The objective of this study was to generate groups of agri-food producers with high affinity in relation to their sustainable waste management practices. The aim of conforming these groups is the development of synergies, knowledge management, and policy- and decision-making by diverse stakeholders. A survey was conducted among the most experienced farmers in the region of Nuevo Urecho, Michoacán, Mexico, and a total of eight variables relating to sustainable waste management practices, agricultural food loss, and the waste generated at each stage of the production process were examined. The retrieved data were treated using the maximum inverse correspondence algorithm and the Galois Lattice was applied to generate clusters of highly affine producers. The results indicate 163 possible elements that generate the power set, and 31 maximum inverse correspondences were obtained. At this point, it is possible to determine the maximum number of relationships, called affinities. In general, all 15 considered farmers shared the measure of revaluation of food waste and 90% of the farmers shared affinity in measures related to ecological care and the proper management of waste. A practical implication of this study is the conformation of highly affine clusters for both policy and strategic decision-making.
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Plastic is one of the biggest contributors to pollution of the planet. Due to the low recyclability of oil-based plastics, most plastic is being disposed into the environment. According to plastic oceans, 10 million tons of plastic are dumped into oceans annually. Currently, researchers are developing recycling methods for oil-based plastics and are looking for biobased alternatives. One of these alternatives are a class of polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA’s). PHA’s differ from other biobased polymers, due to the process of fabrication. PHA’s are a natural polymer, acting as an energy and carbon storage for different strains of bacteria. Functioning as an energy storage, nature can break down PHA’s and PHA-based waste. (1) Different companies are working on PHA’s production, but a large deviations in physical properties were observed. This research aims to establish a relationship between the chemical and physical properties of the different PHA’s, using gel permeability chromatography (GPC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).
Waste disposal management and the energy crisis are important challenges facing most countries. The fruit-processing industry generates daily several tons of wastes, of which the major share comes from banana farms. Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology has been applied to the treatment of wastewater, animal slurry, food waste, and agricultural residues, with the primary goals of energy production and waste elimination. This study examines the effect of organic loading (OL) and cow manure (CM) addition on AD performance when treating banana peel waste (BPW). The maximum daily biogas production rates of banana peels (BPs) with a CM content of 10%, 20%, and 30% at 18 and 22 g of volatile solids (gvs) per liter were 50.20, 48.66, and 62.78 mL·(gvs·d)−1 and 40.49, 29.57, and 46.54 mL·(gvs·d)−1, respectively. However, the daily biogas yield showed no clear interdependence with OL or CM content. In addition, a kinetic analysis using first-order and cone models showed that the kinetic parameters can be influenced by the process parameters.
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