Purpose of the article: In the article we have focused on the trends determining the development of reverse logistics of end-of-life vehicles in selected European countries. The analysis concentrates on quantity of end-of-life vehicles which are especially interesting for reverse logistics because of their fitness for recovery or reuse. End-of-life products contain fully valuable elements which, according to the idea of sustainable use of resources, should be recovered. Accordingly, reverse logistics aims at protecting natural resources and the environment through reintroduction of processed waste materials into the economic cycle as valuable products and materials. Methodology/methods: The aim of the article was achieved on the basis of a critical analysis of subject literature and the analysis of statistical data. In the article the method of descriptive and mathematical statistics and dynamic analysis were used. The 2006-2014 years were analyzed. The data come from the data base of the Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The following variables were taken into account: the amount of end-of-life vehicles (in tonnes and in number of cars), reuse level (in tonnes), recovery level (in tonnes), and recycling level (in tonnes). The analysis was based on a t-Student test for two average values of dependent samples, sign test and the Wilcoxon signed rank test. In order to see if the reverse logistics actions implemented in European countries were effective, the analysis compares the average values of individual variables from the year 2014 and 2006. Measurements were done for the same countries on the same element of population. The chain indexes and the average change tempo for specified variables were calculated. The similarity of the formation of specified variables in each year was compared on the basis of the index of similarity structures. Scientific aim: The scientific aim of the article is to identify the basic trends determining the development of reverse logistics of end-of-life vehicles in selected European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, The Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, United Kingdom, Norway). These trends are reflected in the amount of end-of-life vehicles designed for reuse, recovery and recycling. Findings: With respect to their total or partial processing, end-of-life vehicles are handled according to the 3R principle (reduce, reuse, and recycle) in order to promote the concept of sustainable development. Unfortunately, the number of end-of-life vehicles in Europe is increasing which is a result of the growing economy and society's wealth. Also the ecological awareness of the producers and consumers is rising which is reflected in the increased number of end-of-life vehicles put through reuse, recovery and recycling processes. The analyzed period shows an average annual increase in the reuse, recovery and recycling indexes in most of the discussed countries. Therefore, we can speak of an increasing ecological efficiency of sustainable logistics of end-of-life vehicles. Conclusions: Sustainable logistics allows to recover value from used products. End-of-life products contain materials of full value that should be recovered, which undoubtedly fosters sustainable use of resources. European countries vary according to both the effort and the result of the end-of-life vehicles recovery which is due to economic, legal and cultural circumstances. But research shows the existence of positive trends in the realization of reuse, recovery and recycling processes of end-of-life vehicles. These tendencies should delineate further activities in this area.
Across the world, in countries with permissive or restrictive existing legislation, debates about Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (EAS) continue to grip politicians, ethicists, physicians and the wider public. Early debates about EAS focused on whether it could ever be ethical for a physician to actively cause the death of a patient. However, most contemporary writers, including most of the contributors to this special double issue of the JME appear to accept that such actions could, in some circumstances, be ethical. Current debate is mostly focused instead on which actions are permissible, when they are permissible, and what safeguards are necessary to protect the vulnerable.
In a recent study conducted by Dr Saul Weiner, it was established that 'patients tend to do better when their doctors pay attention to their individual needs and circumstances' (Seaman, 2013). The health care system in general has been steadily shifting its approach from a paternalistic approach to one in which both the doctor and the patient work together to achieve the best possible results. This also applies for the local scenario where measures have been proposed to promote patient rights and patient autonomy, particularly through a new patients' charter for rights and responsibilities. ; peer-reviewed
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool specifically developed for quantifying and assessing the environmental burden of a product across its entire life cycle, thus providing powerful support for sustainable product design. There exists a geographical imbalance in the adoption and distribution of LCA studies, with a notably poor penetration into developing countries, resulting from a lack of technical expertise, reliable data, and an inability to engage with the key issues of developing countries. These challenges are particularly prevalent in waste management. The limitations in current LCA capacity for representing product end-of-life, coupled to the disparity in waste management practices between developed and developing countries means that LCA is currently unable to accurately model product end-of-life in South Africa. This means that, for imported products designed on the basis of LCA, the upstream impacts may be accurate, while the end-of-life is not. Therefore, to improve the use of LCA as a tool to support sustainable product design, there is a need to develop life cycle datasets and methods that accurately reflect the realities of waste management in developing countries. The objectives of this dissertation are to (i) identify the current shortcomings of existing LCA datasets in representing the end-of-life stage of general waste in a South African context, and (ii) propose modifications to existing datasets to better reflect the realities of waste management in a South African context and extract lessons from this for use elsewhere. To meet these objectives, research was undertaken in three main stages, with the outcome of each stage used to inform the development of each subsequent stage. The first stage aimed to establish the status quo with regards to general waste management in South Africa. This investigation was informed through a desktop review of government and other publicly available reports, supplemented by field work and stakeholder engagements. These results formed the basis for the second stage: a review of LCA capacity for representing product end-of-life in the South African context. The review of datasets was limited to those contained within SimaPro v8.3 and was undertaken with the aim of understanding the extent to which current datasets are capable of representing South African waste management practices. Finally, three cases of existing LCA datasets were explored. This included testing modifications that could be made in an attempt to improve their applicability to the South African reality. In South Africa, a major limitation in developing a quantified mapping of waste flows lies in the paucity of reliable waste data and the exclusion of the contribution of the informal sector in existing waste data repositories. It was estimated that South Africa generates approximately 12.7 million tonnes of domestic waste per annum, of which an estimated 29% is not collected or treated via formal management options. For both formal and informal general waste, disposal to land (landfill and dumping) represents the most utilised waste management option. Landfill conditions in South Africa range from well-managed sanitary landfills to open dumps. Considering only licensed landfill facilities, it is estimated that large and medium landfill sites accept the majority of South Africa's general waste (54% and 31% respectively), while the balance is managed in small (12%) and communal (3%) sites. Considering the quantity of informal domestic waste enables a crude estimation of household waste distribution between different landfill classes. In this instance, while the majority of waste (40%) is still managed in large formal landfill sites, an appreciable quantity (26%) is managed in private dumps. Within SimaPro v8.3 landfill disposal is best represented by the sanitary landfill datasets contained within the ecoinvent v3.3 database. SimaPro preserves the modular construction of the ecoinvent dataset, meaning that various generic modifications to these datasets can be made, such as the elimination or addition of burdens, redefinition of the value of a burden, or substitution of a linked dataset. Practically, such modifications are limited to process-specific burdens. However, wastespecific burdens are of greater significance in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) result of a landfill process. Waste-specific emissions are generated using the underlying ecoinvent landfill emission model. The current model structure allows for the parametrisation of waste composition in addition to landfill gas (LFG) capture and utilisation efficiencies. However, besides the incorporation of a methane correction factor to account for the effect that various site conditions have on the waste degradation environment, the extent to which the existing model can be adapted to represent alternative landfill conditions is limited. This is particularly true in the case of leachate generation and release. Although adaptation that incorporates the effect of climatic conditions on waste degradability and emission release is possible, this requires a high level of country-specific data and modelling expertise. Thus, the practicality of such a modification within the skills set of most LCA practitioners is questionable. Further limitations in the existing modelling framework include its inability to quantify the potential impacts of practices characteristic of unmanaged sites such as open-burning, waste scavenging, and the presence of vermin and other animal vectors for disease. Analysis of the LCIA results for different landfill scenarios showed that regardless of either the deposited material or the specific landfill conditions modelled, the time frame considered had the most pronounced effect on the normalised potential impacts. Regardless of landfill conditions, when long-term leachate emissions are considered, freshwater and marine ecotoxicity impacts dominate the overall potential impacts of the site. This result implies that if landfill disposal is modelled over the long-term, the potential impacts of the process has less to do with site-specific conditions than it does to do with the intrinsic properties of the material itself. Given the ensuing extent of degradation that occurs over the time frame considered, the practise of very long-term modelling can equalise landfills that differ strongly in the short-term. In terms of product design on the basis of LCA, the choice of material can be more strongly influenced by the time frame considered than the specific landfill scenario. From a short-term perspective, for fast degrading materials the impacts incurred from leachate emissions and their subsequent treatment are of lesser importance than those arising from LFG. From a long-term perspective by contrast, leachate emissions have a significant effect on the LCIA result. Investigation into the effect of reduced precipitation on the LCIA result showed that the exclusion of leachate emissions lowers the potential impacts of a number of impact categories, with the most substantial quantified reduction observed in the freshwater and marine ecotoxicity impact categories. This result implies that for dry climates, the long-term impacts of landfilling could be significantly lower than when compared to landfill under temperate conditions, with the potential impacts of the waste remaining locked-up in the landfill. Given quantified findings on South Africa's dependence on both formal and informal disposal, and the variation in landfill conditions across the country, it can be concluded that LCA results for the impacts of products originating from global supply chains, but consumed and disposed of in South Africa, will be inaccurate for the end-of-life stage if modifications to end-of-life modelling are not made. The findings from this dissertation provide the basis for i) a crude estimate of 'market shares' of different disposal practises and ii) guidelines for parameterisation of material specific emission factors, in particular for shorter term emissions, focused on LFG and leachate emissions.
