Sustainable manufacturing practices are becoming increasingly necessary due to the growing concerns regarding climate change and resource scarcity. Consequently, material recycling technologies have gradually become preferred over conventional processes. This study aimed to recycle waste polylactic acid (PLA) from household-disposed cups and lids to create 3D-printed parts and promote sustainable manufacturing practices. To achieve this, the current study utilised virgin and post-consumer PLA (sourced from household waste) blends. The PC-PLA wastes were shredded and sorted by size with the aid of a washing step, resulting in a filament with a 1.70 ± 0.5 mm diameter without fragmentation or dissolution. A 50:50 wt.% blend of virgin PLA (vPLA) and PC-PLA was selected as the standard recycling percentage based on previous research and resource conservation goals. The study investigated the impact of three 3D printing parameters (layer height (LH), infill density (I), and nozzle temperature (NT))on the quality of 3D-printed parts using a three-level L9 Taguchi orthogonal array. The findings revealed that blending PC-PLA with vPLA led to significant improvements in the tensile, flexural, and impact strengths by 18.40%, 8%, and 9.15%, respectively, compared to those of recycled PLA. This conclusion was supported by the investigation of the fracture surface area, which revealed fractographic features associated with printing parameters, such as plastic deformation and interfilament debonding. An ANOVA analysis revealed a positive influence of larger layer height and high nozzle temperature on the mechanical properties. Subsequently, the optimal printing parameters (LH: 0.3 mm, I: 100%, and NT: 215 °C) were determined using the S/N ratio, and a confirmation test using the optimum printing parameters exhibited a strong correlation with statistically predicted outcomes. Finally, the study used optimum printing parameters to fabricate 100% post-consumer recycled PLA 3D printed parts, demonstrating their potential for low-strength applications. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that virgin and post-consumer recycled PLA blended filament for fabricating 3D printed components is an effective way to support plastic recycling in the context of a circular economy.

The exponential growth in the consumption of electronics, in combination with the reduction in their useful life, leads to a significant increase in the volume of electronic material discarded. Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are modules composed of ceramic, polymer and metallic materials of high economic value and with a great potential for damage to biotic and anthropic environments when inadequately discarded. The aims of this work was to study the main environmental impacts and the efficiency of mechanical operations in the electronic waste recycling process in optimizing the concentration of metallic copper. For this, the samples obtained were characterized according to their morphology and chemical composition, and subjected to physical and mechanical treatments: dismantling, grinding, separation by granulometry, density and magnetic property. The environment impacts were estimated by the Life Cycle Assessment of the pre-treatment processes, associated with copper extraction operations in WPCBs. According to the results obtained, it is possible to infer that the NM +1mm Concentrated product presents in its metallic composition around 78% of copper, which contributes to the efficiency of the hydrometallurgical extraction processes. It is noteworthy that the Concentrated class represents about 14% of copper (wt) taking into account the amount of 3.789 kg of PCB waste input material. The potential for reinsertion of the dust in the material recovery process is highlighted, given that the chemical composition of this particulate has a significant presence of metals. In general, it was found that due to the higher concentration (wt %) of the sample being allocated in the range of - 0.15mm + 0.05mm, the elements Fe (18.30%), Si (10.73%), Ca (9.21%) and Cu (8.89%) stand out regarding the participation of the elemental composition of this fraction and also regarding the general composition of the sample. Furthermore, the generation of dust during the fragmentation process, can be associated with occupational respiratory diseases when not managed. About the Life Cycle Assessment, in seven of the nine categories evaluated, crushing and screening activities accounted for more than 90% of the recorded impact values. In general, it is estimated that in the pre-treatment phase be generated 15.4 kg CO2 eq.

High-strength wastewaters from a variety of sources, including the food industry, domestic septage and landfill leachate, are often hauled to municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for co-treatment. Due to their high organic loadings, these wastewaters can cause process upsets in both the WWTP’s liquid and solids treatment trains and consume organic treatment capacity, leaving less capacity available to service customers in the catchment area. A novel pre-treatment method, the Waste Activated Sludge-High Rate (WASHR) process, is proposed to optimize the co-treatment of high-strength wastewaters. The WASHR process combines the contact stabilization and sequencing batch reactor processes. It utilizes waste activated sludge from the municipal WWTP as its biomass source, allowing rapid start-up. Bench scale treatment trials of winery wastewater confirm the WASHR process can reduce loadings on the downstream WWTP’s liquid treatment and solids treatment trains. A case study approach is used to confirm the economic viability and environmental sustainability of the WASHR process compared to direct co-treatment using life cycle cost analyses and greenhouse gas emissions estimates.

Despite the increase in popularity of Zero Waste (ZW) concept, the successful implementation of this concept in waste management is still facing many challenges. The plastic recycling rate in Australia is currently only about 9.4%, which could leave up to 90.6% of plastic consumption being sent to landfills. The state of Victoria (in Australia) has proposed an ambitious plan to upgrade its waste and recycling system and to divert about 80% of waste from landfills by 2030. The aim of this research is to study Victoria’s current waste management plan and to develop a simulation model to assess the feasibility of it achieving zero plastic waste by 2035. In this direction, a fundamental knowledge of global ZW implementation needs to be acquired in order to understand the challenges, obstacles, and uncertainties in achieving ZW target. A simulation model is established using a method called double baselines. This method was developed as an improvisation to address the limitation of data availability for the model development. The model will run on 4 scenarios including one from Victoria’s current plan. Outcomes from the model are produced in comparative charts covering 6 key considerations including the rates of plastic consumption, waste to landfill, diversion, recycling, relative accumulative cost and effort. The findings of this study pointed out that Victoria’s current plan are feasible for its goal and presented with opportunities for improvement especially towards zero plastic waste. Besides, study results also reveal that the Victoria’s current plan to achieve 80% diversion rate by 2030 is possible but the zero plastic waste target by 2035 is less likely to happen.

Indonesia's government anticipates waste problems by managing them through a large number of waste reduction programs. From a governance perspective in Indonesia, it is known that actors from diverse governmental levels and across sectors are involved in waste management, and their involvement largely depends on their institutional goals and problems. Hence, they are expected to coherently collaborate together by developing and implementing sustainable instruments and resources for improving waste management problems. However, it is necessary to understand how supportive and restrictive the governance of waste reduction programs is to encourage successful trash reduction. This study is designed to evaluate and examine the application of Community-Based Solid Waste Management (CBSWM) in Makassar. In this research, The Governance Assessment Tool (GAT) was applied to analyze the governance context of the waste reduction programs in Makassar qualitatively. From the assessment, contexts can be described as either supportive or restrictive of the processes of implementing public policies on waste management. As a result of such an assessment, this study shed light on some opportunities to improve the governance of waste management implementation's impact on reducing waste in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The conclusion of this study depicts that the most important actors are affiliated with the local government and the community. Moreover, this study shows that the assessment of contextual governance is predominantly restrictive.

The demand for improving the nuclear waste management has since long been identified as one of the major hurdles for widespread use of nuclear energy. Nuclear waste management, through partitioning and transmutation (P&T) has been researched since the 1990ies with partitioning being a pre-requisite for the process. Recently, an innovative approach of reactors directly operating on spent nuclear fuel, iMAGINE, has been proposed which could deliver on the aims of P&T as a side effect to more efficient nuclear energy production in the future. The results shown here confirm that it is possible to achieve the aims of P&T without prior partitioning, but it is certainly less efficient since the high concentration of MAs, required for efficient burning, are impossible to obtain in a short operational time. The proposed nuclear waste management approach will be a long-term effort when it is accomplished without partitioning/separation technologies. However, none of the analyses contradicts this effort – the key points are a) when the technology for treating the waste is possible and reliable, the time horizon will not be a major concern b) the waste management is now intrinsically linked with energy production instead of requiring dedicated costly facilities, delivering a promising economic basis c) the waste management is now associated with long-term energy production and massively improved resource utilization. In summary, the objectives of P&T are achievable without prior partitioning – this is a ground-breaking result. However, the approach will require continued nuclear energy production for a very long time. In case of a nuclear phase-out decision, a much more efficient transmutation scenario would have to be envisaged as already discussed several years ago for Germany.

Highlights: A new material with a bending strength higher than that of concrete was developed using vegetable or fruit waste. The new material maintains the color, taste, and flavor of the original vegetable or fruit. Without water resistant treatment, the material is edible and can be conditioned with seasonings

It is expected that due to the new UE regulation focus on waste management, managing kitchen waste will become more important in the future, especially in households. It is, therefore, crucial to develop user-friendly and odor-free containers to store kitchen waste. The study aimed to test the effectiveness of compost biochar in reducing noxious odors and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released during kitchen waste storage. Varying quantities of compost biochar (0%, 1%, 5%, and 10%) were added to food waste samples and incubated for seven days at 20℃. VOCs released were analyzed on days 1, 3, and 7 of the storage simulation process. The results indicated that adding 5-10% of composts’ biochar to kitchen waste significantly reduced emissions in 70% of detected VOCs compounds. Additionally, Compost's biochar can be used to eliminate potential odor components and specific dangerous VOCs such as ethylbenzene, o-xylene, acetic acid, and naphthalene. A new composts’ biochar with a unique composition was particularly effective in reducing VOCs and could be an excellent solution for eliminating odors in kitchen waste con-tainers.

Given the importance of the development of urban infrastructure and environmental impacts produced by the civil construction waste (CCW), it is important to correct the handling of CCW with objective solutions that are more environmentally friendly. In that sense the present study aimed to determine indicators that make it possible to estimate the amount of CCW generated from construction sites in the city of Londrina, Parana State, Brazil. The generation of CCW was estimated in a general way, regarding the composition of its mixture, correlated to the gross areas of the buildings studied and their generated volumes of RCC. This generating rate was evaluated in a general way and specifies two types of sites: the new residential and new non-residential constructions. The data required for the development of these indicators was obtained through extensive survey and interviews carried out at the environment secretariat of the City Hall. The generating rate of CCW obtained for non-residential buildings was 0.2052m3/m2 or 170.44kg/m2, for new residential sites was 0.2054m3/m2 or 170.60kg/m2 and for new commercial or non-residential construction sites, it was 0.20453 m3/m2 or 169.85kg/m2. It was also possible to estimate the amount generated annually per inhabitant in the municipality, which is 0.60m3/inhabit.year or 498.55kg/inhabit.year.

As a result of rapid population growth, an exponentially growing human population, and industrial expansion, it has become increasingly difficult to manage municipal solid wastes throughout the world. Decentralized waste management systems have created difficult situations in developing countries such as Malaysia. Wastes generated in the country, due to various cultural, social, and religious activities, organic and contributing to environmental pollution (air, water, and soil) and human health troubles. A questionnaire survey was participated by 220 construction professionals in Malaysia using structured and semi-structured methods. The framework was assessed using A partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to target sustainable development goals (SDG). Statistical analysis results indicate a significant effect between SCW management, since(r(270)=.687, P<0.001). Improving factors has strong relationship with SCW management, since(r(270)=.723, P<0.001). The mediation results also suggested a significant indirect positive effect of improving factors drivers on SCW management through policy-related factors sinceβ=0.688, t=8.254, P<0.001, 95% CI for β=0.536,0.866. Finally, policy-related factors construct has a strong relationship with SCWM) management, since(r(270)=.811, P<0.001) With the R Square of 0.787 and 0.785. The developed framework can improve construction waste management in the construction industry and enhance construction waste management to achieve global sustainable development goals. The findings show that one of the most critical issues of enhancing profitability is using preventive policies to reduce construction waste. This study could guide construction industry stakeholders in identifying the different waste management features during a building project's construction and design stage

Waste glycerol can be subjected to various processing operations, including purification and re-fining, to obtain glycerol of appropriate purity. In addition, alternative methods of utilising waste glycerol are also being sought, e.g. by converting it into other valuable chemical products or biofuels. Therefore, various technologies are being developed to utilise this type of waste effectively and sustainably. The production of value-added products from waste glycerol is an important issue that determines the improvement of the economic viability of biofuel production and corresponds to the model of a waste-free and emission-free circular economy. This paper characterised the mechanisms and evaluated the efficiency of existing methods of microbiological utilisation of waste glycerol into liquid biofuels, including biodiesel, bioethanol and biobutanol, and identified further directions for the production of value-added products. In addition, a bibliographical analysis of publications re-lated to the production of liquid fuels and economically valuable products from glycerol was carried out, the progress of research and application work was assessed and directions for future research were identified.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of reducing the amount of organic waste on the weight of cats in Tehran. The weight of 4192 cats was measured from spring 2016 to the end of winter 2020. They were classified into 6 age groups, 2 gender groups, and 13 geographical areas. Their weight was measured for 48 months (16 seasons). The statistical parameters analysis showed no weight loss in 2017, but since 2018, cats have been losing weight every year. They had lost about 178g of their weight in 2018. The sharpest annual decrease was observed in 2019 when about 301g of weight loss was recorded. In the winter of 2020, 115g of weight loss took place. In the spring of 2017, no weight change was observed, but in the spring of 2018, the cats lost 155g of their weight. Their weight loss intensified in the spring of 2019 and about 299g of weight loss was observed. In the summer of 2017, as in the spring of the same year, no weight loss was recorded, but for the summer of 2018, the weight loss was evident and about 205g of the weight of the cats had been reduced. The weight loss in the summer of 2019 not only continued but intensified and about 304g of weight loss was recorded for cats. Weight change was not observed in the fall of 2017 as in the spring and summer of the same year. In the fall of 2018, weight loss was recorded for cats. They had lost about 324g of their weight in the fall of 2018. Also, they experienced a weight loss of about 218g in the fall of 2019. During the spring, summer, and autumn of 2017, no weight loss was observed in the cats for the winter of 2018, but in the winter of 2019, the cats faced the most severe weight loss (seasonally). They lost about 401g of weight in the winter of 2019. Of course, in the winter of 2020, about 186g of weight loss was observed in cats. The results showed that female cats did not lose weight in 2017 but experienced weight loss in 2018 with a weight loss of 181g. The weight loss of females intensified in 2019 and 294g of weight loss was recorded. Female cats lost 186g of their weight in the winter of 2020. Male cats did not lose weight like female cats in 2017. But in 2018, a weight loss of 166g was observed in male cats. The weight loss of male cats continued in 2019 and 311g of weight loss was recorded for them. However, in 2020, unlike females, weight loss was not observed in male cats. It can be said that both sexes lost more weight in the winter of 2019 than in other seasons. In 2017, weight loss was observed only for the region of 10, and in the same year, weight gain was recorded for the region of 15. But in 2018, except for regions 3, 4, 15, and 19, weight loss was observed in other regions. In 2019, the weight loss of cats spread and weight loss was observed in all regions except the region of 12. In winter 2020, weight loss was recorded only in the region of 4. In the end, it can be concluded that the weight of cats has decreased since the spring of 2018 because the beginning of the decrease in the amount of organic waste has been recorded since the winter of 2018. So, there is a direct relationship between the weight of cats and the amount of organic waste (access to food). The amount of garbage has been decreasing since the winter of 2018, and the average weight of cats has also been decreasing since the spring of 2018 due to the decrease in access to food.

A shrimp oil rich in omega-3 lipids and carotenoids is obtained in remarkably high 5 wt% yield extending to pink shrimp processing waste (head and carapace) the circular economy approach to extract fish oil from fish processing by-products using d-limonene. Biobased limonene, a powerful antimicrobial and antioxidant agent, is an excellent solvent for both lipids and astaxanthin-based carotenoids preventing oxidative degradation during the extraction cycle including solvent and oil separation at 85°C. A new low cost route is established to extract valued marine oil from biowaste annually made available in over 2.2 million tonnes.

Biofuels have become an integral part of everyday life in modern society. Bioethanol and fatty acid methyl esters are a common part of both the production of gasoline and diesel fuels. Also, pressure on replacing fossil fuels with bio-components is constantly growing. Waste vegetable fats can be replacing biodiesel. HVO seems to be a better alternative. This fuel has a higher oxidation stability for storage purposes, a lower temperature of loss of filterability for the winter time, a lower boiling point for cold starts and other. Viscosity, density, cold filter plugging point of fuel blend, and flash point were measured to confirm that a fuel from HVO is so close to a fuel standard that it is possible to use it in engines without modification. The objective of this article is to show the properties of different fuels with and without HVO admixtures and to prove the suitability of using HVO compared to FAME. HVO can also be prepared from waste materials and no major modifications of existing refinery facilities are required. No technology in either investment or engine adaptation of fuel oils is needed in fuel processing.

Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste can be disposed in deep horizontal drillholes in sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous rocks. Horizontal drillhole disposal has safety, operational, and economic benefits: The repository is deep in the brine-saturated zone far below aquifers in a reducing environment of formations that can be shown to have been isolated from the surface for millions of years; its depth provides safety against inadvertent intrusion, earth¬quakes, and near-surface perturbations; it can be placed close to the reactors and interim storage facilities, minimizing transportation; disposal costs per ton of waste can be kept substantially lower than for mined repositories by its smaller size, reduced infrastructure needs, and staged imple¬mentation; and, if desired, the waste could be retrieved using “fishing” technology. In the proposed disposal concept, corrosion-resistant canisters containing unmodified fuel assemblies from commercial reactors would be placed end-to-end in up to 50 cm diameter horizontal drill¬holes, a configuration that reduces mechanical stresses and keeps the temperatures below the boiling point of the brine. Other high-level wastes, such as capsules containing 137Cs and 90Sr, can be disposed in small-diameter drillholes. We provide an overview of this novel disposal concept and its technology, discuss some of its safety aspects, and compare it to mined repositories and the deep vertical borehole disposal concept.

The construction sector is considered as a major consumer of virgin materials and contributor to waste generation. Therefore, it is essential to rethink current waste management practices, for example, by applying circular economy principles to building demolition, such as deconstruction. Deconstruction involves dismantling a building with the aim of maintaining the highest possible value for its materials and maximize their recovery potential. This study aims to guide the construction sector towards deconstruction to support its efforts to transform itself toward a more sustainable industry. It focuses on a regional case study in the province of Québec (Canada) presenting five buildings to be deconstructed. First, the study presents the outcomes of our analysis of the current situation. Second, it identifies the issues and obstacles encountered and proposes avenues to improve the current process based on solutions identified in the literature and the recommendations of the manager, the contractor involved in the deconstruction process, as well as experts in the construction industry. Finally, it proposes an improved deconstruction process. Our research approach is inspired from Lean thinking and follows Action Research methodology.

Target 12.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels, by 2030. The Food Waste Index is suggested as a methodology for grasping the situation. This paper focuses on the consumer level (household food waste). We argue that in order for generating useful information for devising and implementing effective measures for reducing food waste, it should be measured at Level 3 of the Food Waste Index, based on sorting analysis of generated waste, making a distinction between avoidable and non-avoidable food waste. Furthermore, a breakdown by sub-categories that reflect the flow of food in the household could help identify target behaviours. We have developed a categorisation scheme that is internationally agreeable and adoptable, and 1) generates useful information for policy-making and for tackling with reduction of food waste, 2) makes clear the concept of avoidable food waste, and 3) is practical and does not overcomplicate the work of grasping the situation of food wastage. Results of workshops regarding this scheme suggest that the scheme satisfies the criteria. This scheme has been applied to a few sorting analyses of household food waste in Japan, and their results are compared.

Global waste generation keeps increasing over the year and requires innovative solutions to minimize their impacts on environmental quality and public health. Predicted 2.2 billion tonnes per year of global municipal waste generation in the year 2025 which 1.6 fold is higher than in 2012. Hence, a strategic plan must be ascertained to overcome the future challenges of MSW locally and globally. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) coined an initiative to demonstrate a showcase pilot plant for green energy production from MSW. Therefore, the data was obtained from the survey and actual sampling within the UPM compound to estimate the MSW generated and it's potentially used for green energy production. It is estimated that 5.0 – 7.0 tonne per day of MSW generated which about 30 - 35% is an organic fraction. Upon separation, the organic fractions were digested into biogas through anaerobic. At the maximum conversion of organic fraction, about 775 kWh of electricity may able to generate from the waste. In this study, the complete biorefinery setup and utilize organic components from the MSW generated in UPM was proposed that the biogas subsequently will be used to produce green energy in the form of electricity or cooking fuel.

Nano-emulsions of essential oils (EO) and their chemical constituents are promising raw materials for the ecological control of Tribolium castaneum. Curcuma longa Linn is a plant known for the properties of its rhizome which is used in food, health and hygiene products. Its leaves are by-products with no commercial value, but with unexplored bioactive volatile constituents. This study aims to evaluate the repellency of nano-emulsions containing the EO from leaves of C. longa or its three main chemical constituents against T. castaneum. The representative mixture of EO extracted in four different months showed p-cymene (26.0%), 1,8-cineole (15.1%) and terpinolene (15.5%) as major compounds. Nano-emulsions of EO (HLB 16.7), terpinolene (HLB 15.0), 1,8-cineole (HLB15.0) and p-cymene (HLB 15.0) were repellent at concentrations of 11 μg/cm2 (EO, terpinolene and p-cymene) and 1.1 μg/cm2 (1,8-cineole). The EO nano-emulsion droplet size increased linearly over time, remaining below 300 nm for 35 days and below 600 nm for 80 days. The EO nano-emulsion proved to be a green alternative to synthetic pesticides, as it was safe against the bioindicator Chlorella vulgaris. Terpinolene, 1,8-cineol and p-cymene were able to inhibit the enzyme telomerase from T. castaneum in an in silico assay, which may explain the repellency of these samples. This study provides ideas for the utilization of EO from leaves of C. longa as raw material of new environmentally friendly plant-derived nanobiopesticides.

The volume of electronic waste (e-waste) received in Nigeria is reportedly on the increase and the effects on environmental health are yet to be fully ascertained. This study aimed to investigate haematological indices, lead and serum iron levels in workers occupationally exposed to electronic wastes in South-South, Nigeria. In this pilot study, 104 participants were enrolled from Benin City, South-South Nigeria; consisting of 63 E-waste Workers (EW) sex- and aged-matched with 41 Unexposed Participants (Control). Blood levels (5 mL) of the metals (lead and iron) were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry while the haematological parameters [white blood cells (WBC), Lymphocytes ( LY); monocytes (MO), granulocytes(GR), red blood cells (RBC), haemoglobin (Hgb), haematocrit (HCT), mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell haemoglobin (MCH), mean cell haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and platelets (PLT)] were determined using standard methods. Results obtained from this study show a significantly low serum iron (11.5 ± 2.14 µg/dL) in the EW compared with Control (168.9 ± 2.39 µg/dL); while blood lead level in EW (1.07±0.02 µg/dL) was significantly elevated compared with Control (0.72 ± 0.12). Total WBC and RBC, HCT, MO and MCV were all significantly elevated in EW compared with Control while LY and PLT in the EW were significantly decreased compared with Control. This study concludes that chronic occupational e-waste exposure may increase blood lead level, lower serum iron status and may have adversely altered some important haematological parameters in the studied population.

A large amount of concrete waste is generated around the world and its recycling is an urgent issue. In this research, a new approach to recycle concrete waste with wooden waste was studied. Concrete and wooden wastes were crushed, mixed, and heat compacted to produce plates with different water contents and mix proportions at various temperatures, pressures, and durations of compaction. The bending strength of the plates was measured after compaction. The result indicated that with an increase in the percentage of wooden waste in the mixture, pressure, or temperature improved the bending strength. The increase in water content reduced the bending strength. Most of the products exhibited higher bending strength than that of ordinary concrete.

Solid-state lighting has been replacing conventional lighting in the market, raising concerns for implementing an efficient end-of-life management system. Since LED waste streams have not been quite dominant, characterization studies (product-level characteristics, component-wise information, bill of materials, diversity, and differences) are inconsistent and having substantial gaps. This study investigates the end-of-life LED lamp literature, focusing on the bill-of-materials, and reveals that the characterization procedure suffers from a severe lack of sample representativeness. Consequently, characterization results are widely varied and not generalizable. Moreover, most of the studies did not inform and document the detailed sample characteristics, precluding the possibility of identifying reasons for variation. Combining available information from the recent studies, we present a mass distribution at the component level, exemplifying the prospect for meeting EU regulatory limit and the need for more insight at the lamp and component level. To fill the disconnection between lamp level characteristics and component and material content, we propose a characterization protocol that carefully documents lamp, component, and material level information by establishing a lamp-component–material composition nexus. The protocol may help researchers, policymakers, and industrial stakeholders conduct a systematic characterization, analyze complexities and prepare for a sustainable solution.

In South Korea, demolition waste (DW) management has become increasingly significant owing to the rising number of old buildings. Effective DW management requires an efficient approach that accurately quantifies and predicts the generation of DW (DWG) of various types, which necessitates access to the required information or technology capable of achieving this. Hence, we developed an artificial intelligence-based model that predicts the generation of ten DW types, specifically from buildings in redevelopment areas. We used an artificial neural network algorithm with < 10 neurons in the hidden layer to derive individual input variables and optimal hyperparameters for each DW type. All DWG prediction models achieved an average validation and test prediction performance (R²) of 0.970 and 0.952, respectively, with their ratios of percent deviation ≥ 2.5, ver-ifying them as excellent models. Moreover, a Shapley additive explanations analysis revealed that DWG was most impacted by the floor area for all the DW types, with a positive correlation with DWG. Conversely, other factors showed either a positive or negative correlation with DWG de-pending on the DW type. The study findings will enable demolition companies and local gov-ernments in making informed decisions for efficient DW management and resource allocation by accurately predicting the generation of various types of DW.

This study evaluates the production of biohydrogen from agro industrial waste. The worldwide energy demand is increasing exponentially and the reserves of fossil fuels are depleting, the combustion of fossil fuels has the effect on environment because of CO2 emission. Hydrogen generation market size is forecast to cross 180 billion by 2024, according to a new research report by global market. For the production of biohydrogen. we had chosen groundnut shell as our source, using Tween80 as a surfactant we had undergone pre-treatment studies for (10min,20min,30min,40min,50min) we had estimated the content of cellulose, protein, carbohydrates at (1%,2%,3%,4%,5%) and obtained the optimum value in the form of graph. The production of hydrogen is done by using the rumen fluid of the cow and the quantity of the hydrogen produced by this process is identified by using the analytical instrument Gas Chromatography.

Biorefineries convert biomasses in bioproducts and they contribute to transition to the circular economy. In this way it will be avoiding the penalty associated with generating a lot of waste. The first step in the obtention chain of bioproducts consists of the high value added products extraction. The following steps are aimed at the utilisation of all by-products or waste generated. The kinetic anaerobic digestion of these residues are evaluated in this research to produce biogas/methane. Pepper waste have been employed in batch and semi-continuous anaerobic digestion assays trying the optimization of the yields adding, as catalysts, absorbent nanoparticles and/or using strategies of pretreatment.

By the end of 2023, biowaste must be completely separated or recycled at source based on the EU legislation. Separate biowaste collection and valorisation towards biofuels could play an essential role in the biobased circular economy. In this context, the principal goal of this paper was to demonstrate in pilot scale the technological solution of bioethanol production via the utilisation of urban source-separated biowaste within the city context of Athens, Greece. More specifically, the main aim was the demonstration of a pilot system in continuous operation (over 10 operating cycles) with real feedstock – wet separately collected biowaste. From the 11 pilot trials performed with wet feedstock, the mean starch and cellulose degradation of the pilot trials amounted up to 80.69±16.27% and 79.41±10.37% respectively, while the bioethanol yield was 74.05±6.82%. The latter was comparable to that of more intensive pretreatment methods. Homogenization and shredding that was applied in this study, stand as promising and cost-effective pretreatment methods for bioethanol production from wet feedstock. Further research is needed to optimize conditions and evaluate scalability. Nevertheless, pilot scale testing is a crucial step in the development and deployment of this technology since it serves as a bridge between laboratory research and full-scale implementation, offering a practical and controlled environment to validate and optimize the technology while minimizing risks and uncertainties.

Recent years have experienced an increase in construction and demolition waste (C&amp;DW), which is the most significant solid waste stream. C&amp;DW is contributing to exceeding all planetary boundaries and presents a range of other issues. In order to better understand the existing research on C&amp;DW, a global bibliographic analysis was undertaken through seven groups of keyword searches and the results visualised using VOCviewer. The results show that C&amp;DW receives only a modest research attention compared to other areas of waste, and this is despite an exponential increase in C&amp;DW research since 2016. The analyses also show that concrete is the most researched material in terms of C&amp;DW, and that reuse, recycling, and circular economy are so far attracting only proportionally modest research attention. This signals a need for further acceleration of the C&amp;DW research, and specifically for more research on reuse, recycling, and circular economy for materials other than concrete.

In the face of 21st-century environmental challenges, including climate change, migration pressures, and waste disposal issues, certain healthcare sectors, notably dentistry, pose a significant global environmental footprint with concerns about carbon emissions and waste production. This scoping review delves into the paradox that healthcare, while dedicated to safeguarding health, inadvertently contributes to environmental degradation through waste accumulation and disposal. The analysis of relevant pertinent literature emphasizes the imperative for an environmentally sustainable approach to dental waste measurement, disposal methods, and comprehensive education for stakeholders. Aligned with the World Conference on Sustainable Development and the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, the study adhered to PRISMA-ScR scoping review guidelines and Institute of Medicine's recommendations. The study utilized Medline/PubMed and international organization websites for data retrieval, employing Boolean operator queries in Medline. A systematic literature analysis identified six cross-sectional studies (2004-2018) highlighting variations in dental waste composition due to the lack of standardized identification methods. This heterogeneity underscores the need for a proposed research model, emphasizing comprehensive methodologies and healthcare staff training in waste management. The study advocates for environmentally conscious dental practices, contributing to broader sustainable healthcare goals through sharing of a research protocol for dental solid waste management.

Waste orange peel represents a heavy burden for the orange juice industry, estimated in several million tons per year worldwide; nevertheless, this by-product is endowed with valuable bioactive compounds, such as pectin, polyphenols and terpenes. The potential value of the waste orange peel has stimulated the search for extraction processes, alternative or complementary to landfilling or to the integral energy conversion. This study introduces controlled hydrodynamic cavitation processes, as a new route to the integral valorization of this by-product, based on simple equipment, speed, effectiveness and efficiency, scalability, and compliance with green extraction principles. Waste orange peel, in batches of several kg, was processed in more than 100 L of water, absent any other raw materials, in a device comprising a Venturi-shaped cavitation reactor. The extractions of pectin, endowed with a very low degree of esterification, polyphenols (flavanones and hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives), and terpenes (mainly d-limonene) were effective and fast (high yield, few min of process time), as well as the biomethane generation potential of the process residues was effectively exploited. The achieved results proved the viability of the proposed route to the integral valorization of waste orange peel, though wide margins exist for further improvements.

Waste management is a significant issue that Indonesia must face. The presence of waste will always exist as long as life continues. One of the main challenges in waste management is the proper separation of organic and inorganic waste. As a solution to address this issue, the Ministry of Environment has made efforts to develop Waste Banks. However, it also creates new problems related to manual data collection, lack of monitoring by the community in implementing waste management activities, and a lack of specific reports regarding waste management conducted by officers. We propose the creation of a website using the Agile Development SDLC method. This website involve several steps and incorporate functions for data digitalization and expedited data collection, such as the addition of QR Code functionality, Monthly Reporting Function, and enhanced data security. The method used in this research is Agile Development. The application has been developed with a user-friendly interface and the latest web development technologies to ensure smooth performance. Overall, the web-based application for organic and inorganic waste using Laravel is an important step to promoting sustainable waste management practices.

The adoption of recycling and proper disposal techniques for electronic waste is crucial in advancing sustainable development. The traditional approaches of motivating people for collection of electronic waste are often insufficient due to inadequate methods reaching out, given incentives, calculating appropriate incentives associate to the task of gathering the electronic waste and a lack of transparency in the entire process. Insufficient collection of electronic waste could result in the release of numerous harmful substances into the environment. Prior research studies have been carried out to tackle the issue of electronic waste management in a broad sense. The findings of those studies indicated diverse strategies, each of which is relevant solely to a restricted range of electronic waste reprocessing circumstances. The current study has presented a proposed technique for incentivizing tasks and activities associated to collection of electronic waste through the adoption of vector space technique. Blockchain smart contact technology, has been used to implemented the strategy. The method used involves various well defined mapping of tasks, nature of activities, and their magnitude in order to derived an incentive. Some scenarios for the calculations of incentives are presented, and the findings reveals the based case is by utilizing weighting scale scheme where each tasks and activities are mapped to its associated inventive rather than providing fixed incentive values. Ethereum was used as digital token for each unit of incentive. This concept has contributed in encouraging personal accountability in the management of e-waste collection in order to cultivate sustainable behaviors for a long term solution.

Jade waste is a normal byproduct that makes up much more than the amount of jade extracted. Therefore, recycling jade waste is worth investigating from the point of view of energy conservation. Moreover, it is an environment-friendly material, which is desirable for use in building materials. In this study, Xiuyan jade waste was repurposed as antibacterial additives for building coatings. The powder waste was activated by milling and subsequent annealing. The antibacterial properties of the treated waste were mostly related to the annealing temperatures. Based on the investigations of the phase change and the release of metal ions of a series of samples and their antibacterial activities, the antibacterial mechanism of the treated samples was explored experimentally. The most applicable sample for coatings was finally chosen by considering its pH values and its antibacterial abilities. Antibacterial testing showed that the addition of treated jade waste could enhance the bacterial inhibition rate of building coatings from 60% to 99.9%.

Anthropogenic chemicals are fundamental to our standard of living in modern society. Unfortunately, some chemicals are persistent and can enter waste streams and ultimately the environment. Commonly used household products including pharmaceuticals and personal care products are an important source of contaminants. The aim of this study was to develop an “Up-the-pipe Solutions” framework to raise awareness about the presence and potential risks of chemicals found in household products to reduce their levels in waste streams or substitute them with less harmful alternatives. This approach based on The Natural Step framework and the concept of essentiality recognises the importance of engaging the community to raise awareness around the consequences of our daily activities and behavioural patterns that can lead to the release of persistent contaminants in main waste streams from the kitchen and bathroom and green wastes we generate.

The global food system has three recognized challenges: (a)increasing the availability of food consumption, (b) reducing food loss, and (c) reducing food waste. The increasing demand for food consumption, increasing quantity of food loss, and corresponding increase in food waste are resulting in serious health, aesthetic, social, economic, and environmental problems due to a lack of appropriate planning and management. Despite its importance, there is no clear, concise, and comprehensive definition of food consumption, loss, and waste. Generally, food consumption, food loss, and food waste are dealt with separately. This article presents a logically constructed ontological framework of food consumption, loss, and waste. It gives equal importance to all three aspects of global food management. The systematic ontological framework is general, and the analysis can be applied to any country. The framework deconstructs the combinatorial complexity of the problem and explicates the pathways to manage the consumption, loss, and waste. The ontological framework encapsulates 19*8*7*4*5*6 = 25,536 possible components of the challenge. A critical analysis based on available data using the framework will help to develop strategies to deal with the problem. It can help to discover the gaps and to find ways to bridge the gaps. It is novel to conceptualize food consumption, loss, and waste together.

Named herein “CytroCell”, the cellulosic material obtained via hydrodynamic cavitation of citrus processing waste in water is cellulose of low crystallinity, high porosity, good water holding capacity and good dispersibility in water. These properties, here demonstrated for the first time for lemon and grapefruit CytroCell, open the route to mass scale production of a useful functional material from a cheap and abundant biowaste. The process, indeed, does not require any pre-treatment of the raw material, and does not use acid, alkali, chemical oxidants or enzymes.

The use of food waste disposers in gastronomical facilities influence the municipal wastewater composition. Ground food waste poses problems in the operation of the sewerage network and generates high electric energy consumption in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The study aimed to determine, for five towns with a PE of 4,000 to 220,000, the volumes of catering waste discharged to the WWTPs. The towns differed in the number of inhabitants, beds in hotel and catering places. The calculations were made based on data received from the operators of WWTP. The pollutant concentrations in 2019, were compared with data from the "pandemic" year - 2020. The loads of catering waste entering the sewerage system in 2019 ranged from 32.7 to 1062 tons. In town with the largest tourist base, the BOD value in 2020 accounted for 62.3% of 2019 value. In the largest town, the annual energy consumption for food waste treatment could be up to 2,539,770 kWh. If the waste was fermented, it could be obtained up to 1,376,650 m3 of methane. There is a strong need for implementing a collection system for food waste from catering facilities and its fermentation to produce methane, which can be used for energy purposes.

This study explores the potential to reach a circular economy for post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) packaging and bottles by using it as a distributed recycling for additive manufacturing (DRAM) feedstock. Specifically, rPET is processed using only an open source toolchain with fused particle fabrication (FPF) or fused granular fabrication (FGF) processing. In this study, first the impact of granulation, sifting and heating (and their combination) is quantified on the shape and size distribution of the rPET flakes. Then feeding studies were performed to see if they could be printed through an external feeder or needed to be direct printed with a hopper using two Gigabot X machines, one with extended part cooling and one without. Print settings were optimized based on thermal characterization and for the latter which was shown to print rPET directly from shredded water bottles mechanical testing is performed. The results showed that geometry was important for extended feeding tubes and direct printed using a hopper. Further there is a wide disparity in the physical properties of rPET from water bottles depending on source and the history of the material. Future work is needed to enable water bottles to be used as a widespread DRAM feedstock.

Currently, the design of the concrete mix is an important part of the environmental problem. In front of this question, engineers face a major challenge that is addressed in two ways. On one hand, how do they use its component materials to improve its mechanical properties, on the other hand how do they use less polluting materials? Hence, in an environmental and economical view, laboratory tests were carried out on samples of concrete reinforced with smooth steel fiber extracted from the waste tires, in order to assess its impact and to prove its mechanical feasibility for these purposes. Consequently, laboratory results have shown satisfactory improvement in the behavior of concrete under compression loads in the elastic stage and an increase in ductility and toughness of the matrix in the plastic stage. Besides, taking into account the discontinuity and the structural disturbances observed during the loading of samples in the post-elastic state, a method has been proposed to calculate "the effective toughness and toughness Index of fiber concrete; on the other hand, this method has helped to better optimize length and slenderness of fibers for better use of this recycled material

Food waste is one of the greatest challenge to sustainability in developed and developing countries. In the former, food waste is concentrated in the final part of the chain. Too Good To Go is a digital platform aimed to prevent food waste, where consumers can buy magic boxes from different outlets containing food products that are approaching their end-of-life. However, the mechanism of the platform enable the outlets to publish their offering much in advance of the pick-up time, raising the question whether the food sold on the platform is effectively a leftover or a planned production. Our empirical study gathers data from over 1200 outlets in Rome on the Too Good To Go platform.

Starting from an original survey conducted in eight countries in 2021 (Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, UK, and USA), this research explores the relationship between household food waste and dietary habits in a cross-country comparative perspective. 8,000 questionnaires were recorded from samples representative of adult population of each country through an online survey conducted between the 13th and the 24th of August. The questionnaires were built on the work of Waste Watcher International Observatory on Food and Sustainability, an international observatory of social, behavioral and lifestyles dynamics behind household food waste. Relationship between per capita self-reported amount of food waste (expressed in kilocalories) and self-declared dietary habits (Traditional, Healthy and Sustainable, Vegetarian, Smart, Confused) was estimated using multiple linear regression models. Results show that Smart diets are associated with higher values of food waste in Canada, Spain, UK and USA. Vegetarian diets are associated to lower food waste values in China, Germany, UK and USA but not in Italy, Russia and Spain. Since the share of population adopting a Smart diet is on average 2.7% of the sample, interventions for food waste reduction should focus on this specific type of consumers, often associated to larger amounts of food waste.

The consideration toward Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) is changing from hazardous waste to valuable raw material for industrial application. During the last five years some innovative processes based on the employment of recycled WCO have appeared in the literature. In the present review article, the most recent applications of recycled Waste Cooking Oil are reported and discussed. These include the production of bio-plasticizers, the application of chemicals derived from WCOs as energy vectors, and the use of WCOs as solvent for pollutant agents.

Inadequately managed agricultural waste significantly impacts the environment, health, and economy. This form of pollution arises from the underutilization, poor awareness, and insufficient treatment of agricultural waste. Fruit and vegetable wastes are valuable sources of bioactive compounds. This study aims to revalorize discarded waste from red habanero chili peppers (Capsicum chinense) by extracting bioactive compounds through different extraction processes: maceration (ME), maceration assisted by ultrasound (US), Soxhlet extraction (SE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), and supercritical fluid extraction with a co-solvent (SFEC). Extraction processes have significant effects on extraction efficiency and phytochemical profile (capsaicinoids and carotenoids recovery). The results indicate that the highest efficiency process is obtained with SFEC, also a high phytochemicals recovery (14.9 mg of total capsaicinoids and total carotenoids 292.09 µg per gram of sample). Concerning to phytochemical profile in the extract, the maceration process gets the highest concentration of compound followed by US and SFEC. These data reveal that the use of SFE and SFEC extraction is recommended for extraction of phytochemicals with biologically activity from red habanero chili pepper waste for diverse industries application.

A tumbler screen type residual film–impurity mixture wind separator as a key equipment for secondary utilization of farmland residual film. During the working process, the proportion of impurities in the separated waste mulch film intermittently increases, resulting in poor working stability of the device, which may hamper long-term operation. In this study, the material inside the separation unit was continuously monitored, and the main factor affecting separator per-formance was determined to be the challenges in the effective depolymerization of some residual film–impurity mixtures. The principles of agglomeration and depolymerization of the residual film–impurity mixtures were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) flow-solid coupling simulation methods. The key factor affecting the disaggregation of the mixture was the collision force between the residual film–impurity mixture and the trommel screen. The collision force was maximum when the residual film–impurity mixture first collided with the trommel screen when it was fed into the separation device. As determined by force analyses, the key factors affecting the collision force of the process were the material feeding amount and the structure of the inlet. Furthermore, simulations were carried out for different inlet structure forms; the evaluation index was the maximum collision force of the residual film–impurity mixture agglomerate on the trommel screen. The best disaggregation effect was obtained with a square feed inlet and at a feeding rate of 202 kg/h. A prototype was built using these specifications for verification. The average value of the ratio of impurities in the re-sidual film was 6.966%, the coefficient of variation was 7.38%, and the dispersion of statistical results was small. The ratio of impurities in the residual film was kept constant during the con-tinuous operation of the wind separator. Thus, this study analyzed the agglomerate disaggregation process and provided theoretical insights for deter-mining the optimal structures of the inlets of various cleaning devices and the feeding volumes.

The accurate classification of landfill waste diversion plays a critical role in efficient waste management practices. Traditional approaches, such as visual inspection, weighing and volume measurement, and manual sorting, have been widely used but suffer from subjectivity, scalability, and labour requirements. In contrast, machine learning approaches, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), have emerged as powerful deep learning models for waste detection and classification. This paper analyses VGG-16, InceptionResNetV2, DenseNet121, Inception V3, and MobileNetV2 models to classify real-life waste when trained on pristine and unadulterated materials, versus samples collected at a landfill site. When training on DiversionNet, the unadulterated material dataset with labels required for landfill modelling, classification accuracy was limited to 49.69% in the real environment. Using real-world samples in the newly formed RealWaste dataset showed that practical applications for deep learning in waste classification is possible, with Inception V3 reaching 89.19% classification accuracy on the full spectrum of labels required for accurate modelling.

Solid spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants has 3.4% fission products (80-160amu), contributing to over 99.8% radioactivity. On the other hand, liquid high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) from spent fuel reprocessing has 98.9% bulk elements (0-60amu) with 0.1% radioactivity. A separation mechanism on the mass categories as groups presents unique opportunities in managing HLRW for the long term with a considerable cost reduction. This paper proposes a thermal plasma-based separation system incorporating atmospheric pressure plasma torches for HLRW mass separation into low-resolution mass groups. Several engineering issues, such as waste preparation, waste injection into the plasma and waste collecting after mass separation, need to be addressed. Using COMSOL Multiphysics simulation, the generic system can be studied using noble gas mass separation and further analyze the mass filter capabilities. This paper provides the history of plasma-based mass separation. Functional modelling of a thermal plasma mass separation system is proposed under atmospheric pressure. Finally, aspects of mass separation simulation using noble gas Argon and Helium inside the plasma mass separation system were studied in COMSOL Multiphysics.

Municipal landfills play a vital role in disposing of the solid waste from a community. One of the biggest challenges landfill management face is when the available storage space is being reduced faster than the rate that was planned for. This shortening of the landfill lifecycle impacted the city of Wilmington, Delaware when it was found that their landfill had lost 11 years of its projected lifespan and would reach fully capacity within the next decade. In order to remedy the situation six alternative solutions were devised, with each having different costs (capital, operating, and transport) and varying lengths of landfill extension. This research used the principle of optimization via a LINDO program to determine which solution would achieve the longest landfill extension for the minimum total cost. Other constraints placed on the program include reducing the waste being sent to the landfill and to achieve a minimum of 25 additional years for the landfill. The calculated solution produced a cost reduction of $232.64 million dollars and 3.2 additional years of operation from the option that was eventually chosen by the landfill authority.

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) represents 1/3 of the weight of all-waste produced. Increasing their recycling and reutilization with recycled aggregates (RA) means closing the life cycle of construction materials. Research has been carried out on artificial aggregates from the exclusive crushing of structural concrete waste in selective demolitions (CDWRConc). This study analyses the use of recycled concrete as graded aggregate (GARConc) and in cement soil (CSRConc). The material complies with the requirements as a road base, although due to the low values of resistance to fragmentation these materials are adequate for use in sensitive road systems and other places such as urban roads and car parks. The sensitive road systems are infrastructures in places of great natural wealth and low traffic intensity, with an annual average of heavy vehicle traffic (AADTh) below 50 vhp/d. As soluble salt contents have been detected, additional waterproofing or drainage measures must be adopted to prevent water infiltration into the layers made up of CDWRHorm. Finally, the high initial values of UCS allow the temporary passage of light vehicles over CSRConc after 3 days.

The basic principles of geological risk calculation through Probability of Success (PoS) are mostly applied for numerical estimation of additional hydrocarbon existence in proven reservoirs or potential hydrocarbon discoveries in selected geological regional subsurface volume. It can be tailored and validated for a comprehensive input dataset collected in the selected petroleum province, adapted by dividing up geological events into several probability categories and classes. The most applied categories are (existence of) reservoir rocks, traps and isolators, source rocks, migration pathways and preservation conditions for hydrocarbons The methodology results in unique probability values as multiplication of independent statistical events, which can also be applied in the assessment of a potential hydrocarbon discovery of desired minimal volume and its value in any virtual currency like risk-neutral dollars. Such methodology has been extensively developed in the last decades in the Croatian subsurface, mostly in the Croatian part of the Pannonian Basin System (CPBS). Through the adaptation of geological categories, it was also applied in hybrid, i.e., stochastical, models developed in the CPBS (Drava Depression). Stochastically estimation of porosity was already applied. As the robustness of this methodology is very high, it was also modified to estimate the influence of water-flooding in increasing oil recovery in some proven Neogene sandstone reservoirs in the CPBS (Sava Depression). This new modification is being presented to be applied to geological risk calculation, intending to assess the safety of geological environment in deep wells, where depleted radioactive fuel would be disposed, a subject of great importance. The case study encompassed the magmatic and metamorphic rocks in the pre-Neogene basement of the CPBS. For disposal purpose, these are regionally lithologies considered as to be the safest ones considering petrophysical values, water saturation, recent weathering and tectonic activity.

This paper presents the results of investigations on the pyrolysis of tyres waste in a laboratory fixed bed batch reactor. The results regarding the influence of either the reaction temperature (425, 450, 475, and 500 °C) and the flow of the inert gas (0, 100, 300, and 500 mL/min) on products yield (referred to pyrolysis of waste tyres) are also considered and discussed. On the basis of the above mentioned findings, the most appropriate experimental conditions were selected to contribute to a higher yield of pyrolysis oil. The sample of pyrolysis oil obtained from the experiments carried out in the selected optimal conditions (reaction time 120 min, temperature 450 °C and the inert gas flow of 100 mL/min) was subjected to a calorimetric and infrared spectroscopy analysis. The results of IR spectroscopy analysis on this oil sample showed the following content in percentages (by mass): 32.59 % of aromatics, 51.06 % of paraffins and 16.35 % of naphthenes. The pyrolysis oil so obtained has a high calorific value (42 MJ/kg) and a low sulfur content (0.41 % by mass), which makes it an excellent raw material for energy production. The solid product, i.e. pyrolysis char or carbon black, has the potential to be used as an adsorbent or catalyst support after an activation process, which changes its irregular pore structure to a more voluminous one, making the overall structure more crystalline and symmetrical. Pyrolysis coal has a fairly high calorific value of 31 MJ/kg, when compared to typical solid fuels, so it can be used in energy production or as a feedstock for the gasification process.

In this study, 12 organic waste materials were subjected to TG/DTG thermogravimetric analysis and DSC calorimetric analysis. These analyses provided basic information about thermochemical transformations and degradation rates during organic waste pyrolysis. Waste materials were chosen to cover the most abundant waste that can be found in the municipal solid waste stream. Based on TG results, kinetic parameters according to Coats–Redfern method were determined. The pyrolysis activation energy was the highest for cotton 134.5 kJ∙(mol∙K)-1 and the lowest for leather 25.2 kJ∙(mol∙K)-1. The DSC analysis showed number of transformations occurred during pyrolysis for each material. For each transformation, normalized energy required for transformation, or released during transformation were determined and then summarized to present energy balance. The study found that only for three waste materials: PET (-220.1 J⸱g-1), leather (-66.9 J⸱g-1), and chicken meat (-130.3 J⸱g-1) energy balance was negative, while the highest positive balance value was found for potato peelings (367.8 J⸱g-1). The obtained results may be applied for the modelling of energy and mass balance of municipal solid waste pyrolysis.

Plastics play a pivotal role in the principles of a circular economy, where their effective recycling post-utilization, leading to economic value generation and minimal environmental harm, is crucial for achieving sustainable management. Extensive research has delved into the incorporation of waste plastics in concrete, showcasing promising outcomes with a myriad of advantages..The escalating volume of plastic waste is becoming a pressing issue, contributing to environmental pollution, particularly in densely populated cities and towns in Nigeria such as Delta, Aba, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Enugu, Benue, and Ogun. These urban centers experience high consumption of goods packaged or sealed in plastic materials. Tourist destinations are also affected as large quantities of plastic waste are improperly disposed of or incinerated, resulting in environmental contamination and air pollution. Efforts to address this growing concern are crucial to safeguarding the environment and public health in these regions.Therefore, it is imperative to find effective ways to utilize these waste plastics. By cleaning low-density polyethylene bags and combining them with sand at specific proportions, high-strength bricks can be produced. These bricks not only exhibit thermal and sound insulation properties but also help in pollution control and cost reduction in construction projects. This innovative approach not only addresses the issue of accumulating plastic waste, a non-biodegradable pollutant, but also offers a sustainable solution to manage plastic waste while contributing to the construction industry's efficiency and environmental protection., By incorporating waste plastic and nylon into brick production, we not only reduce the amount of sand extracted from our natural resources like rivers and seas but also utilize the surplus plastic waste that is currently discarded. This research focuses on creating eco-friendly bricks by incorporating molten plastic, nylon, and plastic bottles in varying percentages (0 to 15% by weight) along with 5kg of fly ash. The experimental results from this study will shed light on the feasibility and benefits of using these materials in brick manufacturing, highlighting the potential of sustainable construction practices that minimize environmental impact and resource depletion, The experimental process involved utilizing cement and sand to complete the brick composition, with curing conducted underwater for 29 days followed by baking at temperatures between 100°C to 120°C for 2 hours. The resulting eco-friendly bricks exhibited key characteristics such as being lightweight, porous, having low thermal conductivity, and displaying appreciable mechanical strength. Interestingly, the compressive strengths of these bricks, post the addition of waste plastic and nylon, were found to be comparable to that of conventional bricks. Additionally, these eco-friendly bricks showcased reduced water absorption capacity compared to regular bricks, offering a promising alternative for sustainable and efficient construction practices.The eco-friendly bricks made from A, B, C, and D using 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% plastic/nylon waste showed comprehensive strengths of 19.5 ,19.46, 20.3, and 21.1 respectively, with corresponding water absorption percentages of 0.34, 0.25, 0.22, 0.20, and 0.085. The efflorescence values were lower than those of normal bricks. These bricks are likely to enhance energy efficiency in buildings and provide economic value to manufacturers, thereby promoting a sustainable ecosystem for plastic waste management with the involvement of all stakeholders.

Solvent free copolymerization of epoxides derived from fatty acid esters of waste cooking oil with phthalic anhydride using (salen)CrIII Cl as catalyst and n-Bu4NCl/DMAP as co-catalyst was carried out for the first time under microwave irradiation, where reaction time was reduced from number of hours to minutes. The polyesters were obtained with molecular weight (Mw = 3084-6740 g/mol) and dispersity values (D = 1.18-1.92), when (salen)CrIII Cl/n-Bu4NCl was used as catalysts. While in case of DMAP as a co-catalyst, polyesters with improved molecular weight (Mw = 5537-6925 g/mol) and narrow dispersity values (D = 1.07-1.28) were obtained even at reduced concentrations of (salen)CrIII Cl and DMAP. The obtained products were characterized and evaluated by attenuated total reflection-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) Techniques.

In this study on volume determination in waste sorting facilities, we evaluate the effectiveness of ultrasonic sensors and address waste-material-specific challenges. Although ultrasonic sensors offer a cost-effective automation solution, their accuracy is affected by irregular waste shapes, varied compositions, and environmental factors. Notable inconsistencies in volume measurements between storage bunkers and conveyor belts underscore the need for a comprehensive approach to standardize bale production. With prediction reliability being constrained by limited data sets, undocumented modifications to machine-settings and sensor failures, this task renders a challenging application area for Machine Learning. We explore related research and present dataset analyses from three distinct waste sorting facilities in Europe, addressing issues as sensor usability, data quality and material specifics. Our analysis suggests promising strategies and future directions for enhancing waste volume measurement accuracy, ultimately aiming to advance sustainable waste management.

This paper presents the life cycle assessment results of a study of plastic recycling via hydrothermal upgrading (HTU), a chemical recycling technology. It was investigated due to its potential to address current gaps in the plastic recycling system, largely due to several plastic packaging materials and formats that cannot be processed by traditional mechanical recycling technologies (primarily due to technoeconomic reasons). As society transitions towards a net-zero-based circular economy, assessments should be conducted with a futuristic outlook, preventing costly mistakes by employing the right technologies in the right areas. HTU can generate up to 76% reduction in climate change impacts when compared with comparable end-of-life treatment technologies whilst conserving material with the system. Additionally, further reductions could be achieved by changes in electricity consumption within the study. This represents a new insight to chemical recycling of polymers by establishing a prospective life cycle assessment study that looks to introduce a step-change in the recycling system. By creating a transparent cut-off model with consistent allocation, it highlights the benefits of introducing this technology as opposed to the current model of disposal through incineration or landfill.

The global demand for rubber is on a steady rise, which is driven by the increasing production of automobiles and the growing need for industrial, medical, and household products. This surge in demand has led to a significant increase in rubber waste, posing a major global environmental challenge. End-of-life tire (ELT) is a primary source of rubber waste, which possesses significant environmental hazards due to its massive stockpiles. While landfilling is a low-cost and easy-to-implement solution, it is now largely prohibited due to environmental concerns. Recently, ELT rubber waste has garnered considerable attention for its potential applications in civil engineering and construction. These applications not only enhance sustainability but also foster a circular economy between ELT rubber waste and the civil engineering and construction sectors. This review article concentrates on the recent research progress and challenges in the civil engineering applications of ELT rubber waste. It also discusses commercially available recycled rubber-based construction materials, their properties, testing standards, and certification. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a discussion on commercial products has been presented.

The predominant management approach for municipal solid waste (MSW) remains disposal, given significant increases in generation and disposal rates of MSW in recent decades. In addition to the well-documented carbon emissions from disposal sites, these sites accumulate numerous elements, the masses of which are substantial globally yet inadequately quantified. The unique combinations of waste constituents, elements, diverse environments, and confined spaces in disposal sites create distinct biogeochemical conditions, setting them apart from any other infrastructure or geological feature on Earth. This review first presents a global summary of the cumulative masses and disposal rates of MSW constituents and associated elements. The five dominant transformation and transport processes influencing disposed elements are examined: biochemical degradation, physicochemical transformation, gas migration, leachate migration, and solid spillage. The magnitudes and rates of the processes corresponding to major disposed elements, including carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, chlorine, and several metals, are systematically summarized. We examine and quantify the potential environmental impacts and health risks associated with element transformation and transport. We also explore the existing knowledge and techniques for resource recovery and site remediation of disposal sites. The distilled compilation of measurements and insights herein serves as a valuable primer for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers involved in MSW management.

As a hazardous waste, pickling waste liquor must be properly treated. An alternative consists in promoting the formation of ferrous salts from this residue, due to its higher ferrous content. Since FeCl2·4H2O is widely used in several applications, obtaining pure crystals of this material appears to be an interesting prospect. However, this compound has scarcely been investigated. In the present work, FeCl2·4H2O crystals have been obtained from pickling waste liquors. Their structural and morphological characteristics have been investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy as well as Mössbauer spectroscopy. In addition, the photoluminescence study of the obtained samples was also assessed. It was observed that after some aging time, the obtained crystals change in colour from green to more yellowish. So, the aged sample has also been evaluated, and their structural characteristics are compared with the original crystals. Despite this, the obtained crystals exhibit a FeCl2·4H2O structure, which is not modified with the aging of the sample.

Economic theory states that incineration and landfill taxation can effectively diminish the environmental impacts of pollution and resource use by reducing their associated pollutants while stimulating the reuse and recycling of materials, and therefore, fostering a circular economy. The aim of this research is to assess the economic and environmental effects of these taxes in Spain under different scenarios with a detailed dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, as there are no studies analyzing this in detail. We focus on the economic impact on GDP and sectorial production and the environmental impact on different categories: global warming potential, marine eutrophication potential, photochemical ozone formation potential, particulate matter, human toxicity (cancer and noncancer), ecotoxicity, and depletion of fossil resources. We find in all scenarios that these taxes have a limited economic impact while reducing all of the environmental impact categories analyzed. The study reinforces the theory that policy makers need to impose taxes on landfill and incineration to reinforce the circularity of the economy and reduce environmental burdens, but also demonstrates that they can improve their design without additional costs.

A winemaking waste was used as a precursor of activated carbon used in hazardous Cr(VI) removal from solutions. The preparation process consisted of a hydrothermal process, and a chemical activation, of the resulting product, with KOH. The adsorption results showed that the adsorption of Cr(VI) on the obtained activated carbon is strongly dependent on the stirring speed applied to the carbon/solution mixture, pH of the solution, and temperature. The equilibrium isotherm was well fitted to the Langmuir type-II equation, whereas the kinetic can be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies revealed that Cr(VI) adsorption was an exothermic and spontaneous process. Finally, desorption experiments showed that Cr(VI) was effectively desorbed using hydrazine sulfate solutions, and at the same time, the element was reduced to the less hazardous Cr(III) oxidation state.

As one of the important wastes, waste PET pollutes human living and natural environment seriously. PET is an important solid waste that needs to be recycled at present. The complete degradation of PET was realized at low temperature. The lipophilic hydrophobic membrane was formed on the surface of stainless steel mesh (SSM) by a simple dip coating method, and the oil-water separation material was successfully prepared. Due to the load of degradation products, the surface roughness of SSM increased from 19.09 μm increased to 62.33 μm. The surface changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, and the water contact angle increased to 123o. The oil-water separation flux of modified SSM is 9825 L/(m2·h) and the separation efficiency is 98.99%. The modified SSM has good reuse performance. This hydrophobic modification method can also be used to modify other porous substrates, such as activated carbon, filter paper, foam, and other materials. In this study, the porous substrate modified by the degradation product of waste PET was used to prepare oil-water separation materials, which not only solved the problem of white pollution, but also reduced the dependence on non renewable resources in the conventional preparation methods of oil-water separation materials. The research provided new raw materials and methods for the industrial production of oil-water separation materials, and had important application prospects.

Organic fertilizers are fertilizers made from organic materials which are partly or wholly derived from waste materials, the function of these fertilizers is to improve the physical, biological, and chemical properties of the soil, these fertilizers are processed through the composting process, these fertilizers are very much needed because they are difficult to obtain at a high price. expensive. This study aims to obtain data on the growth and yield of sweet corn, due to the use of agricultural waste as organic fertilizer. The research method was experimentally consisting of 5 treatments and 5 replications; ie P0 = Without organic fertilizer (control) P1 = Dosage of organic fertilizer 2.5 tons/ha, P2 = Dosage of organic fertilizer 5 tons/ha P3 = Dosage of organic fertilizer 7.5 tons/ha, P4 = Dosage of organic fertilizer 10 tons /ha using a Randomized Block Design (RBD) The results showed that organic fertilizer had a significant effect on plant height aged 30, 40 and 50 DAP, had a very significant effect on cob length at a dose of 10 t.ha-1 and, had no significant effect on cob weight, will still have a high weight of 350 g.cob-1 From this description it can be concluded that organic compost can be used as a substitute for chemical fertilizers which provides an increase in the growth and production of sweet corn plants at the use of 10 tons/ha.

More than 800 million tons of fish are utilizing in a year and 25-30% become waste. The waste amount is beneficial source for extraction of collagen. But procedure of extraction is still to be optimized. The current study was designed to extract collagen from fish through fish waste fermentation under various conditions. For collagen extraction we did lactic acid fermentation in which yogurt and Dough bacteria was added with fish sample and placed it in incubator at 30ºC for one month. In yogurt and dough culture have at least 10 type of lactic acid bacterial species. After every week we check PH of each sample and take soup of that sample. After centrifugation of that sample’s TCA (Trichloroacetic acid) precipitation was done of yogurt and dough sample and kept at -20ºC. then did SDS-PAGE) using 6% resolving and 5% stacking gel of already stored sample. Then HaCaT cells (1 × 10⁴ cells/well) were cultured in 96-well flat-bottom culture plates and treated with appropriate doses of FFCP (fermented fish collagen peptide) for 24 and 48 hours.The SDS-PAGE revealed that the collagen protein of fish had doublet pattern for α1 and α2 chains at corresponding to 145 kDa and 132 kDa respectively. The density for α1 twice as compared to α2. Our result agrees that The fish collagen consists mostly of α-chain as well as little amount of inter and intra molecular cross-linked components of α-chains; b (dimmer) and c (trimer). Different biochemical tests were done for identification of lactic acid bacteria catalase positive, citrate positive, urease negative. Our fermented fish collagen and peptides mixture were test for cellular cytotoxicity and proliferative effect on HaCaT cells. Current result shows that fermented extracted collagen are nontoxic and induce the proliferation of HaCaT cells. Current study is supported by various studies that revealed the medical application of fish extracted collagen as underline.

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is a significant environmental threat, and an economic and social challenge to manage. As such, the efficient treatment of OFMSW is a significant key factor in achieving sustainable waste management. Decentralized Composting (DC) develops a new framework of waste management. The DC Analysis Model (DCAM), proposed in our previous study, provides a powerful tool for decision makers, based on the quantification of the DC project characteristics. In this paper, we focus on the qualitative analysis as a complementary tool to support decision making, in cases where quantitative analysis is unequivocal. The qualitative analysis identifies the main players in the field, the critical stakeholders and the potential conflicts between them. It also reveals the root problems and the core competencies for the project's implementation. DCAM qualitative analysis in Shefa-Amr (case study) indicates that unresolved root problems, such as the “lack of national regulation”, “clear ownership of the project” and “lack of ongoing budget” can result in an unsustainable composting system. Countering that, “the commitment of the municipality”, together with “economic viability” and securing “suitable areas for placing composters” are among the most important core competencies for the effective implementation of DC projects.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the feasibility of using waste from granite gang saws (GCW-GS) to manufacture ultra-high performance, steel-fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC). These machines cut granite blocks by abrasion using a steel blade and slurry containing fine steel grit. The waste generated by gang saws (GCW-GS) contains up to 15% Fe2O3 and up to 5% CaO. This is the main difference from the waste produced by diamond saws (GCW-D). Consequently, the second objective of this study is to compare the results of the waste obtained with gang saws with that from diamond saws, in order to determine the influence of iron and calcium oxides. The waste from cutting granite with gang saws was used in different percentages to replace micronized quartz powder of natural origin in the manufacture of UHPRFC. All the test specimens were analysed to determine their compressive strength, elasticity modulus, flexural strength and indirect tensile strength. The final conclusion is that wastes from both gang saws and diamond saws can be used to manufacture UHPFRC with an improvement in the mechanical properties up to a 35% replacement. The results for GCW-GS are better, mainly due to the pozzolanic effect of the iron dioxide. For higher percentage replacements the mechanical properties are close to the control concrete with small decreases.

Using machine learning or deep learning to solve the problem of garbage recognition and classification is an important application in computer vision, but due to the incomplete establishment of garbage datasets and the poor performance of complex network models on smart terminal devices, the existing garbage classification models The effect is not good.This paper presents a waste classification and identification method base on transfer learning and lightweight neural network. By migrating the lightweight neural network MobileNetV2 and rebuild it, The reconstructed network is used for feature extraction, and the extracted features are introduced into the SVM to realize the identification of 6 types of garbage. The model was trained and verified by using 2527 pieces of garbage labeled data in the TrashNet dataset, which ultimately resulted in a classification accuracy of 98.4% of the method, which proves that the method can effectively improve the classification accuracy and time and overcome the problem of weak data and less labeling. The over-fitting phenomenon encountered by small data sets in deep learning makes the model robust.

The anaerobic digestion (AD) of rumen residues and wheat straw in different proportions of inoculum (66.67, 50, 33.33 %V/V) to substrate and their co-digestion potential have been exhaustively studied in this research. It explores variation of feedstock characteristics such as biodegradability and methane potential during AD and anaerobic co-digestion (ACoD) of rumen residues (RR) with wheat straw (WS), under mesophilic conditions. Comparative performance was made with a organic load rate of 18 gVS/L (with 2:1, 1:1 and 1:2 g/g VS of inoculum to substrate). Among different kinetic models studied (modified Gompertz model, transfer model and logistic function), the AD and ACoD of substrates showed better fit to Gompertz model (R2: 0.977–0.997) indicating variation in lag phase and methane production rate depending on the substrate characteristics. During AD, the methane yield improved as the inoculum ratio increased, however, there was no significant difference in ACoD yield from RR to WS for the inoculum to substrate ratios studied, due to the synergistic effect as a result. of greater biodegradability and optimal conditions (such as the C/N ratio). A comparison of methane generation means indicated that maximum methane production can be achieved by mixing rumen residue (75 %) and wheat straw (25 %) with a C/N ratio of (38.15).

Recently, the amount of waste generated has been rapidly increasing, there have been difficulties disposing of waste in Korea. As a solution to this, treating waste using a cement kiln has suggested, but the environmental and economic effects have not been specifically studied. In this study, the effects of alternative resources, and reducing the social costs(Installation and Operation) associated with waste treatment facilities were analyzed. Through a co-processing method, a reduction of approximately 53kg of CO2 can be realized during the production of one ton of cement, and cost savings of about 3,815 milion USD. Another effect is an extension of the expiration date for landfills by 7.55 years.

Background: Food waste has been a major social problem in recent years. Annually, 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted worldwide. It is recommended that food waste should be reduced at every stage of production. By-products from food processing have high nutritional value; therefore their use in the design of new products is advisable. Methods: By-products from tomato processing (tomato waste-TW) and pepper (defatted pepper seeds-DPS, pepper placenta-PP) were used at a level of 10-30% to produce extruded pasta. The farinographic characteristics, chemical composition, cooking quality, and color of the pasta were studied. Results: The results showed a significant up to 27% increase in the protein content in the TW30 samples, compared to the control. The TDF content increased over five times in DPS30 and TW30 (27.99% and 25.44%). The amino acid composition of the pasta improved with the fortification, but failed to achieve the complete protein by FAO. The DPS30, PP20, PP30, and all TW samples can be considered high-protein products according to the EU definition (min. 20% energy from protein). Conclusion: Vegetable waste can be a valuable additive for improvement of the nutritional value of food. Their addition is part of the zero-waste trend, which has a positive impact on the environment.

Development of high nutritious bakery products with optimum utilization of food waste is a major challenge for food industries. Food waste is major challenge in an each country. The optimum utilization of food waste for sustainable development goal of country is important ant for growth of the nation. The aim of the present work is to prepare value-added composite flour mixed bread from wastes of fruit and vegetables. The composite flour was prepared in four formulations of Peel and Pomace Wheat Flour (PPWF), as PPWF1, PPWF2, PPWF3 and PPWF4. Compositing flour was blended by a mix of vegetable and fruits pomace powders and whole wheat flour. Indian gooseberry pomace powder, apple pomace powder, bottle gourd peel powder, and potato peel powder were used with whole wheat flour to make pomace and whole wheat flour compositions as PPWF1, PPWF2, PPWF3 and PPWF4. Broadly this work was divided into three phases, first phase has conducted nutritional and functional analysis on peel and pomace powders individually, which shows the significance of using them for our research work. The second phase works in the creation of composite flours with different composition ratios as discussed above as PPWF. This phase shows the nutritional and functional analysis of four composite flours. Out of these four flours, PPWF3 contained a good amount of fiber 8.16%, crude protein 3.18%, total phenolic content 14.48%, moisture 9.5%, vitamin C 13.64mg/100g, and total phenolic compound 14.48(mg/GAE/g) which are maximum and acceptable range values as compared to other three composite flours and the wheat flour-control group flour. Then in the third phase, the PPWF3 is used as a partial replacement ratio of wheat flour in wheat flour due to its high phenolic content, Vitamin C, and the richness of fibers. This composite flour is used to make bread dough, two samples G1 and G2 are made; out of which G2 offers better nutritional, functional, and sensory evaluations in comparison with refined wheat four bread is taken as a control group. Thus, such utilization of food wastes in bread making can generate a value of wastes and can improve nutritional attributes of bread, which may improve an individual’s health.

As the additive manufacturing industry grows, it is compounding the global plastic waste problem. Distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM) offers an economic solution to this challenge, but it has been relegated to either small-volume 3D printers (limiting waste recycling throughput) or expensive industrial machines (limiting accessibility and lateral scaling). To overcome these challenges, this paper provides proof-of-concept for a novel open-source hybrid 3D printer that combines a low-cost hanging printer design with a compression screw-based end-effector that allows direct extrusion of recycled plastic waste in large expandable printing volumes. Mechanical testing of the resultant prints from 100% waste plastic, however, showed that combining challenges of non-uniform feedstocks and a heavy printhead for a hangprinter reduced the strength of the parts compared to fused filament fabrication. The preliminary results are technologically promising, however, and provide opportunities to improve on the open source design to help process the volumes of waste plastic needed for DRAM to address the negative environmental impacts of global plastic use.

The regional recycling of plant waste from municipal green space maintenance, private households and private gardens is traditionally carried out in partially open composting plants. In addition to climate-relevant gases, dust, germs and odours are emitted. Compared to aerobic rotting the pyrolysis at higher temperatures and/or reforming offers industrial utilisation of plant based biowaste, with additional availability of energetic by-products. A high-quality plant charcoal derived from a pilot plant is used in a one-year field trial to establish a theoretical comparability with substrates from composting. The advantages and disadvantages of composting and high-quality pyrolysis is shown for comparison, to foster further investigation in advanced technologies for production of plant charcoal aiming the sequester of biogenic Carbondioxide.

This study was undertaken to forecast waste generation rates of accommodation sector of North Cyprus as a case. Three predictor models including multiple linear regression (MLR), artificial neural networks (ANNs) and central composite design (CCD) were applied to predict the waste generation rate during the lean and peak seasons. ANN showed highest prediction performance, specifically, lowest values of the standard error of prediction (SEP = 2.153), mean absolute error (MAE=1.378) and highest R2 value (0.998) confirmed the accuracy of the model. The analysed wastes were categorised into recyclable, general waste and food residues. The authors estimated the total waste generated during the lean season as 2010.5 kg/day, in which large-sized hotel accounted for largest fraction (66.7%), followed by the medium hotels (19.4%) and guesthouse accounted for smallest part (2.6%). During the peak season, about 49.6% increases in the waste generation rates were obtained. Interestingly, 45% of the wastes were generated by the British tourists while the least waste was generated by African tourists (7.5%). The ANN predicted that the small and large hotels would produce 5.45 and 22.24 tons of waste by the year 2020, respectively. The findings herein are promising and useful in establishing a sustainable waste management system.

Traditionally there is a gap between reactor operation and the consideration of nuclear waste in the final disposal. Fuel is produced and fuel must be disposed of in the view of the reactor operator, fuel has to be cleaned in the reprocessing and new solid fuel has to be produced in the view of the chemist. iMAGINE is designed to overcome this separation through the breakthrough development applying an optimized, integrative approach from cradle to grave of nuclear energy production as a first step to come as close as possible to the vision of zero waste nuclear power. It is described here the first time all in three the steps: reactor, fuel cycle, waste, providing the ratio behind each of the choices taken to come to the overall solution to open the discussion and thinking process on what could be achieved by a really innovative approach to integrated nuclear energy production. The opportunities regarding the handling of the remaining waste will be discussed with a view on the expectation of the final disposal community, the study ‘Nuclear waste from small modular reactors’, and the IAEA report ‘waste from innovative types of reactors and fuel cycles - a preliminary study. The aim of the is not to find answers to each of the raised points, but to identify first potential approaches and potentially promising ways to go, as well as to stimulate a discussion among experts. In the best case this could lead to a change of track for nuclear to become an even more sustainable and at least as important, trusted technology to help solve the net-zero challenge.

Pyrolysis has been applied in the human economy for many years, and it has become a significant alternative to the production of chemical compounds, including biofuels. The article focuses mostly on recent achievements in the technical and processing aspects of pyrolysis. This review provides an overview of the recent advanced pyrolysis technology used in gas, bio-oil, and biochar production. The key parameters to maximize the production of specific chemical compounds were discussed and considered during the construction of the reactors. The emphasis is put on optimizing the process parameters, technical requirements, and renewable energy use in the process and conception to improve the efficiency of product production. The application of pyrolysis gas, oil, and biochar as valuable chemical compounds are related to the intensifying effects of climate change, biofuel production, and waste management in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.

Little research has been done on occupational health ramifications of informal electronic waste (e-waste) recycling work, which is increasingly common in low- and middle-income countries, and very little is known about this in high-income countries. Our study evaluated informal and formal e-waste recycling workers in Chile, which was recently recognized as a high-income country. In 2017 we recruited 78 informal recycling workers from two cities, and 15 formal e-waste recycling workers from one recycling facility. Participants completed a questionnaire and health assessment regarding their involvement in, and potential impacts of, e-waste recycling, among other measures. Participants were primarily male, middle-aged, married with children, and had worked in e-waste recycling for an average of 12 years. Participants generally reported good health status, and chronic disease prevalence was similar to the national prevalence. Workers commonly reported exposures to several occupational stressors, including mental health stressors and noise, as well as insufficient income. Occupational injuries were common and use of safety equipment was low. No significant differences were found between informal and formal workers. Informal e-waste workers in Chile face occupational health challenges. The extent to which these issues impact the health of informal Chilean e-waste workers is unclear and warrants further research.

The treatment, disposal, and resource utilization of waste mud are challenges for engineering construction. This study investigates the road performance of waste mud–solidified soil and reveals the mechanism of how solidifying materials influence the strength and deformation characteristics of waste mud. Waste mud, collected from a highway reconstruction project, was mixed with ordinary Portland cement as a solidifying material. Unconfined compressive strength tests, consolidated undrained triaxial shear tests, resonant column tests, and consolidation compression tests were conducted to evaluate the solidification effect. The test results show that with an increase in cement content from 5% to 9%, the unconfined compressive strength of the waste mud–solidified soil increased by over 100%, the curing time was extended from 3 days to 28 days, and the unconfined compressive strength increased by approximately 70%. However, an increase in initial water content from 40% to 60% reduced the unconfined compressive strength by 50%. With the increase of cement content from 5% to 9%, the cohesion and friction angles increased by approximately 78% and 24%, respectively. The initial shear modulus under dynamic shear increased by approximately 38% and the shear strain corresponding to a damping ratio decay to 70% of the initial shear modulus decreased by nearly 11%. The compression coefficient decreased by approximately 55%. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction tests showed that a higher cement content led to the formation of more hydration reaction products, especially an increase in the content of AlPO4. The bonding material between soil particles significantly increased, exerting a bonding and filling effect on soil particles and firmly adhering them together. Consequently, the strength of the waste mud–solidified soil increased significantly while its compressibility decreased.

Aquaculture by-products can be compromised an important liming material of increasing soil pH and soil fertility. The aim of this research was to assess the effect of mussel shells on soil pH, on organic matter and on soil nutrients. In this study a pot experiment was carried out at the De-partment of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment (University of Thessaly, Greece). A acidic soil (pH 4.26) amended with 6 different proportions of mussel shell (0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1, 3 and 6%) in two different grain sizes (Fine powder (>1 mm) and Coarse powder (1-2 mm)), resulting in 13 treatments. According to the results, it was observed that pH, organic matter, Available P and Exchangeable K increased. Specifically, the highest pH values observed at 6% rate. Available P and Exchangeable K achieved the highest content at 6% Fine powder treatment, 46.2 and 190.1 mg kg-1, respectively. Similarly, organic matter had the highest value in 6% Fine powder pots (2.27%). Moreover, Total N concentration varied from 0.11 to 0.14 but no statistically significant different was noticed between the treatments. In conclusion, mussel shells can compose a promising liming material in the agriculture section.

In recent years, the use of solid waste fillers to partially replace natural fillers in asphalt mixtures to produce high-performance asphalt mixtures has received widespread attention. However, differences in the material properties of solid waste fillers remain a problem for this recycling method. To address this issue, limestone powder in asphalt mixtures was replaced by three solid waste fillers (steel slag powder, tailings powder and calcium carbide slag powder) in this study. The chemical composition of the fillers was first characterized to assess the homogeneity of the material. Then, AC and SMA asphalt mixtures were designed and produced and characterized for wet stability. The results showed that asphalt mixtures with solid waste fillers were superior to LP asphalt mixtures in terms of resistance to water damage, and steel slag powder showed the best improvement in moisture stability of asphalt mixtures. The optimum substitution of solid waste filler for limestone filler was 25%. In addition, the moisture stability of asphalt mixture with limestone filler was significantly improved with the addition of anti-stripping agents. In contrast, the moisture stability of asphalt mixtures with solid waste filler was slightly improved. Solid waste fillers could be used in asphalt mixtures and have a similar function as the anti-stripping agent. In summary, the use of solid waste fillers to replace mineral fillers in asphalt mixtures is a reliable, value-added, recycling option.

Waste management is an unavoidable technological operation in the process of raw material extraction. The main characteristic of this technological operation is the handling of large quantities of waste material, which can amount to several hundred million cubic metres. Working with this amount of material usually requires high-capacity systems for excavation and loading, a large fleet of trucks for haulage, construction, and maintenance of a complex roads network, use of a significant area of land in order to achieve the required capacities, etc. At the same time, this operation must comply with all administrative and environmental standards. Therefore, optimising waste rock management (particularly haulage and dumping) has the potential to significantly improve the overall value of the project. This paper presents a hybrid model for the optimisation of waste dump design and site selection. The model is based on different mathematical methods (genetic algorithm, analytic hierarchy process and heuristic methods) adapted to different aspects of the problem. The main objective of the model is to provide a solution (in analytical and graphical form) for the draft waste dump design, on the basis of which the final waste dump design can be defined.

The emergence of the circular economy, and the evolving paradigms in the treatment and management of wastewater, have opened up an opportunity for co-digestion of organic waste (i.e., food waste) with sewage sludges to enhance resource recovery at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This paper reviewed the potential for anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludges, as well as alternative sustainable food waste handling systems in South Africa. The promotion of the circular economy by the latest national solid waste management strategy and the ongoing efforts for resource recovery by the wastewater sector suggests that anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge is possible in South Africa. Furthermore, an integrated food waste disposer (FWD) system was identified as a sustainable alternative for food waste handling. To formulate a roadmap for future food waste and sewage sludge co-digestion implementation, a multi-disciplinary investigation is required to bridge the literature gap.

Improper disposal of waste plastic has caused serious ecological and environmental pollution problems. Transforming plastics into high value-added chemicals can not only achieve efficient recycling of waste plastics, but also an effective way to control white pollution. The catalyst selectively breaks the C-C bond of polyolefin plastic under heat treatment and converts it into liquid fuel, thus realizing sustainable recycling of plastics and has a good development prospect. This review provides a detailed overview of the current development of catalytic pyrolysis, catalytic hydrolysis, solvent decomposition and supercritical hydrothermal liquefaction for cracking plastics to make fuel oil. The reaction mechanism, influencing factors and promoting effects of catalysts in various degradation technologies are analyzed and summarized and the latest proposed tandem reaction for degrading plastics is briefly introduced. Finally, some optimization paths of waste plastic pyrolysis to fuel oil technology are proposed: synergies between mixed raw materials, in-depth exploration of catalysts, design and manufacture of reactors that match the pyrolysis technology. All these are important research directions for promoting the industrialization of plastic pyrolysis to fuel oil.

Electronic waste (e-waste), characterized by the widespread disposal of electronic devices, shows a growing environmental challenge. In this study, we explore the electrocatalytic potential of gold nanoparticles supported on Vulcan obtained from e-waste for their application as electrocatalysts for the methanol oxidation reaction in alkaline media. Gold nanoparticles are synthesized from gold coatings recovered from Intel Pentium 4 processor pins, highlighting their sustainability as electrocatalyst precursors. Comprehensive characterization, including UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray dif-fraction, is performed to assess the electrocatalyst's structural properties. Electrochemical evalu-ation is carried out in 0.5 M KOH electrolyte employing the rotating disk electrode technique, us-ing cyclic voltammetry for the study of methanol oxidation. Remarkably, the gold nanoparticles show electrocatalytic activity on par with commercially synthesized counterparts, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach for sustainable electrocatalyst production. Thus, this research opens new routes for utilizing e-waste as a source of valuable catalyst materials, addressing en-vironmental and technological challenges in the field of alkaline fuel cells.

Municipal solid waste management is a major concern for developing countries all over the world. The collection and transportation accounts for major portion of expenditure in developing country like India. The compaction of waste is being practiced in some major cities of India as they provide economical benefit but the environmental benefits of compaction are not very clear. The preset study evaluates the environmental impacts due to transportation of non-compacted and compacted waste from the transfer station to the landfill site using life cycle assessment approach. The study compared transportation of non-compacted waste with the waste compacted by the truck mounted refuse compactor and portable stationary compactor. The functional unit defined was the amount of waste generated per day in the study area taken as Patna city and GaBi 10.5 used for impact assessment. The study found that the transportation of waste compacted by truck mounted refuse compactor had the least environmental impacts on all impact categories. The study recommends the compaction of waste by the truck mounted refuse compactor and then proceed for transportation. Also, the compaction of waste is recommended as it improve the overall environment performance of municipal solid waste management.

The Metabolic Food Waste [MFW (kg of food)], first time developed in 2016 as a new indicator by Serafini and Toti, indicates the amount of food consumed over the nutritional requirements and the impact of this overconsumption on the environment. It is necessary to identify the causes and to develop potential methods to prevent and reduce MFW, at the same time with increasing consumer awareness about unsustainable diets and changing diet habits toward more environmentally conscious consumption patterns. By analysing and corroborating external data available for food waste, nutritional requirements, environmental impact of food waste and consumer behaviour, we identified as primary causes for MFW the lack of nutritional education and little understanding of the nutritional requirements amongst all categories of consumers, no access to appropriate food resources or reduced availability of fresh produced food. We conclude that for the quantification of the negative impact of MFW on both the environment and human health, we need a decisive action to raise consumer awareness for healthy and sustainable diets, together with an uniform worldwide distribution of the nutritious food.

Quarry waste fines and eggshells are unavoidable wastes which relentlessly contribute to environmental load and pollution. Although a number of studies have suggested various methods for recycling, these wastes remain underutilized due to some technical constraints. In addition, no study has yet been explored on the possibility of combining quarry waste fines (QWF) and eggshell powder (ESP) for tobermorite synthesis. Tobermorite is the main component which primarily provides strength to the autoclaved aerated concrete products. For this purpose, this study seeks to evaluate the potential of QWF- ESP mix at 10%, 15% and 20% amounts of cement, respectively. The XRF, XRD, and TGA–DTA techniques were used to characterize the waste materials while physical and mechanical property tests and XRD analysis were performed on the autoclaved samples. It was found that QWF contains 53.77% SiO2, while ESP contains 97.8% CaO which are key components for tobermorite synthesis. This study also revealed that the mixture with only 10% cement has the highest compressive strength among the QWF-ESP samples. Furthermore, the formation of tobermorite in the samples was confirmed through XRD analysis. Hence, the hydrothermal curing of QWF –ESP can be further developed to produce functional tobermorite – bearing materials.

Waste from fish cutting (heads, swim bladders, fins, skin, bones) is a high-value technological raw material for obtaining substances and products based on them with a wide range of properties. The possibility of using waste from cutting fish of the Gadidae family: the Alaska pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) and the Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus), processed in the coastal zone, is scientifically substantiated. In this work, a technology has been developed for processing accumulated waste from fish cutting in order to obtain fish gelatin, which is characterized by high protein content (more than 80.0%) and a full set of essential and nonessential amino acids. We studied the quality of fish gelatin obtained from wastes from cutting the fish of the Gadidae family. The possibility of using fish gelatin as a component of fish products is shown; the dose of its introduction into the fish products is substantiated. The data obtained made it possible to recommend the use of fish processing waste products as a gelling component and a source of amino acids in multicomponent food systems.

There are four categories of medical waste that cannot be mixed as this will cause serious problems such as environmental pollution or infection. In the past, the classification of medical waste often involved a lot of human and material resources to process, with workers at risk of exposure to infectious substances. Therefore, an augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) medical waste classification system and method were developed. This innovative medical waste classification system and method combines AR and AI identification technology to reduce the risk of manual judgment errors by clinical staff when handling medical waste.

One of the biggest problems that the Dominican Republic has had in recent decades is the efficient management of solid waste produced by the population. This problem has worsened in recent years due to the decrease in available areas for the construction of sanitary landfills, the lack of recycling culture in the population, the deficiency in waste collection, and the scarce legal controls aimed at preserving water and air and soil, among other factors. The objective of this study was to explore the management of solid waste by the population and the municipality of Puñal, province of Santiago, to evaluate and analyze the situation and generation of solid waste, municipal solid waste management services, and the attitudes of the population regarding recycling projects and waste management, to evaluate the viability and sustainability of the use organic waste for energy generation. A total of 275 households from 29 localities in the municipality of Puñal were surveyed, which allowed for a significant population sample. According to the results obtained, the most significant type of waste produced by families is organic waste, followed by plastic waste and paper. Of the total organic waste produced in the municipality, 53% of solid waste is disregarded through the municipal waste collection system, while 47% is used as plant fertilizers or animal feed. On the other hand, most households receive the municipal waste collection service and pay for this service. The results of our research show that the implementation of an energy production system based on organic waste would be viable in the municipality of Puñal. However, a more efficient waste collection system would be necessary and the development of programs and projects that allow all households to participate in the system.

The article provides an overview of nanocomposites and microelectronic elements used in space electronics and radiation control systems of nuclear reactors. Only those nanocomposites and microelectronic elements are taken into account that improve their characteristics in radiation fields or remain indifferent when exposed to ionizing radiation. Considering the chemical composition of the materials of these nanocomposites and microelectronic elements, it is analyzed from which radioactive materials (RM) obtained by recycling radioactive waste (RW) such composites and microelectronic parts can be made. Thus, an alternative way of radioactive waste disposal is proposed, when these wastes are used in the form of microelectronic elements designed to operate under conditions of cosmic radiation.

Modified aluminum slag (MAS) was applied as an adsorbent for Congo red (CR) prepared by the hydrothermal treatment of Ca (OH) 2. At 25 ℃, with a MAS dosage of 0.3g, initial CR concentration of 100 mg/L and initial pH=5, and the adsorption time was 40 min, the CR removal efficiency was 98.41%. The adsorption trend of CR conformed to the second-order kinetics, and the adsorption isotherm follows the Freundlich isotherm model. Compared with RAS, MAS has a larger pore volume and specific surface area. The mechanism of action of MAS on CR was the interaction between membrane diffusion and internal diffusion, and the adsorption rate during the membrane diffusion was the fastest.

The heat values of waste mineral oils are equal to the heat value of the fuel oil. However, heat value alone is not sufficient for the use of waste mineral oils. as fuel. However, the critical physical properties of fuels such as density and viscosity need to be adapted to the system in order to be used. In this study, the engine oils used in the first 10,000 km of the vehicles were used as waste mineral oil. An organic-based Mn additive was synthesized to improve the properties of the waste mineral oil. It was observed that mixing the Mn additive with the waste mineral oil at different doses (4, 8, 12 and 16 ppm) improves the viscosity of the waste oil and the flash point. The resulting fuel was evaluated for emission using different loads in a 5 kW capacity generator to compare the fuel with standard diesel fuel and to determine the effect of Mn addition. In the experimental study, it was observed that the emission characteristics of the fuel obtained from waste mineral oil were worse than diesel fuel, but some improvement with Mn addition. As a result, we found that the use of waste mineral oils in engines in fuel standards was not appropriate, but may be improved with additives.

The study addresses the management of kitchen waste by transforming it into biofertilizer formulations utilizing an effective in-house developed multi-enzyme preparation. A separate hydrolysis and fermentation bioprocessing approach which in particular relates to the application of a separate enzyme preparation from Aspergillus niger P-19 to separately hydrolyze kitchen waste, followed by the growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae AP-407 in the liquid hydrolysate as well with simultaneous production of carrier-based biofertilizer. In liquid and carrier-based biofertilizers, the viable cell count reaches 3.00 × 1012 CFU/ml and 3.00 × 1012 CFU/g, respectively. The current study adopts a novel process technique for the manufacturing of both carrier and liquid biofertilizers, adopting a zero-waste approach to the management of kitchen waste.

The detection of waste plastics in the marine and terrestrial environment using satellite Earth Observation data offers the possibility of large-scale mapping, and reducing on-the-ground manual investigation. In addition, costs are kept to a minimum by utilizing free-to-access Copernicus data. A Machine Learning based classifier was developed to run on Sentinel-1 and -2 data. In support of the training and validation, a dataset was created with terrestrial and aquatic cases by manually digitizing varying landcover classes alongside plastics under the sub-categories of greenhouses, plastic, tyres and waste sites. The trained classifier, including an Artificial Neural Network and post-processing decision tree, was verified using five locations encompassing these different forms of plastic. Although exact matchups are challenging to digitize, the performance has generated high accuracy statistics, and the resulting land cover classifications have been used to map the occurrence of plastic waste in aquatic and terrestrial environments.

The aim of the research was a comprehensive evaluation of concrete using the EIPI method. In the evaluation the compressive strength of concrete and its durability properties represented by sorptivity and air permeability were taken into account. Since copper slag waste with increased natural radioactivity was used in the assessed concrete, additional evaluation was carried out taking into account the influence of natural radioactivity within the performance index. Also the reference concrete, which was made without the use of copper slag waste, was evaluated for comparative purposes. In order to make the evaluation as comprehensive as possible, the concrete made with the use of three types of cement was subjected to the assessment: CEM I, CEM II and CEM III. The results show that in both approaches the best result was achieved by concrete with CEM III cement. If natural radioactivity is not taken into account in the evaluation, the best result is obtained by concrete made with copper slag waste, and if radioactivity is considered, the best result is obtained with concrete without addition of the waste. It follows from the above that although natural radioactivity has a significant impact on the EIPI evaluation result, the decisive factor is still the type of cement.

The influence of aluminosilicate pozzolanic waste, specifically spent fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (FCCW) and metakaolin waste (MK) from expanded glass industry, on the properties of hardened Portland cement paste were analysed. The study involved replacing part of cement with FCCW and MK and observing their impact on hydration, microstructure, density and compressive strength of hardened cement paste. Various analysis methods were employed, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), to understand the changes in the structure of hardened cement paste during hydration. The findings revealed that FCCW tends to accelerate cement hydration process due to its high surface area and pozzolanic activity. Notably, the formation of portlandite crystals was observed on FCCW particle surfaces in a specific direction. These crystals appeared smaller and developed in different directions in compositions containing a composite binder with mixture of FCCW and MK in a ratio 1:1. This could be influenced by pozzolanic reactions activated by fine particles of MK and the formation of calcium silicate hydrates (CSH) and calcium alumino silicate hydrates (CASH) in the presence of portlandite. XRD and TG results indicated that the specimens containing a composite binder exhibited the least amount of portlandite. The compressive strength of these specimens increased compared to control specimens, although the amount of cement was 9% lower.

The agricultural ecological environment provides an important resource guarantee for social development. The extensive management mode of agriculture in China has not fundamentally changed; the contradiction between production and governance is still prominent, and the management of agricultural surface pollution has a long way to go. Based on the data of 547 rural households in Jiangxi province, this paper uses the Ordered Logit, 2SLS, and moderation effect model to analyze the mechanism between social norms (SNs) and rural households’ (RHs) disposal of pesticide packaging waste (PPW) and to test the moderation effect of environmental regulation (ER) in the influence path of SN to RHs’ disposal of PPW. The results show that (1) descriptive and directive norms can promote RHs not to litter PPW. However, the role of surrounding crowd supervision (directive norms) is more obvious than the behavior of the surrounding crowd (descriptive norms). The consistent conclusion was still obtained after the robustness test and endogeneity treatment. (2) The results of the moderation effect test showed that reputational incentives strengthened the promotional effect of directive norms on RHs' behavior of not littering PPW; punitive regulation hindered the promotional effect of descriptive norms on RHs' behavior of not littering PPW. Based on the findings of the study, the following policy recommendations are put forward: continue to strengthen the guidance and soft binding force of informal institutions such as SNs; accurately locate the target groups and formulate differentiated measures; pay attention to the complementary nature of formal and informal institutions, and reasonably formulate environmental regulations to fit in with SNs.

The presence of metal ions, in high concentrations, in the effluents results from industrial metal coating is a well-known fact. Most of time, such metal ions, once they reach the environment, contribute significantly to its degradation. Therefore, it is essential that before such effluents are discharged into the environment, the concentration of metal ions is reduced (as much as possible), to minimize the negative impact on the quality of ecosystems. Among all methods that can be used to reduce the concentration of metal ions, sorption is one of the most viable options, due to its high efficiency and low cost. Moreover, due to the fact that many of the industrial wastes have sorbent properties, this method is in accordance with the principles of circular economy. Based on these considerations, in this study, mustard waste biomass (resulting after oil extraction) was functionalized with an industrial polymeric thiocarbamate (METALSORB), and used as an sorbent to removal Cu(II), Zn(II) and Co(II) ions from aqueous media. The best conditions for the functionalization of mustard waste biomass were found to be: mixing ratio biomass : METASORB = 1g : 1.0 mL and temperature of 30 C. The experimental sorption capacities of functionalized sorbent (MET-MWB) were 0.42 mmol/g for Cu(II), 0.29 mmol/g for Zn(II) and 0.47 mmol/g for Co(II), and were obtained in the following conditions: pH of 5.0, 5.0 g sorbent/L and temperature of 21 C. Modeling of isotherms and kinetic curves, but also the analysis of the results obtained from desorption processes, demonstrates the usefulness of this sorbent in the treatment of effluents contaminated with metal ions. In addition, tests on real wastewater samples highlight the potential of MET-MWB for large-scale applications.

Abstract: In order to accelerate deployment of distributed recycling by providing low-cost feed stocks of granulated post-consumer waste plastic, this study analyzes an open source waste plastic granulator system. It is designed, built and tested for its ability to convert post-consumer waste, 3-D printed products and waste into polymer feedstock for recyclebots of fused particle/granule printers. The technical specifications of the device are quantified in terms of power consumption (380 to 404W for PET and PLA, respectively) and particle size distribution. The open source device can be fabricated for less than USD$2000 in materials. The experimentally-measured power use is only a minor contribution to the overall embodied energy of distributed recycling of waste plastic. The resultant plastic particle size distributions were found to be appropriate for use in both recyclebots and direct material extrusion 3-D printers. Simple retrofits are shown to reduce sound levels during operation by 4dB-5dB for the vacuum. These results indicate that the open source waste plastic granulator is an appropriate technology for community, library, makespace, fab lab or small business-based distributed recycling.

This paper investigates an alternative use of sterile aggregate materials which may arise from various construction applications in conjunction with other low-cost mineral raw materials to remediate the acid mine drainage phenomenon. This study is based on the combination of unprocessed mineral raw materials as well as on the basic concept of the cyclic economy where the conversion of a waste into a raw material for another application can be achieved. In this way, the value of mineral raw materials can be prolonged for as long as possible, waste generation and exploitation of natural resources are minimized and resources are kept as far as possible within the existing economy. In this study, an electrically continuous flow driven forced device proposed and demonstrated for the remediation of waste water in lab-scale by using certain mixes of mineral raw materials (serpentinite, andesite, magnesite, peat and biochar). Our results focus on the impact of the studied mineral raw materials and especially on their synergy on the water purification potential under continuous water flow operation. Using the proposed 7-day experimental electrically continuous flow driven forced device with the certain mixes of mineral raw materials, the increase of pH values from 3.00 to 6.82 as well as significant removal of Fe, Cu and Zn was achieved.

Forest recreation can be successfully used for the psychological relaxation of respondents and can be used as a remedy for common problems with stress. The special form of forest recreation intended for restoration is forest bathing. These activities might be distracted by some factors, such as viewing buildings in the forest or using a computer in nature, which interrupt psychological relaxation. One factor that might interrupt psychological relaxation is the occurrence of an open dump in the forest during an outdoor experience. To test the hypothesis that an open dump might decrease psychological relaxation, a case study was planned that used a randomized, controlled crossover design. For this purpose, two groups of healthy young adults viewed a control forest or a forest with an open dump in reverse order and filled in psychological questionnaires after each stimulus. A pretest was used. Participants wore oblique eye patches to stop their visual stimulation before the experimental stimulation, and the physical environment was monitored. The results were analyzed using the two-way repeated measures ANOVA. The measured negative psychological indicators significantly increased after viewing the forest with waste, and the five indicators of the Profile of Mood States increased: Tension-Anxiety, Depression-Dejection, Anger-Hostility, Fatigue, and Confusion. In addition, the negative aspect of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule increased in comparison to the control and pretest. The measured positive indicators significantly decreased after viewing the forest with waste, the positive aspect of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule decreased, and the Restorative Outcome Scale and Subjective Vitality scores decreased (in comparison to the control and pretest). The occurrence of an open dump in the forest might interrupt a normal restorative experience in the forest by reducing psychological relaxation. Nevertheless, the mechanism of these relevancies is not known, and thus, it will be further investigated. In addition, in a future study, the size of the impact of these open dumps on normal everyday experiences should be investigated. It is proposed that different mechanisms might be responsible for these reactions; however, the aim of this manuscript is to only measure this reaction. The identified psychological reasons for these mechanisms can be assessed in further studies.