Search Results (20)

Decarbonising municipal solid waste (MSW) is a defining algorithmic challenge for smart cities: waste-to-energy (WtE), composting and material-recovery investments must be committed years ahead under deep uncertainty about household source-separation uptake and the governing policy instruments (landfill taxes, carbon prices, compost subsidies). We present a two-stage stochastic mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) framework, applied to the Attica region of Greece (Athens; 5122 t/day MSW) and calibrated to confirmed 2024 weighbridge data. The contribution is an integration strategy rather than a new technique: endogenous WtE capacity sizing (Special Ordered Sets of Type 2 (SOS2) piecewise-linear cost, economies-of-scale exponent 0.85), the bilinear capacity–build coupling linearised exactly by McCormick envelopes (one factor being binary), and Pigouvian shadow-price recovery of the optimal policy instruments are combined in a single-shot, gap-bounded MILP and embedded in a 10,000-run Latin-hypercube Monte Carlo layer over 12 parameters with Spearman sensitivity indices. The individual components are established; their joint formulation is, to our knowledge, new. The pipeline solves 10,415 MILP instances. Three results are policy-relevant: investment is robust to rollout uncertainty (VSS ≈ €0; EVPI ≈ €5.4 M, 0.15%); the carbon price alone explains ~80% of cost variance (ρ = +0.891); and, under the model’s calibration, the implied Pigouvian-optimal landfill tax (€1100–3300/t) indicates a binding landfill cap is needed to secure diversion. The framework transfers to any metropolitan MSW system facing decarbonisation and circular-economy mandates. Full article

This study develops an inventory model for deteriorating products within a dual-warehouse system under carbon tax regulation. The framework is motivated by supply chains for perishable goods where storage constraints, product deterioration, environmental costs, and financing decisions arise simultaneously. The model considers an owned warehouse and a rented warehouse with higher holding cost, where the rented facility is utilized first. To capture realistic operational conditions, the model integrates time-dependent holding costs, trend-based demand, preservation technology investment to reduce deterioration, and a two-tier trade credit scheme. Carbon tax is incorporated as an environmental cost component, while preservation technology directly influences the deterioration rate, creating a trade-off between investment and waste reduction. The proposed model is examined through numerical analysis based on parameter settings representative of perishable products such as organic dairy items. The objective is to determine the optimal replenishment cycle time, preservation investment, and order quantity that minimize the total cost within the dual-warehouse system. Numerical results indicate an average optimal cycle time of approximately 0.57 years, preservation investment of about 1.32 dollars, and order quantity near 459 units. The average total cost is around 1056 dollars, with a minimum observed cost of approximately 964 dollars. The findings highlight the significant impact of preservation technology and carbon taxation on profitability and sustainability. Full article

Post-harvest losses of ‘Cruiser’ cantaloupe reach ~15% in arid regions of Mexico, representing substantial wasted water and embedded greenhouse-gas emissions. This study presents an open-access, low-temperature maceration protocol for converting cosmetically rejected fruit into a carotenoid-rich spirit at rural scale. A 5-day maceration at 20 °C (15% pulp, 20% v/v ethanol) preserved color, β-carotene, and antioxidant capacity over 90 days of storage. Shelf-life predictions beyond this period are model-based and require long-term validation. Trained assessors characterized the beverage with a favorable aromatic profile driven by fruity esters and floral terpenes. Life-cycle results indicated lower cradle-to-gate impacts than reference mango spirits, and composting of pomace generated a mature soil amendment. A simplified techno-economic scenario suggests potential for rural processing but excludes taxation, licensing, and regulatory compliance; thus, economic feasibility cannot yet be confirmed. Overall, this study provides a proof-of-concept pathway for valorizing cantaloupe waste through low-temperature maceration and identifies critical analytical, regulatory, and economic aspects needed for future scale-up. Full article

The transition toward renewable energy systems offers significant opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while also introducing new challenges in risk management and policy design. This study examines the long-term effects of renewable energy consumption, the risk factors associated with environmental taxation, and public expenditure on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across 27 European Union countries over a period of 22 years. Using panel data techniques—specifically the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimators—the analysis identifies robust cointegrating relationships among environmental, fiscal, and energy variables. The joint null hypothesis (H₀) states that renewable energy consumption, environmental taxation, and public environmental expenditure do not exert a statistically significant negative long-run effect on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the European Union (i.e., none of these variables contributes to reducing GHG emissions in the long run). The findings show that renewable energy consumption and environmental taxes significantly and negatively affect GHG emissions, confirming their effectiveness as instruments for emission risk mitigation. Pollution taxes display the strongest elasticity among fiscal measures, indicating their pivotal role in carbon reduction strategies. Furthermore, public expenditure, particularly in waste management, meaningfully contributes to long-term emission reductions. These results highlight that a cohesive policy framework combining renewable energy development, targeted taxation, and strategic public investment can effectively minimize the environmental and economic risks associated with decarbonization. The study provides valuable empirical evidence for policymakers and risk analysts, underscoring the importance of integrated fiscal and energy policies in achieving sustainable climate risk management across the European Union Full article

This study addresses the critical issue of Food Waste (FW) across the 27 European Union (EU) member states by investigating its correlation with key socio-economic and environmental factors. Utilizing panel data regression with a fixed-effects model, this research controls for inherent country-specific characteristics to isolate the influence of variables, such as GDP per capita, educational attainment, environmental taxes, and economic burden on FW levels. The analysis reveals that FW is shaped by a complex interplay of factors, where economic affluence (GDP per capita) and financial stress (housing cost overburden) both exhibit a positive and statistically significant relationship with increased FW. Conversely, higher educational attainment, particularly at the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels, is strongly associated with reduced FW, emphasizing education’s role in promoting sustainable behavior. Environmental policy variables, including environmental taxes and circular material use, are negatively correlated with waste, suggesting effective indirect reduction. Notably, government support for agriculture demonstrates a positive association with FW, potentially indicating incentives for overproduction. These findings highlight the multidimensional nature of FW in the EU, necessitating comprehensive policy responses that integrate educational initiatives, economic levers, and sustainability-oriented reforms to promote resource-efficient consumption across the continent. By clarifying these relationships, this study contributes to the literature by providing one of the few examples of cross-country, EU-wide panel analyses that jointly consider economic, educational, and policy dimensions of FW. The findings offer practical implications for policymakers, emphasizing that FW reduction requires integrated strategies: strengthening environmental taxation and circularity initiatives, aligning agricultural subsidies with sustainability goals, and expanding educational programs that cultivate food-responsible behavior. Together, these insights support the design of more targeted and evidence-based interventions to reduce FW and promote resource-efficient consumption across the EU. Full article

In China, the recycling system for waste tires is characterized by high output but low standardized recovery rates. This study examines the environmental and health risks caused by non-compliant treatment by individual recyclers and explores the barriers to the large-scale adoption of Pyrolysis Technology. A Tripartite Evolutionary Game Model involving pyrolysis plants, waste tire recyclers, and government regulators is developed. The model incorporates pollutants from pretreatment and pyrolysis processes into a unified metric—Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO₂-eq)—based on Global Warming Potential (GWP), and designs a Differential Carbon Taxation mechanism accordingly. The strategy dynamics and stability conditions for Evolutionary Stable Strategies (ESS) are analyzed. Multi-scenario numerical simulations explore how key parameter changes influence evolutionary trajectories and equilibrium outcomes. Six typical equilibrium states are identified, along with the critical conditions for achieving environmentally friendly results. Based on theoretical analysis and simulation results, targeted policy recommendations are proposed to promote standardized waste tire pyrolysis: (1) Establish a phased dynamic carbon tax with supporting subsidies; (2) Build a green market cultivation and price stabilization system; (3) Implement performance-based differential incentives; (4) Strengthen coordination between central environmental inspections and local carbon tax enforcement. Full article

Environmental sustainability constitutes a strategic priority for Germany, with the circular economy serving a crucial function in its realization. Circular practices foster sustainable development by decreasing reliance on finite resources, minimizing waste, and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The circular economy provides ecological advantages and strengthens economic resilience through the promotion of innovation, enhancement of supply chain efficiency, and creation of green jobs. Complementary measures, including the preservation of natural capital, the enactment of structural economic reforms, and the implementation of environmental taxes, enhance sustainability objectives. Ecosystem conservation enhances carbon absorption, structural changes facilitate low-emission industries, and environmental taxes incorporate environmental costs. In contrast, industrial activity continues to be a significant contributor to GHG emissions, necessitating policy examination. This study analyzes the relationships between the circular economy, natural capital, structural change, environmental taxation, and industrial activities on GHG emissions in Germany from the first quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2022. The study employs wavelet coherence analysis (WCA), fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), demonstrating that circular economy practices, natural capital, structural changes, and environmental taxes significantly reduce GHG emissions. Conversely, industrial activities continually elevate GHG emissions in Germany. Moreover, WCA further reveals the time–frequency dynamics and co-movement patterns between key variables and GHG emissions, enabling the detection of both short-term and long-term dependencies. The results indicate that enhancing environmental sustainability in Germany could be effectively achieved by mandating the integration of recycled materials within key industrial sectors to improve environmental sustainability, which would help lower resource extraction and related GHG emissions. Full article

The circular economy (CE) framework is increasingly recognized as essential for achieving sustainable development by addressing the challenges of resource depletion, waste generation, and environmental degradation. This study examines the relationship between resource consumption, waste management procedures, and energy efficiency within European Union (EU) member states, leveraging data from 2004 to 2023. Using Pearson correlation analysis, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and K-means clustering, this study identifies key sustainability performance indicators and classifies EU nations into four distinct clusters based on CE adoption. These findings reveal a strong positive correlation between resource productivity and circular material use, indicating that efficient resource management significantly enhances sustainability performance. Similarly, energy productivity exhibits a moderate correlation with resource efficiency, suggesting that economies optimizing energy consumption also enhance material use efficiency. This study also assesses the role of policy instruments, such as environmental taxation, which show a weak negative correlation with resource productivity. These insights provide actionable recommendations for policymakers to tailor interventions, harmonize sustainability strategies, and address regional disparities to accelerate the transition to a resilient and efficient circular economy model. Full article

The purpose of this work is to examine the nature of the historically observed and empirically described by the Pareto law inequality in the distribution of wealth and income in an economic system. This inequality is presumed to be the result of unequal opportunity by its members. An analytical model of the economic system consisting of a large number of actors, all having equal access to its total wealth (or income) has been developed that is formally represented by a scale-free network comprised of nodes (actors) and links (states of wealth or income). The dynamic evolution of the complex network can be mapped in turn, as is known, into a system of quantum particles (links) distributed among various energy levels (nodes) in thermodynamic equilibrium. The distribution of quantum particles (photons) at different energy levels in the physical system is then derived based on statistical thermodynamics with the attainment of maximal entropy for the system to be in a dynamic equilibrium. The resulting Planck-type distribution of the physical system mapped into a scale-free network leads naturally into the Pareto law distribution of the economic system. The conclusions of the scale-free complex network model leading to the analytical derivation of the empirical Pareto law are multifold. First, any complex economic system behaves akin to a scale-free complex network. Second, equal access or opportunity leads to unequal outcomes. Third, the optimal value for the Pareto index is obtained that ensures the optimal, albeit unequal, outcome of wealth and income distribution. Fourth, the optimal value for the Gini coefficient can then be calculated and be compared to the empirical values of that coefficient for wealth and income to ascertain how close an economic system is to its optimal distribution of income and wealth among its members. Fifth, in an economic system with equal opportunity for all its members there should be no difference between the resulting income and wealth distributions. Examination of the wealth and income distributions described by the Gini coefficient of national economies suggests that income and particularly wealth are far off from their optimal value. We conclude that the equality of opportunity should be the fundamental guiding principle of any economic system for the optimal distribution of wealth and income. The practical application of this conclusion is that societies ought to shift focus from policies such as taxation and payment transfers purporting to produce equal outcomes for all, a goal which is unattainable and wasteful, to policies advancing among others education, health care, and affordable housing for all as well as the re-evaluation of rules and institutions such that all members in the economic system have equal opportunity for the optimal utilization of resources and the distribution of wealth and income. Future research efforts should develop the scale-free complex network model of the economy as a complement to the current standard models. Full article

Online-to-offline (O2O) retailing offers unique opportunities for customizable assembled products with spare parts. Customers can browse and configure their desired product online, selecting from various components. Imperfect production, where a certain percentage of products have defects, can be amplified in the manufacturing system. Stricter carbon emission regulations put pressure on manufacturers to minimize waste. This creates a tension between discarding imperfect products, generating emissions, and potentially offering them at a discount through the O2O channel, which could raise quality concerns for consumers. In this study, an imperfect single-stage production process is examined, incorporating manufacturing–remanufacturing within a single stage for assembled products containing various spare parts. The study explores an investment scenario aimed at enhancing the environmental sustainability of the product. Additionally, two carbon emissions regulation strategies, specifically carbon cap-and-trade regulation and carbon taxation, are evaluated for their effectiveness in mitigating carbon footprints. The identification of waste, particularly in the form of defective items, is achieved through automated inspection techniques. The demand for spare parts associated with the assembled products is intricately linked to the selling prices set across diverse channels. Finally, the total profit of the manufacturing system is maximized with the optimized value of the selling prices, order quantity, backorder quantity, and investments in autonomated inspection, setup cost, and green technology. Numerical illustrations show that system profit was optimized when the defective rate followed a triangular distribution under carbon cap-and-trade regulation and when green technology investment helped to enhance retailer profit by $18.12\%$, whereas autonomated inspection increased retailer profit by $10.27\%$. Full article

The use of economic instruments within environmental policy has become a challenging topic for policymakers, governments and scholars. Environmental taxes have emerged as a prevailing preference in developed countries to promote sustainability. Recently, a particular focus has been given to waste generation and disposal, shifting the attention from greenhouse gases to another important source of environmental pollution. This paper investigates the effect of national environmental taxes and policies on industrial waste. A fixed effects model is used for 34 countries across Europe from 2004 to 2022. The results suggest that environmental taxes and energy policies reduce industrial (hazardous and non-hazardous) waste. However, environmental tax reforms should take into consideration the deterioration in environmental quality, the increase in economic costs and undesirable social consequences. Full article

Seventeen sustainable development goals were formulated to create a harmonious world order for the benefit of different nations and peoples. At the same time, economic practice provides a lot of examples of conflicts of an economic nature between individual sustainable development goals. One of these conflicts is the need for environmental imperatives and economic growth when a massive assessment of land used for crop production and green energy projects is needed. The present paper considers a non-traditional approach to the mass evaluation of land plots on the condition that geographic information systems provide the main source of information, such as the case of land allocation for green energy facilities and evaluation of agricultural plots. The novelty of the proposed approach firstly means the development of a comparative approach, which receives much less attention in the valuation literature than cost and income approaches, as it can give an adequate picture of the current state of the market. The model includes the study of the entire dataset, the selection of model distributions and the construction of estimates based on model distributions. The methodology of multivariate lognormal distribution of factors and prices of analogues is used. The peculiarity of the market evaluation of land plots in such cases is, as a rule, the absence of rank predictors and sufficient number of continuous predictors, which provides a base for the application of a novel approach. The method of express testing of hypotheses about joint normality of logarithms of values of pricing factors and prices is proposed. The market value is estimated as an estimate of the modal value of conditional lognormal price distribution. Secondly, the problem of market valuation is solved in case of the almost complete absence of information about price-forming factors in the areas being assessed, and thirdly, the factors are determined based on geoinformation databases (distance to the nearest large city, regional center, federal highway, large rivers, lakes, and solid waste landfills), which allow for market assessment in the absence of information on pricing factors for land plots, except for the offer price and the plot area. The research was necessitated by the claim to determine on a specific date the cadastral value of agricultural land for the purposes of taxation, corresponding to the market value, in the almost complete absence of information on pricing factors in the assessed areas. The value of land reflects a complex combination of factors, so the use of the proposed mathematical toolkit allows for building a consistent model for the evaluation of land where improvements are absent or have no value in terms of land acquisition purposes. Full article

Conventional and intensive agriculture systems represent an environmental challenge. This research aims at evaluating the economic and environmental implications of conventional and organic durum wheat production in Southern Italy by applying material flow analysis and the crop accounting method. The purpose is to evaluate and compare the natural resource consumption, waste generation and economic profitability of conventional and organic durum wheat farming, respectively. The functional unit is one hectare of cultivated land. System boundaries encompass all agronomic operations, from cradle to gate. The research applies a bottom-up approach and relies on either primary or secondary data. It emerges that organic durum wheat production reduces the use of synthetic chemical and phytosanitary products, as well as plastic waste, by up to 100%. Moreover, it decreases diesel use by 15%, with a consequent reduction in CO₂ emissions, and also avoids soil and groundwater pollution. From an economic perspective, gross income for conventionally farmed durum wheat is still 55% higher compared to organic production. Public authorities should boost environmental sustainability by supporting organic production from either an economic or a social perspective, by enhancing the sharing of best practices, by certification for farmers’ groups, by research and innovation, and by incentives in taxation. Overall, this research represents a further step towards the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Full article

There are forecasts for the exponential increase in the generation of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite wastes containing valuable carbon and glass fibres. The recent adoption of these composites in wind turbines and aeroplanes has increased the amount of end-of-life waste from these applications. By adequately closing the life cycle loop, these enormous volumes of waste can partly satisfy the global demand for their virgin counterparts. Therefore, there is a need to properly dispose these composite wastes, with material recovery being the final target, thanks to the strict EU regulations for promoting recycling and reusing as the highest priorities in waste disposal options. In addition, the hefty taxation has almost brought about an end to landfills. These government regulations towards properly recycling these composite wastes have changed the industries’ attitudes toward sustainable disposal approaches, and life cycle assessment (LCA) plays a vital role in this transition phase. This LCA study uses climate change results and fossil fuel consumptions to study the environmental impacts of a thermal recycling route to recycle and remanufacture CFRP and GFRP wastes into recycled rCFRP and rGFRP composites. Additionally, a comprehensive analysis was performed comparing with the traditional waste management options such as landfill, incineration with energy recovery and feedstock for cement kiln. Overall, the LCA results were favourable for CFRP wastes to be recycled using the thermal recycling route with lower environmental impacts. However, this contradicts GFRP wastes in which using them as feedstock in cement kiln production displayed more reduced environmental impacts than those thermally recycled to substitute virgin composite production. Full article

Tax compliance is an important indicator for the proper functioning of the tax authority, influencing the budget revenue level. In this study, a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) analysis was developed to identify the long-term relationships between the compliance in individual income taxation (taxpayer’s behavior), public trust in politicians (trust in authorities), and rule of law (power of the authorities), using unbalanced panel data for the European Union (EU28) during the 2007–2017 period. The results underline the causality of the long-run relationships between the variables. The results of the VECM analysis underline the need for various support measures for voluntary tax compliance, with the trust variable having an important impact on tax compliance. In addition, a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was employed using an improved data set with variables such as the compliance in corporation taxation (taxpayer’s behavior), wastefulness of government spending, and quality of the education system. The results of the SEM analysis underline the positive and significant influences of the variables on tax compliance. Full article