Global constraints on fresh water supplies and the need to dispose of agricultural, municipal, and industrial waste waters have intensified interest in water reuse options. In many instances, the value of the water is decreased solely because of its higher salt concentration. Although quantitative information on crop salt tolerance exists for over 130 crop species, there are many vegetables whi...

Land application of contaminated waste products has been defended as beneficial use by some scientists and regulators, based on the premise that the behavior of any toxins accumulated in soils from this practice is reasonably well understood and will not have detrimental agronomic or environmental impacts into the foreseeable future. In this review, I use the case of toxic metals in sewage slud...

Agriculture today places great strains on biodiversity, soils, water and the atmosphere, and these strains will be exacerbated if current trends in population growth, meat and energy consumption, and food waste continue. Thus, farming systems that are both highly productive and minimize environmental harms are critically needed. How organic agriculture may contribute to world food production ha...

The acreage planted in corn and soybean crops is vast, and these crops contribute substantially to the world economy. The agricultural practices employed for farming these crops have major effects on ecosystem health at a worldwide scale. The microbial communities living in agricultural soils significantly contribute to nutrient uptake and cycling and can have both positive and negative impacts...

Oil and gas drilling operations use drilling fluids (mud) to lubricate the drill bit and stem, transport formation cuttings to the surface, and seal off porous geologic formations. Following completion of the well, waste drilling fluid is often applied to cropland. We studied potential changes in soil compaction as indicated by cone penetration resistance, pH, electrical conductivity (EC(e)), s...

Swine production facilities today are larger in size and are concentrated in smaller geographical areas than they were two decades ago. Additionally, there is an increasing trend to base manure land application rates on crop phosphorus requirements rather than crop nitrogen requirements alone. These factors have resulted in a need to find a feasible method for removing phosphorus from swine was...

Marginal farm land is land characterised by low food, feed and fodder crop productivity due to soil and environmental limitations. Such land may however be utilised for bio-energy crop production. We investigate the economic viability of small scale combined heat and power anaerobic digestion (CHP AD) projects based on feedstock from farm waste and bio-energy crops grown on a representative tem...

Coastal sandy soil is characterised by low fertility and poor physical properties. Distillery effluent, a liquid waste from the distillery industry contains large quantities of soluble organic matter and plant nutrients. It does not contain any toxic elements / compounds. In order to improve the physical properties and fertility of the coastal soil by utilising the distillery effluent, field ex...

Since the start of the second Palestinian uprising (Al-Aqsa Intifada), and due to the Israeli activities, curfews, closures, and military checkpoints imposed since 2000, the quality of social services rendered by Nablus city has been gradually deteriorating. Solid waste management in Nablus city was badly affected by these conditions, and this situation is negatively affecting health and damagi...

The goal of sustainable management of municipal solid waste (MSW), integrated planning required by financial support to control the situation. Life cycle assessment, categorisation, recycling of wastes and proper landfilling are required.