Skip to Content
You are currently on the new version of our website. Access the old version .

Resources, Volume 6, Issue 4

2017 December - 24 articles

Cover Story: Discounted Cash Flow assesses the profitability of small-scale biomethane plants used as vehicle fuel. Plant size, substrate, subsidies and selling price of biomethane are considered are critical variables. Results define some profitable case studies. Furthermore, environmental benefits of the biomethane used in the transport sector and the amount of subsidies required are defined in Italian context. View this paper
  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list .
  • You may sign up for email alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.

Articles (24)

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
6,028 Views
19 Pages

14 December 2017

The paper investigates actions and decisions of agricultural resource users and explores their implications for institutional change and natural resource management in the post-socialist context of Central Asia. More specifically, the authors propose...

  • Article
  • Open Access
45 Citations
10,051 Views
14 Pages

Barriers and Motivations for Construction Waste Reduction Practices in Costa Rica

  • Lilliana Abarca-Guerrero,
  • Ger Maas and
  • Hijmen Van Twillert

12 December 2017

Low- and middle-income countries lag behind in research that is related to the construction industry and the waste problems that the sector is facing. Literature shows that waste reduction and recycling have received a continuous interest from resear...

  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
9,676 Views
10 Pages

11 December 2017

Despite being generally poorly recognized by public authorities, informal recycling remains nevertheless a major component in the waste sector, which questions the legitimacy of the official waste arrangements. A look at the current transformation in...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
14,728 Views
32 Pages

Dematerialization—A Disputable Strategy for Resource Conservation Put under Scrutiny

  • Felix Müller,
  • Jan Kosmol,
  • Hermann Keßler,
  • Michael Angrick and
  • Bettina Rechenberg

4 December 2017

Dematerialization is a paradigm in resource conservation strategies. Material use should be reduced so that resource consumption as a whole can be lowered. The benefit for humankind should be completely decoupled from the natural expenditure by a def...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
7,121 Views
13 Pages

29 November 2017

We present the results of a regression analysis of a large-scale integrated user online application that surveys natural resource use and subjective well-being in Germany. We analyse more than 44,000 users who provided information on their natural re...

  • Article
  • Open Access
133 Citations
17,126 Views
27 Pages

24 November 2017

The assessment of the sustainability of agricultural systems is multidimensional in nature and requires holistic measures using indicators with different measurements and units reflecting social, economic, and environmental aspects. To simplify the a...

  • Review
  • Open Access
56 Citations
11,057 Views
15 Pages

12 November 2017

The valorization of aquatic-derived biowastes as possible feedstock for the production of value-added chemicals and materials is proposed here as a sustainable alternative compared to the exploitation of the more conventional (fossil) resources. In t...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
66 Citations
15,411 Views
16 Pages

10 November 2017

Recent advances in the electronics sector and the short life-span of electronic products have triggered an exponential increase in the generation of electronic waste (E-waste). Effective recycling of E-waste has thus become a serious solid waste mana...

  • Article
  • Open Access
125 Citations
16,761 Views
24 Pages

Proposal of a Sustainable Circular Index for Manufacturing Companies

  • Susana Garrido Azevedo,
  • Radu Godina and
  • João Carlos de Oliveira Matias

10 November 2017

Recently the circular economy has increasingly received attention worldwide due to the recognition that the security of the supply of resources and environmental sustainability are crucial for the prosperity of all the countries and businesses. G20 c...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
13,053 Views
13 Pages

25 October 2017

Platinum and palladium are used in small but essential quantities in a variety of advanced industrial sectors. Platinum and palladium are used as catalysts in various industrial sectors, especially in the car industry. However, their sources are typi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
6,608 Views
16 Pages

A New Composite Index for Greenhouse Gases: Climate Science Meets Social Science

  • Heidi K. Edmonds,
  • Julie E. Lovell and
  • C. A. Knox Lovell

25 October 2017

Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased at a rate of nearly 2% per year since 1970, and the rate of increase has been increasing. The contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming constitutes an environmental management challenge requirin...

  • Article
  • Open Access
70 Citations
12,571 Views
21 Pages

24 October 2017

Indicator-based tools are widely used for the assessment of farm sustainability, but analysts still face methodological and conceptual issues, including data availability, the complexity of the concept of sustainability and the heterogeneity of agric...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
10,102 Views
25 Pages

24 October 2017

This article addresses a research gap on the challenges—specifically risk and value—connected to realizing the potential for closing loops for rare earth elements (REE). We develop an analytical framework from conceptual elements of the global value...

  • Article
  • Open Access
40 Citations
10,536 Views
13 Pages

Biomethane: A Renewable Resource as Vehicle Fuel

  • Federica Cucchiella,
  • Idiano D'Adamo and
  • Massimo Gastaldi

22 October 2017

The European Union (EU) has set a mandatory target for renewable fuels of 10% for each member state by 2020. Biomethane is a renewable energy representing an alternative to the use of fossil fuels in the transport sector. This resource is a solution...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
162 Citations
30,416 Views
11 Pages

19 October 2017

Recycling has been taking place in South Africa for more than three decades, driven by social and economic needs. While the waste hierarchy is embedded in national policy, an extensive legislative framework has made it more and more challenging for t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
11,567 Views
18 Pages

13 October 2017

This paper highlights the thermal performance of reclined (parallel to ground surface) and standing (perpendicular to ground surface) slinky horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHEs) with different water mass flow rates in the heating mode of continu...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
57 Citations
10,302 Views
21 Pages

13 October 2017

Sustainable development is inconceivable without healthy real estate market. A housing project can be regarded as sustainable only when all the dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) are dealt with. There has been an incre...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
8,236 Views
16 Pages

A Participatory Process to Develop a Landslide Warning System: Paradoxes of Responsibility Sharing in a Case Study in Upper Austria

  • Philipp Preuner,
  • Anna Scolobig,
  • JoAnne Linnerooth Bayer,
  • David Ottowitz,
  • Stefan Hoyer and
  • Birgit Jochum

During a participatory process in Gmunden, Austria, the organizational and responsibility-sharing arrangements for a landslide warning system proved to be contested issues. While questions on the warning system technology and the distribution of info...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
5,960 Views
14 Pages

An Incremental Economic Analysis of Establishing Early Successional Habitat for Biodiversity

  • Slayton W. Hazard-Daniel,
  • Patrick Hiesl,
  • Susan C. Loeb and
  • Thomas J. Straka

28 September 2017

Early successional habitat (ESH) is an important component of natural landscapes and is crucial to maintaining biodiversity. ESH also impacts endangered species. The extent of forest disturbances resulting in ESH has been diminishing, and foresters h...

  • Article
  • Open Access
121 Citations
15,107 Views
12 Pages

Waste Picker Organizations and Their Contribution to the Circular Economy: Two Case Studies from a Global South Perspective

  • Jutta Gutberlet,
  • Sebastián Carenzo,
  • Jaan-Henrik Kain and
  • Adalberto Mantovani Martiniano de Azevedo

27 September 2017

The discussion on the circular economy (CE) has attracted a rising interest within global policy and business as a way of increasing the sustainability of production and consumption. Yet the literature mostly portrays a Global North perspective. Ther...

  • Review
  • Open Access
75 Citations
22,070 Views
15 Pages

Geochemistry of Monazite within Carbonatite Related REE Deposits

  • Wei Chen,
  • Huang Honghui,
  • Tian Bai and
  • Shaoyong Jiang

27 September 2017

Approximately >50% of global rare earth element (REE) resources are hosted by carbonatite related deposits, of which monazite is one of the most important REE minerals. Monazite dominates more than 30 carbonatite-related REE deposits around the wo...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
7,756 Views
23 Pages

Improving the Sustainability of Farming Practices through the Use of a Symbiotic Approach for Anaerobic Digestion and Digestate Processing

  • Frank Pierie,
  • Austin Dsouza,
  • Christian E. J. Van Someren,
  • René M. J. Benders,
  • Wim J. Th. Van Gemert and
  • Henri C. Moll

26 September 2017

The dairy sector in the Netherlands aims for a 30% increase in efficiency and 30% carbon dioxide emission reduction compared to the reference year of 1990, and a 20% share of renewable energy, all by the year 2020. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) can play a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
6,450 Views
12 Pages

Bacterial Pathogen Occurrence and Persistence in Livestock Mortality Biopiles

  • Robert Michitsch,
  • Robert Gordon,
  • Rob Jamieson and
  • Glenn Stratton

26 September 2017

Properly managed biopiles can be used for slaughterhouse-residual degradation and bacterial pathogen inactivation, which otherwise represent a major health risk in the environment. Biopiles were used to dispose of slaughterhouse-residuals and determi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
11,703 Views
21 Pages

22 September 2017

Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) was adopted as a stand-alone goal and reflected as one of the cross-cutting objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a central role to address global resource consumption and its associ...

Get Alerted

Add your email address to receive forthcoming issues of this journal.

XFacebookLinkedIn
Resources - ISSN 2079-9276