Home composting (HC) can be a cost-effective strategy for organic solid waste management. This option is also desirable since HC is increasingly automated, with HC machines composting faster than conventional composting in outdoor settings. Besides, HC may reduce organic solid waste management costs, especially for developing countries with scarcer resources. Taking Iran as a study case, the paper examines the influence of variables pertaining to the theory of planned behavior, the value-belief-norm framework, and the technology acceptance model. This study uses data collected from a territory-wide survey (n = 367) of Isfahan’s residents to predict HC intentions. The results show that both attitude and subjective norms appear as the most impactful of all variables. These results further vary according to sex, with women being significantly more prone to HC than men. The findings may provide a reference to implement HC in Iran and other developing countries and possibly developed ones.

Antibiotic resistance currently causes hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide; it is a major and growing public health threat globally. The origins of many resistance genes in pathogenic bacteria can be traced down to the environment; while a staggering number of resistant bacteria and resistance genes, selected for by human activities, are released into the environment. The nature, quantities and fates of this bidirectional flux of organisms and genes are mostly unknown. In order to understand the evolution of resistance within clinical settings, and the impact of the release of resistant bacteria into the environment, it is crucial to assess these questions and to assemble an integrated view of the problem. This review aims at providing an update on related issues previously discussed elsewhere, and to contribute to the comprehensive understanding of the environment as a source, receptacle and reservoir of antibiotic resistance.

The In.Te.Se. project - Innovation Territory and Services, for waste management in scattered areas is an Interreg V-A France Italy (ALCOTRA) project, financed within the framework of European cross-border cooperation programmes, in the Alpine region between France and Italy. On the subject of the local exploitation of organic waste, it permits the experimentation of home composting in scattered and cross-border areas in the Italian territories of the Province of Cuneo (Consorzio Servizi Ecologia e Ambiente, CSEA) and in the French areas of the PACA Region (Syndicat Mixte de Traitement des Ordures Ménagères des cantons du Guillestrois et de l'Argentièrois, SMITOMGA), through the use of individual and collective, manual and electromechanical composters. During the project it is estimated that a quantity of organic waste equal to about 2% of the not sorted waste produced in 2019 has been valorised, in 3 municipalities of CSEA and 23 municipalities followed by SMITOMGA where a separate collection circuit does not exist and it is conferred with the general unsorted waste. Overall, 31.72 tons of compost are obtained. The environmental balance deriving from the cooperation of the territories also makes it possible to estimate a negative balance of CO₂ produced, with 3212.78 kgCO₂ avoided. The economic assessment of not sending the organic component for disposal produced a saving for the two communities as a whole of €10,397.56, involving only 15% of the total population in the municipalities investigated. At the same time, a comparison with a separated collection system for the organic matter, determines the saving of €27,295.73 considering the all tested area. The implementation of this good practice has the potential to achieve interesting results from an environmental, social and economic point of view and to be extended to further portions of the territory and has demonstrated the successful choice of cross-border cooperation and the diversification of applied techniques.

A large proportion of the earth's resource turnover is caused by building and construction activities. There are also many health and safety problems related to the built environment. All these effects are contained in the concept of sustainability. In order to reduce the impact of the built environment it is important to plan for higher ecological, social, economic and cultural sustainability in all stages of the building and construction planning process. A problem is that these processes are complex with many actors involved in different stages. The complexity can be handled with an integrated planning model that is based on continuous dialogue during the process between the actors involved. Case studies of construction projects show that such models for continuous experience feedback can work in practice. The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze sustainable construction processes with regard to clear goal formulation and continuous follow-up of the sustainability parameters. It is also to develop a general model for managing sustainable construction and housing processes regarding ecological, economic, social and cultural dimensions. The model is the result of action research-oriented case studies carried out within the framework of the EU-project Sustainable Built Environment in Mid Sweden (SBEMS).

The rocks are likely to give a geochemical signature to the groundwater circulating there. Therefore the hydro geochemistry of the mine’s water is influenced by the mining method. The continuous pumping of the mine water gives discharges that induce harmful impacts on the environment. The Sebou basin is subjected to strong industrial and urban pollution, but in the literature, the evaluation of the mining impact on this area is neglected. This paper is dedicated to this issue and as part of the evaluation of the mining impact on the Sebou watershed, the haut Beht mine was chosen among the four mines which include the watershed, and then we proceeded, as the purpose of this work, to evaluate the physicochemical quality of this mine’s water discharges and their metallic trace elements (MTE) load (As, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu) through monitoring of four locations during two analysis campaigns in 2014 and 2015. This monitoring was performed by ICP-MS analysis. The results showed absenteeism of the acidic nature of mine’s water, characterizing acid mine drainage (AMD). The majority of the analyzed water presents important concentrations of sulfate. During the 2014 campaign, the examination of trace metal element concentrations showed, at station 2, contamination of Iron, Aluminum, Manganese and, Arsenic. However, the concentrations of Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu elements remain conform and very low compared to the limit of standards. The monitoring of the overtake elements made it possible to identify the degree of contamination of the mine’s water discharges and to note an improvement in time in the mine water discharges quality.

The discharge of untreated industrial effluents degraded water and soil, and the entire environment. The study aimed to evaluate the impacts of sugar mills effluent on the environment around the mills’ area. A total of 120 effluents, soils, and water samples were collected three times a year over two years to analyze the physicochemical parameters. A field survey also was conducted on two hundred households of fourteen villages of the two Upazila in Joypurhat District of Bangladesh. The survey observed that majority of the people have negative opinions regarding the impacts of sugar mills effluents on fish, crops, and human health life. The higher BOD₅ level in the effluents indicated that the decline in DO that the bacteria consumed the available oxygen in the water leading to the inability of fish and other aquatic organisms to survive in the water body. The study observed that the concentrations of Fe³⁺, Mn²⁺, and Pb²⁺ were found higher than the standard permissible limit of DoE-BD (2003) indicating the severe environmental degradation occurred in the areas. The study observed that the surface water, groundwater, and soil were contaminated through the discharge of sugar mills untreated effluents severely degraded the environment of the areas.