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Urban and Industrial Solid Waste Management

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 9304

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Anil Kumar Dikshit

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Guest Editor

Environmental Science & Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 4000076, India
Interests: urban environmental infrastructure; urban, industrial, biomedical, hazardous, e-waste management; environmental modelling, management and sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As is well known, the continuous solid waste generation from residential, commercial, and industrial sectors has caused environmental issues related to air, water, and soil pollution. The urban solid wastes discharged from apartments, bungalows, housing societies, institutional buildings, and offices are heterogeneous. MSW management includes source segregation, collection, transportation, processing, treatment, and landfilling. The present MSW management scheme in most developing countries has failed to meet the required standards; the primary cause is the increase in urban population, living standards, and use of packaged products (plastic and paper products) and packaging. Further, it has now led to the open dumping of MSW at or near local community areas such as residential societies, parks, schools, market places, tourism spots, etc., resulting in environmental hazards. For the past few decades, developed nations have been successfully managing to treat and dispose of their solid waste through centralized treatment facilities (CTFs), including incineration, pyrolysis, composting, etc. However, with respect to the growing population, CTFs are unable to meet the required demand. The modern era demands community-level on-site processing and treatment facilities for better sustainable results. Researchers across the globe have also developed mathematical models, software, and sensors for efficient collection, monitoring, and transportation of solid waste. However, industrial solid waste (sludge, slag, raw materials, metal scrap, chemical byproducts, etc.) generated due to the processing and manufacturing activities has been neglected due to its varying proportion and non-homogeneity.

In most cases, industries are responsible for handling, processing, recycling, reusing, and disposing of their solid waste through decentralized facilities inside their premises. Metal refining industries have managed to recover value-added products such as steel, irons, coppers, etc. At the same time, food processing industries are also able to reuse their food residues in biogas through high-rate anaerobic digesters. This Special Issue aims to bring together high-quality original research articles and reviews highlighting the significant role of technology in treating, recycling, and disposing of solid waste for a safe environment. The focus of the studies must be on treatment mechanisms and/or disposal techniques for both urban and industrial solid waste, where limitless contribution in future prospects can be made toward a sustainable environment.

(1) Overall Outline

Focus

Solid waste (municipal solid waste, E-waste, biomedical waste, plastic waste, construction, demolition waste, etc.) comprises hazardous pollutants and metals that are potent enough to cause environmental hazards and threaten human health and safety. These compounds are highly persistent and toxic, and cause long-term exposure to natural biota. Conventional methods and technology have failed to treat these contaminants and pollutants. To cope with these emerging issues, potential technologies such as sequential reactors, anaerobic digestors, incinerators, bioremediation, etc. need to be evolved for sustainable development.

Scope and Specific Topics

Academics, researchers, professional engineers, and scientists are encouraged to submit their novel and high-quality scientific studies and reviews on the following topics:

Impact of toxic pollutants and metals on human health and safety;
Novel reactor technology for anaerobic digestion;
Biomass to energy conversion;
Potential technology for resource recovery;
Application of life-cycle assessment (LCA) in solid waste management;
Mathematical modeling in route optimization and waste management;
Waste to energy for industrial solid waste;
Lab and field-scale demonstrations of biofuel and biogas production; and
On-site collection, processing, treatment, and disposal technologies.

Any other relevant topics on the theme are also welcome.

Purpose

This Special Issue aims to bring together high-quality original research articles and reviews highlighting the significant role of technology in the treatment, recycling, and disposal of solid waste for a safe environment. The focus of the studies must be on treatment mechanisms and disposal techniques for both urban and industrial solid waste, where limitless contributions in future prospects can be made toward a sustainable environment.

(2) This Issue will Usefully Supplement Existing Literature

Technological advancements in collection, treatment, and disposal techniques directly impact economic growth, improve living standards, and lead to a sustainable environment. The present Special Issue will attempt to cover the current and future challenges in waste management: appropriate scientific approach, technology, and techniques with a multi-functional strategy to overcome the need for energy demand. Full research papers and review articles are sought for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Anil Kumar Dikshit
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

municipal solid waste
industrial solid waste
biomedical waste
biological technologies
thermal technologies
resource recovery
landfill

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4641 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Habits of Consumers Related to e-Waste Considering the Knowledge of Brazilian National Policy of Solid Waste: A Comparison among White, Green, Brown and Blue Lines

by Patricia Guarnieri, Barbara de Oliveira Vieira, Giselle Cappellesso, Solange Alfinito and Lucio Camara e Silva

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11557; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811557 - 15 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1817

Abstract

Background: The increase in waste generation, caused by technological innovation and planned obsolescence has demanded strategies such as reverse logistics to mitigate the negative impacts on the environment. Objective: This paper analyzes the differences in the consumer’s habits of the four lines of electrical and electronics, and the alterations in these habits considering the knowledge of legislation related to waste management. Methods: We conducted applied, exploratory, descriptive, and quantitative research. We performed a survey with Brazilian consumers of electrical and electronics equipment, through a questionnaire. To analyze data, we performed a logistic regression. Results: As the main results, we can highlight the probabilities of habits by line and the knowledge of legislation by habits, and confirm our study’s two hypotheses. The first was related to the analysis of whether specific consumer habits tend to relate to particular lines of equipment and the second analyzes whether these habits tend to relate to knowledge of the legislation. Conclusion: We found that, depending on the type of e-waste, the participants of our study have different habits related to disposal and reverse logistics, and those with knowledge of the BPSW tend to have appropriate habits related to discard and reverse logistics. This paper can be helpful because it discusses the existing differences in the habits of the participants considering the lines and knowledge of legislation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Industrial Solid Waste Management)

25 pages, 2279 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Metallurgical Wastes as Resources for Sustainability of the Steel Industry

by Dana-Adriana Iluţiu-Varvara and Claudiu Aciu

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5488; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095488 - 03 May 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5178

Abstract

The industrial pollution caused by metallurgical waste accumulation has a negative impact on the three environmental factors: soil, air and water. Therefore, the correct management of these wastes would lead to: protection of the environmental factors, the saving of natural resources and sustainability of the steel industry. The purpose of this paper is to assess the chemical and mineralogical compositions of metallurgical wastes landfilled in the Păgida slag dump (Alba County, Romania), for sustainability of the steel industry and metal conservation. The chemical compositions of the two waste samples were analyzed by the XRF (X-ray fluorescence) technique. According to the chemical characterization, magnesium oxide (MgO) has potential to be used as an additional and raw material in the cement industry. The presence of oxides such as CaO, SiO₂ FeO and Al₂O₃ in the compositions of the metallurgical waste samples indicate that they have the potential for use as clinker materials in cement production. The iron and manganese contents from metallurgical wastes can be reused in the iron and steel industry. The presence of V₂O₅ and TiO₂ is connected with the making of stainless steel, and for this reason they have the potential to be reused in the stainless steel industry. The predominant chemical compounds are SiO₂, Fetotal, Cao and MgO. The mineralogical compositions were analyzed by the XRD (X-ray diffraction) technique. The mineralogical compounds presenting reuse potential in different domains are Fayalite, Magnetite, Magnesioferrite and Periclase. The mineralogical compounds from metallurgical wastes can be reused as: raw and/or additional materials in the process from which they originate (steelmaking); raw and/or additional materials in road construction and concrete production; pigments in paints; micronutrients in fertilizers; ore of iron, etc. Then, the theoretical assessments of the recovery potentials of the metals were estimated for slag dumps. Copper (Cu), vanadium (V), molybdenum (Mo) and nickel (Ni) have high recovery potential. The total economic value of the recovery potential of metals from slag dumps was assessed to be USD 1175.7440 million. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Industrial Solid Waste Management)

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19 pages, 3210 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Development of Soil Substitutes for the Sustainable Land Reclamation of Coal Mine-Affected Areas

by Arkadiusz Bauerek, Jean Diatta, Łukasz Pierzchała, Angelika Więckol-Ryk and Alicja Krzemień

Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4604; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084604 - 12 Apr 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1704

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper was to outline a novel approach for the use of industrial by-products generated in coal mines and coal-fired power plants as the components for artificial soils. Several coal combustion by-products, coal mine waste and organic waste materials were tested at laboratory scale for use in the reclamation of areas degraded by coal mining activity. The role of artificial soils was the land rehabilitation of the high acidic waste heap. The results revealed that the amounts of organic matter (14.87–25.01%) and nutrients in the soil substitutes were sufficient to support plant growth, i.e., N (0.37–0.51%), P (0.23–0.47%), K (1.78–3.17%), Ca (4.93–8.39%) and Mg (1.16–1.71%). A phytotoxicity test using white mustard (Sinapis alba) seeds under laboratory conditions showed good germination results (56–66%) for three soil substitutes that did not contain fly ash from biomass combustion, compared to the reference soil (84%). The relationships established for the aqueous leachate parameters of soil substitutes vs. the Sinapis alba germination revealed negative correlations with electrical conductivity (r = −0.88), SO₄²⁻ (r = −0.91) and Cl⁻ (r = −0.70) ions; the two latter ones were responsible for the salinity which hampered the germination process of the soil substitutes. Moreover, quite similar correlations were obtained between the germination of Sinapis alba and the trace elements of the soil substitutes: Fe (r = −0.69), Cd (r = −0.72), Cu (r = −0.80), Pb (r = −0.78) and Zn (r = −0.74). However, negative and significant correlations in aqueous leachates were shown only with Ni concentration (r = −0.73). The relevance of these results for the effect of salinity on germination and the early growth of S. alba was discussed in detail and was confirmed with the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The study proved that the physicochemical characteristic of recycled wastes exhibited their potential usefulness for the reclamation of affected areas such as mine waste heaps. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Industrial Solid Waste Management)

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