Several trends characterise modern consumer goods. Our appetite for them continues to grow, with product ranges growing too. Meanwhile the average lifespan of many products is shortening. 80% of what we make is thrown away within six months of production. Each product contains more components and they are usually more difficult to biodegrade than before. All of which complicates the way products are processed once they become waste.

A multitude of approaches exists to classify the various categories of waste. Waste can be sorted either by its origin (what activity has created it?), by its composition (what is it made of?), by the level of danger it poses to humans and the environment, or by the way it is managed and treated. Each of these approaches will lead to a list of wastes, and often those definitions are overlapping – yet another fact that complicates the collection ...

Curitiba has become world-famous for its original approach to basic municipal problems thanks to a unique mixture of innovative town planning, determined political leadership and good public relations.

The production of aluminium involves three main stages: mining bauxite ore, refining bauxite to alumina (Al2O3), and then smelting alumina to produce aluminium. Bauxite comes from open mines mainly located in tropical and subtropical regions. On average it takes 4 to 5 tonnes of bauxite to produce 2 tonnes of alumina, yielding 1 tonne of aluminium. The main solid by-product of the alumina extraction (Bayer process) is red mud and roughly 3 tonnes...

Curitiba has become world-famous for its original approach to basic municipal problems thanks to a unique mixture of innovative town planning, determined political leadership and good public relations.

Once a product is manufactured and ready to be sold, it must be distributed. To protect it from dirt and shocks, to make it easier to store, but also to make it look appealing, a whole science has developed to design the most suitable wrappings. The variety of products demands a huge diversity of packaging and a wide range of materials: cardboard boxes, glass jars, plastic bags, plastic film, aluminium wrappers and expanded polystyrene, to...

A few recent changes in national and international regulations provoked a massive drop in the tonnage of ships being broken up and major shifts in the shipbreaking market. Bangladeshi shipbreaking yards are, for example, gradually gaining ground on their Indian counterparts because Bangladesh does not enforce mandatory “gas-free for hot work” certification for oil tankers (Greenpeace).

At Beddington, south of London, a housing development known as BedZED (Beddington Zero energy development) was designed from the start to produce little waste of any sort. It was built on a depolluted plot of land, previously used by industry, and recycled materials were used in its construction.

Mobile phones were launched in 1984 and the market has been booming ever since. In 20 years they have spread like wildfire. By September 2004 there were 344 million subscribers (out of a population of 380 million) in the 15 (old) members of the European Union. According to Nokia there will be 2 000 million cellphone users worldwide by 2008.

Waste is a major environmental concern for the energy sector. Depending on the type of energy, the production process itself will generate substantial quantities of waste. The energy sector generates specific types of waste: waste from mining and upgrading coal and lignite (tailing); waste from oil and gas refining; combustion waste from thermal power stations; waste from air-pollution abatement devices and fi nally the components of the power st...

The Caspian Sea region presents a wealth of opportunities in various aspect, including bioresources, transport corridors, and not ecotourism. These new ventures may bring increased prosperity, but they also put pressure on traditional rural communities and the environment.

The characteristic feature in all four post-Soviet countries (Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan) is a relatively high level of education in relation to national income and rather low life expectancy, indicating high levels of poverty and deficient healthcare. In contrast the level for all three indicators in Iran is fairly balanced.

The prospects for rapid oil wealth contrast with fast spreading poverty following the collapse of the Soviet economy. Although massive investment has suddenly been channelled into the area, its effect is still both geographically and socially very limited, with little widespread impact on society.

The region presents a wealth of opportunities in other areas, including bioresources, transport corridors, and not least ecotourism. These new ventures may bring increased prosperity, but they also put pressure on traditional rural communities and the environment. This graphic presents the number of species in the groups: phytoplankton, zooplankton, zoobenthos, fishes, marine and land mammals and birds.

The construction of a large number of dams and industrial facilities on the rivers feeding the Caspian has caused a significant change in the quantity of water inflow. The creation of a succession of large reservoirs, especially on the lower and middle Volga, has led to significant losses in flow rate due to additional evaporation from the surface of the water.

The Black and Mediterranean Seas are one of the main outlets for transporting fuel resources that have been extracted around the Caspian Sea region and from further inland. Oil is transported in pipelines to the ports on the Black Sea. Forecast project a dramatic increase by 2010, including the opening of a new port in Turkey.

Much of the area near Koshkar-Ata Lake in Kazakhstan, just off the shore of the Caspian Sea, has been severely polluted due to mining activities of uranium phosphate. The area is also affected from chemical plants and metallurgic industries. The pollutants are quickly making there way to the Caspian Sea.

In all the areas bordering on the Caspian, priority must be given to diversifying activities and investment. Particular attention should be given to sectors such as tourism, agriculture and food production as well as services.

Kara-Bogaz-Gol is a lowland area that forms a highly saline bay on the east side of the Caspian Sea, in Turkmenistan. In Soviet times it was decided to set up a dam to block the flow of saline water from the bay to the Caspian Sea, and this was completed in 1980. The ensuing increase in the salt content of the southern part of the Caspian had biological consequences. In the spring of 1992, in view of the scale of the disaster, Turkmenistan, which...

Most of the water flowing into the sea comes from coastal rivers – currently supplying 300 to 310 cubic km a year. The Volga alone accounts for 80% of inflow. But it has dropped substantially during the 20th century, declining from about 400 cubic km in the 1920-30s to between 260 cubic km and 270 cubic km at present, due to various climatic factors and human activities such as dams built for hydroelectric energy production.