Hazardous waste management in educational and research centers: a case study

The hazardous waste management (HWM) practice at Tehran University of Medical Sciences Central Campus, Iran, was investigated in this study. Four schools were selected and the required information such as type and amount of wastes, temporary storage methods, waste discharge frequency, and final waste disposal methods using sampling, questionnaires, interviews with laboratory staff, and reference to available documents were gathered. The quantity of hazardous waste generation per year excluding the uncontrolled wastewater was found to be 2.072 tons per year. The obtained results show that wastes having features of being infectious, toxic, ignitable, carcinogenic, corrosive, and reactive were present at 32%, 28%, 16%, 14%, 8%, and 2%, respectively. In the central campus, hazardous solid wastes managed with household solid wastes and hazardous liquid waste were discharged into the sinks without any kind of control; improper HWM practices are evident from the point of waste production to final disposal.     

Metal removal with two biochars made from municipal organic waste: adsorptive characterization and surface complexation modeling

The adsorptive characteristics of biochar produced from garden green waste (S-char) and a mixture of food waste and garden green waste (FS-char) were investigated. Adsorption of Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Mn²⁺ onto the two biochars reached equilibrium within 48 hours. The metal adsorption was effectively described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models which suggest heterogeneous chemisorption. The initial solution pH influenced adsorption of Zn²⁺ and Mn²⁺ but not of Cu²⁺. Simulation via a surface complexation model showed that the fraction of XOCu⁺ adsorbed onto biochar was increased with increasing pH until it reached the adsorption maximum at pH 8.5, while the endpoint for the maximum of XOMn⁺ was higher than pH 12.     

Directions for hazardous waste storage and final disposal of treated hazardous waste (THW) in Austria

Austria produces about 700,000 tons of hazardous waste a year. Approximately 8% are sent to the incinerating facility EBS near Vienna. Approximately 60% THW (treated hazardous wastes) are finally disposed of. An unknown amount is sent to foreign countries for storage and landfilling.

By order of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Public Health our institute elaborates guidelines for designing and operating final disposal hazardous waste facilities.

This paper deals with the fundamental aspects and the present state of these guidelines.     

MESIP∗: Modelling environmental scenarios in ponds

MESIP is a fugacity model which can predict the fate of organic hydrophobic chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. In this paper a short introduction to the mathematical model is presented together with a more detailed listing of the required input data. Comparison of the calculated and measured fate of a fluorescent whitening compound in an artificial outdoor pond is shown     

Industrial ecology flows of agriculture and food industry in Finland: utilizing by-products and wastes

Although half of the administrative units in China are said to have implemented their local Agenda 21, the promotion of sustainable communities is not pervasive. In this paper, we adopted a relatively untried mode of analysis and a socio-economic context to illustrate the potentials and failures of China's grassroots local government bodies in achieving sustainable waste management. Our study shows that, among the three main functions of sustainable waste management (ensuring environmental hygiene, provision of recycling logistics and changing the consumption pattern of the local community) for local governments, grassroots local government bodies in mainland China are only able to do the minimum, i.e. ensuring environmental hygiene and handling complaints. One of the reasons for the failure is that, despite the emphasis on capacity building in China's Agenda 21, the reality is that no action is taken to empower grassroots local government. Despite the high profile accorded by the Chinese central government to motivating local governments to formulate their own Agenda 21, local sustainability and waste management performance have little relevance to the appraisal systems of these government agents.     

水铝钙石类阴离子黏土在水污染处理领域应用的研究现状

水铝钙石(Hydrocalumite)是一种阴离子黏土,又称"弗里德尔盐"(Friedel’s Salt),属于层状双金属氢氧化物(LDHs),可通过多种低成本方法人工合成.水铝钙石的层间阴离子具有可交换性,且在一定温度范围内焙烧时所获产物在水溶液中具有层状结构可恢复性,因此在水污染和固体废物处理领域有很大应用价值,已被用于水中B(OH)4-、SeO24-、CrO24-、MoO24-、Zn2+等无机组分和十二烷基硫酸钠(SDS)、烷基苯磺酸钠(SDBS)、甲基橙(MO)、酸性大红(GR)等有机组分的去除实验研究,以及粉煤灰等典型固体废物在填埋前的预处理研究.水铝钙石类阴离子黏土对水中有害组分的去除效果受到离子种类和性质、溶液pH、去除产物溶度积常数等多种因素的影响,所涉及去除机理包括离子交换、溶解-沉淀、表面吸附等.当前利用水铝钙石去除水污染的研究基本局限于实验室研究阶段,并在严格控制的实验条件下进行,因而今后应加强其处理实际受污染水体和原生劣质水的实验研究,并尝试作为填充材料在可渗透性反应墙(PRB)等水污染原位处理装置中加以应用.     

冶金行业环境污染物的特征与监测技术综述

冶金行业是国民经济重要的基础原材料工业,在其制造体系中大量的物质、产品流、废弃物、能量转换过程、多形式的排放过程都对环境造成不同层次和程度上的影响。针对不同工艺产生的污染物特征及主要污染物的种类,综述了环境监测运用的各类监测技术、监测方法,为环境管理、污染源控制、环境规划等提供科学依据。     

我国水资源学术交流十年总结与展望

水资源是基础性的自然资源和战略性的经济资源,是一个国家综合国力的有机组成部分。目前,国家已将水资源列为与粮食、石油资源并列的三大战略资源之一。随着经济社会快速发展,水资源供需矛盾越来越突出,水资源已成为制约国民经济发展的重大"瓶颈"。因此,水资源研究已成为支撑我国可持续发展的重要学科领域。论文在大量文献分析的基础上,阐述了水资源研究发展过程;介绍了近十年来中国自然资源学会水资源专业委员会主办的主要学术交流情况,总结了近期我国水资源研究进展;在以上分析的基础上,对水资源学科发展趋势进行了分析,并对近期水资源研究进行展望,提出未来十年我国水资源学术交流发展方向。     

Towards a sustainable future: a holistic inquiry of waste management behaviors of Singapore households

ABSTRACT

In 2018, Singapore produced a 7.7 million tonnes of waste, which is a significant amount of waste for a small nation-state. In line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) targets 11.6 and 12.5 of the 2030 Agenda, which addresses cities’ waste generation and management impacts, we ask the question of why Singapore households are not more proactively engaged in waste minimization, despite the presence of local waste minimization public campaigns. This study is the first known study to comparatively apply and test three major theories – social psychological, social-structural, and sociocultural theories, to explain household waste management behavior in Singapore. A national survey followed by regression analysis of 303 households was conducted. In our findings, we firstly describe current trends in household waste management behaviors. Secondly, we compared each applied theory’s ability to predict households’: (1) reuse and (2) recycling of a variety of household items; and (3) recycling frequency. We obtained partial evidence supporting the role of future-orientedness and environmental identity on householders’ variety reuse and recycling. Social-structural (age cohort x income, education) and situational variables (the convenience thesis), also predicted various waste minimization behaviors. Finally, householders’ knowledge of what is recyclable affected all forms of waste minimization behaviors. In view of the study’s findings, we propose a need for targeted planning and policy interventions for different segments of the Singapore population, and different short- and longer-term measures to initiate and achieve sustained household waste minimization.     

我国生活垃圾焚烧二恶英污染现状及减排建议

生活垃圾焚烧的二恶英污染问题在我国已经引起全社会的广泛关注。在分析我国生活垃圾焚烧行业现状与发展趋势和我国部分焚烧厂二恶英排放情况的基础上,提出了我国生活垃圾焚烧二恶英污染防治和减排的建议。