Material Cycles and Waste Management Research
Online ISSN : 2187-4808
Print ISSN : 1883-5864
ISSN-L : 1883-5864
Volume 29, Issue 6
Displaying 1-11 of 11 articles from this issue
Preface
Special Issues : Perspectives on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Control
  • Tatsuya Kunisue, Shin Takahashi
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 423-432
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Although more than ten years have already passed since the May 2004 effectuation of Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), POPs are still present in the environment and high trophic-level wild animals, such as marine mammals, accumulate elevated levels of these environmental contaminants. Our study group has been conducting temporal trend analyses of POPs pollution using sediment core samples and archived blubber samples of marine mammals stored in the Environmental Specimen Bank (es-BANK) of Ehime University. Our results showed that concentrations of POPs registered on the effectuation date (May 2004) tended to decrease since the 1970s, but those of brominated flame retardants, i.e., polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs), registered after 2009 (new POPs) clearly increased. Especially, levels of PBDEs and HBCDs in the pelagic whale species were steady-state or increased even since 2000, indicating a continuous transportation of these new POPs into the oceanic region. Development of an international monitoring network including developing regions for global and local POPs pollution in the environment and various wildlife species is needed to verify the effect of POPs regulation.
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  • Hidetoshi Kuramochi, Zhenyi Zhang
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 433-441
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Physicochemical properties of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) including POPs candidates and alternatives to POPs, and their environmental partitioning characteristics are of importance for considering the pathways of those compounds to the environment and countermeasures for reducing their emission. In this paper, we introduce how to gather the properties and evaluate the partition characteristics, adding cautionary notes about the use of certain predictive tools. Furthermore, we predict the physicochemical properties of new POPs and alternatives to current POPs, and then calculate their partition characteristics using different models. Finally, we discuss future topics about the models towards suggesting countermeasures to such compounds.
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  • Yasuhiro Hirai, Shinichi Sakai
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 442-451
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Recent research on material flow analysis (MFA) and atmospheric environmental behavior of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) are reviewed in this paper. MFA studies can be classified into two categories: top-down or bottom-up types. In the top-down type, the amount of PBDE stock for each application is estimated based on trends in domestic demand for PBDE with the share of each product category. The bottom-up type builds up the flows based on concentrations in the individual final products and product flow volumes. Due to the ban on PBDE, the bottom-up type has become more important. Based on the atmospheric monitoring of PBDE, a declining trend in pentabromodiphenyl ether and octabromodiphenyl ether has been confirmed in many areas, however, due to delayed regulation on decabromodiphenyl ether, a trend of decline for this compound is still weak or as yet unconfirmed. In fact, some areas are observing a trend toward increase. As the environmental concentration decreases, non-detect data is expected to increase. It is therefore vital that appropriate analysis methods are identified, such as applying a model that can deal with censored data.
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  • Natsuko Kajiwara
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 452-460
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was enacted in 2004, initially covering just 12 chemicals. Since that time the number of POPs has greatly increased, and there are currently a total of 28 POPs listed in the Convention as of 2017. Since most of the newly added POPs are plastic additives, such as brominated flame retardants and plasticizers, which are added to a wide range of products, there may be a considerable amount of dilution and diffusion of POPs through plastic material recycling. To ensure that stockpiles and wastes, including products and articles upon becoming waste, consisting of, containing or contaminated with POPs, are managed in a way that is protective of human health and the environment, the development of technical guidelines on environmentally sound management of POPs wastes is in progress under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. This article first outlines the main contents and issues of the Basel Convention technical guidelines and goes on to introduce several case studies conducted by our research group on POP destruction experiments.
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  • —Technology and Foresight—
    Masaki Takaoka, Takashi Fujimori
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 461-469
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Waste from persistent organic pollutants (i. e. POPs waste) must be properly disposed of due to its hazardous properties. Collection, storage, and transport of waste, monitoring of the waste stream, and treatment technology are all needed in order to achieve the environmentally sound disposal of POPs. In this manuscript, we provide an overview of conventional technologies related to thermal and chemical destructions, which apply to legacy POPs. In addition, the applicability of such technologies to new POPs, such as short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) and decabrominated diphenyl ether (DeBDE), are summarized and a framework for future tasks is also put forward. We conclude that particular attention must be given to unintentional production by thermal treatments and we acknowledge that an applicability assessment of conventional chemical treatments into new POPs is an area that still remains to be studied. We hope that a regulatory system will be established for the application of each of these technologies as the environmentally sound management of POPs waste is now required at a crucial level.
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  • —Current Status and Future Tasks—
    Go Suzuki, Kei Nakayama, Fumihiko Maekawa, Nguyen Minh Tue, Eiki Kimur ...
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 470-481
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Brominated dioxins such as polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PBDDs), polybrominated dibenzofurans (PBDFs), and coplanar polybrominated biphenyls (Co-PBBs) are considered to have toxicity profiles (toxic, persistent and bioaccumulation) similar to those of the chlorinated analogues which have been prohibited as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention on POPs. Therefore, a joint World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) expert panel has recommended the use of WHO toxicity equivalency factor for risk management of brominated dioxins. The Ministry of the Environment Japan (MOEJ) continues to investigate its actual emission of brominated dioxins such as PBDD/Fs. These have a close relationship with the lifecycle of decaboromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), especially through manufacturing, recycling and incinerating. This is because PBDD/Fs are well known to be an impurity contained in decaBDE and in unintentionally generated compounds through photo and thermal degradation of brominated flame retardants (BFRs), including decaBDE. Since 2017, decaBDE has been listed in the Stockholm Convention and marked for elimination. Because of this, emission changes for brominated dioxins resulting from the shift to alternatives for decaBDE should be investigated from now on. As the WHO and UNEP expert panel pointed out, toxicity studies with brominated dioxins in fish and mammalian models are also needed for their appropriate risk management.
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Research Report
  • Takashi Saeki, Noboru Tanikawa, Yusaku Ono, Motoki Sasaki, Masashi Tsu ...
    2018 Volume 29 Issue 6 Pages 482-487
    Published: December 31, 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: December 05, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Disposal costs for industrial waste are determined based on a variety of factors, including difficulty of disposal, emissions in the given area, and capacity of the treatment facility. To appropriately dispose of industrial waste, it is necessary to first determine the appropriate disposal costs according to the type and properties of the given industrial waste. In “Sanpaikun,” (a search engine database for industrial waste service companies) the proportion of companies that fixed the disposal costs for industrial waste is as low as 10%. The difference between the maximum and minimum values of the disposal costs for industrial waste is large, and the cost for disposing of rubble is the least expensive among the different types of industrial waste. In the Kanto region, the disposal cost of rubble was found to be high in those municipalities with large amounts of rubble.
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