicity of chemicals used in the textile metallization with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the metallization process itself. This is done from the perspective of three relevant impact categories: global warming, toxicity and water use, for which, three methods were selected: IPCC et al., 2013 GWP 100a; USEtox 2 and Available WAter Remaining (AWARE). The LCA uses a mix of primary and secondary data and three cradle-to-gate scenarios were chosen for calculating results - first presenting just the metallization process itself, second taking into account alternative impregnation process and third including metallized surfaces - woven cotton and polyester. While the most toxic chemical identified was formaldehyde, the results of the LCA shows top processes contributing to global warming is the electricity consumption, the use of polyurethane with 0.996 kg CO2 eq. and EDTA with a result of 0.816 kg CO2 eq. The greatest impact on human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity comes from copper (II) chloride mostly used in the plating phase. Moreover polyurethane used in the impregnation phase leaves the largest water footprint of 0.984 m3. When taking into account the metallized surface scenario, the impact of cotton was high for global warming and water use and the impact of polyester was relatively low for all impact categories. The main conclusions of the research relate to the identification of cleaner production methods that could reduce the environmental footprint of the metallization of textiles. They include, among others: development of technology that can significantly increase resource productivity through selective metallization of conductive tracks; use of alternative formaldehyde-free and polyurethane-free chemicals; use of a closed loop system for water remaining in the technological process.

An Evaluation of Circular Economy Development in the Baltic States

Abstract Research background: The fact that all resources are not infinite and the needs of society are steadily increasing, new ways of producing, consuming and waste disposal should be adopted. A circular economy as a modern alternative to a linear economy became one of the priorities of the European Union in order to create a modern, resource-efficient and competitive system. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the concept of a circular economy and the justification of its implementation based on a literature review. The article focuses on determining the factors of a circular economy and evaluating its importance in the Baltic States. In other words, the main aim of the article is to highlight the factors of a circular economy and assess its significance. Research methodology: A panel regression analysis was used in order to evaluate which indicator of the selected circular economy factors is the most important. Results: The survey reveals that waste electrical and electronic equipment has the most significant potential for increased circular material use rate in the Baltic States. All electrical and electronic equipment should be designed so that it would be possible to repair and reuse it to extend the product life cycle and reduce the carbon footprint. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in conjunction with increasing the usage of renewable energy could increase resource productivity and domestic material consumption (DMC) and ensure Baltic States’ independence in the energy sector through offshore wind farms that have the region’s most considerable potential. Novelty: There is a lack of studies conducted in the Baltic States focused on circular economy development using panel data. Most of the previous studies were focused on the European Union as a whole or individual countries. This study presents a deeper analysis of circular economy development in the Baltic States.

Building circularity as a measure of sustainability in the old and modern architecture: A case study of architecture development in the hot and dry climate

Nowadays, the construction industry has turned to the consumption of large amounts of natural resources in line with global population growth, which has led to the shortage of resources, and consequently increases in the construction debris; therefore, the present article has studied the positive and negative points of the architectural development process. The results have indicated that being compared to the former architecture; the development of architecture has reduced energy consumption by 78%. Hence, the scarcity of virgin resources and consequently the increase of environmental effects such as Global Warming Potential (GWP) have been measured based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It has been illustrated that the architecture trend has increased the environmental impact of new materials by 5 times the old ones in GWP. To optimize and increase resource productivity, a review of buildings by the principles of Circular Economy (CE) has shown that 10% of old house materials and 3% of new house materials could be returned to the chain based on the CE concept. Other than reducing the GWP emissions of the construction industry and the development of zero waste systems, this paper, by replacing conventional materials with biocompatible, has been able to increase the Building Circularity (BC) by 27% in the old house and 3% in the new one, which emphasizes a regenerative approach. As a result, with this solution, more integrity would be observed between the construction environment and nature, both in the development of past architecture and in the improvement of future architecture.

Properties of Concrete with Recycled Aggregates Giving a Second Life to Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Bottom Ash Concrete

Economic and environmental factors call for increased resource productivity. Partial or full replacement of Portland cement by wastes and by-products, and natural aggregates by construction and demolition wastes, are two prominent routes of achieving circular economy in construction and related industries. Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ashes have been found to be suitable to be used as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) after various treatments. This paper reports a brief literature review on optimum use of recycled aggregates in concrete and an experimental study using replacement of natural aggregate by demolished concrete having MSWI bottom ash as partial replacement of Portland cement, and compares its properties to that of completely natural aggregate concrete. Additional water was added as a compensation for the water absorption by the recycled aggregate during the first 30 min of water contact during concrete mixing. Also the fine fraction of crushed concrete (<250 µm) was removed to reduce the ill-effects of using recycled aggregate. The replacement of aggregates was limited to 23% by weight of natural aggregate. The results prove environmentally safe and comparable performance of concrete including recycled aggregate with bottom ash to that of natural aggregate concrete.

Inducing the adoption of emerging technologies for sustainable intensification of food and renewable energy production: insights from applied economics*

Emerging advances in sustainable intensification technologies have the potential to transform land use and crop management approaches in ways that can increase resource productivity and reduce adverse environmental impacts of agricultural production. This paper describes emerging technologies that can sustainably intensify food and renewable energy production. We apply the findings from studies examining the adoption of technologies with similar stylized features to provide insights about the incentives and barriers for the adoption of these emerging technologies. We also present a landscape‐based systems approach, based on welfare economics, to go beyond relying on a positive approach to explain observed adoption decisions to examining normative questions about the optimal mix, level, and location of adoption of these technologies to achieve desired societal outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of the insights from applied economics for the design of policy incentives to achieve these outcomes.

Circular economy for sustainable packaging

Circular economy for sustainable packaging

Virulent Disease Epidemics Can Increase Host Density by Depressing Foraging of Hosts.

AbstractAll else equal, parasites that harm host fitness should depress densities of their hosts. However, parasites that alter host traits may increase host density via indirect ecological interactions. Here, we show how depression of foraging rate of infected hosts can produce such a hydra effect. Using a foraging assay, we quantified reduced foraging rates of a zooplankton host infected with a virulent fungal parasite. We then parameterized a dynamical model of hosts, parasites, and resources with this foraging function, showing how foraging depression can create a hydra effect. Mathematically, the hydra arose when increased resource productivity exceeded any increase in resource consumption per host. Therefore, the foraging-mediated hydra effect more likely emerged (1) for hosts that strongly control logistic-like resources and (2) during larger epidemics of moderately virulent parasites. We then analyzed epidemics from 13 fungal epidemics in nature. We found evidence for a foraging-mediated hydra effect: large outbreaks depressed foraging rate and correlated with increased densities of both algal resources and Daphnia hosts. Therefore, depression of the foraging rate of infected hosts can produce higher host densities even during epidemics of parasites that increase host mortality. Such hydras might prevent the collapse of host populations but also could produce higher densities of infected hosts.

Fire mosaics and habitat choice in nomadic foragers

In the mid-1950s Western Desert of Australia, Aboriginal populations were in decline as families left for ration depots, cattle stations, and mission settlements. In the context of reduced population density, an ideal free-distribution model predicts landscape use should contract to the most productive habitats, and people should avoid areas that show more signs of extensive prior use. However, ecological or social facilitation due to Allee effects (positive density dependence) would predict that the intensity of past habitat use should correlate positively with habitat use. We analyzed fire footprints and fire mosaics from the accumulation of several years of landscape use visible on a 35,300-km2 mosaic of aerial photographs covering much of contemporary Indigenous Martu Native Title Lands imaged between May and August 1953. Structural equation modeling revealed that, consistent with an Allee ideal free distribution, there was a positive relationship between the extent of fire mosaics and the intensity of recent use, and this was consistent across habitats regardless of their quality. Fire mosaics build up in regions with low cost of access to water, high intrinsic food availability, and good access to trade opportunities; these mosaics (constrained by water access during the winter) then draw people back in subsequent years or seasons, largely independent of intrinsic habitat quality. Our results suggest that the positive feedback effects of landscape burning can substantially change the way people value landscapes, affecting mobility and settlement by increasing sedentism and local population density.

Requirements Engineering for an Industrial Symbiosis Tool for Industrial Parks Covering System Analysis, Transformation Simulation and Goal Setting

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a collaborative cross-sectoral approach to connect the resource supply and demand of various industries in order to optimize the resource use through exchange of materials, energy, water and human resources across different companies, while generating ecological, technical, social and economic benefits. One of the main goals of IS is the set-up of advanced circular/cascading systems, in which the energy and material flows are prolonged for multiple utilization within industrial systems in order to increase resource productivity and efficiency, while reducing the environmental load. Many Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools have been developed to facilitate IS, but they predominantly focus on the as-is analysis of the IS system, and do not consider the development of a common desired target vision or corresponding possible future scenarios as well as conceivable transformation paths from the actual to the defined (sustainability) target state. This gap shall be addressed in this paper, presenting the software requirements engineering results for a holistic IT-supported IS tool covering system analysis, transformation simulation and goal-setting. This new approach goes beyond system analysis and includes the use of expert systems, system dynamics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, which turn the IT-supported IS tool to be developed into a comprehensive and holistic instrument with which future scenarios and transformation paths can be simulated.

Which Innovations for a Circular Business Model? A Product Life-Cycle Approach

The Circular Economy concept has emerged to face current unsustainable economic trends. Circularity requires to go beyond mainstream linear business models in favour of new design strategies and production processes able to support an efficient use and a continuous flow of resources. Clarifying and promoting tools for embedding circularity in firms’ business models is becoming crucial to increase resource productivity and achieve competitive advantages. Notwithstanding eco-innovation has been recognized as a fundamental link to connect circular economy with business models restructuring, still little consensus exists on the boundaries and interlinkages among the concepts of Eco-Innovation, Circular Economy and Circular Business Models. This research contributes to the intersection of these different streams of the literature, and aims to understand which innovations can favour the transition from linear to closed-loop processes, and then to identify circular business models. Relying on a review of circular-oriented innovations, we recognize three main groups of innovations that are expected to change firms’ way of doing business in accordance with circularity, leading to the identification of an original Product Life-Cycle Archetype. Finally, relying on survey data in Emilia Romagna region, we check for the reliability of our theoretical framework in practice, analysing firms’ business strategies from a practical perspective and assessing the current implementation of an innovative path in accordance with circular priorities. The analysis reveals a positive engagement amongst the analysed firms in Emilia Romagna, in terms of cleaner production strategies. By contrast, any business innovation linked to the circular use of products has been found to be implemented.

Assessing the consequences of policy measures on long-term agricultural productivity – Quantification for Flanders

Abstract Policy can influence the long-term agricultural resource productivity by stimulating/discouraging farmers to apply certain land use practices (LUP), as LUPs may affect the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, hence influencing crop productivity. We introduce six policy strategies, each characterized by its own mix of LUPs, for the Flemish agricultural sector. Three strategies reveal the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the past, while others reflect the potential of the CAP and the application of compost. We use the life cycle impact assessment indicators ‘SOC change’ and ‘biomass productivity loss’, which account for the impact of LUPs on SOC and yield, to assess the effects on long-term productivity. To avoid burden shifting, also the resource footprint is calculated. Several farm management systems (FMS) are distinguished, each characterized by a specific combination of farm type, agricultural region, rotation system and manure type. The results highlight that policies such as the CAP significantly contribute to a better SOC stock and (to a lesser extent) productivity. Furthermore, applying extra compost seems to be promising: it can result in an increasing resource productivity and reduced resource footprint. It is important to consider the resource footprint as only for one strategy the resource consumption outweighs the benefit (i.e. reduction in N fertilizer) in the short or medium term, while also being beneficial in terms of resource productivity. As the results differ per FMS, a differentiated approach is advisable when specific LUPs are stimulated in the context of sustainable farming.

Combining Industrial Symbiosis With Sustainable Supply Chain Management for the Development of Urban Communities

Growing urban population is putting pressure on the supply of natural resources leading to global environmental impacts and calling for new ways to manage urban development. Circular economy strategies can provide the means to both increase resource productivity and generate new business opportunities. Industrial symbiosis is one such strategy. We explore an industrial symbiosis application in this paper. While most previous industrial symbiosis applications have been limited to eco-industrial parks, here we propose an adaptation of the industrial symbiosis and sustainable supply chain management concepts to urban areas in general. It is a way to develop economic clusters incorporating symbiotic links between multiple products supply chains. A proposed iterative facilitated industrial symbiosis method identifies an economic cluster focus, stakeholders, opportunities for resource exchange, and sharing of infrastructure, as well as other important elements. The method provides systematic guidance for practitioners seeking ways to grow local industry and economy, increase resource productivity, reduce wastes, and better utilize local resources. Benefits of industrial symbiosis and barriers to its implementation are also identified in the method. The method comprises five phases, each illustrated on an example drawn from our application of the method in an urban development in Gothenburg, a city in Sweden.

Superuse and upcycling through design: approaches and tools

In Italy, first EU Country to have made Green Public Procurement (GPP) one hundred per cent mandatory, the recovery of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the use of recycled materials and design for disassembly have been mandatory in public building projects since 2015. Nevertheless, in Italy, the renovation and substitution of existing buildings, not conceived to be easily deconstructed, generates 53 million tons/year of C&D waste (80% mixed inert waste) while the recovery rate is limited. Since 2012, the research team has been engaged on the increase of resource productivity in the building sector with two focuses. With the Atlante Inerti Project, co-funded by the EIT Climate-KIC, the team has experimented the upcycling of aggregates from the recovery of inert waste in prefab concrete design products for the building and outdoor furniture industries, testing innovative production techniques (large scale additive 3D printing). Simultaneously, the main research focus is the integration of adaptive reuse of buildings with superuse of components and materials: strategies inherent to the preservative Italian approach, complemental and preferable to recycling according to the EU Waste Hierarchy, still underestimated by the Italian legislation. The team has experimented the process of scouting construction/industrial waste materials at the local scale, with the application of the harvest map tool, to complex urban districts in Rome, in order to demonstrate how superuse and upcycling can represent reliable technical options widely replicable on a supply chain scale for increasing resource productivity in the building sector.

The effect of remanufacturing and direct reuse on resource productivity of China’s automotive production

Abstract Remanufacturing and direct reuse are considered important measures for promoting the circular economy and improving resource efficiency. Automotive production is a typical resource- and energy-intensive industrial sector, and is a prime market for remanufacturing and direct reuse. Assessing the effect of remanufacturing and direct reuse on the automotive production industry from the perspective of resource efficiency will provide an important reference for improving understandings of remanufacturing and guiding relevant policies in a broader context. A literature review reveals few studies focusing on the resource efficiency of remanufacturing and direct reuse, and the relative lack of a generally accepted indicator to assess the resource efficiency of industrial processes. This paper promotes a new indicator, resource productivity of industrial process, and constructs a material flow model to calculate the resource productivity of China’s automotive industry. Results suggest that the indicator and its analytical model are effective tools to assess resource efficiency. Results also suggest that compared to a case where remanufacturing and direct reuse are not employed, adding these processes in China’s automotive supply chain would increase resource productivity of industrial process by 7.1% in a high efficiency scenario. Based on these findings, policy recommendations for applying the indicator at industry level and encouraging remanufacturing and direct reuse are provided.

Circular Economy: A New Horizon for Bio- Nanocomposites from Waste Materials

Circular Economy will offer a major opportunity to increase resource productivity, decrease consume and waste dependence, offering the opportunity to create new employment and growth. At this purpose, today, science provides evidence that this new economical vision, enabled by the bio-nanotechnology revolution, could generate by 2030 to Europe's economy, a primary resource benefits of as much as € 0.6 trillion per year [1,2]. In addition and under the anchor points of the EU normative (Figure 1) [3], it could generate €1.2 trillion in non-resource and externality benefits, bringing the annual total benefits to around €1.8 trillion versus to day [1,2]. Thus, the necessity to increase the resource efficiency, use agricultural and industrial by-products as raw materials, and minimize both greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and waste, for reducing the fossil-based products and *Address correspondence to this author at the Secretary General, International Society of Cosmetic Dermatology, Roma, Italy; RD Tel: +39 069286261; Fax: +39 069281523; E-mail: pierfrancesco.morganti@mavicosmetics.it, info@iscd.it maintaining the human wellbeing and the environment biodiversity.

Development of tractor operated bund former-cum-packer for increasing resource productivity

In mechanized farm, bund is prepared by a bund former either operated by tractor or animals for irrigation purposes and also to demarcate the fields. Tractor operated bund formers are normally either disc -or mould board or forming board type. If bund is formed with the help of traditional bund former, however, shaping and packing of bunds is done manually using spade and feet. This activity is time consuming and labour intensive. To overcome the drudgery involve in these operations, a tractor operated bund former-cum-packer was designed and developed. An attempt is made for enabling the combined operations of bund forming and packing in single pass that can save fuel, time and other resources further. The bund former-cum-packer consisted of commercially available disc type bund former, rectangular tool bar frame, and packing unit (concentric cylindrical roller, drive shaft, conical discs, compressive shanks etc). The bund formed by bund former-cum-packer was field tested and found neither water seepage nor breakage of bund during flood irrigation. The field capacity with the equipment was 1.4 ha/h at tractor speed of 2.93 km/h in 2nd low gear. The bund former-cum-packer can reduce about 96% dependency on labour requirement for packing the bund. Overall use of the equipment is having potential to increase the resource productivity by 38 %.

Evidence of Absolute Decoupling from Real World Policy Mixes in Europe

In resource economics, decoupling from environmental impacts is assumed to be beneficial. However, the success of efforts to increase resource productivity should be placed within the context of the earth’s resources and ecosystems as theoretically finite and contingent on a number of threshold values. Thus far relatively few analyses exist of policies which have successfully implemented strategies for decoupling within these limits. Through ex-post evaluation of a number of real world policy mixes from European Union member states, this paper further develops definitions of the concept of decoupling. Beyond absolute (and relative) decoupling, “absolute decoupling within limits” is proposed as an appropriate term for defining resource-productivity at any scale which respects the existing real world limits on resources and ecosystems and as such, contributes to meeting sustainability objectives. Policy mixes presented here cover a range of resources such as fish stocks, fertilizers, aggregates and fossil based materials (plastics). Policy mixes demonstrating absolute decoupling and at least one where absolute decoupling within limits has occurred, provide insights on developing resource efficiency policies in Europe and beyond.