Solid Waste Treatment, Biohazards, and Management

Dear Colleagues,

The world’s population is growing fast. One in every two people today lives in a city (United Nations, 2008). Urbanization and population densification are major contributors to municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment issues and ecological and environmental pollutions and associated human health problems, such as contaminations related to biosolids reclamation, energy intensification during MSW treatment, toxicant bioaerosol, and uncontrolled spreads of antimicrobial resistance. Despite important improvements in recent decades, access to safe and eco-friendly solid waste treatment and recycling have yet to be universal. As such, this Special Issue was launched to call for studies regarding novel treatment technologies that include but are not confined to efficient anaerobic digestion, composting, clean production, and associated carbon footprint during the treatment process. More than that, new mechanisms of underlying chemical and or microbial treatment processes are expected.  In addition, the United Nations estimates that almost 25 million people around the world live 2 kilometers or less from solid waste dump sites. The major exposure to solid waste may induce mental and physical hazards to neighboring communities, including antimicrobial resistance, metals, and persistent organic toxicants leaching from MSW, and associated treatment facilities could worsen health risks via exposure through air (inhalation), ingestion (drinking water and agricultural products), and direct (skin) contact, none of which have been studied regularly, especially in the realm of solid waste treatment.

Therefore, this Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the current state of knowledge on the links between solid waste contamination, treatment technologies, and human health. New research papers, reviews, case reports, and conference papers are welcome to this issue. Papers dealing with new approaches to derive drinking water standards or risk assessment and management are also welcome. Other manuscript types accepted include methodological papers, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries. We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in IJERPH.

Dr. Dong Wu
Prof. Dr. Bing Xie
Guest Editors

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• anaerobic digestion
• antimicrobial resistance
• bioaerosol and air pollution
• biosolids treatment and recycling
• chemical and microbial mechanisms
• clean production and carbon emission
• landfill and contamination
• land reclamation
• environmental risks
• novel treatment technologies