Abdelhakim N. Abdelhadi

The discovery of plastic caused a true transformation in human lives and it is used in many essential applications. Despite its significance, humanity struggles to control plastic waste and stop its infiltration into the natural environment. This study aims to review the existing waste management system in Saudi Arabia and evaluate environmental impacts of different plastic waste management scenarios by conducting a life-cycle assessment (LCA). This study covered five scenarios: landfill, incineration with energy recovery, mechanical recycling with incineration of residuals, pyrolysis with incineration of residuals, and combined mechanical recycling and pyrolysis with incineration of residuals. For all scenarios in this study, the CML-IA Baseline method was used, utilizing OpenLCA software. Sources of data for this study were obtained from the Ecoinvent 3.9.1 database and from published peer-reviewed reports. The LCA study revealed that the combined mechanical recycling and pyrolysis with incineration of residuals scenario has the lowest environmental impact. Additionally, the combined scenario can accept a broader range of plastic waste, which improves the overall waste management system towards shifting to circular economy. Therefore, to meet the various recycling requirements, it is recommended to establish a portfolio of plastic waste management techniques in Saudi Arabia to produce high-quality recycled products. It is also recommended to utilize renewable energy for electricity generation in Saudi Arabia, since it was shown in this study that it has a significant positive environmental impact across all impact categories.

The tourism industry sector is among the economic growth drivers in many countries worldwide. Unfortunately, this sector was one of the most affected sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives of this study are to implement selected lean management principles to speed up and sustain the sector’s recovery. The country of Jordan is among those countries which is depending on the tourism industry and will be selected as a model to implement the goals of this study. The number of tourists visiting Jordan on a monthly basis for two years, their nationalities, and the trip organizing agencies were collected and investigated for this study using group technology. Group technology, as a lean manufacturing tool is selected to be investigated and applied for having favorable clusters in terms of their economic, social, and health impact. Two scenarios were examined: the first scenario is clustering visitors based on their nationalities, and the second scenario is clustering based on travel agencies. Then, for each scenario, the developed tools were used to come up with recommendations for Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) to communicate between the travel agencies to take advantages from the grouping to arrange and optimize tourists’ trip which may increase their profit and reduce tourists’ travel cost. In conclusion, the used procedure could provide the planners with a useful and powerful instrument for tourism development and prosperity.