A study to determine whether Radiological Impact Assessment (RIA) is needed for landfill disposal of treated sludge (slag) from oil and gas industries has been carried out. Radioactivity level of slag and soil samples have been measured using gamma spectrometry system and its Total Activity Concentration (TAC) has been calculated. It was found that TAC (inclusive background) was within the control limit set by the AELB i.e. 3 Bq/g as stipulated in LEM/TEK 58 (AELB, 2009). Therefore, as a result from this study, RIA is not required and the allocated area can be used for the landfill disposal of treated sludge (slag).
The study monitored the characteristics of the leachate collected from ten different landfills and presented the experimental work for the treatment of leachate by immobilized Trametes menziesii. Variation in biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N) showed that the age of the leachate has a significant effect on its characteristics and composition. The BOD5/COD ratio tends to decrease as the age of leachate increases, varying from 0.71 for a relatively 'fresh' leachate to 0.62 for an older (more stabilized) one. Variations in the characteristics of the leachate suggested that these leachates are difficult to treat. The principal pollutants in the leachate samples were organic and ammonia loads. Treatment of leachate using immobilized Trametes menziesii achieved 89.14 and 2.11% removals for leachate BOD5 and COD, respectively. These findings suggested that using immobilized Trametes menziesii can remove promising percentage of BOD and COD leachate.
Fibres have been used in construction materials for a very long time. Through previous research and investigations, the use of natural and synthetic fibres have shown promising results, as their presence has demonstrated significant benefits in terms of the overall physical and mechanical properties of the composite material. When comparing fibre reinforcement to traditional reinforcement, the ratio of fibre required is significantly less, making fibre reinforcement both energy and economically efficient. More recently, waste fibres have been studied for their potential as reinforcement in construction materials. The build-up of waste materials all around the world is a known issue, as landfill space is limited, and the incineration process requires considerable energy and produces unwanted emissions. The utilisation of waste fibres in construction materials can alleviate these issues and promote environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions that work in the industry. This study reviews the types, properties, and applications of different fibres used in a wide range of materials in the construction industry, including concrete, asphalt concrete, soil, earth materials, blocks and bricks, composites, and other applications.
In this study a GIS model was developed and spatial analytical techniques performed to identify and select a suitable location for a waste transfer station in the sprawling suburban town of Petaling Jaya. The lack of a transfer station in urban centres of Malaysia has caused many problems and affects the efficiency of waste collection and disposal. With diminishing space for landfills and the increasing cost of solid waste management, the need for urban solid-waste recycling has become very important. However, finding a place for waste to be efficiently sorted before unwanted waste can be carried to disposal landfills has social and physical constraints. This study applies GIS techniques and analysis for site selection and identifies an acceptable area. In the model, environmental, physical and social constraints were taken into account, resulting in the selection of a potential area that is acceptable to the residents of the area because it is out of range of causing public nuisance and within minimum travelling distance for collection vehicles. The results show that the potential location for the transfer station should be in proximity of the industrial area of Petaling Jaya, allowing for the possible sale of recyclable materials to local industries. The location is also sited near a major highway to allow quick transportation of the rest of the unwanted waste to the landfill.
Most households and healthcare facilities usually dispose of contaminated, unused, or expired (CUE) medicines with municipal wastes, the disposal of which usually amounts to $790/ton in the USA and £450/ton in the UK. Solid (e.g., tablets, capsules, powders) and semi-solid (e.g., ointment, creams) pharmaceuticals are managed with incineration/pyrolysis, encapsulation, and engineered landfills, whereas wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are recommended for liquid pharmaceutical wastes (PWs). However, to date, the sustainability and eco-friendliness profile of these techniques are only subjectively ensured, leading to controversial viewpoints in many guidelines. Each technique has relative strengths and weaknesses, and their comparative weighting to maximize these profiles is sought after. The present comprehensive review aims to fulfil knowledge gaps in this regard. Four electronic databases (e.g., PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and ScienceDirect) were searched for PW management (PWM)-related qualitative and quantitative articles published till December 31, 2022. Articles without details of waste disposal techniques and their health and environmental impacts were excluded. Based on the literature review, we determine that incineration can be considered a sustainable option for solid and semi-solid PWs, and WWTPs can be eco-friendly for liquid PWs, whereas encapsulation and landfilling are less sustainable. It is high time that objectively proven sustainable and eco-friendly techniques be implemented for PWM based on their dosage forms or nature of hazards. Medicine take-back, eco-pharmacovigilance, extended producer responsibility, co-payment, and life cycle analysis of pharmaceuticals focusing on reduction, reuse/re-dispensing can be integrated to make existing models sustainable, circular, and eco-friendly.
Current study concerns measurement of radioactivity levels in areas surrounding a 2420 MW thermal power plant fueled predominantly by bituminous coal. The concentrations of (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K in onsite bottom-ash were found to be 139 Bq/kg, 108 Bq/kg and 291 Bq/kg, respectively, the levels for these radiolnuclides in soil decreasing with distance from the power plant. At the plant perimeter the respective radionuclide concentrations were 87 Bq/kg, 74 Bq/kg and 297 Bq/kg. In a nearby town, the corresponding concentrations were 104 Bq/kg, 52 Bq/kg and 358 Bq/kg, suggestive of use of TENORM affected soils. The mean radium equivalent activities (Raeq) in soil and ash sample in the town were 205 Bq/kg and 316 Bq/kg, respectively. The Kapar plant ash/slag appears to contain a higher level of TENORM than the world average. The degree of contamination is much higher inside the town where slag has been mixed with topsoil as landfill or as simple domestic waste. For the prevailing levels of exposure and a worst case senario, the predicted committed effective dose due to ingestion and inhalation for intake durations of 1- and 30 years would be 4.2 μSv and 220 μSv, respectively.
Selecting a suitable Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method is a crucial stage to establish a Solid Waste Management (SWM) system. Main objective of the current study is to demonstrate and evaluate a proposed method using Multiple Criteria Decision Making methods (MCDM). An improved version of Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) applied to obtain the best municipal solid waste management method by comparing and ranking the scenarios. Applying this method in order to rank treatment methods is introduced as one contribution of the study. Besides, Viekriterijumsko Kompromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR) compromise solution method applied for sensitivity analyses. The proposed method can assist urban decision makers in prioritizing and selecting an optimized Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) treatment system. Besides, a logical and systematic scientific method was proposed to guide an appropriate decision-making. A modified TOPSIS methodology as a superior to existing methods for first time was applied for MSW problems. Applying this method in order to rank treatment methods is introduced as one contribution of the study. Next, 11 scenarios of MSW treatment methods are defined and compared environmentally and economically based on the waste management conditions. Results show that integrating a sanitary landfill (18.1%), RDF (3.1%), composting (2%), anaerobic digestion (40.4%), and recycling (36.4%) was an optimized model of integrated waste management. An applied decision-making structure provides the opportunity for optimum decision-making. Therefore, the mix of recycling and anaerobic digestion and a sanitary landfill with Electricity Production (EP) are the preferred options for MSW management.
Landfilling is the most widely used disposal method for municipal solid waste around the world. The main disadvantage of this strategy is formation of leachate, among other aspects. Landfill leachate contains highly toxic and bio-refractory substances that are detrimental to the environment and human health. Hence, the risk(s) of discharging potentially harmful landfill leachate into the environment need to be assessed and measured in order to make effective choices about landfill leachate management and treatment. In view of this, the present review aims to investigate (a) how landfill leachate is perceived as an emerging concern, and (b) the stakeholders' mid- to long-term policy priorities for implementing technological and integrative solutions to reduce the harmful effects of landfill leachate. Because traditional methods alone have been reported ineffective, and in response to emerging contaminants and stringent regulations, new effective and integrated leachate treatments have been developed. This study gives a forward-thinking of the accomplishments and challenges in landfill leachate treatment during the last decade. It also provides a comprehensive compilation of the formation and characterization of landfill leachate, the geo-environmental challenges that it raises, as well as the resource recovery and industrial linkage associated with it in order to provide an insight into its sustainable management.
Globally, around 1.3 billion tonnes of waste are generated annually, and solid waste management has thus become a major concern worldwide. There are projections of a 70% increase in waste generation from 2016 to 2050 owing to urbanization and the rapid growth of the global population. Estimates indicate that around 38,200 tonnes of waste are generated per day in Malaysia, and this volume of waste is significantly shortening the planned life spans of operating sanitary landfills in the country. Batu Pahat is a district in the state of Johor, Malaysia, with a relatively large population of 495,000 and with no record of an operational sanitary landfill. This study was conducted to identify and classify the most suitable sites for sanitary landfill developments in southern Peninsular Malaysia by means of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is recognized as a competent technique for multicriteria decision-making. The resulting landfill site suitability index map established 33.88 km2 of area coverage as very highly suitable for landfill development, while 353.86 km2 of area coverage was classified as unsuitable. Sites 1-6 were identified as the most suitable for landfill activities. Sites 1-5 are situated in agricultural land areas, while site 6 is in a forested land area; this implies public participation and the adoption of compensatory measures in the event of landfill development in these areas, given their socioeconomic importance. The six suitable sites are all at least 2000 m from rivers: 2000-3000 m for sites 1, 3, and 5 and > 3000 m for sites 2, 4, and 6. The six sites are all > 3000 m from fault zones and > 1000 m from flood-prone areas, meaning that occurrences such as fault movements and flooding will have minimal impact on the operational activities of landfills at these sites. The selection of sites 1-6 as very suitable for landfill development was associated with an overall accuracy rating of 93.33% and kappa coefficient score of 0.92 based on accuracy assessment analysis of all sites. This study will guide the actions of policymakers, city planners, and local authorities toward sustainable and environment-friendly landfill development and operation in Batu Pahat and other districts in the state of Johor.
Heavy metal ions contamination has become more serious which is caused
by the releasing of toxic waterfrom industrial area and landfill that are very
harmful to all living organism especially human and can even cause death
if contaminated in small amount of heavy metal concentration. Currently,
peoples are using classic method namely electrochemical treatment,
chemical oxidation/reduction, chemical precipitation and reverse osmosis
to eliminate the metal ions from toxic water. Unfortunately, these methods
are costly and not environmentally friendly as compared to bioadsorption
method, where agricultural waste is used as biosorbent to remove heavy
metals. Two types of agricultural waste used in this research namely oil
palm mesocarp fiber (Elaesis guineensis sp.) (OPMF) and mangrove bark
(Rhizophora apiculate sp.) (MB) biomass. Through chemical treatment,
the removal efficiency was found to improve. The removal efficiency is
examined based on four specification namely dosage, of biosorbent to
adsorb fourtypes of metalsion explicitly nickel, lead, copper, and chromium.
The research has found that the removal efficiency of MB was lower than
OPMF; whereas, the multiple metals ions removal efficiency decreased in
the order of Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Ni2+ > Cr2+.
The selection of landfill, which happens to be an environmental issue, has attracted
the attention of many researchers from the fields of waste management and
environmental sciences worldwide. Hence, in the attempt to overcome this problem,
some decision-making techniques, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), have been widely utilized in prior studies,
where multiple criteria, particularly in site selection process, have been employed.
With that, this article identifies the selection criteria for landfill selection and presents
a review concerning decision-making techniques that have been used in past studies
for two important phases involved during the process of site selection, namely, (1)
preliminary site screening, and (2) assessment of site suitability. As such, some 82
articles chosen from 34 peer-reviewed journals had been investigated in detail. The
results showed that 42.68% of the selected articles integrated GIS and MCDA
techniques to solve the problem of landfill site selection, and this is followed by
integrating GIS and fuzzy MCDA technique (18.29%). Both these techniques are indeed
powerful tools that can guide decision-makers to solve problems in making decisions
on the basis of various criteria under certainty and uncertainty results, mainly involving
environmental issues.
Landfill leachate imposes a huge problem to the environment and human beings. This work focused on bioconversion of leachate to acetic and butyric acids by Clostridium butyricum NCIMB 7423. A continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) was applied and connected to fabricate membrane module. The leachate was collected from Pulau Burung Landfill Site (PBLS), Nibong Tebal, Penang. Prior to fermentation, leachate was treated to remove volatile fatty acid and adjusted to meet the minimum requirement of nutrients for anaerobic fermentation. Synthetic medium fermentation acts as a benchmark to the leachate fermentation. The outcomes indicated that the yield of acetic acid and butyric acid in synthetic medium fermentation was 0.70 g/L and 0.71 g/L, respectively. Meanwhile, leachate fermentation showed that the yield of acetic and butyric acid was 0.93 g/L and 1.86 g/L, respectively. High production of acetic and butyric acid showed that leachate fermentation is a green alternative to produce a cleaner product.
Concrete and masonry waste are the main types of waste typically generated at a construction project. There is a lack of studies in the country regarding the cost implication of managing these types of construction waste To address this need in Malaysia, the study is carried out to measure the disposal cost of concrete and masonry waste. The study was carried out by a site visit method using an indirect measurement approach to quantify the quantity of waste generated at the project. Based on the recorded number of trips for waste collection, the total expenditure to dispose the waste were derived in three construction stages. Data was collected four times a week for the period July 2014 to July 2015. The total waste generated at the study site was 762.51 m3 and the cost incurred for the 187 truck trips required to dispose the waste generated from the project site to the nearby landfill was RM22,440.00. The findings will be useful to both researchers and policy makers concerned with construction waste.
The use of environmental planning tools for optimum solid waste landfill siting taking into account all environmental implications was carried out by applying Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to enhance the research information obtained from initial analysis using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The objective of this study is to identify the most eco-friendly landfill site by conducting a LCA analysis upon 5 potential GIS generated sites which incorporated eleven important criteria related to the social, environmental, and economical factors. The LCA analysis utilized the daily distance covered by collection trucks among the 5 selected landfill sites to generate inventory data on total energy usage for each landfill sites. The planning and selection of the potential sites were facilitated after conducting environmental impact analysis upon the inventory data which showed the least environmental impact.
In Malaysia, the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions reduction via composting of source-separated organic waste (SOW) in municipal solid waste (MSW) has not been assessed. Assessment of GHG emissions reduction via composting of SOW is important as environmental impacts from waste management are waste-specific and local-specific. The study presents the case study for potential carbon reduction via composting of SOW in University of Malaya (UM). In this study, a series of calculations were used to evaluate the GHG emission of different SOW management scenarios. The calculations based on IPCC calculation methods (AM0025) include GHGs emissions from landfilling, fuel consumption in transportation and SOW composting activity. The methods were applied to assess the GHG emissions from five alternative SOW management scenarios in UM. From the baseline scenario (S0), a total of 1,636.18 tCO2e was generated. In conjunction with target of 22% recycling rate, as shown in S1, 14% reduction in potential GHG emission can be achieved. The carbon reduction can be further enhanced by increasing the SOW composting capacity. The net GHG emission for S1, S2, S3 and S4 were 1,399.52, 1,161.29, 857.70 and 1,060.48 tCO2e, respectively. In general, waste diversion for composting proved a significant net GHG emission reduction as shown in S3 (47%), S4 (35%) and S2 (29%). Despite the emission due to direct on-site activity, the significant reduction in methane generation at landfill has reduced the net GHG emission. The emission source of each scenario was studied and analysed.
Diverting waste material from landfill sites has a big implication for the creation of new markets and has environmental benefits through offsetting the need for the extraction of raw materials. Besides, the major attention especially in construction industry is the problem to make natural resources sustainable for three to four decades in future. However, in this study finely glass powder with pozzolanic properties is found to be a partial replacement for cement and can acts as filler in the microstructure of a mortar block. Thus, a study was conducted to see the effects of various proportions of windscreen glass waste powder (WGWP) in determining the degree of water absorption on mortar incorporated with WGWP and to determine the optimum replacement to the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with WGWP. Several compositions of WGWP (0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by cement weight) of mortar cube sample were prepared and cured at 7, 28 and 60 days to undergo a water absorption test. From this research, it shows that the use of WGWP was found to be the best features pozzolanic enough to use as a partial replacement for cement and it can reduced the pores of mortar by blocking the large voids in the hydrated cement paste through pozzolanic reaction. In the term of water absorption, the lowest reading was achieved in 15% and it can be said that 15% replacement is the optimum replacement of OPC.
Associated with the continuing increase of construction activities such as infrastructure projects, commercial buildings and housing programs, Bangladesh has been experiencing a rapid increase of construction and demolition (C&D) waste. Till now, the generation rate of C&D waste has not been well understood or not explicitly documented in Bangladesh. This study aims to provide an approach to estimate C&D waste generation using waste generation rates (WGR) through regression analysis. Furthermore, analyses the economic benefit of recycling C&D waste. The results revealed that WGR 63.74 kg/m2 and 1615 kg/m2 for construction and demolition activities respectively. Approximately, in financial year (FY) 2016, 1.28 million tons (0.149 construction and 1.139 demolition) waste were generated in Dhaka city, of which the three largest proportions were concrete (60%), brick/block (21%) and mortar (9%). After collection they were dumped in either landfills or unauthorized places. Therefore, it can be summarized as: waste is a resource in wrong place. The results of this study indicate that rapid urbanization of Dhaka city would likely experience the peak in the generation of C&D waste. This paper thus designates that C&D waste recycling is an entrepreneurial activity worth venturing into and an opportunity for extracting economic and environmental benefits from waste. The research findings also show that recycling of concrete and brick waste can add economic value of around 44.96 million USD. In addition, recycling of C&D waste leads to important reductions in CO2 emissions, energy use, natural resources and illegal landfills. Therefore, the findings of WGR and economic values provide valuable quantitative information for the future C&D waste management exercises of various stakeholders such as government, industry and academy.
The recycling of millions of tons of glass bottle waste produced each year is far from optimal. In the present work, ground blast furnace slag (GBFS) was substituted in fly ash-based alkali-activated mortars (AAMs) for the purpose of preparing glass bottle waste nano-powder (BGWNP). The AAMs mixed with BGWNP were subsequently subjected to assessment in terms of their energy consumption, economic viability, and mechanical and chemical qualities. Besides affording AAMs better mechanical qualities and making them more durable, waste recycling was also observed to diminish the emissions of carbon dioxide. A more than 6% decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, an over 16% increase in compressive strength, better durability and lower water absorption were demonstrated by AAM consisting of 5% BGWNP as a GBFS substitute. By contrast, lower strength was exhibited by AAM comprising 10% BGWNP. The conclusion reached was that the AAMs produced with BGWNP attenuated the effects of global warming and thus were environmentally advantageous. This could mean that glass waste, inadequate for reuse in glass manufacturing, could be given a second life rather than being disposed of in landfills, which is significant as concrete remains the most commonplace synthetic material throughout the world.
Biogas is an economical and environmentally friendly renewable energy which can be produced by anaerobic digestion (AD). This biochemical method converts organic compounds (mainly from wastes) into a sustainable source of energy. Anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) is a method combining more than one substrate to resolve the difficulties faced in a single substrate AD system. Solid wastes increases as the population increase so do the urbanization and industrial industries. Food waste and sewage sludge are examples of one of the solid wastes. Co-digesting of both substrates may improve process stabilization to increase biogas production and overcome the nutrients imbalance. Thus, anaerobic co-digestion has been recognized as a technology that could provide a clean renewable energy source and helps reduce the landfill problem. The objective of this paper is to investigate the recent achievements and perspectives on the interaction of co-digestion between food waste and sewage sludge to improve biogas production. This may provide valuable information on the optimization of combinations of substrates: food waste and sewage sludge and prediction of bioreactor performance.
Increasing population, urbanization and industrial activities have increased the amount of solid waste worldwide. Food waste (FW) and sewage sludge (SS) are some of the solid wastes. Co-digesting of both substrates may improve process stabilization to increase biogas production and overcome the nutrients imbalance. Thus, anaerobic co-digestion has been recognized as a technology that could provide a clean renewable energy source and help reducing the landfill problem. In this study, the interaction between FW and SS as co-substrates in anaerobic digestion was studied under mesophilic temperature 36C (± 0.5). The experiments were conducted using five batch reactors with different ratios of substrates. There are four different analyses used to identify the characteristics of FW and SS, which are pH, reducing sugar (RS), total solid (TS), and total carbohydrate (TC). Water displacement method was used to record biogas yield. The experimental results showed that the highest biogas yield was from the composition of 50:50 (FW: SS) with a biogas volume of 1150.14 mL, while the least was the composition of 0:100 (FW: SS) with 170.47 mL biogas produced. The results for substrate degradation showed that the composition of 100:0 (FW: SS) has the highest percentage degradation for reducing sugar with the percentage of 56%, while the minimum was 0:100 (FW: SS) with a percentage of 35%. Besides, for TC, the highest percentage of degradation was the composition 50:50 (FW: SS) with 84%, and the least was 0:100 (FW: SS) with 44%. This study proves that using FW and SS enhanced biogas production as well as reducing the current issues of waste disposal.