Smart working has fueled an immaterial working sociality like a large social network The Covid period has profoundly revolutionized the world of work, not only physically, with the massive adoption of smart working, but also mentally, with workers who continued to carry out their duties from home, in a sort of company distributed throughout the territory. The technologies that made this possible had been in our possession for a long time, but very few used them, as happened during the pandemic, with offices generally closed or poorly manned, and the work that continued from individual homes. The technological revolution of remote work would not have started so quickly and massively if we hadn't had to do it by force, thanks to a series of established habits that have always seen, as essential, the company sociality to produce and control the activities by the company chain. The setting of the pre-covid work was, generally, different according to the size of the company, the greater its size and its internationalization and the easier it was used smart working, on the other hand, the smaller and more localized the activity and the less aptitude there was for working remotely. With the pandemic effect there has been a reshuffling of business habits, with the transversal use of a work model not concentrated in the company but mainly from home. The companies realized that, except in special cases, the activities could continue to be carried out without major problems, that the model of work relocation could have an effect positive on property management costs and that the volume of hours worked did not decrease, even without the physical control of the worker, but, in many cases, it increased. The company collaborators, after an initial period of adjustment, have found a balance between the activities to be carried out and the home environment, finding in turn some advantages, also economic in this process, which concerned the economic savings on home-work trips, on clothing and sometimes on the costs of business lunches. Over the months a working model has been created where sociability had been set aside, getting used to considering the hours worked only as a performance hourly in a company that had become immaterial. At the end of the pandemic, many companies have kept the remote working model, while others have brought workers back to offices to resume activities in the presence. Returning to the office was not a simple thing for everyone, as psychologically it was like starting a job in a new company, reconnecting relationships with colleagues, getting to know them of others and to deal with the character and psychological changes that the long work from home brought with it. The sociability of the components of the offices is no longer the same as before, those mechanisms that existed for a certain time will not return quickly, thanks to safety factors that tend to isolate workers even within the offices. Templates, dividers between workstations and desks, rotation of schedules, reduction of canteen activities or meetings in the lunch break, transport to and from the place of regulated work are the new barriers. At times, a certain professional misanthropy has developed through the reduction of human contacts in the office, the minimization of visits to customers or suppliers, preferring video conferences and a certain underlying distrust of activities that involve the presence of other people in your safety area. This mix made up of physical and psychological safety measures will need an average long time to be resolved, because collaborators who suffer from forms of work misanthropy, live a stress in enduring the proximity of other people and the idea of resuming work activities that involve gatherings or business trips, boarding airplanes, trains, going to hotels and restaurants. It is important to understand those who suffer from these problems to try to solve the useless direct business contacts, which were used in the past, through the use of new communication technologies . But it is also important to recreate a working sociality, when necessary, also psychologically helping those who find it harder to accept common places and moments of work. Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian. Photo: The Misantropo Painting by Pietrel Bruegel the elder Tempera on canvas cm. 86x85 Capodimonte Museum Naples
SEE MOREAt work, at home, with friends, always be available so as not to feel excluded. Stay in a social context, be it work, your family or friends, always involves building a relationship that should satisfy both parties. In the relationships between people and their groups, however, the character of each one comes into play and has the power to modify a direct relationship or the spirit of the group. Sometimes it can happen that in the daily context, a growing increase of commitments are carried out by a few or the only people who feel invested in the duty to do so. It is not always a question of pressure or oppression of one individual over the other that direct continuous commitments on some subjects, but more often it is these people who make themselves excessively available by taking on excessive burdens. Within the work teams, especially the hierarchical ones, in a short time we can see the subjects who, willy-nilly, are recipients of activities and employment of working time longer than others. In the family it often happens that, especially women, are overwhelmed by jobs, commissions, commitments and responsibilities, creating themselves an imbalance of forces that penalizes them, consuming their time and not appreciating their life. Even in a context of friendships, whether there is a large group or a few friends, hierarchies are created in which there is almost always an element that is made available to others, he sacrifices himself to make the relationship fluid and takes on more or less important commitments. These people are generally victims of themselves, they are hardly forced to spend their time for others, but they feel they have to do it mainly to be accepted, to believe that they are useful and therefore necessary for the group, without which they think they would be alone. Sometimes the underestimation of oneself leads to making sure that the increase of efforts and commitments can fill that insecurity that one has, thinking that what has been done for others it is understood as a quality of the person himself. We always return in order to be accepted, to be inside a system, not to be alone and to think that, only through an extra effort, we can mask the inadequacy you feel. It is a form of personal cancellation that is exchanged for a place in a group of people, be it work, family or friends, a dead end in which you are unable to go out or do not want to go out for fear that the fragile equilibrium achieved will fall apart. How to get out? First of all, it is necessary to evaluate whether the time spent on continuous commitments can give sufficient personal returns with respect to the effort made. If this is not the case, it must be remembered that time stolen from someone, even unintentionally, is lost forever. Every human being invests his time to do something that can make him feel good or can satisfy his needs, material or emotional and it is precisely for this reason that this satisfaction must have a balance otherwise it is not worth it. If you go to work 8 hours a day you will get a salary, with this you satisfy your material needs, but if at the same salary you have to work 16 hours a day, perhaps it would be better to think of a different job. So, in relationships with people more or less the same rule applies, the time spent should have a satisfying return for you, whether in the form of an emotional relationship , maternal, of friendship and also in a working forum. Furthermore it is necessary to break the chain that binds your relationships with others with the evaluation you make of yourself, thinking that every living being has strengths and weaknesses and , very often, there is a tendency to mask the frailties and enhance the merits, never knowing people for who they are. Create a balance between what you do and what you receive considering that you must have the right to seek the satisfaction of your life, without putting yourself at the full service of others unilaterally. Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian. Photo: Corriere della Sera
SEE MOREThe presence of the smell of limonene in post-consumer plastic waste limits its use and quality With the increase in the use of post-consumer plastics in the production of articles, the problem of identifying odors in the waste to be processed has also increased and, consequently, in the granules produced following recycling. If until a few years ago the pungent and persistent odor in products made with post-consumer polymers was relatively tolerated, as they were intended for objects with limited destinations today, the massive use of these polymers in substitution of virgin raw material or post industrial waste, raises the problem of the smell of the finished product. As we have already described in several articles on the blog, on the difficulty of using post-consumer recycled plastic polymers, in the presence of annoying odors, we can deepen the subject by talking about how it is possible to control the plastic supply chain to understand both the presence and the intensity of the chemical compounds that give rise to unpleasant odors. The analysis can be done both from the point of view of the customer who buys the post-consumer polymer to produce the objects he will sell, and from that of the recycler who will have to analyze which batches of waste and in what quantities contain the substances that give rise to odors. First of all we can say that in post-consumer plastic waste there are more than one chemical substance that gives rise to a series of odors, but that some are more pungent and annoying than others. In particular, limonene is widely present and is difficult to eliminate, despite the plastic waste being duly treated with correct washing systems and adequate recycling procedures. In fact, during the reception phase of the waste packages, which have come into contact during their waste life with many other products, as well as food products, it is important to have the ability to test the incoming flows to understand the incidence of substances that will create odor at the end of the recycling process, in order to be able to manage them with careful mixing of waste that has a low level of these odorous substances. These compounds can be made on the basis of analytical data, not by sensation, so as to create a flow of raw material that can guarantee the user a certainty the percentage of odor contained in the granule. As for companies that use post-consumer plastic polymer, it is essential to establish the acceptable odor target, with analytical calculations, in order to guarantee their end customers to buy a product, made with post-consumer recycled plastics, with an odor rate according to established parameters, not empirically through the use of testers who make their nose available. This guarantee path, downstream and upstream of the process, can be carried out using a laboratory machine that uses ion mobility gas chromatography, which allows for analysis rapid (15 minutes) and automatic samples of waste or plastic granules or on finished products. A simple insertion of the sample into the tubes and into the machine, allows a detailed analysis of the presence of chemical compounds in the sample. Based on the graphic picture that the machine returns, the presence and intensity of the odorous components can be identified with certainty, taking the necessary actions to modify or accept or reject the product. Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.
SEE MORENylon, Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Polyester are the main polymers that make up modern fishing nets Fishing nets are built in Nylon, Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Polyester and other materials that make the structures economical and tough, but which pose a serious environmental problem if abandoned in the sea. This phenomenon very often depends on accidental situations in which fishing vessels lose their nets or parts of them, for various reasons, one of which is perturbations or difficult sea conditions. The problem of pollution of fishing equipment lost at sea was already reported in 2009 by an FAO report when there was still no talk of plastic pollution in the seas. According to the 2020 report of ECA Europe the abandonment and dispersion of plastic in the environment damage terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Each year, between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons of plastic waste is released into the ocean. The proportions of terrestrial and marine plastic waste vary from region to region. According to a recent study, fishing nets also make up 46% of the Great Pacific garbage patch. In Europe, about 85% of marine litter found on beaches is plastic. About 43% of this marine litter is made up of single-use plastics and 27% of fishing gear. In another report written by Greenpeace in November 2019 it was estimated that 640,000 tons of abandoned or lost fishing gear entered the ocean each year, equivalent in weight to over 50,000 double-decker buses. In total, they make up about 10% of the plastic waste in our oceans, trapping and killing marine life. The report was written while Greenpeace's ship, Arctic Sunrise, was examining Monte Vema, a biodiverse undersea mountain in the Atlantic, 1,000 kilometers off the coast of South Africa, where you can still find the remains of the once active fishing industry. Speaking of the expedition to Mount Vema, Thilo Maack of Greenpeace's Protect the Oceans campaign said: "Long after their abandonment, fishing gear continues to kill, maim marine life and pollute also remote ecosystems such as the submarine mountain of Monte Vema. We saw a fantastic underwater world full of life and color here. It is absolutely sad to see destructive fishing gear in such a remote place as this. "Even the Tristan Lobster, an iconic species of Monte Vema, which has been on the verge of extinction twice, is now showing signs of population recovery, thanks to the current ban on bottom fishing . This shows how the oceans have an extraordinary ability to regenerate. The "Ghost Gear" report shows that 6% of all nets used, 9% of all traps and 29% of all longlines (lines of several kilometers) remain polluting the sea . Not only does old fishing litter continue to kill marine life, it also severely damages underwater habitats. Seamounts are particularly hard hit as they are often heavily exploited due to the variety of wildlife that live around them. Greenpeace calls for stronger action to be taken against deadly phantom equipment, including agreeing to a strong UN Global Ocean Treaty that could protect at least 30% of the world's oceans by 2030, making it off-limits for harmful human activities, including industrial fishing. While according to a report by FAO , already in 2009 the danger of abandoning nets at sea was denounced, however highlighting that most of the fishing equipment is not deliberately abandoned but is lost during storms, carried away by strong currents, or is the result of so-called 'tackle conflicts', for example, when fishing with nets in areas where traps have already been placed on the bottom where new nets can run aground. The main damages caused by abandoned or lost networks are: • the continuous capture of fish - known as "ghost fishing" - and other animals such as turtles, seabirds and marine mammals, which become trapped and die; • the alteration of the ecosystems of the seabed; • the creation of risks for navigation in terms of possible accidents at sea and damage to boats. Tram nets, pots and fish traps contribute to "ghost fishing", while large fishing nets tend to trap other marine organisms and bottom trawls damage underwater ecosystems. Ghost fishing In the past, poorly managed fishing nets drifted by the current were singled out as the main culprits, but banning them in many areas in 1992 reduced their contribution to ghost fishing. Today it is the trammel nets placed on the seabed that are most often recognized as the main problem. The lower end of these nets is anchored to the seabed, while at the top there are floats, so as to form a vertical underwater wall of nets that can extend from 600 to 10 000 meters in length. If a trammel net is abandoned or lost, it can continue fishing on its own for months - sometimes years - indiscriminately killing fish and other animals. Fish traps and pots are another major cause of ghost fishing. In the Chesapeake Bay in the United States, it is estimated that around 150,000 crab traps are lost each year, out of a total of 500,000. On the Caribbean island of Guadalupe alone, around 20,000 of all traps set each year are lost in each hurricane season, a loss rate of 50%. Like trammel nets, these traps can continue to fish on their own for extended periods of time. Photo: FAO
SEE MORETo be competitive and reliable with solar and wind, you need to study and solve the problems that limit its diffusion.Renewable energies were, until a few years ago, seen as a snobbish passion, of some inveterate environmentalist who enjoyed being against the tide, nonconformist and alternative. Proof is the fact that on the bureaucrats' desks have been sitting for a long time, awaiting approval, a considerable number of projects, which passed from one office to another, dramatically lengthening the time required to obtain approval or rejection. The international energy crisis, caused first by Covid and subsequently by the Russian-Ukraine crisis, made it clear to the European chancelleries how central they were , for our future, renewable energies. There have recently been huge investments in both solar and wind, based on the geographical location of the projects, favoring solar in southern Europe and the wind power, also offshore, in northern Europe. Unfortunately in these years in which fossil sources have guaranteed the functioning of transport, industries and domestic users, through a comfortable and tested, the technological research to pass renewable energies, from micro production to large-scale production, has had a very slow trend and a lot of time has been lost. Today there is the need to run to find valid solutions that the sector requires, technical, economic and political issues need to be resolved substantial, to make renewable energies the first sources of energy for the whole world. What are these issues to solve? As regards the energy produced both by the wind and by the sun, the problem of the inconstancy of production for meteorological reasons, the lack of sun during the 24 hours and the temporary lack of wind. The crux is the accumulators, which must be able to be much more efficient than they are today, allowing for the storage of the energy produced in excess, so that it can be used when there is a shortage of production. The research will concern the new materials for the electrodes (cathode and anode) and for the electrolytes, the objective of which will be to increase energy density, improve safety, reduce cost, and extend battery life and cycle life. In addition, as regards electrolysers, materials will have to be taken into consideration, both for those at low temperatures (
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