jesa 1 26.10.2018 vol 1 (2017).pdfjournal of environmental studies and applications issn 2601-9809,...

VOL. 1 / 2017

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL

STUDIES AND APPLICATIONS

- JESA -

Journal of Environmental Studies and Applications ISSN 2601-9809, ISSN-L 2601-9809 Publisher: Editura Universității „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iaşi (http://www.editura.uaic.ro/)

"With the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union"

„This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This

publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held

responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

This Journal is the result of the Jean Monnet Project “Scientific Convergence and

Interdisciplinarity in EU Environmental Research” (SCIENVIR), reference no. 575254-EPP-

1-2016-1-RO-EPPJMO-PROJECT, grant no. 2016 - 2326, supported by the Erasmus+

Programme of the European Union. The Module was implemented by the CERNESIM

Environmental Research Center of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Univeristy of Iași (UAIC).

The works published in this Journal are exclusively constructed by the mentioned authors.

The editors are not responsible for their content or for language proficiency.

Acknowledgement This work was supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, reference no. 575254-EPP-1-2016-1-RO-EPPJMO-PROJECT.

JESA BOARDS

Editors: Professor Costică MIHAI (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Teaching Assistant Constantin-Marius APOSTOAIE (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Teaching Assistant Alexandru MAXIM (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Editorial Assistant: Scientific Researcher Delia-Elena DIACONAŞU (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Dr. Stanislav PERCIC (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Scientific Researcher Simona-Roxana ULMAN (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Scientific Board: Professor Ion POHOAŢĂ (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Professor Dimitre NIKOLOV (Institute of Agricultural Economics, Bulgaria) Professor Romeo-Iulian OLARIU (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Professor Gavril ŞTEFAN (University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine “Ion Ionescu de la Brad”, Romania) Professor Costică MIHAI (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Professor Liviu-George MAHA (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Professor Giacomo ZANNI (University of Bologna, Italy) Associate Professor Davide VIAGGI (University of Bologna, Italy) Associate Professor Grażyna ŚMIGIELSKA (Krakow University of Economics) Associate Professor Maria MORTAN (Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania) Scientific Researcher Delia-Elena DIACONAŞU (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania) Lecturer Oana-Ramona SOCOLIUC (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania)

CONTENT

SECTION 1 EU ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND POLICY ...................................... 7

Interdependencies of Sustainable Development and Organizational Change in companies ................................................ 9

Ruxandra BEJINARU Camelia BĂEŞU

Study on the Innovation Potential of Agriculture. Case of Romania ................................................................................................. 21

Oana COCA

The Need for Agricultural Products ................................................. 23 Cristian Ioan COSTACHE

Environmental Issues on the Trade-Related Agenda. Evidences from Romania as an EU Member State ........................................... 33

Rozalia KICSI Iulian CONDRATOV

Green by choice: is becoming a vegetarian a green statement? .. 43 Adriana MANOLICĂ Francesca COJOCARU Roman LIVANDOVSCHI

Comparative Analysis of Municipal Waste Management in Romania ................................................................................................. 53

Carmen NASTASE Carmen CHASOVSCHI Mihaela STATE Mihai POPESCU

The Essential Urban Centers in the Development of Rural Activities in Romania .......................................................................... 63

Mircea NASTASE

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND APPLICATIONS

6

European Union’s Policy in the Field of Environment Protection: A Historical Perspective ...................................................................... 73

Sorin BURNETE Abiola Esther OGUNMOKUN

The Role of Environmental Simulation Chambers to the Study of Atmospheric Pollutants Evolution .................................................... 81

Romeo-Iulian OLARIU Cecilia ARSENE Iustinian-Gabriel BEJAN

SECTION 2 EU ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND POLICY – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH .......................................................... 87

Chemistry, the Driving Force of Our Every Day’s Life…from Fun and Danger to Scientific Challenges ................................................ 89

Cecilia ARSENE Romeo Iulian OLARIU

Considerations on Theories of Development in Rural Areas ...... 95 Diana Elena CREANGĂ

Permaculture Concept in 3 Dimensional Agricultural Landscaping ........................................................................................... 97

Roxana PASCU

Thermo-Recoverable Polyurethanes Networks .............................. 99 Oana URSACHE Constantin GAINA Viorica GAINA

Thermo-reversible polymers – a solution for reducing the solid waste ..................................................................................... 109

Oana URSACHE Viorica GAINA Constantin GAINA

SECTION 1

EU ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AND POLICY

9

INTERDEPENDENCIES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN COMPANIES

Ruxandra BEJINARU

“Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania Email: [email protected]

Camelia BĂEŞU


Summary Sustainable development is of particular importance to a company's business, regardless of its field of activity, as it can provide long term additional benefits. In order to ensure that these benefits grow, it becomes mandatory to identify those directions and methods of sustainable development that can achieve the objectives set. Thus, the capacity of innovation to determine the general development of companies is complex and intensely analyzed over time. Throughout this paper we want to analyze the topical issues of sustainable development, innovation and organizational change. We present a systematic literature review regarding these concepts in order to acknowledge which is their position in the field of research and which is their position in the real business environment. The best known acceptation of innovation is the one given by Schumpeter who argued that this phenomenon consists of all the changes that happen with the aim of implementing and using new types of products, new means of production and transport, new outlets and forms of organization of the production process. This definition emphasizes the direct link to organizational change and the combination of these dimensions is definitely reflected as a managerial tool. Organizations need change at every step. The issues of organizational change and sustainable development must be thoroughly approached by managers as these contribute to ensuring current maintenance, success, success in the world of organizations. Organizational change is a sensitive issue both for managers and employees. There are many types of change but the most common classification is the one that presents the change according to three major dimensions: the origin, the outcome and the process of change. More explicitly, organizational change can be viewed as "a state of transition between the present state and a future state towards which the organization tends". According to this logic, then organizational change can easily be compared to or even considered an innovation. Within this paper we refer the different approaches in order to obtain new concluding ideas in the field.

Key words: innovation, organizational change, sustainable development, strategy.


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Literature review The most famous definition of innovation belongs to Schumpeter

(1934), respectively "all changes to the purpose of implementing and using new types of products, means of production and transport, outlets and forms of organization of the production process", which has become a standard on financial markets (OEDC, 2005). Drucker (2002), through its definition of innovation, clearly highlights its role as a specific tool for an entrepreneurial manager, a means by which it exploits change as an opportunity for different businesses or different services. These definitions of innovation can be added to the definition proposed by European Commission (2013) that considers innovation as "accepting any idea of a product, service, system, technology, policy or program that can be adopted at the level of an organization." (OECD, 2005)

Romanian legislation speaks of innovation as a product and innovation as a process, with different influences on the enterprise as a whole. Innovation as a product is "the introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved in terms of its characteristics or intended uses". These include significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials or other functional features. An innovation as a process is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production method or a new delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, technological equipment and / or software. (Nica et al., 2016)

Nica (et al., 2016) bring into attention the innovation classification proposed by Christensen (2004): a supportive innovation with effects on the existing market that allows for better products to be sold at higher prices, evolutionary innovation that improves a product from an existing market in order to increase the quantity required for the product and disruptive innovation that enables the creation and marketing of a simpler product by using advanced technologies capable of delivering low production costs compared to classical technologies, thus ensuring lower sales prices than existing ones. Christensen (2004) presents in his paper the way in which disruptive innovation can contribute to the development of existing companies. So, if the company's policy is to increase performance by penetrating new markets, and not considering improving existing products, disruptive innovation may be the solution. (Nica et al., 2016)

The sources of innovation may be various, like: unexpected events, inconsistencies, process needs, changes in industry and markets,


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demographic change, changes in perception, new knowledge (Druker, 2002). In this context, where innovation can be considered an effective solution for business development, we highlight the need to use supportive innovation as a way out of the economic crisis.

Organizations need to solve problems that are wider than current ones. For this it initiates processes of change. Organizations may need to grow business, capital and services, adopt new behaviors or organizational culture. This is where development processes are being launched. In crisis situations, crisis management approaches are being initiated. The field of organizational change and development contributes to ensuring current maintenance, success, success in the world of organizations. His knowledge offers the opportunity to train specialists in organizational consultancy. An organizational change may concern the entire organization, a department, group or even a post or occupant of the job. (Bejinaru, 2014; Brătianu and Bejinaru, 2016)

If the general concept of change is just "a new state of things different from the old state of things", organizational change is more difficult to define. In order to better understand it, the easiest way to approach it is not to try to define it, but rather to compare it with other types of change. The name of organizational change makes it obvious that it is a change in organizational activities, but this statement does not say too much about the type of activities undergoing change. By making a comparison between operational and organizational change, we will notice that the former refers exclusively to individuals, their roles and values, while the latter covers a much broader field, namely all operational processes - those serving the Customers, production and logistics. In addition, organizational change also covers changes in work processes and their subsystems. Further, organizational change can also be defined as "a state of transition between the present state and a future state towards which the organization tends". Although this definition is closer to the definition of change in general, a certain difference, though subtle, is visible.

This definition has its origins in Lewin's conceptions (1947), which formulated the concept of movement between discrete and somehow immutable "states" as organizational change, that is, being in the state I at the moment I and II at the second moment. The suggested movement is linear and static and, according to some authors, does not fit the dynamic concept of organizational change because it greatly simplifies a very


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complex process but, precisely because of this, offers a very direct possibility to plan change actions. (Avram, 2014)

Organizational change includes, in addition to the processes mentioned above, the real content of the change that takes place within them. In addition to these two dimensions, the context in which organizational change occurs is equally important, because in order to formulate the content of a strategy, it must be controlled both by the context in which it takes place and by the process in which it takes place. Thus, strategic change becomes an interaction between ideas about the context, the process, and the content of change, and analyzes that do not address this fact, and regard any organizational change as an individual fact, do not actually analyze the form, the meaning, and the substance of change. Not doing so, the field that change analyzes should cover becomes extremely narrow and departs from the dynamic and all-encompassing analysis that should be applied to change in the ideal way. (Brătianu and Bejinaru, 2016; Bejinaru, 2014)

Another important dimension in the definition of change is the causes that lead to the emergence of change, which mainly characterizes the radical and paradigmatic change called Levy's "second order change" (1986). Continuing the idea of comparison presented above, organizational change can easily be compared to or even considered an innovation. Innovation can be defined as a technology, product or practice first used by an organization, regardless of the fact that it has already been used in other organizations, in other words, the use of innovation is itself an innovation. Whatever the veracity of this idea, it applies equally to organizational change. From this point of view, change can be understood as well as "a continuous process of preparing the organization for the new system and introducing it in such a way as to ensure its success, a definition influenced by changes in IT. As we can deduce, the ultimate goal of organizational change is success, that is, a better match between the organization and the environment in which it evolves, as well as a more efficient and effective way of working.

Organizational change can be classified in many ways. The most comprehensive of them is the one that presents the change according to three major dimensions: the origin, the outcome and the process of change.

The origin of change (introduced as a dimension by Nadler and Tushman, 1989) has to do with the way in which change occurs in an organization, from the environment in which the organization operates or at


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the initiative of the latter. This is how we can talk about unintentional changes that happen simply and intentional or deliberate changes, the actions taken by the organization. Of course, in the real life the difference is not so clearly traced, even if intentional changes can be influenced by an external event to the organization. Another classification can be made depending on how the change relates to external key events, reactive changes (changes initiated in response to an event or series of events) and anticipatory changes (as the name suggests, initiated as Anticipation of events). (Avram, 2014)

The result of change, on the other hand, is related to the definitions outlined above. The most common way to classify organizational changes depends on how radical change appears.

A practical classification from a managerial point of view can be the level of change, the extent to which the organization is affected by change. An example of low-level change would be to reorganize the structure of posts, while a change at the level of the whole organization would be its complete restructuring. Examples of interventions at each level:

(1) Macro-intervention affecting the entire organization - strategic analysis, existence of a vision or development mission, strategic positioning, restructuring and reorganization of the work process at the organization level. (2) Major intervention affecting a production unit - unit formation, strategic planning or positioning, continuous improvement programs, recruitment of a new management. (3) Intergroup Intervention - strategies for intergroup training, reorganization of work teams and reorganization of the work process. (4) Personnel intervention - staff development, professional development, job reorganization and leadership development. (Avram, 2014) The process of change is the third dimension according to which

organizational change can be classified and refers to the modalities and progression of events in changing the organization. The process of change can be classified according to its duration or resources (human or material) used to implement the change. The unit of change can be a singular entity - an individual or an organization - or the interaction of people or relationships within an organization. The way of change, on the other hand, describes what determines the sequence of events (deterministic or


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probabilistic laws) or whether it is built by the changing entity as the process. The most common and practical classification of organizational change by process is the one In two fundamental change processes - the planned change and the random or emerging change. The two types are distinct, while the planned change is formal, the haphazard one is informal, the first is imposed within the organization and the second one originates outside. (Avram, 2014; Nica et al, 2016)

The successful implementation of change can also be defined as the degree to which the change meets the following criteria: A. meets the purpose for which it was implemented; B. it does not exceed the deadline or the budget that has been set; C. it leads to positive economic and operational results over a reasonable period of time that exceeds the costs of its implementation; D. it is perceived as a success both by internal and external members of the organization. (Avram, 2014; Leach et al, 2012)

We can therefore conclude that the success of organizational change depends both on the quality of the solution found and on the effectiveness of its implementation, which can have three consequences: (1) Efficient implementation, use of innovation or change (interchangeable in the context) improves the performance of the organization; (2) Effective implementation, but the performance of the organization is not affected in any way; (3) Implementation is not successful. As can be seen above, the effects of change may be negative if the solutions found are inappropriate to the context, which only underscores the lack of interdependence between the content and the process of change. (Avram, 2014; Dinu, 2017)

At organizational level, the leader represents the promoter of change. The leader has the power to influence people through motivation in order to implement change, and achieve a specific purpose. Change is not a purpose of itself but a process through which can be implemented a certain strategy and accomplish a certain goal. Unlike managers who have the institutional authority, leaders have the power and talent to influence the ones around them. Leaders have vision and a set of personal qualities through which they succeed within a managerial context to trigger and develop an organizational change process. (Bejinaru and Băeşu, 2013; Brătianu and Bejinaru, 2016)

No matter the million approaches, we consider that innovation is the lifeblood for sustaining the company’s development. A strategic and sustainable solution for managers would be to develop a culture of


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innovation that will deliver added value and benefits for all stakeholders. A practical model of stimulating such innovation culture and really obtain innovative results could be the one in Figure 1 - the innovation change model. This model proposes a sequence strategy of five steps that will finally lead to a change within the organizational behavior and thus to new results which might represent useful innovations. The model starts with the assessment of innovativeness level within the organization. According to the results of the assessment there must be a planning for how to approach the change process. The third step implies a continuous monitoring of the journey of change. During the fourth stage innovation must happen and be systemized. Of course the final stage, step 5, is about measuring and further managing the outcomes. This model is proposed by a consultancy agency and might have more impact and results than the purely theoretical proposed models.

Figure 1. Innovation change model

Data source: http://custell.custellportal.com/services/products/innovate/


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Thus in order to achieve the level of sustainable development a company should embrace both the culture of change and innovation. They are interdependent and inseparable. An organization must be preoccupied to always offer its employees the stimulus to innovate. If there is no reward for the results of change or innovation then there will be no results, as the individuals have no reason to work out new ideas. A good start for creating an innovative organization would be to include change in an employee's goals, performance management process, and compensation plan.

Many of the theories about resistance to change come from the field of management and focus on the methods by which resistance can be overcome, thus implementing change quickly and efficiently. It is obvious that in this approach, resistance to change is considered a negative thing against which must be fought, which must be defeated, for the future good of the organization.

The continuously growing competition on the market, the higher customer demands and the globalization force business service providers to improve their quality. At present, it is not enough for a vendor to deliver the proper quality, it is more important for him to delight his client and deliver more than the client expects. Also, renowned research companies predict that customer satisfaction will become the main competitive criterion over the coming years. Thus change is imminent and companies have a large scale of solutions to face it. To introduce innovation in the survival process is a strategy with great potential for the organization. (Bejinaru, 2014; Dinu, 2017)

Methods The methods used to undertake the research presented within this

paper is actually a scientific literature review. This was necessary in order to create a background. The new ideas we presented need to rest on the assessment of the previous and current literature on your topic. We mention that this type of method provides readers with an overview of the ideas, theories, and significant literature currently published on your topic.

Results The results of this research are useful in order to better understand

some new perspectives of organizational change, environment change, sustainability and innovation. These concepts and realities are all


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interconnected and mutual dependent. A manager should analyze the phenomena and consider their basic principles according to which they develop. The connection between innovation and sustainability involves inventions that can improve the capacity to learn from, respond to, and manage environmental feedback from dynamic social–ecological systems. The issue of distribution must be also judged seriously regarding how the safe operating space is shared between different people, and asking about who gains and who loses from particular policies and innovations aiming to navigate within it. In conclusion it becomes clear that defining and navigating the particularities of sustainability ultimately reflect political values and choices, as much as scientific and technical ones. (Leach et al., 2012)

Conclusions We shall conclude that the knowledge society is fundamentally

necessary in order to ensure an environmentally sustainable society. Without scientific knowledge, technological knowledge and management there cannot be produced goods, organizational and technological transformations (maybe even biological) and provided economic needs to save mankind from disaster in the 21st century. The knowledge society is then the sustainable society. Another way of sustainability beyond the knowledge society will be hard to find. (Draganescu, 2001)

The great challenge of managers is that today an excellent organization requires much more than the implementation and certification of one or more management system models. It means developing techniques and tools of business excellence that lead the organization to outstanding performance, cost, and timeliness to meet the expectations of all stakeholders. Such an approach is particularly necessary in the context of a globalized economy, particularly complex and dynamic, which causes spectacular changes in the business environment by integrating the principles of quality management in order to develop sustainable excellence. (Dinu, 2017)

The organization is a social invention, a systematic arrangement of people gathered together to achieve specific goals. (Bejinaru, 2014) After more than a century ago, studies about organizations emphasized that there is, or should be, an organization suitable for every purpose designed. (Drucker, 2002) Experience has shown that the model of a suitable


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organization has changed several times, as the business itself has changed. It is this continuous change in the business environment that has led organizations to adopt a lifelong learning process, in order to maintain themselves effective and efficient over time. (Bejinaru, 2014) A learning organization is "an organization that continually expands its capacity to create the future. For such organizations, it is not enough to survive on the market". (Senge, 1990)

References 1. Avram, E. (2014) Schimbare şi dezvoltare organizaţională, Editura

Universitară. 2. Bejinaru, R. (2014) Managementul cunostintelor in organizatii, Editura

Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucuresti. 3. Bejinaru, R., Băeşu, C. (2013) Approaches to organizational change within

modern companies, The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration, Volume 13, Issue 1(17), 2013.

4. Brătianu, C., and Bejinaru, R. (2016) Evaluation of knowledge processes within learning organization. In: O.Nicolescu, L. Lloyd-Reason (Eds.). Challenges, performances and tendencies in organisation management (pp.125-136). Singapore: World Scientific.

5. Christensen, C. (2004) The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth. United State of America: Harvard Business Review Press.

6. Ciobanu, A. (2006) Analiza performanţei întreprinderii, Bucureşti: Editura ASE.

7. Dinu, V. (2017) Quality management and business excellence. Amfiteatru Economic, 19(44), pp. 5-7.

8. Draganescu, M. (2001) Societatea informaţională şi a cunoaşterii. Vectorii societăţii cunoaşterii. Academia Romana.

9. Druker, P. (2002) The Discipline of Innovation, Harvard Business Review, 76(6), pp. 149-157.

10. Leach, M., J. Rockström, P. Raskin, I. Scoones, A. C. Stirling, A. Smith, J. Thompson, E. Millstone, A. Ely, E. Arond, C. Folke, and Olsson. P. (2012) Transforming innovation for sustainability. Ecology and Society 17(2): 11.

11. Nica, A.M., Stancu, I. and Stancu, D., (2016) Innovation. An Instrument for Development of Companies. Amfiteatru Economic, 19(45), pp. 509-527.

12. Milic, T. (2013) Innovation Management in Times of Economic Crisis, Management Journal for Theory and Practice Management, 66, pp. 81-88.

13. OEDC, ed., (2005) The measurement of scientific and technological activities. Brussel: Oslo Manual.


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14. Schumpeter, J.A., (1934) The theory of economic development: An inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle, United States of America: Harvard University Press.

15. Senge, P.M. (1990) The fifth discipline. The art and practice of the learning organization, Random House, London. Figure retrieved at: http://custell.custellportal.com/services/products/innovate/

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STUDY ON THE INNOVATION POTENTIAL OF AGRICULTURE. CASE OF ROMANIA

Oana COCA

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania Email: [email protected]

Summary The aim of the paper is to highlight the innovation potential of agriculture in Romania, through the analysis of the innovation resources which are specific to the agricultural sector. Agriculture is a strategic economic sector for Romania that ensures, on the one hand, a country's relative food independence and, on the other hand, represents an important source of income for the rural population and beyond. Innovation in agriculture is responding to the requirements of increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector on national and international markets, in conditions of increasing the social and environmental pressures to combat the effects of climate change and ensure food security. The research methodology was based on the documentary analysis of the publications provided by the official statistics of Romania (the National Institute of Statistics) and of the European Union (Eurostat) and by various organizations in the studied field. The research focused on the analysis of innovation resources such as human resources, technical resources, organizational resources, financial resources, research resources. The analysis of human resources in Romania's agriculture revealed that there is a high human potential that can contribute to the development of agriculture through research and innovation, potentially highlighted at the level of the legal occupied population in agriculture. The technical resource in Romania's agriculture has a overall low level compared to the European Union average, which is mainly influenced by the existence of small, subsistence, uncapitalized farms. As respects the technical endowment of large holdings, this is comparable to the European Union average. Although the number of commercial farms, with over 100 hectares, is very low in Romania (about 1%), they exploit 48% of the total utilized agricultural area, which coincides with the European Union average. The average production capacity on a commercial holding in Romania is 481.69 hectares, 78% higher than the EU average (270.14 hectares/ farm). These farms are a source of competitive advantage for Romania's agriculture on the European and international market and have the greatest contribution to the overall performance in the field. Financial resources are the main factor influencing the innovative capacity of the agricultural sector. Investments in research and development activities require

STUDY ON THE INNOVATION POTENTIAL OF AGRICULTURE. CASE OF ROMANIA

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financial resources that can be provided by the governments, through budget allocations to public or private research organizations or provided by the private sector. Research and development activities in agriculture of Romania requested financial resources worth € 62.24 million in 2015, representing 0.93% of gross value added in agriculture (approximately € 6.7 billion). The R&D expenditure in agricultural sciences is mainly carried out by the government sector, which contributes with about 60% to the total amount of R&D expenditures. In Romania there were 71,712 persons with agricultural studies or occupied in the field of agricultural research and technology in the year 2015, with 35 persons per 100 persons economically employed in agriculture, only 7% less than the average of the European Union (38 persons). From an organizational point of view, the research institutes and the higher education institutions in the field of agriculture are the main economic actors investing in agronomic research in Romania. The results of the study showed that the Romanian agriculture sector has a high innovation potential that is underutilized. Among the main barriers to the development of agricultural innovation capacity are the insufficient financial resources and the reluctance of farmers to change, especially those with small-scale agricultural holdings. The obtained results create an overview of innovation issues in Romanian agriculture and can be used to substantiate the macroeconomic decisions at the level of the rural development and agriculture policy, on the one hand, as well as the individual decisions of the entrepreneurs in the field, on the other hand.

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THE NEED FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Cristian Ioan COSTACHE Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania

Email: [email protected]

Abstract Agriculture play important social role by providing food products, raw materials, and stewardship for nature and traditional culture. The paper explores the determinants of agricultural products supply by referring to the tenets of economic theory and to empirical data regarding Romania’s agricultural production. The analysis also considers the effects of the current economic crisis and makes a series of comments regarding the elasticity of the agricultural products supply. On a long term, the supply is generally stable, depending on the economic development and the effect of the agricultural policies in the developed countries. The supply sources are: the stock of existing products at producers and intermediates, the new products made by companies, the imports that increase the amount offered in the domestic market and the exports destined for the foreign markets, which form the external supply. Key words: agriculture, economics, elasticity of supply, Romania, climatic factors

Introduction

The theory of supply and agricultural demand is presented in the economic literature starting from the imperatives of the neoclassical economy based on the theory of the rational producer and the marginal calculation (the manufacturer aims to achieve “the profit maximization under the constraint of a specific quantity of resources”) (Frois, 1994). However, in reality the situations are diverse and complex.

Like other economic sectors, the agricultural production faces the challenge of allocating scarce resources (limited), with alternative uses. In this context, are extrapolated to the agricultural producer the three problems for which the rational entrepreneur must decide: what to produce? (what products or mix of products), how to produce? (the production level) and how to make? (the combination of used inputs). Within the food sectors of developing countries, much of producers live in the subsistence economy


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and the products do not transit the market, being dedicated for a direct consumption. But in Romania, many existing farms are producing surpluses destined for the market.

The agricultural supply of a product consists of all the quantities which the producers are willing to market outlets at a given price at a certain time. It is intended to ensure needs at national level, among which we mention the demand of agricultural products to the population, providing raw materials for food industry, providing the quantitative and type of feed, creating national and local reserves, creation of possibilities for export, producing energy and fuel. The agricultural supply is short-term variable, being influenced by climatic factors, the level of stocks, and the risk to perish. On a long term, the supply is generally stable, depending on the economic development and the effect of the agricultural policies in the developed countries.

The supply sources are: the stock of existing products at producers and intermediates, the new products made by companies, the imports that increase the amount offered in the domestic market and the exports destined for the foreign markets, which form the external supply.

The function and curve of supply in relation with the price Although there are relatively known issues in the current conjuncture

we consider appropriate and necessary the re-approaching of the problem between the supply and demand of the agricultural products, staring from the consumer that bears the real cost (effort).

The supply fluctuates in relation with the product’s price, provided that all other elements remain unchanged and has the form of an increasing function of price.

In static expression, the supply an “i” product can be described by the following function:

Qi = f (Pi, Pj, Pk, …, Pn) Where:

Qi = the market supply for the “i” product; Pi = the price of the “i” product on the market; Pj and Pk = the price of the competing products “j” and “k”; P1, ..., Pn = the prices of competing inputs for obtaining “i” the product


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Figure 1. The supply curve for different levels of product price

Data source: Pekar V., “Marketing agroalimentar”, Editura Junimea, Iaşi, 2007,

p.65

If all other factors except the price of the product "i" should remain constant, the supply curve is increasing, thus the increasing of the prices on the market encourages the manufacturers to offer more products.

The supply curve reacts also to input price changes. Thus, if their price increases, the cost for a given level of supply will increase and there will be a supply curve shift to the left.

The supply function has a seemingly convenient form, but nevertheless contains important omissions on the parameter list when it comes to agricultural products (Davidovici et al., 2012). In many cases, the production processes in agriculture have resulted in a range of associated products, additional or secondary, not a single product. For example: from the sheep breeding are obtained lambs and milk and wool. In this case there can not be applied the rule on competing products: the increasing price a of a competing product leads to a lower supply of the studied product.

Conversely, if the price of the lamb increases, it will increase the supply of lambs, but will occur simultaneously and increase the supply of milk and wool. Thus, in the term of supply function should distinguish the competing and complementary products.

The supply function is not an explicit reference to applied technology. It is possible that through more efficient use of inputs at the same level of costs, the output volume to grow significantly. In these circumstances, the same level of the prices of inputs and of competing products, a supply curve to move to the right. (E.g. the seeds treated with a high fertility - as inputs).

The agricultural supply is conditioned by natural factors, a fact not included in the supply function: climatic factors, diseases and pests affect plant growth and crop volume. It is important to note that natural factors


26

substantially affect the agricultural supply in developing countries or less developed than in developed countries. This is because, in those countries are used mostly propagating material not selected, untreated and less resistant to environmental factors, there are fewer safeguards against pests or poor quality, and improving the soil is rarely done.

The institutional factors and government policy in particular have a direct impact on the agricultural production and therefore the latter should be treated as explicit variable supply function. We refer to production quotas, intervention prices for inputs, constraints on land use, etc. There are also policy measures which do not relate directly to manufacture a product, but that influence the supply industry: leasing arrangements, agricultural credit, extension services / advisory, irrigation and electrification of rural areas, etc.

We believe that if the equation presented the supply could be improved by including additional factors (technology, natural factors and the institutional framework), it still remains inadequate because of the static nature. However, it could be determined and compared at different time intervals.

The time factor in determining agricultural supply Taking into account the time period, the supply of agricultural

products varies greatly. Harvesting of most products takes place within a short time which allows only a certain volume of production relatively low, to be sold under optimal conditions. If the possibilities do not include the foreign trade, the supply of the farmers is dependent on the possibility of storing a portion of the production and use of stocks above.

In a longer period of production, entrepreneurs are able to change their production capacity, introduce technical progress and to adapt to the consumer demand (Pekar, 2007).

The actual situation of agricultural production in the year 2016 was set at a rate of 62.4% on crop production, 36.5% on animal production and 1.1% in agricultural services. However, the average of the years 2012-2014, the agricultural production in 2016 decreased with 9.3%, the crop production decreases also with 17.7% and the animal one was growing with 4.2%. These issues are not due necessarily to adapt to internal or external application, but rather to increase the quantity of imported products, which are cheaper than local agricultural products and diversified. One reason for increased imports


27

of this type is the policy of global trade, European and regional level to which our country joined in virtue of which we have produced and still produce less and consume more. The average production of 2016 is presented brlow.

Table 1. Crop production in 2016 compared with 2014-2015 (Kg/ha)

THE CULTURE

The production of

2016

+ or - from:

2014 2015 2016

Wheat 3.021 -4.791 -4.320 -2.505 Corn 3.841 -10.701 -6.548 -5.144 Potatoes 3538 -692 -201 -478 Sugar beet 771 +98 +41 -381 Sunflower 535 -1023 -806 -991 Soybean 104 -195 -209 -241 Vegetables 2.687 -2.087 -938 -1.452 Fruits 995 -749 -652 -491 Grapes 826 -404 +320 -86

Data source: processing after statistical data offered by MADR

We can see that the average productions of all crops declined in 2016 compared to 2015, but also of the average of the years 2014-2016 as follows: wheat -1519 kg / ha, corn -2478 kg / ha, potatoes -1925 kg / ha, sugar beet -2897 kg / ha, the sunflower -900 kg / ha, soybeans -1411 kg / ha and grapes -139 kg / ha.

Regarding the existing livestock on December 1, 2016 we can compare the evolution of their number in the same period of 2014-2016. We present the situation in the following figure:

Figure 2. The existing livestock on December 1st, 2016 (thousand heads)

Data source: processing after statistical data offered by MADR

gg


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From the graph it can be observed a decrease of 2.3% in the number of cattle in 2007 by the average period 2014 -2015, a reduction of 2.5% of the pig population in 2016 compared to 2015, but growth 1% from the average of 2014-2016, an increase of 1.10% in sheep and goats than the average 2014-2015.

Although the productions decreased, the demand for agricultural products and food has remained constant, and agricultural deficit of 2016 was substituted by imports.

In a longer time, the trade or customs regulations can completely change the trade regime for the agricultural products produced in the previous year, they can do it more or less sealable. The integration in the EU regulations brought significant regulations and changes on the agricultural products, especially for cheese that can be sold only under certain conditions, which leads to inability of small producers to adopt new technology because of high costs and the elimination or discourage their livestock. Also, meat and slaughter regulations are subject to certain rules aimed at quality and hygiene difficult for small manufacturers adopted the same and this is seen in their removal from the market.

The economic crisis, unforeseen by the agricultural producers a year ago, is even more delicate situation of the production and its commercialization. More and more farmers do not have the required amount of cultivation land, and they remain neglected leading to lower final production, at least the end of 2009.

In general, adjustment of supply to market requests takes place in several stages. Thus, if the markets demand increases on very short term (immediate), the supply practical stays rigid. On the medium term, it increases, but quite weak (it is inelastic), attracting an increased volume of variable factors (raw materials, longer working hours, etc.), while fixed factors remain unchanged. But on long term, supply is elastic, it adapts to the increased demand by the emergence of new production capacity (Davidovici and Gavrilescu, 2012).

In agriculture, the fact that production processes include biological processes, supply adjustment period may take up to 3-8 years - when the establishment of new plantations or crop rotation. As a consequence of the agricultural adjustment of supply to market signals occurs with delay (sometimes significantly). Practical the agricultural supply currently meets market incentives in the past (after a few months or years). There are not


29

rare the situations where favourable conjuncture is there at one time, new ones are established and the situation is fundamentally changed in 2-3 years when production actually reached the market. It’s the case of the sugar, when in 1974 reached a high enough price and was totally absorbed by the market, which resulted in the expansion of areas planted with sugar cane the following year. When these plantations came into production, the price dropped and the market offering a large amount led to collapse of prices. A new sugar shortage was in 1980.

The emergence of significant differences between biological rhythms and lead to price fluctuations reveal production cycles consisting of alternating periods of overproduction by the shortage. Hence, appears the necessity of determining the dynamics of supply and not as a photograph at a given time.

Once produced, the goods must be sold, the fluctuations in production may not always be solved by storing products. Is the case, particularly of the perishable produces: vegetables, fruits, animal products, especially pork and eggs. Cereals and other plant products that can be stored at relatively low prices do not fall into this category. Also do not enter any milk, which is the result of a continuous production process.

The elasticity of the agricultural supply The response of the supply to a change in the price elasticity of supply

demonstrates the proportion of their modification, assuming all other factors remain unchanged. It can be used also in reverse to estimate the price change when quantities offered or requested changes. In this case the elasticity is known as the “price flexibility”. Es = (Δ Qs / Qs): (Δ P / P)

Where: Es = the coefficient of elasticity of the price bid Δ Qs = the variation of the supply a product or service Δ P = the variation of the price of a product or service The elasticity of the supply may have different values, but Es is calculated for a small change in the price of 1%.

The following situations may occur: - Below a certain price level, there is no supply, but a small increase in price is enough for increasing the available quantity to tend to infinity.


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The coefficient is infinite and it says that supply is perfectly elastic. This serves in particular as a theoretical reference. - A change in price is related to a change more than proportionately to the amount offered: respectively Es> 1. They say supply is elastic. It is not a normal situation, nor impossible. In the agricultural production, the possibility of changing land and labour division between cultures may make the supply, such as the one of barley, to be elastic, but probably not that of other cereals. - A change in price is related to a change less than proportionally of the amount offered: 0 <Es <1. In this case the supply is inelastic. This is the most common situation in agricultural production. - A change in price causes no change in the quantity offered: Es = 0. It is said the supply is perfectly inelastic. - A change in price causes a change in the opposite direction of the quantity offered: -1 <Es <0 causes a negative elasticity. It is an unusual situation, but not impossible.

The agriculture supply may be continuous for the agricultural products are produced continuously, this being true for animal products. The fluctuations that may occur in exceptional circumstances are attenuated by applying increasing range of new technologies, using the varieties of plants and animals more productive, the extension of modern methods of animal nutrition, better organization of production flows.

Conclusions

The trade flows experienced in the past 4 decades profound structural changes. The major purpose of these mutations was based on traffic speed information from consumers to food producers. Things have changed so much that today, in the most developed states, consumers can find more or less a direct relationship with manufacturers of food commodities. The major customers that buy products directly from farmers are the units of the agro-industries, the cooperatives, the trade centres in the network of supermarkets, the brokerage firms and wholesalers forwarders. The farmers attracted in such a structure have a more comfortable position in the economic cycle. In such circumstances, competition between food producers is very hard. Although there is competition also on the Romanian


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agricultural market, however, the information system to link the producers and consumers is faulty and sometimes nonexistent. Usually, the competitive situations in Romania are created in the virtue of the coincidence between the types of goods offered by small local producers, who are influenced predominantly by the available seeding material they have, the economy of costs with production and lesser with information or rumours on market demands.

References 1. Dachin, A., Zahiu, L., (2006), Agricultura Uniunii Europene, Cers

Publishing, Bucharest. 2. Davidovici, I, Gavrilescu, D. Alexandri, C. (2012), Economia creşterii

agroalimentare, Expert Publishing, Bucharest. 3. Frois, A. (1994), Economie politica, Humanitas Publishing, Bucharest. 4. Pekar, V. (2007), “Marketing agroalimentar”, Junimea Publishing, Iasi.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ON THE TRADE-RELATED AGENDA. EVIDENCES FROM ROMANIA

AS AN EU MEMBER STATE

Rozalia KICSI ”Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania


Iulian CONDRATOV ”Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania


Summary Trade, through its demonstrated virtues as one of the driving forces of economic development, influences the quality of the environment, particularly in the context of the current state of the deepening the economic linkages at the global level. During the past decades the dilemma concerning the nature of determination between trade, more precisely the liberalization of trade, and the problems risen by environmental degradation has generated quite stormy debates not only in the academic field but also in the international organizations. Obviously, trade and economic growth influence environment and human health, but it is estimated that these problems will vary from one country to another, depending mostly on its level of economic development, but they are also under the force of other determinants. The main objective of our study is to identify a hypothetical correlation between economic growth and the specialization of an economy (the case of Romania), on the one hand, and part of the environmental problems, on the other hand. Using the series of statistical data available for the period 1990-2014, we have tested a hypothetical negative relationship between national income and emissions of pollutants (in particular SO2), or what it is known in the literature as the Environmental Kuznets Curve. The results attest the existence of such a tendency in the case of Romania; in other words, there is a significant negative relationship between national income and the emissions of SO2; it should also be noted that the emissions of such pollutants have fallen as the tertiarization of the economy has become. Far from being a form of ”creative destruction” through which all the developed economies that are currently in a post-industrial era have passed, deindustrialization of the Romanian economy, visibly after 1990, is, we believe, rather a form of premature deindustrialization which is much likely a characteristic of developing economies. In such a context, we conclude that this evolution cannot

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ON THE TRADE-RELATED AGENDA. EVIDENCES FROM ROMANIA AS AN EU MEMBER STATE

34

be attributed exclusively to the economic growth, but it must be analyzed from a wider perspective, as a result of a complex of determinants.

Literature review Trade has an ancient history; from the early stages of the exchange,

mainly in the form of barter, up to modern forms of e-commerce centuries of transformations, influences, and doctrinaire disputes have elapsed. Maybe only the war has such a vast and rich history as the one of the trade; as a matter of fact, over time, these two "forces" have sporadically interfered and have put their stamp, in their own way, on the design of the reality we live today. The diversity of human and natural potential, both qualitatively and quantitatively, technological and innovation potential from one country to another have made the trade an objective necessity. The market liberalization and the boosting of the trade flows, in part due to the Uruguay Round, have opened up new opportunities for growth but at the same time have generated some new challenges. One of these is born from the dilemma regarding the nature of the relationship between globalization (and implicitly the liberalization of trade as a main driving force of it) and the quality of the environment. The need to ensure a sustainable development and a preservation of the environment has been recognized within the GATT since the 70s (WTO, 2017).

Still, there is quite a strong belief that environmental issues differ from one country to another, depending on its level of economic development and the structure of its economy and last but not the least, on the policies and strategies developed. Some of these problems may have their roots in the lower level of economic development, but many such problems are accelerated by the increasing of economic activity (World Bank, 1992). As the World Bank (1992) report shows, there can be identified three patterns of the relationship between the growth of economic activity and environmental issues, namely:

A positive synergy, meaning that some of the environmental problems tend to diminish as the incomes increase; the explanation is related to the fact that these increased incomes shall provide the resources to solve some of the problems (especially of those linked to the human development).


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Some problems may be initially worse, but then as incomes increase, they improve; this trend does not appear automatically, but following the implementation of appropriate measures.

A "negative" synergy, meaning that some environmental indicators are ever worse as the incomes increase; the more obvious examples in this respect are the emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and municipal waste.

Grossman & Krueger (1991), and Grossman & Krueger (1995) have continued to test the hypothetical empirical relationship between national income and environmental issues argued by the World Bank Report (1992). Analyzing the possible effects of trade liberalization on Mexico within the NAFTA, Grosmann & Krueger (1991) also emphasize that generally the reduction of barriers to trade affect the environment as a result of the extension of the scale of the economic activity, and by altering the structure of the economic activity and changing the techniques of production. The main conclusion of their study is that, on the one hand, the economic growth tends to diminish the problems related to the environment as the income per capita exceed a critical level of about 4000 - 5000 USD and, on the other hand, the liberalization of trade could improve the specialization in sectors which carry a lower potential for environmental damages.

According to Grossman & Krueger (1995) empirical evidences suggest the existence of an inverted U - shaped relationship between the level of environmental degradation and the national income. In a growing body of the literature, this hypothetical negative relationship between economic growth and the degree of environmental pollution has become known as the Environmental Kuznets Curve (Frankel, 2008). Regarding the consequences of international trade on the environment, via other channels than that of incomes, they may be negative or positive. As the negative effect, Frankel (2008) mentions the "race to the bottom" hypothesis according to which the more open economies, under the pressure of the fear about a potential loss of their competitiveness in the world market, shall adopt more relaxed environmental regulations, while less open economies are more restrictive in this respect. The positive effects are linked to the "gains from trade” hypothesis that awards globalization with a complex of virtues such as that of encouraging innovation and transfer of technology, imposing more roughly environmental standards and last but not least creating the premises for the exertion of the power of consumers and the adoption of


36

corporate codes of conduct. Also, Frankel (2008) propounds the idea that trade liberalization could encourage some countries to become "pollution havens", i.e. to specialize in dirtier activities and to export their products in countries with the more restrictive environmental standards. Yet empirical evidences have not revealed significant consequences of trade on environmental degradation, but on the contrary, as Frankel (2008) suggests, trade and economic growth provide the countries with appropriate tools and solutions to environmental issues.

The idea that the environmental regulations can erode the competitiveness has also been advanced and evaluated by Porter & van der Linde (1995a, 1995b).

The core message launched by Porter & van der Linde (1995b) is that the "win - lose" approach with regard to the relationship between the competitiveness and the environmental issues is inaccurately defined by a static perspective especially that the paradigm of competitiveness has exceeded this framework of analysis. The modern paradigm places the competitiveness in a dynamic framework significantly influenced by the ability to innovate. In this register, analyzing the case of the Dutch flower industry, which provides almost 65 % of world exports of cut flowers, although Netherlands isn't naturally endowed for such a pattern of specialization, Porter & van der Linde (1995a) conclude that the appropriate designed environmental standards can prime innovations that will lead to the cutting of production costs or to the improving the value of the products, which will compensates for the costs of adaptation to the restrictions regarding environmental issues.

Most often, in the practice of international trade the environmental regulations seem to antagonize with regulations for trade liberalization in many directions such as (Brown Weiss & Jackson, 2008): national measures restricting imports in order to protect the environment and the health of consumers, unilateral national measures restricting imports in order to protect the environment or human health outside the national jurisdiction, national measures restricting the exports as a result of the fact that the products affect the environment or human health, international agreements which include measures restricting the international trade, subsidies at national level in order to encourage the exports or the use of technologies with lower potential for environmental damage, etc.


37

Methods Using the series of data available for Romania (during 1990-2014

period) we have tested the relationship between the emissions of SO2 and national income per capita, as well as the relationship between the emissions of SO2 and the tertiarization of the Romanian economy (evaluated by the contribution of the tertiary sector to the GDP). The basic hypothesis is inspired by the empirical evidences that have led to the so-called Environmental Kuznets Curve.

In order to substantiate the conclusions, we have analyzed, on the one hand, the trends in the industrial production in Romania and, on the other hand, the specialization of Romanian economy in production and consumption through trade using the Merchandise Trade Specialization Index which compares the net flow of goods (export net) with the total flow of goods.

Results The undertaken research has confirmed the hypothesis; the emissions

of SO2 in Romania have registered the highest value at the beginning of the 90s, the critical level being reached at a GNI per capita of about 4500 USD-5500 USD (as we can see in figure 1). Also, as the contribution of the tertiary sector to the GDP has improved, it is noticed a downward tendency of the emissions of SO2.

The tests carried out in SPSS also confirm the existence of a significant negative relationship between the emissions of SO2 and GNI per capita, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, between the emissions of SO2 and the upward tendency of tertiarization in Romania (Table 1).

As we can see in figure 2, after the period of industrialization inspired by Soviet model, the importance of the industry as a value-added creating sector in Romania has decreased. Far from being an evidence that Romania has entered into a new stage of development, that of a post-industrial economy, this experience can be rather labelled as a "premature deindustrialization" in the meaning described by Rodrik (2015).

As regards the specialization of Romania in the production and consumption of goods through trade, although the empirical evidences (illustrated in figure 3) reveals a trend toward an attenuation of the importance of industries with a higher pollutant potential (labor-intensive and resource-intensive as well as low-skill and technology-intensive) in the


38

foreign trade of our country, Romania is oriented mostly toward the labor-intensive and resource-intensive industries ( leather; manufactures of leather; saddlery & harness; textile yarn; cotton fabrics woven,; lime, cement, construction materials; manufactures mineral, etc. ).

Conclusions Although the undertaken research has confirmed the hypothesis that

has fueled the Environmental Kuznets Curve, revealing the existence of a significant negative relationship between the emissions of pollutants and the level of development of an economy (including here the trend toward tertiarization of economy, too), we are convinced that there are many variables with significant impact on the results and conclusions. So, the increasing of the GNI per capita does not necessarily reflect a strong dynamics of Romanian economy; to a certain extent this evolution may be influenced by the decline in population number during the period for which the analysis has been carried out. The trend of tertiarization is obvious, but transports continue to count the greatest share in exports of services (although this share decreased compared to the level recorded in 1990). This propensity to tertiarization is manifested in all developed countries (and in more and more countries with developing economies), but Romanian "deindustrialization", although apparently is consistent with the global trend, is still far from being a kind of "creative destruction". One of the consequences of this process is quite manifest in the specialization of the Romanian economy in the production and consumption through trade; empirical evidences attest modest performances of the medium-skill and technology intensive and high-skill and technology-intensive sectors, which means a dependency on the foreign market for such products. Moreover, through the requirements raised by the accession to the EU, Romania has assumed a series of commitments with regard to the protection of the environment.

References 1. Brown Weiss, E., & Jackson, J. H. (2008). The Framework for

Environment and Trade. In E. J. Brown Weiss, & N. Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Reconciling Environment and Trade (pg. 1-39). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.

2. Frankel, J. (2008). Environmental effects of International Trade. The Globalisation Council.


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3. Grossman, G., & Krueger, A. (1995). Economic Growth and the Environment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(2), 353-377.

4. Grossman, G., & Krueger, A. B. (1991, November). Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement. NBER Working Paper #3914.

5. Porter, M., & van der Linde, C. (1995a). Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate. Harvard Business Review, September - October, https://hbr.org/1995/09/green-and-competitive-ending-the-stalemate.

6. Porter, M., van der Linde, C. (1995b). Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(4), 97-118.

7. Rodrik, D. (2015, January). Premature Deindustrialization. IAS Economics Working Paper.

8. World Bank. (1992). Development and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press.

9. WTO. (2017). Trade and Environment. Accesed on May 3, 2017, https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envir_e.htm


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Annexes

Figure 1. The analysis of SO2 emissions in România relating to GNI per

capita and to the contribution of services to GDP (1990-2014)

Data source: Adapted after data proven by European Environment Agency (https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps) and World Bank (data.worldbank.org)

Figure 2. The contribution of the three sectors to GDP in Romania (%)

Data source: http://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/chartView.aspx


41

Figure 3. The evolution of the Merchandise Trade Specialization Index in Romania

Data source: http://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/chartView.aspx

Table 1. The results of the correlation analysis between the emissions of SO2 and GNI per capita, and between the emissions of SO2 and the contribution

of services to GDP

SOxemission GNI_per_capita Services_to_GDP SOxemission Pearson

Correlation 1 -,858** -,808**

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000

N 25 25 25 GNI_per_capita Pearson

Correlation -,858** 1 ,724**

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000

N 25 25 25 Services_to_GDP Pearson

Correlation -,808** ,724** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000

N 25 25 25 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

43

GREEN BY CHOICE: IS BECOMING A VEGETARIAN A GREEN STATEMENT?

Adriana MANOLICĂ

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania Email: [email protected]

Francesca COJOCARU

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania Email: [email protected]

Roman LIVANDOVSCHI

ASEM Chişinău, Republic of Moldova Email: [email protected]

Summary The awareness of the environmental issues has made people to feel guilty about their past choices and to help minimize their negative impact they have decided to live a life based on sustainability. Living a sustainable life means, among other, to protect the environment. Therefore, people turned their usual consumption into a green way. The purpose of this thesis was to illustrate how two type of vegetarianism, flexitarians which are those people who on rare occasions consume meat but in generally they follow a plant based diet and actual vegetarians, could be integrated into a bigger group called green consumers. Although these two concepts are completely different, some similarities between them exist. To determine how green they are, 90 persons were asked to characterize their consumption of water, foods, electricity, natural gas and petrol or diesel as being positive or negative and both categories are perceiving their impact as being preponderant positive, except the natural gas and petrol or diesel consumption which they are aware that even a small consume of these two categories is negative. After all the results were analysed, a minor difference between vegetarians and flexitarians has been observed in almost every question and four out of six proposed hypotheses have been invalided. Regarding their overall behaviour, there is a connection between the choice of a vegetarian diet with the impact on the environment of personal overall consume and the perceived impact on the ecosystem of alimentary consume with the overall consume.


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Literature review A person who is dedicated towards being a green consumer is the one

that is thinking what negative consequences there will be to the environment when his actions are classified as harmful to the nature. And therefore, his concern starts to change the way he is acting and he will do everything in his power to avoid being a “threat” to its surroundings, like buying only organic or sustainable products. According to Lye Heng and his colleagues, which had developed a model of ecological behavior, a pro-environmental behavior is influenced by psychological and social factors which generates five factors that contribute to this type of conduct: (1) the possibility to act pro environmental; (2) the attitudes and values towards the environment; (3) knowledge about environment; (4) consequences of the behavior perceived and (5) motivation for a behavior like this. All of these are frequently assumed to motivate a green consumption behavior. Bartkus and his colleagues did some research and found that there has there is a link that has led to positive effects on the green consumer’s behavior. The present relation was done between self-reported and objectively measured knowledge regarding the environment. Green consumers are concerned about environmental issues [Lye and colleagues (2015); Bartkus and colleagues (1999)]

Meanwhile, environmental sustainability also represents one of the vegetarian’s concerns. It is not the main reason why they stopped consuming meat, as a study realized by Nick Fox and Katie Ward proves, but still there are some people who are taking into consideration the problems that arise from the meat consumption. Simultaneously, once they started following a vegetarian diet some people begin to bike, walk and tried not to use their cars as before. Even if in the beginning the protection of environment is not the main reason for the abstinence of meat, people still expressed some environmental commitments and after a while environmental concerns are becoming a priority.

Even if some vegetarians do not consider the environment when taking the decision of living on a diet based solely on plants, indirectly they are still having a big and positive impact on it. As stated by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, to produce animal products like milk and eggs used in a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, the actual animals requires half of the quantity of food than the amount of grains used to grow animals for a meat based diet. In this case was used a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, because it is the most common one, to compare to a meat based one.


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Growing plants and vegetables also requires major inputs of fossil energy, just like animal farming, but the quantity of energy inputs is significantly different. Essential foods in a vegetarian diet like grains and soybeans are produced more efficiently when it comes to the consumption of fossil energy. Vegetarians are motivate by ecological problems to stop eating meat [Fox. and Ward K. (2008); Pimentel D. and Pimentel M. (2003)]

Green consumers do not only think about the environment when they make a purchase, because in the end they are the ones that are going to utilize or eat that particular product. And so, the consideration for the environment incorporates their concern about their health. It is obvious that not all products are considered green and suitable for those who are dedicated green consumers, but there are some that are sustainable and at the same time healthier, when talking about food. Everything that is certified organic or eco-friendly are products that represent a good solution to the concerns of green consumer.

In recent years there has been a rapid growth in the market for all the products that can be classified as being organic and in more and more countries the consumption and production of these foods is spreading fast. And the reason behind this is the fact that organic products are much healthier than the usual ones and people will prefer to pay extra to be sure that they are eating well. Health is a concern of the green consumers [Thøgersen J. (2010); Woese K. and colleagues (1997)]

Many people are associating health with a balanced diet, because they believe that a poor dietary regime will bring down the levels of health and also it will increase the chances of some specific diseases to appear. An ideal diet nowadays, that can improve the life span and the quality of it, it is considered to be the vegetarian one. There are enormous differences between how a vegetarian and a meat-based eater feel, because many people have confirmed that once they start abstaining from meat they already felt much healthier and alive. Most of the times, people are motivated by health reasons to start following a plant based diet and then this reason become a justification for carry on with such a diet.

Starting from 1980 and until 1984, 4 persons did a study on comparing the state of health and also the mortality rate between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. As expected, at the end of their study they reached the conclusion that the mortality rate from the major types of cancer had really low rate for the vegetarians, up to 50% lower than for those who are consuming meat.


46

Also, they saw that meat eaters are more prone to heart diseases and emergency appendectomy. Thus, the health of non-vegetarians that participated in the study is generally weaker compared to the vegetarians, who turn out to be very healthy, with just a little insufficiency of iodine. The main motivation for a person to start a vegetarian diet is the desire for a healthier life [Fox N. and Ward K. (2004); Appleby N. and colleagues (1999)]

Methods The research objectives were: O1: To identify the health consciousness of the flexitarians and

vegetarians. O2: To identify the motivation of being a flexitarians or a vegetarian. O3: To identify the green behavior of the flexitarians and vegetarians. O4: To identify the perception of flexitarians and vegetarians on the

impact of their own consume on the environment. The research method consists of an online survey, applied to the

suggested people through the snowball techniques which also correspond to the population. In order to have enough respondents to finalize the research, an online questionnaire was used and made with Google Forms. It has a filter question, in order to eliminate those who cannot be classed as vegetarian of flexitarian and a question which separates them in order to be easy later to compare their answers. To see how they feel about their own health we used a Health Consciousness Scale from 1998, developed by Stephen Gould, contain 9 statements. One question was used to find out in what measure three different reason has influenced their decision to follow a plant based diet and another question was utilized to see how they perceive their own consume in 5 different categories.

In addition, a question was used to determine what is their recycling behavior and four more to see is they realize the fact that have an impact on the environment and to discover in what measure they believe that impact is a positive one. Furthermore, five questions were used to make a better profile of the respondent (e.g. age, income, education).

The population is formed by young people, with ages between 18 and 40, who are either vegetarians or flexitarians.

The sample size is formed by 90 persons selected based on the criteria described above. To understand the results better and to see if there is any difference between them, the sample is formed from 45 vegetarians and 45


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people that are eating meat on rare occasions. For the purpose of reaching only vegetarians and those who have inclinations towards being one, we used the snowball method, which means we asked 10 persons of each category to give us another 2-3 persons that can give valid responses to the questionnaire in order to avoid null responses. The sampling method that was used was convenience sampling, because of the fact that respondents from both categories are representative for their specific population.

A single person represents the sample unit. The survey was completed online only by people who are currently living in Iasi. The survey was applied between 20th of May and 31st of the same month.

Results Hypothesis 1: There is a difference between flexitarians and vegetarians

regarding the reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet. [Lye et al. (2015); Bartkus et al. (1999)]

To see if the hypothesis can be confirmed two variables were used. The first variable is a nominal. Respondents had to choose from two categories: a person who is eating meat rarely and a vegetarian. In what measure do you think the following reasons influenced your decision to be a vegetarian or to have vegetarian habits? Was the scale variable and there were 3 motives and people had to tell about each one how much influenced this decision.

It was used an Independent Samples T-test because this one was the most suitable in this case.

Null Hypothesis: There is no difference between a flexitarians and a vegetarian regarding the reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet.

To see if this particular hypothesis, the value that is taking into consideration is from the column Sig. (2-tailed) and if that value is over 0.05, which is the chosen level of significance then we would have to accept the null hypothesis.

According to the level of significance from the t-test for Equality of Means, in all three cases, we would have to accept the null hypothesis because all the values are bigger than 0.05 and this means that the variability in both conditions is almost the same and it is not significantly different. Therefore, in this case there are no differences between the flexitarians and vegetarians regarding the motives from which they eliminated meat from their diet.


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Hypothesis 2: There is a difference between flexitarians and vegetarians that concerns the predisposition for a green life. [Fox, N. and Ward K.(2008); Pimentel, D. and Pimentel, M. (2003)]

To see if this proposed hypothesis can be confirmed it was decided to use the statements from the Health Consciousness Scale and to compare the means of each one between the flexitarians and vegetarians. It can be seen from the start that there are some differences between the means of each affirmation. Some of them are minor and others can be considered significant.

Regarding the first statement it can be said that vegetarians think a lot more about their health than flexitarians, because of a difference of 0.31. Which is not the case with the proposition about the self-consciousness, where because of a difference of only 0.02, flexitarians which responded are considered to be conscious about their health.

When asked about if they agree or disagree with the fact that they are generally attentive to their inner felling about health, the answers from vegetarians generated a bigger mean, which results in the fact that they are more attentive, compared to those who still eat meat, but rarely. Again, the mean from the vegetarian regarding the statement about constantly examining their health is slightly smaller than the mean from the flexitarians. From this it can be concluded that those who eat meat rarely are examining their health a lot more than those who follow a plant based diet.

In the next five affirmations, vegetarians have the bigger mean which suggests that they are more alert to different changes in their health, are more aware in general of their health state, the pay much more attention to how they feel during the day from a health point view and they are involved more in their health than the flexitarians. Excepting a statement where both means are equally and that is focused on noticing how they feel physically during the day.

In conclusion, the proposed hypothesis can be confirmed and difference between these two groups for the predisposition of green life can also be seen in the last row which illustrates the mean of means and there is a 0.10 difference. It is small, but there is one.

Hypothesis 3: There is a difference between flexitarians and vegetarians in their recycling behavior. [Fox, N. and Ward K.(2008); Pimentel D. and Pimentel M. (2003)]

In order to test this hypothesis, a Independent Samples T-test was used and two variables were utilized. The first one is showing how many of the


49

respondents were flexitarians and how many are vegetarians and the second one was a question that measured their recycling behavior.

Null hypothesis: There is no difference between the flexitarians and vegetarians in their recycling behavior.

From the mean, it can be said that vegetarians with a mean of 3.11 are more inclined to recycle than those who consumes meat rarely, who only have 2.84.

But the level of significance shows a different thing. 0.282 is higher than 0.05, which indicates that there are no differences in the recycling behavior between the flexitarians and vegetarians and therefore the null hypothesis must be accepted.

Hypothesis 4: There is a correlation between the recycling behavior and the perceived impact on the environment. [Thøgersen J. (2010); Woese K. et al. (1997)]

For this hypothesis we used two variables, one that is showing how the respondents appreciate their recycling behavior and the other one is presenting the perceived impact of their overall consume on the environment and to see if this hypnosis can be confirmed a Person Correlation test was made.

Null hypothesis: There is no correlation between the recycling behavior and the perceived impact on the environment.

The Pearson Correlation value is .105 and that is the actual correlation coefficient and it tells the strength of the linear relationship between the chosen variables. And in this case it is a weak correlation, but positive.

According to the level of statistical significance, it can be said that is bigger then the chosen one (.324 > 0.01) and the null hypothesis must be accepted invalidating the fact there is a correlation between the recycling behavior and impact of their own consume on the environment.

All the data are presenting a weak correlation between the recycle behavior and the perceived impact on the environment from 5 different categories: water, food, electricity, natural gas and petrol/diesel. In all the cases the correlation is a positive one.

In every table, the p-value is bigger than the chosen one of 0.01and therefore again the null hypothesis is accepted, just like in the first correlation made to test the alternative hypothesis.


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Hypothesis 5: There is a correlation between choosing a vegetarian diet and taking in account the personal impact on the environment. [Thøgersen J. (2010); Woese K. et al. (1997)]

It was used a Pearson Correlation to test this hypothesis and the variables are: “I believe that my consumption has an impact on the environment” and “I believe the fact that I am a vegetarian or I have vegetarian habits, my consumption has an impact on the environment”.

Null hypothesis: There is no correlation between the choosing a vegetarian diet and taking in account the personal impact on the environment.

The actual value of this correlation is .492, which results in a moderate correlation between these two variables.

The level of significance showed in this table is 0.000 which is less that the chosen one of 0.01 for this test, so in this case there is a statistically significant correlation between those two variables. Also, the null hypothesis will be rejected and the proposed one will be accepted.

Hypothesis 6: There is a correlation between the perceived impact of the alimentary consume and the perceived impact of the overall consume on the environment. [Fox, N. and Ward K. (2004); Appleby N. et al. (1999)]

To test this hypothesis, we used two scale variables. One is measuring how positive is the perceived impact of the respondents of their own consume on the environment. The second variable is the same but was formulated after mentioning the fact that following a vegetarian diet might influence that impact.

Null hypothesis: There is no correlation between the perceived impacts of alimentary consume and the perceived impact of the overall consume on the environment.

In this case is presented the strongest correlation of all, with a correlation coefficient of 0.683. The relationship is also a perfectly positive linear one. The level of significance is 0.000, which means that the null hypothesis will be rejected and the alternative one can be confirmed. Because the p-values is smaller than the chosen one this correlation is statistically significant and it not occurred by chance.

Conclusions All the objectives set before the practical research have been met and

four out of six suggested hypotheses have been invalidated as a result from various tests.


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First all the, as proposed, the number of respondents from both categories is equal, therefore a more exact comparison has been made and all the answers provided were valid ones. And after the interpretation of those answers from both groups, minor differences have been discovered between flexitarians and vegetarian’s behavior. In both cases females were the predominant category, which also has finished a faculty and is following a vegetarian diet or has some vegetarian inclinations for maximum 6 months.

Using the Health Conscious Scale made by Stephen Gould, it was discovered the fact that vegetarians are more conscious bout their health than flexitarians, but with a difference of only 0.10 resulted from the mean of means. The difference is not as significant as it was anticipated, but in the end there is one. Using this scale with its nine statements it has been determined the fact for almost 80% of those 90 respondents, health is very important and also they are very involved in it, by constantly examining it, observing any changes in their health or noticing their health state and how they feel physically during the day.

When asked about in what measure three different reasons has influenced their decision to eliminate meat from their diet or to reduce the quantity drastically, in both cases the principal motivation was the desire to save the animals which are raised in inhumane conditions and after that slaughtered without any mercy. Recently, advocates for animals rights have published films and videos with animals that are brutally killed and almost everyone has at least watch one, even for a few seconds and now that people are more aware of the real conditions for animals they changed their diet to save some innocent animals. The second most important reason is the health motivation, which is was expected, because the majority of vegetarians are influenced by the desire to live a healthier and longer life. And the motivation which is influencing people in a smaller measure is the protection for the environments. Therefore, almost 85% of the respondents can be considered green consumers. Also, there no difference between flexitarians and vegetarians regarding the motivation behind following a vegetarian diet.

The majority of those who participated in the research have characterized their consumption from five different categories mostly positive, except the consumption of natural gas and petrol or diesel, which they are fully aware that even a small consumption will have a negative impact on the environment. This question was tested against the one designed to find out about their recycling behavior and no correlation was found between them,


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meaning that people believe that the impact from their consumption is not the same as the impact from their recycling actions.

In proportion of 95%, the respondents are aware of the fact that they have an impact on the environment in general and it is a positive one in small to big measure. And after they eliminated meat from their regime, they came to realize that they have a bigger impact on the ecosystem and they considered being a more positive one. This is also supported by two hypotheses which have been confirmed (H5 and H6) and showed that in fact there is a connection between how they perceive their impact of the overall consume before and after going vegetarian and the perceived impact on the ecosystem becomes more positive.

References 1. Appleby, N.P., Thorogood, M., Mann, I.J., Key, J.A.T. (1999) The Oxford

Vegetarian Study The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol 70, no3, pp. 525-531.

2. Bartkus, K.R., Howell, R.D., Hartman, C.L. (1999) The measurement of consumer environmental knowledge: revision and extensions, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, no 14, pp. 129-146.

3. Fox, N., Ward, K. (2008) Health, Ethics and Environment: A Qualitative Study of Vegetarian Motivations, Appetite Journal, 50 (2-3). pp. 422-429.

4. Gupta, S., Ogden, T.D. (2009) To buy or not to buy? A social dilemma perspective on green buying, Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 26, issue 6, pp. 379-380.

5. Lye, L.H., Savage, R.V., Harn-Wei K., Loke-Ming C., Puay-Yok, T. (2015) Sustanability Matters: Environmental and Climate Change in the Asia Pacific, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, pp.432-433.

6. Pimentel, D., Pimentel, M., (2003) Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 78 no. 3, pp. 660-663.

7. Thøgersen, J. (2010) Country Differences in Sustainable Consumption: The Case of Organic Food, Journal of Macromarketing, Vol 30, Issue 2, p.172.

8. Woese, K., Lange, D., Boess, C., Warner, B.K. (1997) A Comparison of Oganically and Conventionally Grown Foods, Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, 74, pp. 281-282.

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ROMANIA

Carmen NASTASE


Carmen CHASOVSCHI


Mihaela STATE


Mihai POPESCU


Summary This paper analyses the characteristics of municipal waste management and the areas which should be improved to achieve the European targets municipal waste recycling. Romania has assumed that it will manage to recycle 50% of its waste by 2020 (according to the EU Directives). The aim is to provide a description of the status quo of the present situation in the field, by approaching the existing national policies and using a quantitative research based mainly on secondary sources (Eurostat and The National Institute of Statistics). The paper presents the situation of waste management in Romania, in comparison with two other countries that are managing the waste sector properly: an EU and a non-EU country. For a precise description of the current situation in Romania, we have used secondary data provided by Eurostat and The Romanian National Institute for Statistics. Keywords: municipal waste management, recycling, environment, landfill, waste separation

Literature review The European policy in the waste field is focused on reducing the

negative impact of waste and on a better waste management (EU, 2010a,). The prevention of extreme waste generation and the promotion of recycling


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will increase the efficiency of resources used in the European economies and will reduce the negative impact upon the environment. Romania is one of the EU countries experiencing difficulties in municipal waste management in terms of collection, transport, treatment, recovery and disposal.

Waste management is a challenge for authorities in many countries, especially due to the increased amount of waste generated (Guerrero, Maas and Hogland, 2013). Many developed countries use advanced waste management techniques that have proved useful in creating opportunities for recycling and reusing waste. These techniques have allowed increasing the rate of recycling wasteand minimized waste disposal on land (Eurostat, 2014).

Previous studies have approached the waste management in Romania (Almasi, 2013) or the projects in this field, with focus on municipal waste management (Popescu&Pintilie, 2013) and the challenges of selective collection of municipal waste (Târţiu, 2011).

Part of the work of recycling waste derived materials is done by informal collectors, people with low living standards, not having a paid job.Wilson et al. (2006) show that despite the social and health problems associated with informal recycling, it offers significant benefits in economic terms to be maintained. The best choice is to integrate the informal sector in waste management system, working to improve living and working conditions of those involved.

Improving waste management system, increasing efficiency activities in this area is a prerequisite for improving the environmental quality of cities. Ensuring a sustainable system of waste can only be achieved by involving all stakeholders, generators of waste processors, formal and informal agents, nongovernmental organizations and financial institution (Joseph, 2006).

The public education for environmental awareness, and the generation of a sense of co-production and partnership in the waste separation have been proven to be the determinants of most success cases in cities from developed countries. Lack of civic culture correlates with the absence or weakness of autonomous civil society organizations as well as non participatory mode of administration of the municipal authorities (Charuvichaipong and Sajor, 2006).

Public participation is essential for the success of recycling schemes. The recycling policy and legislation must geared towards promoting people


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centred approaches in recycling with public education as the main driver towards increasing public participation. Very often, initiatives in the field of waste not take into account the perceptions and attitudes of the public's representatives and municipal waste recycling schemes. Even though the public is aware of recycling, this does not necessarily translate into participation in recycling initiatives. Other factors such as limited economic direct economic incentives and absence of ‘visible’ recycling centres were found to limit participation in recycling initiatives (Bolaane, 2006).

A major challenge for society today is recycling efficiency of electronic waste, the date of collection infrastructure poor and low efficiency of collection and a considerable lack of awareness of consumers to potential electronics recycling for the benefit of the environment and energy savings and raw materials. Recycling of electronic products is more complex because they contain several different types of equipment integrated in one another(Tanskanen, 2013).

Effective waste management system depends on all the factors involved, municipalities, businesses, local leaders, non-governmental organizations or community-based initiatives. For example, it becomes almost useless waste separation by community members if the municipality does not collect waste separately.

Although incinerators are generally considered recycling braking factor due to their high cost, is an incentive to reduce waste. A careful consideration is required when the municipality makes decisions on acquisition incinerators that have high costs of installation, maintenance or replacement. Better results can be achieved through a more efficient separation at source or other recycling initiatives (Hotta and Aoki-Suzuki, 2014).

An important role in the efforts made by the municipality in recycling has national politics and the application of EU directives at the state level (EEA, 2009).A sustained participation of citizens in the correct separation and collection of recyclable waste depends on attitudes, incentives, presence of children in household and information through direct media. A positive attitudes toward recycling and information are important factors in explaining recycling participation (Vicente and Reis, 2008). The promotion of recycling schemes and a clear information of the communities members, are important for success of the recycling schemes (McDonald and Oates, 2003).


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Methods The paper presents the situation of waste management in Romania, in

comparison with two other countries that are managing the waste sector properly: an EU and a non-EU country. For a precise description of the current situation in Romania, we have used secondary data provided by Eurostat and The Romanian National Institute for Statistics.

According to Eurostat definition, municipal waste consists to a large extent of waste generated by households, but may also include similar wastes generated by small businesses and public institutions and collected by the municipality; this part of municipal waste may vary from municipality to municipality and from country to country, depending on the local waste management system. For areas not covered by a municipal waste collection scheme the amount of waste generated is estimated.

In Romania, in 2014, recycling was carried out by about 5% of total waste generated (Eurostat, 2016), selective collection is underfunded. A lack of information of the population leads to a weak behaviour; Romania ranks among the last countries in the European Union on municipal waste recycling rate, including garbage generated by households (Eurostat, 2013).

Between waste management systems in the EU countries there are significant differences. thus, there are countries where most of the waste going to landfill, as happens in Malta (85,6%), Croatia (84,6%), Cyprus (84,4%) or (Latvia (83,1%), while in other countries most of the waste is treated by other operations such as incineration, recycling, composting and digestion.

In Romania most of the collected municipal waste is disposed on the landfills, recycling and recovery operations being used in a very limited extent. Efforts and significant investments were made to align the local policies and practices with the acquis communautaire. The situation is evolving rapidly and positive changes are visible, but the main way of waste disposal is still the storage. In figure no. 1 is displayed the type of treatment of municipal waste in the period 2007-2015.

A small progress can be observed in the evolution of the methods used over the years: the landfill disposal had decreased to 82,27% in 2015 from 99,40% in 2007. Achieving a recycling rate of 50% of municipal waste assumed by Romania, like other EU countries by 2020, will require the functioning not only of the representatives of public authorities, but as well the functioning of viable community initiatives in the field of waste. Such an


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objective could indeed be achieved only through involvement of all communities, at local level.

Figure 1. Structure of the municipal waste by type of treatment, in Romania,

in 2007-2015

Data source:: own representation based on Eurostat data, 2016

The improving waste management system can be obtained by

implementing measures to reduce the amount of waste. A responsible implementation of waste legislation can be considered essential in the existence of an efficient management of waste, but this requires a sufficient staff, in terms of number, who is prepared to implement appropriate measures accordingly and penalize irregularities when they occur. Ensuring an appropriate infrastructure for waste management (collection, storage, transport, etc.) is one of the requirements for achieving a waste management according to EU directives.

In Romania, only starting 1 January 2016 came into force a fee for depositing waste to landfill. The effects of applying a fee for waste disposal at the landfill are already visible in countries like Holland and Belgium (Bartelings, H. et al, 2005). If the landfill will be more expensive, then there will be a decrease in the amount of waste, encouraging recycling (Fischer, C. et al, 2012).


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Results There is a large gap between the political objective of prevention

expressed in various EU directives and the reality of continued growth in waste generation. Amounts of waste, according to forecasts, will continue to grow, so the environmental impact will grow with them, too. Usually, increasing economic activity means an increase in waste generation, and as economic growth is the main policy goal across Europe, often there is hard to find instruments politically acceptable to limit the actual waste production. Domestic waste reduction, however, is a complicated task, as it involves reduced consumption in general and changing consumption patterns, which in turn requires considerable habit and lifestyle changes.

Reduction of waste stored and protection of natural resources involve the implementation of selective waste collection and reusable waste recovery and recycling. A modern waste management to contribute to reducing the amount of land filled waste by establishing a system appropriate to treat each type of waste to protect the environment. By implementing the legal provisions in current economic activity and local government, it is expected to improve environmental quality and human health.

Turning waste into resources is a key factor for a sustainable economy. The objectives and targets set by the European legislation aims at improving waste recycling and stimulating innovation. By improving waste management, the environmental health issues will be further tackled and greenhouse gas emissions will be significantly reduced. At the same time, the negative impact of waste will be reduced, thus limiting water, air, and landscape pollution caused by landfills.

Conclusions For about the effects of activities in the field of waste to become visible

at the national level is necessary to provide the infrastructure for waste selection at source, near the house of the citizen by types of waste. Minimizing waste generation can be done through simple and effective measures (e.g. use in schools and public institutions crockery and cutlery reusable or compostable, requirement to reduce paper printed or copied in public institutions, stimulating consumption of bulk or packaging reduced etc.). Effective strategies to promote public awareness of waste prevention and to reduce the generation of specific types of waste are already operating in European Union. Legislation can be implemented, but there must be a


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thorough control and punishments to match. It may impose rules, but without control over the activities of collecting, the collector, these will not work. If there is no communication to the citizens on selective collection and recycling, we cannot know what is collected, when, where and how. Legal instruments and economic sanctions, awareness, communication and responsibility towards a cleaner environment are all very important. Moreover, all are closely related and if one element missing in this chain, this process cannot work.

Sustaining economic entities producing or distributing products or materials reusable, repairable, recyclable or compostable can be done by accessing aid schemes. To move closer to a society that is not wasteful and manages waste in a sustainable manner, what is needed is: a good knowledge on waste policies in EU; waste prevention policies that envisage a broad area of economic sectors; an overall eco-efficient recycling policy that covers all waste materials; and collaboration with local government authorities to increase efficiency and quality waste collected, making them easier to recycle and capitalized.

References 1. Almaşi, A.M., (2013). Municipal waste management in Romania,

European Environment Agency (EEA) under its 2012 work programme as a contribution to the EEA's work on waste implementation, Retrieved from www.eea.europa.eu/publications.

2. Bartelings, H. et al, (2005). Effectiveness of landfill taxation. Institute for Environmental Studies, Netherlands. The Landfill tax in Belgium (Flanders region) http://www.ivm.vu.nl/en/Images/Effective%20landfill%20R05-05_tcm53- 102678_tcm53-103947.pdf.

3. Becidan, Michael, Liagn Wanga et al., (2015). Norwegian Waste-to-Energy (WtE) in 2030: Challenges and Opportunities, in Chemical engineering transactions VOL. 43, A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Chief Editors: Sauro Pierucci, Jiří J. Klemeš Copyright © 2015, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., ISBN 978-88-95608-34-1; ISSN 2283-9216.

4. Benjamin Bolaane, Constraints to promoting people centred approaches in recycling, Habitat International, Volume 30, Issue 4, December 2006, Pages 731-740, ISSN 0197-3975, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2005.10.002. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397505000433


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5. Charuvichaipong, C., Sajor, E., (2006). Promoting waste separation for recycling and local governance in Thailand, Habitat International, Volume 30, Issue 3, September 2006, Pages 579-594, ISSN 0197-3975, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2005.02.002.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397505000226).

6. European Commission, (2010b). Making sustainable consumption and production a reality, A guide for business and policy makers to Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment.

7. European Commission, (2016). Study on the efficient functioning of waste markets in the EU, final report July 2016, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/studies/pdf/waste_market_study.pdf

8. European Commission, Directorate-General for the Environment, (2010). Being wise with waste: the EU’s approach to waste management, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/pdf/WASTE%20BROCHURE.pdf.

9. European Environment Agency (EEA), (2013). Municipal waste management in Romania.

10. Fischer, C., Lehner, M., McKinnon, D., (2012). Overview of the use of landfill taxes in Europe, ETC/SCP working paper 1/2012.

11. Hotta, Y and Aoki-Suzuki, C., (2014) Waste reduction and recycling initiatives in Japanese cities: Lessons from Yokohama and Kamakura, , Waste Management & Research 2014, Vol. 32(9) 857 –866 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0734242X14539721.

12. Joseph, K., (2006). Stakeholder participation for sustainable waste management, Habitat International, Volume 30, Issue 4, December 2006, Pages 863-871, ISSN 0197-3975, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2005.09.009. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397505000524

13. Kiddee, P., Naidu, B.R., Wong, M.H., (2013). Electronic waste management approaches: An overview Waste Management, Volume 33, Issue 5, May 2013, Pages 1237–1250, Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X13000147

14. Kurz, T., Linden, M. And Sheehy, N. (2007). Attitudinal and Community Influences on Participation in New Curbside Recycling Initiatives in Northern Ireland, Environment and Behavior Volume 39 Number 3 May 2007, 367-391.

15. Marshall, R.E., Farahbakhsh, K., (2013). Systems approaches to integrated solid waste management in developing countries Waste Management Volume 33, Issue 4, April 2013, Pages 988–1003, Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X13000032


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16. McDonald S and Oates C (2003) Reasons for non-participation in a kerbside recycling scheme. Resources, Conservation, and Recycling 39: 369–385.

17. Popescu, V. and Pintilie, V., (2013). Detailed characterisation of future waste management Projects (2014-2020) – Romania” – JASPERS, Retrieved from http://www.posmediu.ro/upload/pages/Task%208%20Draft%20Final%20Report_rev3.pdf

18. Salem, S.M., Lettieri, P., Baeyens, J., (2009). Recycling and recovery routes of plastic solid waste (PSW): A review, Waste Management, Volume 29, Issue 10, October 2009, Pages 2625–2643, Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X09002190.

19. Tanskanen, P. (2013). Management and recycling of electronic waste, Acta Materialia, Volume 61, Issue 3, February 2013, Pages 1001-1011, ISSN 1359-6454, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2012.11.005. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359645412007999).

20. Târţiu, V., (2011). Selective collection of municipal waste in Romania: characteristics and challenges management research and practice Vol. 3 Issue 3 (2011) pp. 53-62, Retrieved from http://mrp.ase.ro/no33/f6.pdf.

21. Vincente P and Reis E (2008) Factors influencing households’ participation in recycling. Waste Management & Research 26: 140–146.

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THE ESSENTIAL URBAN CENTERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL ACTIVITIES IN ROMANIA

Mircea NASTASE

Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania Email: [email protected]

Abstract Among the EU countries, Romania displays the highest share of rural population (45%), most of it employed in agriculture. Moreover, there is a significant variation between the eight NUTS 2 regions with regards to the urban distribution and dynamics, with important intra-regional differences between the constituent counties. Our paper proposes an analysis of the urban-rural disparities in Romania in the above mentioned terms, folowed by an examination of the policy measures able to ensure a higher competitiveness in rural areas and, on this basis, a structural convergence between rural and urban areas in the long-run.

Keywords: rural-urban disparities, activity diversification, R&D and innovation potential, gap reducing policies

Introduction Among the EU countries, Romania displays the highest share of rural

population (45%) and most of it is employed in agriculture. The Romanian agriculture has radically changed the ownership structures. The private ownership has become dominant and has created the conditions for market competition. But the agricultural structures which can give an impulse to economic expansion by an efficient use of human, natural and financial resources still do not allow the normal functioning of the market.

In Romania the sector of small family subsistence production units in agriculture is very resistant and it has survived after 1990, based on the structure of the old rural households. The total number of agricultural holdings at the end of the year 2015 was 3.93 million, compared to 4.26 million in 2013 and 4.48 million in 2010 (NIS, 2015). In 2015 the share of holdings up to 5 hectares reprezented 89.6% of the total number and 35.1% of the total utilised agricultural area. In order to reach the competitive average size of 10 hectares


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per holding, the number of subsistence holdings should decrease by 2.4 million until 2013.

The rural-urban gap in Romania The delay in implementing a real reform of the production system in

agriculture keeps a high level of employment in this branch. In the period 2010-2016 there was a significant reduction of employment in the rural area, while in the urban area the trend shows the opposite situation (Table 1).

Table 1. Employment by area of residence, 2010-2015

Year Urban Rural

Employment

(thou persons)

Employment rate1) (%)

Employment (thou persons)

Employment rate1) (%)

2010 4607 53.7 4627 63.7 2011 4662 54.0 4561 62.9 2012 4906 55.9 4252 60.6 2013 4889 55.0 4258 61.6 2014 5115 57.2 4198 61.1 2015 5072 56.8 4281 61.5

1) calculated for working age population (15-64 years) Data source: Romanian Statistical Yearbooks Time Series1990-2015 and 2016, National Institute for Statistics

The employment rate in Romania is higher in the rural area compared to the urban area for the working age population (15-64 years). In addition, in 2015 about 19% of the farmers and skilled workers employed in agriculture, forestry and fishery were elderly people of 64 years and over.

In Romania the labour force employed in agriculture, hunting and forestry reached the peak of 41.4% of the total employment in the year 2000. This process extended the subsistence economy. After 2000, the sustained economic growth created favourable conditions for the development of non-agricultural activities and determined the reduction of employment in agriculture to 28.2% in 2015. During the economic growth period (2000-2008) agriculture has gradually lost its status of employment buffer specific to the transition period (Toma et al., 2009). This demonstrates the unsustainable economic development in the rural areas. However, it is expected that a


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prolonged period of the economic crisis occurring in 2017 could result into higher net migration flows from urban to rural areas.

Since the subsistence agriculture is still a major option for people living in the rural areas, the rural households depend highly on the agricultural income. In 2008 the the total income of households in the rural areas consisted of gross salaries (29.5%), the equivalent value of consumption of agricultural products from own resources (28.5%), income from social provisions (24.4%), money income from agriculture (6.3%) and income from non-agricultural independent activities (3.8%). This structure shows that most households are not connected to the labour market and are less prepared to develop market oriented farms or other production units.

The rural population has lower income than the urban population because of the dominant employment in agriculture, which has low productivity. In 2008 the average income per household in the rural area was only about 72.3% of the average urban income. The expected increase of the agricultural income as a result of the application of the Common Agricultural Policy could diminish these differences.

The potential of multifunctional agriculture and of the rural areas as a whole is a starting point for the development of non-agricultural activities. In the last years the share of gross salaries has increased in the rural areas, from 21% in 2010 to 29.5% in 2008. The alternative non-agricultural activities are attractive for the younger rural population. The possibility to work for a salary in a non-agricultural activity is a good reason for them to give up self-employment. The gradual increase of the total income on base of a higher share of salaries is already a trend in the rural areas that will continue after the recovery from the economic crisis.

The role of urban centres in rural areas The unequal distribution of rural population by region is correlated

with the employment rates and the development disparities by region (Table 2). In the regions with the highest share of rural population the main activity is agriculture, while the GDP per capita is the lowest.


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Table 2. Population, employment and development indicators in Romania, by NUTS2 region

Development regions

Rural population

2015 (%)

Employment rate1) 2015 (%)

Employment in

agriculture2), 2015

(% of civil employment)

GDP per capita 2014

(Eurostat estimation in

PPS) Romania 44.9 56.1 28.2 8800 North-West 46.6 57.0 31.1 8500 Center 40.4 55.1 23.5 9100 North-East 56.6 61.3 39.5 5800 South-East 44.7 54.7 31.5 7700 Bucharest-Ilfov 7.6 62.4 3.5 19800 South – Muntenia

58.4 60.5 35.8 7600

South-West Oltenia

52.3 59.3 38.0 7200

West 36.6 59.6 23.7 10600 1) calculated for working age population (15-64 years) 2) includes hunting and forestry Data source: Economic and Social Regional References: Territorial Statistics 2009, National Institute of Statistics (NIS) Romania and EUROSTAT

Rural areas with higher employment in non-agricultural activities are under the influence of cities. The distribution of municipalities and towns in Romania has been determined by historical and geographical conditions, industrial development, as well as the territorial policy aiming at balanced urban-rural development.

Towns are urban agglomerations with an administrative function and a lifestyle specific to the urban areas, where people are employed mainly in non-agricultural activities. Municipalities are towns with an important economic, social, political and cultural role, which usually have also an administrative function.

Most counties having the employment in agriculture under the national average of 28.2% are in the influence area of major municipalities, such as Bucharest for Ilfov county, Braşov for Braşov county and Covasna county, Sibiu for Sibiu county, Constanţa for Constanţa county, Ploieşti for


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Prahova county, Timişoara for Timiş county, Cluj for Cluj county, Arad for Arad county, Piteşti for Argeş county (Table 3). Hunedoara county has an industrial profile, dominated by activities in mining and metallurgy, while urban life is dispersed in several smaller municipalities (cities) and towns. Table 3 . Rural population and urban centers in Romania in 2015, by county

Employment in agriculture (%)

Rural popula

tion (%)

Number of towns

Number of municipalities

Teleorman 54.9 66.3 2 2 Giurgiu 53.1 68.8 2 1 Botoşani 48.8 58.3 5 2 Călăraşi 48.0 61.4 3 2 Vaslui 47.6 58.8 2 3 Ialomiţa 44.8 54.2 4 3 Olt 44.7 59.4 6 2 Suceava 44.3 57.1 11 5 Vrancea 43.7 62.2 3 2 Mehedinţi 43.7 51.4 3 2 Neamţ 42.7 61.8 3 2 Buzău 40.7 58.6 3 2 Dolj 39.4 46.3 4 3 Satu Mare 37.3 52.3 4 2 Maramureş 37.2 41.2 11 2 Dâmboviţa 35.0 68.8 5 2 Tulcea 35.0 50.7 4 1 Bistriţa-Năsăud

34.7 63.3 3 1

Sălaj 34.5 59.1 3 1 Caraş-Severin 34.3 43.6 6 2 Vâlcea 33.0 54.6 9 2 Harghita 31.9 55.9 5 4 Iaşi 31.8 52.3 3 2 Bihor 31.2 49.7 6 4 Bacău 29.9 54.3 5 3 Mureş 29.7 47.5 7 4 Brăila 29.7 34.9 3 1


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Employment in agriculture (%)

Rural popula

tion (%)

Number of towns

Number of municipalities

Galaţi 29.2 43.5 2 2 Alba 28.8 41.7 7 4 Gorj 28.4 53.0 7 2

Covasna 27.6 49.9 3 2 Argeş 27.3 52.1 4 3 Ilfov 22.9 57.8 8 0 Arad 22.4 44.6 9 1 Cluj 22.2 32.9 1 5 Timiş 22.1 37.2 8 2 Prahova 21.6 49.5 12 2 Constanţa 21.4 29.6 9 3 Hunedoara 21.2 23.2 7 7 Sibiu 15.7 32.6 9 2 Braşov 13.1 25.8 6 4 Data source: Economic and Social Regional References: Territorial Statistics 2017, National Institute of Statistics (NIS)

The most obvious forms of relationship between towns and rural areas are trade, employment opportunities, migration and remittances, exchange of population and services to the rural area.

The rural areas around towns are source for fresh food that farmers sell in the urban markets. Improvement in transport and the development of intermediate markets provide additional opportunities, since small shops develop in villages, based on trade relations with towns. Many farm families are diversifying their sources of income by involvment in transport and commerce services.

The income gap between rural and urban areas determine people to look to the cities for a livelihood. Employment opportunities in small towns are most often in traditional industries, commerce and services. Younger people are more inclined to move to towns, while they still rely on social networks based on their place of origin. Part of these urban migrants support their extended rural family by remittances. At the same time, the rural family provides food. In Romania, the equivalent value of consumption of agricultural products from own resources in urban families


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was about 6.4% of the average total income per person in 2015. This share is much higher in small towns situated in predominantly rural areas.

In Romania after 1990 there was a trend of urban-rural migration. Since 1996 there was a positive net migration flow in the rural area, but this did not change the share of rural population. In 2015 the net migration flow to the rural areas was +38002 persons representing only 0.39% of the rural population. The migration trend shows rather an exchange of population, meaning that younger people move to town and elderly people move to villages, especially after the retirement. Emigration is more and more selective in terms of age and level of education.

The international emigration of rural population has intensified in the last decade. Initially migrants came mainly from more developed western regions, but recently the growing emigration flow is from the eastern and poorer regions. Many rural emigrants work only temporary abroad. International migration from the rural area has some particularities (UNDP, 2011-2013). On one hand, some of the migrants for work living in villages have had a long experience of mobility even before 1990, through commuting to large urban plants. That is why communities with large flows of migration are around major cities of Romania, especially in Western and Eastern regions. On the other hand, villages with low international migration are concentrated in regions where there is a strong attraction of an urban center (like Bucharest).

Urban centers, including small towns, extend their influence on the surrounding rural areas also by means of services. Firstly are the educational services. Village people prefer to send their children to school in town, even for the primary school if the town is close enough and provides good transport connections. Secondly are the communication services. In the last two decades in the rural area was a dramatic expansion of mass media, especially television, and telecommunication services, especially mobile phones. The access to the specific services depends also on the proximity of towns. These systems induce the urban lifestyle and values in the rural areas.

The influence of small towns depends however on their economic, social and cultural strengths. Some counties in Romania have many urban centers, but with little polarisation capacities. Examples are the region North-East, including the county Suceava (5 municipalities and 11 towns) and the county Botoşani (2 municipalities and 5 towns). These counties have


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a very high rural population which is employed 44-49% in agriculture. In a similar situation is the region South-West Oltenia, with the counties Olt (2 municipalities and 6 towns) and Valcea (2 municipalities and 9 towns). Actually some of the towns are rural-type localities with additional functions in public services. They may gain the capacity to stimulate the rural settlements and stabilize the skilled labour force in the long run if they engage more in production activities by developing companies able to use the resources provided by the rural area.

Rural development is a key concept of the EU Common Agricultural Policy and refers to the restructuring of agriculture, diversification of activities and innovation in rural areas. Besides agriculture, the environment and associated tourism are major opportunities for employment in rural areas, as well as potential fields of innovation. Small towns could play a complementary role, by extending the ICT infrastructure, developing the agro-food chain, cooperation in research and development in specific fields (agriculture, natural environment) etc.

Conclusions In Romania the rural population is partly employed in small family

subsistence households and highly depends on the low productivity agriculture. The delay in implementing a real reform of the production system keeps the employment in agriculture at 28.2% in 2015, which is an extreme share compared to other EU27 countries. The low performance in agriculture, connected to a less educated and ageing labour force, as well as the insufficient opportunities for non-agricultural activities are main causes for the rural-urban income gap.

In the regions with the highest share of rural population the main activity is agriculture, while the GDP per capita is the lowest. Most counties having the employment in agriculture under the national average of 28.2% are in the influence area of major municipalities. The towns, which are smaller urban agglomerations with an administrative function and a lifestyle specific to the urban areas, develop a relationship with rural areas mainly regarding trade, employment opportunities, migration and remittances, exchange of population and services to the rural area.

The influence of small towns depends however on their economic, social and cultural strengths. Some counties in Romania have many urban centers, but with little polarisation capacities. Actually some of the towns are


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rural-type localities with additional functions in public services. They may gain the capacity to stimulate the rural settlements and stabilize the skilled labour force in the long run if they engage more in production activities by developing companies able to use the resources provided by the rural area. Small towns could play a complementary role, by extending the ICT infrastructure, developing the agro-food chain, cooperation in research and development in specific fields (agriculture, natural environment) etc.

Bibliography 1. EC (2008) „Regions 2020. An Assessment of Future Challenges for EU

Regions”, Brussels: European Commission staff working document. 2. Frenkel, A. (2000) „Can regional policy affect firm’s innovation

potential in lagging regions?”, The Annals of Regional Science, vol. 34, no.3: 315-341.

3. Gurria, A. (2015) „Innovation in Rural Areas: An Exception or A Must?”, plenary presentation at OECD Rural Conference, Caceres, Spain, March.

4. IRECSON (2016) Innobarometer 2016. Innovation at development region level, Report of the IRECSON Institute - Center for Technological Information, Bucharest (in Romanian).

5. MAPDR (2009) “National Programme for Rural Development, available on-line at http://www.maap.ro/

6. NIS (2015) Farm Structure Survey, National Institute of Statistics, Romania.

7. NIS (2016) Coordinates of Standard of Living in Romania. Population’s Income and Consumption, National Institute of Statistics (in Romanian).

8. ReNITT (2016) The National Network for Innovation and Technology Transfer in Romania - ReNITT, National Authority for Scientific Research and IRECSON Institute, Center for Technological Information.

9. Ruract (2016) „Regional Policy at the Service of Territorial Rural Development”, available on-line at http://www.ruract.eu/spip.php?rubrique41

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EUROPEAN UNION’S POLICY IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Sorin BURNETE

Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania Email: [email protected]

Abiola Esther OGUNMOKUN

Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania Email:[email protected]

Summary Infringement of social rights and environment degradation, are deeply rooted in modern industrial revolutions. Large-scale industrialization, besides its unquestionable benefits, triggered a systematic assault against human dignity and environment health. The ensuing expansion of world trade further worsened the consequences. Yet somewhat paradoxically, grave problems such as workers’ bad treatment and environment pollution were barely dealt with until the post-World War II period. A consciousness-raising effort in this line was made by the European Union. Since the early 1970s, the Community has been dealing with environmental and social issues, especially the ones deriving from international trade, in a more decisive and responsible manner. Yet European Union’s new policy has a downside in that it affects the commercial relations with trading partners, both developing and developed countries. It is then no surprise that it has drawn fierce international reaction.

Literature review (Historical perspective) Environment degradation is deeply rooted in modern industrial

revolutions. Large-scale industrialization, besides its unquestionable benefits, triggered a systematic assault against environment health. The switch from production in tiny manufacturing plants to factory-type mass production entailed the processing of huge quantities of inputs, in the form of raw materials and energy, in order to turn out vast quantities of merchandise to be sold on both domestic and foreign markets.


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Concomitantly, tremendous capitals were invested in machinery, equipment and installations such as blast furnaces, rolling mills, steam engines, mechanical spinners and looms etc., failing which, large scale production is unconceivable. Yet somewhat paradoxically, in spite of the industrial revolutions being propelled by the implementation of ever more performing machines and other kinds of automatic devices, which eased or even did away with manual work, environment problems have not been solved to this day. Moreover, the state of the environment has been worsening continuously due to huge amounts of waste being dumped or disposed of in the open air, in rivers and into the soil. Somewhat paradoxically still, grave problems such environment pollution, were barely dealt with until the post-World War II period.

The emergence of modern industry gave strong impetus to international trade. The first industrial revolution, which spanned the 19th century, engendered the first international division of labor: on one side, the industrialized North (the conventional name for western developed countries located in the northern hemisphere), turning out processed goods. On the other side, the non-industrialized South (the conventional name for developing countries in the southern hemisphere) provided raw materials and energy products for the former. This inter-sectorial-type of specialization kept environment pollution confined, for a long time, to western countries only. Thus, during the incipient stage of industrialization, the southern hemisphere was spared from environment harming. However, this state of affairs fundamentally changed in the 20th century, especially after World War 2, when a lot of developing countries from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe embarked upon their own industrialization programs. Yet industrialization in the developing world greatly differed from the similar process that had unfolded in the west during the 19th century in that the former failed to create new industries but simply transferred the existing old ones from the North to the South. The process was hastened by the tightening up of environment regulation in western countries. The imposition by governments of rules and constraints in respect to environment protection meant higher costs for western producers and implicitly a heavy blow to their international competitiveness. The solution lay “next door”: in most of the hosting countries such regulation did not even exist.


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The outcome was a different type of international division of labor, based on intra-sectorial (aka industry-industry) specialization: on one side, western countries, having relinquished old industries, mostly dating from the first wave of industrialization e.g. iron and steel, textiles, railroad transportation etc., kicked off a new industrial revolution, mostly in communications and information technology. On the other side, developing countries started developing the very industries the West wished to get rid of, which are highly pollutant and energy-consuming. The latter are therefore often called “dirty” industries. As a consequence, environment pollution began to diminish in developed countries and expand into the developing world.

The expansion of world trade following the industrial revolutions further worsened the consequences upon the environment. Yet trade itself is not to blame for environment degradation. After all, trade is essential to economic development. In the absence of trade, industrialization makes little economic sense. No industry could survive in the long run if designed for the domestic market only. On the contrary, national economies tend to specialize internationally in order to gain comparative advantage, thereby turning their natural and human resources to better account. Foreign markets offer appealing prospects for goods producers, in terms of diversification, economies of scale and scope, prestige enhancing etc. Yet the tough international competitiveness race, fueled by growth in and liberalization of international trade, profitable though it is for nations’ well-being, turned out to be ever harmful for the environment. It is for this reason that the link between trade and environment is still a hotly-debated issue on both national and international level.

The switch to a different international division of labor, which shifted environment pollution southward, had dire consequences for the newly industrialized countries, not only in respect to the state of the environment but also to the respective countries’ international competitiveness. Pollution to start with, is more severe in developing than in developed countries. Furthermore, the former are faced with a dearth of technologies to combat pollution, due to their limited financial possibilities. Yet ironically, even if they did possess such means, combating pollution would still be problematic due to their high dependence on exports of raw materials and basic products. Exploration of oil in Nigeria for example, has caused substantial land, water and air pollution; yet since oil exploration and


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production are vital for the country’s development and fight against poverty, they will most likely continue regardless of the progress in environment protection. Briefly, exploitation and processing of most natural resources is indeed an economic lifeline for developing economies, yet dangerously damaging for the environment.

Globalization has further aggravated environmental problems because many such problems have become global. Pollution spillovers are quite common in today’s world. The reverse of the coin is that the more a serious issue such as environment pollution becomes a global one, the higher the awareness of the danger and the likelihood that someone will eventually be stirred into action. Despite resources and ecosystems being under nobody’s jurisdiction or sovereignty, they are still commonly shared by all nations of the world. It is for these reasons that international cooperation is the only way in which environment degradation might be fought against effectively. Reality has shown that the problem can be, if not solved at least mitigated, through appropriate taxes or regulations which everybody should observe.

Its harmful effects notwithstanding, environment pollution continued unabated along the entire 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The lack of action on the purpose of saving the environment also characterized the two decades after World War 2. A consciousness-raising effort in this line was made by the European Union (EU). Since the early 1970s, the Community has been dealing with environmental and social issues, especially the ones deriving from international trade, in a more decisive and responsible manner. The starting point was the 1972 Summit of heads of state and government of the then European Economic Community (EEC), followed, the next year, by a special meeting on environmental issues, on which occasion the first Environmental Action Program (EAP) was adopted. The document enshrines EEC’ commitments toward objectives such as: prevention, reduction and containment of environment damage; conservation of ecological equilibrium; the rational use of natural resources, others. After 1980 the environmental standards issue enjoyed increasing importance, including the relation between the internal market and environmental policies. EAPs strongly rely on the necessity that environmental protection targets should smoothly fit into the internal market. As a consequence: firstly, environment protection standards have topped the agenda of technical barriers removal talks. Secondly, there is


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consensus that the paramount goal of embedding the environment protection strategy into the internal market mechanism can only be achieved by overhauling the entire production process, with special focus on the impact of strategic economic sectors on the environment. Thirdly, the strategy requires legislation improvement, starting with regulation of basic environmental issues. For example, the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) aims to promote the better environmental performance of products throughout the Internal Market. The goal is to identify products and services that have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from the extraction of raw material through to production, use and disposal.

Seven EAPs have been adopted so far, the last one strengthening the necessity to secure further sound economic growth until 2020. EAPs’ provisions are to be put into practice jointly by EU institutions and the member states. As a whole, the program is focused on such issues as climate change, biodiversity, environment and health, and sustainable management of resources and wastes. It also contains a number of regulations on various domains such as: chemicals (the Registration, Evaluation, Restriction and Authorization of Chemicals regulation, aka REACH); electrical and electronic equipment (the WEEE respectively RoHS directives.)

Methods

Outlining the conceptual framework: defining the main ideas, notions, key-terms, correlations, unknowns and expected results.

Using recent studies related to the theme for analysis putting into consideration primary and secondary sources of data.

Using retrospective analysis with the aim of identifying and explaining causality relations between economic development and the emergence and aggravation of EU’s environmental policy.

Using the comparative and descriptive analysis to ascertain the actual status and effectiveness of European Union’s policy in the field of environment protection.

Results Despite its unquestionable merits, European Union’s new

environmental policy still has a downside in that it seems to gravely affect commercial relations with its trading partners, both developing and developed countries. Producers from outside the EU who fail to comply with the new regulations and standards will be subject to fines and penalties


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that can go as far as the loss of the right to sell on the single European market etc. It is then no surprise that the new policy has drawn fierce international reaction. Many countries throughout the world adopted retaliatory measures in the form of similar regulations.

Developed countries have stressed the difficulties they are encountering in complying, including the need to substitute traditional chemicals with accepted alternatives. EU’s environmental policy has stirred counter-reactions in the Americas because the rules oblige producers, especially in the electronic industries, to seek substitutes for the restricted substances. No less concerned are manufacturers in South Asian exporting countries, who see their commercial ties with the EU seriously menaced. Regrettably, the fierce disputes around the rules affected mutual trade. Yet on the other hand, EU’s trading partners are aware that they must follow suit and enact similar environmental laws in order to protect their environment and own citizens’ health.

If developed countries will eventually most likely find a way to surmount the “crisis”, for developing countries the situation is by far more grinding given their heavy dependence on foreign markets, the EU market in particular. In order to comply with EU’s environmental rules, the latter will be compelled to overhaul their export industries entirely, which obviously means higher costs for them. Higher costs may affect their competitiveness on the EU single market. On the other hand, developing nations are fully aware that EU’s rules are entirely justified by the urgency to stop environment degradation, not only in EU member countries but everywhere in the world. Therefore developing countries must make efforts to cope in spite of high costs.

The imposition by the EU of high environmental standards to imports from outside the community (member-countries must meet them as well) has aroused two much debated issues. The first is whether failure to comply with the standards is a matter of reluctance or true inability. Secondly, admitting reluctance, to what extent could failure to comply be looked upon as unfair competition? If a government is more lenient vis-à-vis environment protection rules infringement, this could be viewed as dumping and be countervailed through trade protection. The result will invariably be the restraining of trade.


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Conclusion: The newly-adopted EU’s environmental policy has met unusual

strong resistance. In fact, it was expectable. The world seems to be hardly prepared for an outright battle for containment of environment deterioration. In spite of certain developing countries having made some headway, the capacity of firms to comply with technical regulations is at the present time, limited. Environment protection involves administrative efforts, no-negligible expenditures and not least, determined political will. Governments must get involved by providing industries with information, guidance, and infrastructure in the field.

EU’s new legislation in the field is in fact, a starting block. It will surely trigger emulation among countries and regions in the long run. Yet in the short run, EU’s rules are a challenge for its trade partners that must comply with them or otherwise risking to be excluded from the single market. Such an outcome would be disastrous for many developing countries, whose dependence on the single market is vital. Hopefully, the compliance problem could be solved with aid from the EU itself, namely exporters should benefit by EU assistance.

References 1. Berry, D-C and Berry S. (2005) Strategic Environmental Assessment, A

Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience, Earth Scan, London.

2. Hey, C. (2005) EU Environmental Policies: A short history of the policy strategies, EU Environmental Policy Handbook.

3. Lenschow, A. (2006) Environmental Policy in the European Union: Bridging Policy, Politics and Polity Dimensions, in Jorgensen, Knud E., Pollack Mark A. & Rosamund Ben (eds.) Handbook of European Union Politics (SAGE Publications Ltd.).

4. Low, Patrick. (1995) International Trade and the Environment, in P. King (ed.) International Economics and International Economic Policy, McGraw-Hill, Inc.

5. Oluwasola, O. (2014) Environmental pollution is inevitable in developing countries. Breaking energy, http://breakingenergy.com/2014/09/23/environmental-pollution-is-inevitable-in-developing-countries/)

6. Yearly, S. (1995) Dirty connections: transnational pollution, in Allen, J. and Hamnett, C. (eds.) A Shrinking World? Global Unevenness and Inequality (Oxford University Press).

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THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SIMULATION CHAMBERS TO THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANTS EVOLUTION

Romeo-Iulian OLARIU


Cecilia ARSENE


Iustinian-Gabriel BEJAN Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania

The ability to predict the future behaviour of the atmosphere over all time scales (hours to decades) brings great benefits to society and the economy. Examples include short-term public warnings of hazardous air quality and the long-term evaluation of climate change and policy effectiveness. Atmospheric predictions use complex models that are underpinned by observations and a sound understanding of the underlying processes and interactions between atmospheric components and their environment. Atmospheric simulation chambers are the most advanced technology for studying and quantifying atmospheric processes and are used to provide many of the parameters incorporated in air quality and climate models. Without chamber-derived parameters to constrain predictive models, any forecasts of the atmosphere are highly unreliable, both in the short- and long-term.

In December 2015, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change produced the Paris Agreement which focuses on a collective commitment to limit the increase in average global temperatures to less than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Implementation of the agreement will require the transformation of climate action plans into results [1]. In parallel, the emission of atmospheric pollutants also causes severe and unacceptable health effects [2]. An additional level of complexity is linked to the issue of human induced climate change – chemistry interactions [3]. Emissions of pollutants alter the


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composition of the atmosphere thereby contributing to climate change, while, at the same time, climate change influences atmospheric composition through a series of feedback processes including variations in temperature, dynamics, hydrological cycle, atmospheric stability, emission intensity of biogenic compounds and transformation processes in the troposphere. However, the number of drivers of change is very large and the various systems are strongly coupled, making it extremely difficult to quantify climate-induced feedback mechanisms on atmospheric composition.

Since, in the ambient air, it is difficult to separate the chemistry from meteorology and other processes, closed technologies have been developed since the late 1960s [4]. While not totally artefact-free, these technologies referred to as environmental simulation chambers (or “smog chambers”) provide a controlled environment to study the formation and the evolution of atmospheric pollutants, by isolating specific compounds of interest and controlling the oxidizing environment.

There are two types of such technology i) smog chambers developed to understanding of atmospheric oxidation mechanisms in the gas phase and ii) chambers developed for evaluating chemistry modules and for predicting the formation of secondary pollutants in the absence of uncertainties associated with emissions, meteorology, and mixing effects [5÷7].

The main characteristics which define the various chambers can be summarized as the diverse answers to the following questions: (1) what is its size? (2) how is it irradiated? (3) what is the reactor made of? (4) to which extent can the temperature be modified? (5) to which extent can the pressure be modified?

Size is probably among the most critical parameters. Indeed, for comparable shapes, the bigger the reactor, the smaller the surface-to-volume ratio (S/V), and thus the less important unwanted surface reactions will be. Nevertheless, the surface reactions are also significantly occurring in the lower part of the atmosphere and that wall reactions must also be taken into account when extrapolating chamber results to atmospheric conditions [8].

For technical and economical reasons, size is often strongly correlated with the material used. With one exception [9], most of the chambers bigger than few tenth cubic-meters are made of Teflon® film [10÷13]. In this case, most of these chambers are installed outdoors [14÷18] and benefit from


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solar light. However, these chambers are necessarily operated at atmospheric pressure.

On the contrary, smaller smog chambers are often located in indoor environments. They can be made of Teflon® film [12, 19-20], Pyrex® [21-22], quartz [23], aluminium [24] or stainless steel [25]. These indoor chambers are generally equipped with irradiation systems which comprise combination of black fluorescent lamps [4, 22], “sun” lamps [22, 25] or/and xenon arc lamps [12]. Depending on the transparency properties of the building material of the chamber, the irradiation can be more or less homogeneous and the transmitted spectrum inside the chamber more or less comparable with the solar spectrum.

Since 2014 at the ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania, has been developed through the CERNESIM project funded by POSCCE-O 2.2.1 (CERNESIM, SMIS-CSNR 13984-901, No. 257/28.09.2010), an environmental simulation chamber (ESC-Q-UAIC). Upon our knowledge this facility is unique in Romania and in Eastern Europe.

The indoor ESC-Q-UAIC chamber is a closed cylindrical vessel of internal dimensions of 0.48 m diameter and 4.2 m length. The reactor volume is about 760 L and the ratio of interior surface to volume is about 8.8 m-1. This rigid reactor is made of three quartz tubes connected by flanges and is vacuum compatible. It can be operated over a range of pressure from 10-3 to 1200 mbar. The chamber body is mounted on a steel framework with the help of six adjustable anti-vibrating stands in order to limit the vibration effects coming from the ground level and the pumping system. The chamber is connected to the ground to prevent any electrical charge build-up. It is closed at both ends by stainless steel flanges with appropriate insertions for reactants and bath gases inlet systems, pressure and temperature measurement units. Sampling lines made either of PTFE or stainless steel are appropriately disposed for on-line/off-line measurements of various chemical parameters (gaseous or aerosol phase products).

The main research work of our group is devoted to laboratory and atmospheric simulation chamber investigation (kinetics, reactivity and mechanistic investigation of photochemical, application of state of arts instrumental methods of analysis). Based on the present facility of ESC-Q-UAIC chamber recently, in our research group, two types of studies have been started. One study is focused on the OH kinetics with some aromatic compounds (by relative kinetic technique) and the second one is focused on


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determination of the gas-phase absorption cross sections of selected aromatic hydrocarbons in the IR spectral ranges.

The relevance for the first studies came from the fact that in the atmosphere, the major sink of aromatic hydrocarbons is reaction with OH radicals during daytime [26]. These compounds are very well recognised from their carcinogenic and mutagenic effects on living organisms and human health and also due to their important role to air pollution as precursors for the formation of photo-oxidants and secondary organic aerosols [26]. Moreover the IR absorption cross sections are primarily useful in laboratory studies on atmospheric chemistry, where FT-IR spectrometry is an important tool [27].

Acknowledgment: CERNESIM Center is gratefully acknowledged for the infrastructure used in this work. Part of the work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the EUROCHAMP-2020 Infrastructure Activity under grant agreement No 730997 and from Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) through the PN-II-TE-2014-4-2461 project.

References 1. UNFCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1 Conference of the Parties Twenty-first

session Paris, 30 November to 11 December 2015. 2. WHO, 2013- World Health Statistics 2013. 3. IPCC: Climate Change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,

edited by: Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Marquis, M., Averyt, K., Tignor, M. M. B., Miller Jr., H. L., and Chen, Z., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2007.

4. Becker, K. H., NATO Sci. Series IV Earth Environ. Sciences, edited by: Barnes, I. And Rudzinski, K. J., Springer-Verlag, New York, 62, 1–26, 2006.

5. Carter, W. P. L. and Lurmann, F. W., Atmos. Environ., 25, 2771–2806, 1991. 6. Dodge, M. C, Atmos. Environ., 34, 2103–2130, 2000. 7. Hynes, R. G., Angove, D. E., Saunders, S. M., Haverd, V., and Azzi, M.,

Atmos. Environ., 39, 7251–7262, 2005. 8. Finlayson-Pitts, B. J. and Pitts Jr., J. N., Academic Press, New-York, 2000.


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9. Bunz, H., M¨ohler, O., Naumann, K. H., Saathoff, H., Schock, W., and Schurath, U., The EU Air Pollution Symposium’96, Venice, Italy, 1996.

10. Cocker III, D. R., Flagan, R. C., and Seinfeld, J. H., Environ. Sci. Technol., 35, 2594–2601, 2001a.

11. Jaoui, M., Sexton, K. G., and Kamens, R. M., Atmos. Environ., 38, 2709–2725, 2004.

12. Carter, W. P. L., Cocker III, D. R., Fitz, D. R., Malkina, I. L., Bumiller, K., Sauer, C. G., Pisano, J. T., Bufalino, C., and Song, C., Atmos. Environ., 39, 7768–7788, 2005.

13. King, S. M., Rosenoern, T., Shilling, J. E., Chen, Q., Wang, Z., Biskos, G., McKinney, K. A., P¨oschl, U., and Martin, S. T., Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 3953–3964, doi:10.5194/acp-10-3953-2010, 2010.

14. Leone, J. A., Flagan, R. C., Grosjean, D., and Seinfeld, J. H., Int. J. Chem. Kinet., 17, 177–216, 1985.

15. Liu, X., Jeffries, H. E., and Sexton, K. G.: Atmospheric photochemical degradation of 1,4-unsaturated dicarbonyls, Environ. Sci. Technol., 33, 4212–4220, 1999.

16. Brauers, T., Bohn, B., Johnen, F.-J., Rohrer, R., Rodriguez Bares, S., Tillmann, R., and Wahner, A., EGS – AGU – EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, France, 2003.

17. Karl, M., Brauers, T., Dorn, H.-P., Holland, F., Komenda, M., Poppe, D., Rohrer, F., Rupp, L., Schaub, A., andWahner, A., Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L05117, doi:10.1029/2003GL019189, 2004.

18. Martin-Reviejo, M. and Wirtz, K., Environ. Sci. Technol., 39, 1045–1054, 2005.

19. Mentel, T., Bleilebens, D., and Wahner, A., Atmos.Environ., 30, 4007–4020, 1996.

20. Paulsen, D., Dommen, J., Kalberer, M., Prevot, A., Richter, R., Sax, M., Steinbacher, M., Weingartner, E., and Baltensperger, U., Environ. Sci. Technol., 39, 2668–2678, 2005.

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24. Akimoto, H., Hoshimo, M., Inoue, G., Sakamaki, F., Washida, N., and Okuda, M., Environ. Sci. Technol., 13, 471–475, 1979a.

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26. Calvert, J., Atkinson, R., Becker, K. H., Kamens, R., Seinfeld, J., Wallington, T., Yarwood, G., Oxford University Press, New York, 2002.

27. Etzkorn, T., Klotz, B., Sørensen, S., Patroescu, I., Barnes, I., Becker, K.H., Platt, U., Atmos. Environ., 33, 525-540, 1999.

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SECTION 2

EU ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AND POLICY – AN INTERDISCIPLINARY

APPROACH

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CHEMISTRY, THE DRIVING FORCE OF OUR EVERY DAY’S LIFE…FROM FUN AND DANGER TO SCIENTIFIC

CHALLENGES

Cecilia ARSENE Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania


Romeo Iulian OLARIU Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania


Amazing chemistry governs our every day’s life and naturally- and synthetically-derived ingredients often are used to produce sustainable and functional finite products. Chemistry is in the air we breathe, the water we drink,…., the cosmetics improving our beauty, the drugs used to become healthier, ….., chemistry and chemicals are any- and everywhere.

Chemistry is fun when you find out things (i.e., the talc your mother used it sometime for you as the softest known substance, the chalk you are writing with which is made of almost infinite sub-microscopic skeleton fossils of plankton, the coldness of the dry ice which is the solid form of carbon dioxide, etc.). Fun is also when you learn out that the air might become liquid at about -190 oC, that mercury is almost the single metal which is liquid at room temperature while gallium is a metal which melts on a palm of the hand (melting point 29.76 oC), that female gender is more susceptible to be bitten by mosquitoes since they like the scent of ofestrogen, that the human body contains enough carbon to produce graphite for about 9,000 pencils, that peanuts ingredients are dynamite related, and so on.

However, about chemistries’ potential danger you will mainly understand when you will realise how painful and hearty chemistry might be if you do not try to keep a steady equilibrium between you and whatever you are coming in contact with.

Knowledge it will help you understand: i) that you might get sick or even die from drinking too much water, in both from pure to “highly

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loaded” water situations (especially if you are not interested to know about it), ii) that the more practical single-use plastic bottles used for water are worse than glass bottles, since the first one are really bad for leaching chemicals especially under the heat of the sun, iii) that you can easily decide what for a soft/soda drink to have especially when you are really thirsty (the one containing natural ingredients or the one with phosphoric or citric acids, with the last one known also as “E 330”?), and so on.

Other modern habits will bring you even closer to the danger of the chemistry but knowledge it will help you be aware how susceptible of being exposed you are especially when your personal thought are that a modern Teflon made non-stick cookware it will be much better than a usual one. The modern one, when heated up, it will release most probably some toxics that usually have been linked to harmful health effects. Moreover, knowledge or awareness about chemical aspects in our every day’s life will help you being more “equilibrated” when dealing with some of your personnel needs. Understanding that air fresheners might sometime be incredible toxic (with associated aggravate respiratory problems), or of the fact that common antibacterial additives (from cosmetics/cleaning products) and common flame retardants (used in synthetic items like mattresses, couches, easy chairs, carpet padding, etc.) might sometime accumulate in the body, represent for sure suitable routes someone to decide looking for products undertaking the “quality assurance and quality control” (QA/QC) process.

In the above presented contexts, nowadays chemists’ duties are very challenging since they need to have knowledge on the most advanced state of the art analytical instruments, they must be able to propose adequate analysis methods for new types of samples, and, moreover, they must take care correctly to implement in the laboratory the QA/QC concepts. Since high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) are powerful techniques separating complex mixtures into individual compounds with final implications for purification, identification and quantification, within the present work a depth-inside analysis research will be provided in order to convince about the need to implement the quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC concept) in the identification and quantification of active ingredients in various products (e.g., drugs, multi-component herbal medicines, traces in forensic samples, air, water, etc.) by using chromatographic techniques.


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The integration of green chemistry principles in the development of any new process or ingredient is a pivotal element of sustainable development. Within this concept, the chemist will play a pivotal role since a finite product must trace characteristics related to efficiency from the technical, economic and ecological perspective and, moreover, he/she will be the scientist in charge with proposing an adequate strategy combining the use of renewable raw materials or resource-efficient synthesis methods and in developing substances with minimal environmental impact. Presently, however, many chemists’ interests are increasingly turning to the effects of environment pollution since the thematic strategy launched by European Commission is mainly aimed to substantially reduce the effects especially of air pollution to human health and the environment in Europe by 2020. In this regard it is expected that, screening for safety the chemicals of concern commonly found in consumer products available on the market is a very challenging task and identification of closely related or similar “substitutions” might help preventing disastrous effects on human health. It is however expected that the research which will be undertaken in the near future will help to solve some of the world's most urgent scientific challenges in the fields of medicine/chemical biochemistry and atmospheric chemistry.

Even nowadays nobody can deny that amazing chemistry is driven by natural forces but understanding the chemistry behind these remains a big scientific challenge. It is however believed that analytical chemistry in this context is playing a vital role especially in understanding the implications of a reported value in close symbiosis with a settled reference standard value. Within this approach, the role of an analytically oriented chemist, or even better of the versatile chemist, the person who might need to possess aptitudes in order to solve most of the above presented aspects, will be clearly underlined. Such a chemist will have to act as “the most suitable interface” in the real life, the life which brings you in the situation to confront a set of growing challenges in an ever-changing world.

For the analytically oriented chemist/the versatile chemist, his/her “soft” actions will mainly deal with: 1) establishing an appropriate working strategy and convincing the beneficiary of his/her services about the fact that over 80% of the analysis time is usually spent on sampling and sample preparation steps as the key components of the analytical process, 2) that sometime he/she has to discriminate between the need to use automation

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and/or age-old, time-consuming, manual, labor-intensive sample preparation methods that are subjected to errors, 3) that he/she has the right to claim that automation is good for routine measurements but that manual techniques are good for scientific purposes, and so on.

However, for the analytically oriented chemist/the versatile chemist, his/her “hard” actions will be always driven by invisible forces related to the fact that scientific research is a major component of civilizations development and its progress has resulted in part from the intellectual framework provided by institutions build at international and/or national levels.

Nowadays, there is an increasing focus, especially in community-wide named programs, on topics of relevance to society. Fundamental research represents a high priority and understanding the physical, chemical, and biological system in which we live is still very challenging. Actually fundamental research is a prerequisite for technological progress and for economic and social development. Environmental analytical chemistry science is well represented within the scientific research and it offers training in a very broad field of science that involves studying all aspects of the world around us, our impact on it and how to manage human activities to maintain a sustainable balance with nature.

Taking advantage of recent discoveries in science and technology and considering the connection between environmental compartments, well being and human health, trying to maintain a commitment to pioneering research which might help satisfying the evolving needs of our present and future society might be of great help for further progress.

Undertaking efforts in order to bring at least some “small” contributions within the needs to bolster our nascent understanding of the complex interrelationships that comprise the global ecosystem, represent big challenges but with clearly states previsions of the future.

Producing detailed and reliable information through the performed research, the chemists will help to make the best decisions which will improve economies, protect public health and reduce significantly the likelihood of injuries and harm induced by many potential causes. Threats to the human health will also represent aspects of great concern of interest either by adequate monitoring of medical waste disposal or by investigating from the biochemical point of view various infectious diseases.


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Promoting the development and implementation of the environmental sciences outcomes, and of the green and sustainable chemistry and related technologies into new products and processes, still will remain one of the most important nowadays task.

Notes: 1) The above presented aspects represent authors’ notes/annotations

such as those that could be derived after 25 years of experience in the field of chemistry.

2) However, the reader is invited from whatever is reading to take the funny part, but for the real knowledge always to check documentation sources credibility.

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CONSIDERATIONS ON THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS

Diana Elena CREANGĂ

University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Iasi, Romania Email: [email protected]

Summary This paper is a theoretical study aiming to achieve the following objectives: i) defining the theories of rural development and identifying their applicability in the current context; ii) evaluation of the development of the Romanian rural area through specific criteria and indicators; iii) identifying development gaps between our country and the EU average. The realization of this paper was based on the use of the following research methods: economic analysis, analysis of statistical indicators, SWOT analysis. Economic analysis is the method with the highest share in this paper. The study aims to decompose Romanian rural economic phenomena and analyze their evolution over a period of five years, respectively 2011 - 2015. The rural area of Romania is a deprived, territorially dispersed environment where the population is self-employed, to ensure a peaceful life. There are three types of rural areas, according to the way of integration in the national economy: integrated zones, intermediate zones and peripheral rural areas. Rural peripheral areas are the most dispersed areas of the country and are characterized by low incomes, limited access to basic services, poorly developed infrastructure. During the analyzed period, Romania registered a positive economic growth - the growth rate of gross domestic product, exceeding the growth rate of the population. For our country, the value of the Gini coefficient is 27.4, Romania falling into the very low index group. The higher the proportion of the population employed in agriculture is the poorer the nation. Romania ranks in the index group high values ranging from 12.8 to 31%. The general satisfaction of life in our country is worth, around the European Union average. As regards the employment rate in the age range of 15-64 years, Romania is below the EU average of 5%. Despite this, in rural areas, the real unemployment is much higher and hidden by the subsistence family farms, with 1 - 2 hectares of land and few animals. In terms of life expectancy, Romania falls into the index group: high, with the indicator falling within the range 73.3 - 77.0 during the analyzed period. We consider that people are the most important resource of a nation. So all

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strategies and programs for rural development should have as main objective the improving of people`s life from all perspectives. Is imperative not to confuse the focus of attention on man and his development with social assistance. Man has to reach that level of development where he can determine general development through his abilities. As we have concurred, development should mean combating poverty, which does not seem to be an objective with a close term to fulfillment. Regarding the current state of economic development of the Romanian rural area, the following assessments can be made: i) the economy is in a process of continuous growth, with multiple discrepancies with the developed countries' economy; ii) it is imperative to eliminate extreme poverty and to grow the access of rural people to information and basic services.

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PERMACULTURE CONCEPT IN 3 DIMENSIONAL AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPING

Roxana PASCU

University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Iasi, Romania Email: [email protected]

Summary Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments that expands its applicabilaty also in agricultural landscaping. The general aim of this study is to emphesise the benefits of permaculture concept in the actual globalization context and presenting of a permaculture example in Iasi, on the rooftop of a building located in the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine campus. The objectives we have proposed are: i) building a model of permaculture in Iasi; ii) involvement of the three axes of the 3D agricultural landscaping; iii) involving sustainable agriculture practices and land management techniques and strategies from around the world, forming a bridge between traditional cultures and emergent earth-tuned cultures. The material and methods utilized are based on: i) studying and systematizing the literature on this subject; ii) directly related to ensuring the ecological balance of the environment, the biological material used was made up of endemic spontaneous flora grown in a substrate formed by the decomposition of vegetal remains from the nearby forest and located on the roof and at ground level. The analyzes performed in the experiment revealed the degree of stress of the species to the required culture conditions. Thus, the content of assimilating pigments as well as the activity of peroxidase and catalase were determined. Permaculture is about designing ecological human habitats and food production systems. This paper discusses on permaculture concepts and applications, and offers listings of resource organizations and references on permaculture. In a social and economical context and environment quality, the permaculture is not limited to plant cultivation and animal breeding, but also includes community planning and development, use of appropriate technologies (coupled with an adjustment of life-style), and adoption of concepts and philosophies that are both earth-based and people-centered, such as bioregionalism. Regarding the ethics of permaculture, this is unique among alternative farming systems (e.g., organic, sustainable, eco-agriculture, biodynamic) in that it works with a set of ethics that suggest we think and act responsibly in relation to each other and the earth. The ethics of permaculture provide a sense of place in the larger scheme of things, and serve as a guidepost to right livelihood in concert with the global community and the environment, rather than individualism and indifference.

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Permaculture is about: i) care of the Earth - includes all living and non-living things—plants, animals, land, water and air; ii) care of people - promotes self-reliance and community responsibility—access to resources necessary for existence; iii) setting limits to population & consumption - gives away surplus—contribution of surplus time, labor, money, information, and energy to achieve the aims of earth and people care. Whereas permaculture ethics are more akin to broad moral values or codes of behavior, the principles of permaculture provide a set of universally applicable guidelines which can be used in designing sustainable habitats. Distilled from multiple disciplines—ecology, energy conservation, landscape design, and environmental science—the following principles are inherent in any permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale: 1. relative location; 2. each element performs multiple functions; 3. each function is supported by many elements; 4. energy efficient planning; 5. using biological resources; 6. energy cycling; 7. small-scale intensive systems; 8. natural plant succession and stacking; 9. polyculture and diversity of species; 10. increasing "edge" within a system; 11. observe and replicate natural patterns; 12. pay attention to scale; 13. attitude.

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THERMO-RECOVERABLE POLYURETHANES NETWORKS Oana URSACHE

“Petru Poni” Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Iasi, Romania Email: [email protected]

Constantin GAINA


Viorica GAINA


Summary Crosslinked polyurethanes structures were obtained from urethane bismaleimides (BMIs) in reaction with a trifuran compound. The Diels-Alder (DA) cycloaddition reaction between furan and maleimide groups was investigated using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy. The structure of the networks was confirmed by the infrared spectroscopy. Thermal properties were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetrical analyses (TGA). Mechanical and rheological properties were also investigated. The contact angles and crosslinking densities were evaluated. The influence of the nature of the polyol from the BMIs structure and/or the influence of using a trifurylic compound with or without tertiary nitrogen on the properties of the crosslinked networks were also discussed.

Literature review Nowadays, polyurethane products are an important part of everyday

life. The variety of polyurethane products reaches from flexible and rigid foams over thermoplastic elastomers to adhesives, paints and varnishes. This variety of usage would result in a huge amount of consumption, causing some environmental problems. The global market for polyurethanes was estimated at 13,650.00 kt in 2010 and was expected to reach 17,946.20 kt by 2016, growing at an annual growth rate of 4.7% from 2011 to 2016 [1]. Solid waste disposal has been a problem in today's world, and overall trends indicate that the overall amount of solid wastes that we generate continues to increase. Because polyurethanes are used in so many diverse applications and industrial uses,

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they enter the municipal solid wastes stream, usually by ways of discarded consumers and industrial products. In western Europe, in 2004, from an estimated total polyurethane waste of 1500 kt only 350 kt has been recovered, 57.3% of it by solid waste combustors while the chemical recovery represents less than 1% [2]. Public awareness of environmental issues has increased enormously, especially of the facts that the world has limited natural resources and a limited capacity to manage the volume of wastes which human activities generate. Recycling of polymeric products has been investigated to enhance the environmental protection and avoid landfilling. Among different polymers, recycling of polyurethane has always posed some challenges. Polyurethane disposal is generally via landfill, incineration or recycling.

In this context, it is obvious the necessity to synthesize new crosslinked polyurethanes with self-healing and/or thermal recycling ability. Although the literature presents several reports on self-healing materials [3-4], the self-healing polyurethane networks are less studied [5]. So, our group focused on the synthesis of new polyurethane networks containing furyl-maleimide cycloadducts in the main chain or as bridges between polyurethane chains, and the study of self-healing capacity, self-healing efficiency and thermal recovery of the initial products. As starting materials we used maleimide monomers and diols and polyols, which were further functionalized with furyl derivatives [6-10].

Methods The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were recorded on a

Bruker Vertex 70 Instruments equipped with a Golden Gate single reflection ATR accessory.

The proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra were recorded on a Bruker NMR spectrometer, Avance DRX 400 MHz, using DMSO-d6 as solvent and tetramethylsilane as an internal standard.

DSC measurements were conducted on a DSC 200 F3 Maia. A mass of 10 mg of each sample was heated in pressed and pierced aluminium crucibles at a heating rate of 10°C/min. Nitrogen was used as inert atmosphere at a flow rate of 50 mL/min. The heat flow versus temperature was recorded.

The rheological measurements were performed using a controlled stress Bohlin CVO Rheometer with parallel plate geometry (60 mm diameter and 500 μm gap) and thermal control by Peltier effect.


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TGA experiments were conducted on a STA 449 F1 Jupiter apparatus. 10 mg of sample was heated in an open alumina crucible in nitrogen atmosphere with a flow rate of 50 mL/min. A heating rate of 10°C/min was applied.

Static contact angles were measured at room temperature by the sessile-drop method with a CAM-101 contact angle measurement system equipped with a liquid dispenser, video camera, and drop-shape analysis software.

Stress-strain measurements were performed on a test apparatus, Shimadzu AGS-J, cell load 1kN. Measurements were run at an extension rate of 10 mm/min, at room temperature 23°C. All samples were measured three times and the averages were obtained. The samples were 3 mm width, and 0.05-0.15 mm thickness; the gauge length was 20 mm.

The swelling degree (Ds) was measured by soaking a film (width 5 mm, length 5 mm, thickness 0.1–0.15 mm) in water, NMP/water (vol./vol. 1/1), Dioxane/water (vol./vol. 1/1), NMP, or Dioxane at room temperature for 70 h using the following equation: Ds(wt.%)=100(w1−w0)/w0, where w0 is the initial weight of the film and w1 is the weight of the swollen film after soaking.

Synthesis of polyurethane networks NPU-1,2(a-e) All adducts were synthesized from stoichiometric amount of the furan

functional groups (TF-1,2) and bismaleimide BMI-(a-e). The mixture was stirred at 110°C for 1 hour in a necked flask in DMF under nitrogen atmosphere. Then, the temperature was decreased at 80°C and maintained for 6 hours. Finally the polymer solution was cast on glass plates at 80°C and maintained for 10 hours. The thickness of films was about 0.7-1.2 mm.

Results Crosslinked thermoreversible polyurethane networks NPU-1,2(a-e)

were synthesised by the DA reaction of the trifuran compounds TF-(1,2) and urethane bismaleimides BMI-(a-e), as shown in Figure 1 and Table 1.

To show that the DA reaction takes place when obtaining the polyurethane networks, a 9x10-3mol/L solution in DMSO-d6 of BMI-d and TF-2 was prepared and the 1H-NMR was recorded. Then the mixture was heated at 80°C for 5 h and the spectra were recorded after each hour of reaction. The appearance of characteristic peaks of the cycloadduct could be observed in the recorded spectra. The reaction was not completed for the


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NMR experiment due to the insolubility of the final product, so the spectra present a mixture of crosslinked polyurethane and initial monomers.

Figure 1. Synthesis of NPU-1,2(a-e) networks

Table 1. Composition of polyurethane networks

TF R2 BMI NPU

1

a 1a b 1b c 1c d 1d e 1e

2

a 2a b 2b c 2c d 2d e 2e

BMI R1

a

PEA-2000

b

PBA-2000

c PCD-2000

d PTHF-2000

e m≈39, l+n≈6 Jeffamine 1900


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The structure of the network films was studied with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. In Figure 2 there are represented the spectra of NPU-1(a-e). The disappearance of the absorption band specific to the furan ring breathing (at about 1013 cm-1) and the appearance of the absorption peak characteristic to DA cycloadduct as a shoulder at 1776 cm-1 confirm the occurrence of the reaction. Other peaks specific to the structures NPU-1(a-e) can be also observed at 1517 cm-1 (disubstituted phenyl ring), around 1100 cm-1 (C-O-C of polyol urethane bismaleimide), 3330 cm-1 and 1544 cm-1 (NH of urethane groups). The CO absorption band for networks based on polyester diols appeared shifted to 1723-1733 cm-1 in comparison with that of cycloadducts based on polyether diols which appeared around 1709-1715 cm-1.

Figure 2. ATR-FTIR spectra of networks NPU-1(a-e)

DSC analysis was utilised for getting information about the glass

transitions, crystallization, melting endotherms and also the thermoreversible character of the crosslinked networks (Figure 3). The DSC curves of networks exhibited a glass transition temperature corresponding to the soft segments, an endothermic peak temperature attributed to the melting of soft segments and an endothermic transition temperature due to the rDA process and

Regarding the crystallization and melting process from Figure 3, one can see that only the DSC curves of networks which contain PBA, PCD and PTHF presented the crystallization exothermic and the melting endothermic peak.

DSC method also reveals useful insights on the thermally reversible character of compounds [9-11]. Figure 4 indicates, as an exemplification, the two temperature cycles of structures NPU-1e and NPU-2e.


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Figure 3. DSC scans for NPU-2(a-e)

The thermally remendable character of the studied samples is demonstrated by the reproducibility of the endothermic peak characteristic to the rDA reaction on the heating curves. This is due to structural disconnection into maleimide and furan moieties. The material thermally heals itself upon cooling via reconnection of diene and dienophile moieties by the DA reaction [11]. These aspects highlight the advantages and accessibility of the DA reaction as preferred over bondbreaking degradation reaction. Figure 4. DSC heating-cooling-heating curves for NPU-2e and cooling curve

for NPU-1e


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The gel point for NPU-2d, as the crossover point of G' and G" appears at 116.5°C (from rheological experiment). This temperature, as could be seen in the DSC experiments, is ranged in the temperature domain of the retrodienic process. For comparing the two series the viscosity of NPU-1e and NPU-2e vs. time was recorded and the result showed that in the case of the network based on the trifurylic compound with tertiary nitrogen (NPU-1e) the gelification begins earlier, at a lower temperature and finishes at a higher one than in the case of NPU-2e network. So, the Diels-Alder reaction needs a longer time to proceed. This fact was also confirmed by the DSC experiment, where on the cooling curves of these samples (Figure 4) the exothermic peak corresponding to dienic reaction is larger in the case of NPU-1e.

The TGA curves and their corresponding first derivative curves (DTG) were recorded and the main characteristic parameters extracted are given in Table 2. One may observe that the thermal stability of the studied compounds varies depending on the structural nature of the substituents (PEA, PBA, PCD or PTHF). Most of the samples exhibit three stages of thermal decomposition. According to the literature, the first stage may be attributed to the retrodienic reaction and formation of isocyanate and alcohol by urethane bond dissociation, while the next stages were described by partial polyols and maleimide crosslinked structures decomposition.

Table 2. The thermogravimetric data for the hybrid materials

Sample IDTa (°C)

Decomposition temperature range, °C (weight losses, %) Ycb (700°C)

(%) stage I stage II stage III

NPU-1a 249.60 257 (2.87) 310.97 (10.49) 413.03 (61.42) 24.02 NPU-1b 268.60 291 (11.62) 414.74 (61.13) 460 (13.11) 12.74 NPU-1c 262.30 334.98 (15.91) 412.14 (70.78) - 11.38 NPU-1d 196.98 340.97 (15.97) 421.74 (69.29) - 13.66 NPU-1e 245 345 (8.00) 445 (74.00) - 17

NPU-2a 204.46 228.69 (6.15) 325.12 (9.01) 406.52 (45.89) 452.56 (13.25) 26.66

NPU-2b 221.11 232.84 (4.40) 374.25 (64.50) 463.97 (11.39) 10.92 NPU-2c 215.67 233.04 (4.44) 409.03 (54.07) 469.98 (9.71) 17.71 NPU-2d 197.01 216.63 (3.75) 348.26 (20.62) 423.45 (58.39) 16.26 NPU-2e 200 300 (6.00) 440 (72.00) - 21 aInitial decomposition temperature by TGA measurements bChar yield at 700°C


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The mass loss in the first stage of thermal decomposition ranges between 2.87% and 15.97%. One must not exclude the possibility of the rDA reaction to generate some free maleimide and furan groups during heating, which contribute to the mass loss. Furthermore, self-addition and cross-linking reactions may occur between free maleimide groups leading to enhancement of thermal stability. Thus, where the IDT exhibit an increasing trend, this may not be generally just due mostly to substituent nature. So, the IDT values of series NPU-1 compared with series NPU-2 are higher due to lower urethane groups concentration. The second thermal degradation represents the main stage of decomposition where the highest mass loss occurs. The second and third stage (where present) are due to overlapping of complex decomposition processes generated by random chain scissions. Such processes correspond to degradation of polyols and cross-linked structure decomposition.

Young's modulus, maxim strength and maxim strain of all the samples were evaluated from the tensile tests. When using TF-2 in the synthesis of NPU instead of TF-1 the flexibility of the molecular chains decreased due to the introduction of aromatic rings and also to the higher number of hydrogen bonds. Therefore, the Young’s moduli of NPU-2(a-e) are higher than the ones of the corresponding NPU-1 networks. Also, the NPU-2 films have higher values of the stress than the corresponding NPU-1 ones. As expected, the strain varies opposite to the stress and Young’s modulus since a less rigid structure can suffer a higher deformation.

The static contact angle values show, that with one exception all the films of the crosslinked networks are hydrophilic. As expected, the series based on the trifuryl compound having hydroxyl groups, namely NPU-1(a-e) series, have a more pronounced hydrophilic character. For both series, the films obtained from the BMI containing Jeffamine present the highest contact angle values. This, may be due to the lower molecular weight of the polyglycol [12].

Conclusions New thermoreversible polyurethane networks based on A2B3

monomers were successfully obtained. From the crooslinking density evaluation (according to the degree of swelling) NPU-2d was found to have a higher crosslinking density than NPU-1d. The thermoreversibility of the networks was evidenced by different methods (DSC, solution properties). The


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time necessary for the DA reaction to take place changes when using different trifurylic compounds, as proved by DSC and rheological studies. The presence of tertiary nitrogen in the structure of the crosslinked polyurethane networks influences the viscosity in the retrodienic domain of temperature probably due to the activation of free maleimide groups crosslinking. Another effect of replacing the TF compound is the increase of the rDA temperature and the decrease of the initial decomposition temperature.

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Polyurethane Market (2011 – 2016) By: marketsandmarkets.com; Publishing Date: July 2011; Report Code: CH 1596.

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6. Gaina V., Gaina C.: Synthesis and characterization of poly(ester-urethane-imide)s by Diels-Alder polyaddition. Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, 41, 523-540 (2002).

7. Gaina C., Ursache O., Gaina V.: Re-mendable polyurethanes. Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, 50, 712-718 (2011).

8. Gaina V., Ursache O., Gaina C., Buruiana E.: Novel Thermally-reversible epoxy-urethane networks. Designed Monomers and Polymers, 15, 63-73 (2012).

9. Gaina C., Ursache O., Gaina V., Varganici C. D.: Thermally reversible cross-linked poly(ether-urethane)s. Express Polymer Letters, 7, 636-650 (2013).

10. Varganici C. D., Ursache O., Gaina C., Gaina V., Rosu D., Simionescu B. C.: Synthesis and characterization of a new thermoreversible polyurethane network. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 52, 5287-5295 (2013).

11. Chen X., Dam M. A., Ono K., Mal A., Shen H., Nutt S. R., Sheran K., Wudl F.: A thermally re-mendable cross-linked polymeric material. Science, 295, 1698-1702 (2002).

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THERMO-REVERSIBLE POLYMERS – A SOLUTION FOR REDUCING THE SOLID WASTE

Oana URSACHE


Viorica GAINA


Constantin GAINA


Summary The increasing volume of wastes which human activities generate lead to a high interest in finding and use of materials that can be recycled in order to reduce these solid wastes. Since incineration and landfilling aren’t a good solution for disposal of polymeric materials, their recycling has been investigated to enhance the environmental protection and avoid landfilling. In this context, it is obvious the necessity to synthesize new polymers with self-healing and/or thermal recycling ability. So, our group focused on synthesising polymers that are thermo-reversible based on the Diels-Alder reaction between maleimide and furane groups. We obtained different classes of thermo-reversible polymeric materials such as: polyurethanes, epoxy-urethane networks, hybrid materials and other crosslinked networks. The structure of these materials was confirmed by the infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. Their thermo-reversibility was studied using different characterization methotds: differential scanning calorimetry, dynamo-mechanical analyses, rheology and microscopy and so on. These materials are suitable for using them as remendable coatings or encapsulants.

jesa 1 26.10.2018 vol 1 (2017).pdfjournal of environmental studies and applications issn 2601-9809,...

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