Several committees were established by the National Association of Physicians for the Environment to investigate and report on various topics at the National Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment held at the 1--2 November 1999 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. This is the report of the Committee on Minimization and Management of Wastes from B...

Construction wastes have become the major source of solid wastes in Hong Kong. Thousands of tonnes of solid wastes are produced every year from construction and demolition activities. Increasing generation of these wastes has caused significant impacts on the environment and aroused growing public concerns. Therefore, the minimization of construction wastes has become a pressing issue. This pap...

A brief overview is given of the sources, characteristics, and toxic constituents of municipal solid wastes. Several methods are presented for handling, treating, and disposal of solid wastes. Monitoring the landfill site is necessary; there has been a trend to recognize that municipal solid wastes may be hazardous and to provide separate secure handling, treatment, and disposal for their dange...

This study compared the environmental impacts of composting yard wastes in windrows with using them in place of soil as alternative daily cover (ADC) in landfills. The Life Cycle Assessment was made using the SimaPro LCA software and showed that the ADC scenario is more beneficial for the environment than windrow composting. ADC use is also a less costly means of disposal of yard wastes. This f...

Plasma pyrolysis integrates thermo-chemical properties of plasma using pyrolysis process for safe disposal of solid wastes. It is an environment friendly technology to generate valuable byproducts by converting municipal solid waste, biomedical waste and hazardous wastes at 800-1000°C. Plasma Pyrolysis of plastic wastes generates pyrolysis gas, which can be utilized for energy recovery via diff...

The concept of microbiological leaching have played a greater role to recover valuable metals from various sulfide minerals or low grade ores during the middle era of twentieth century and that continued till the end of the century. Slowly, due to depletion of ore/minerals, and implementation of stricter environmental rules, microbiological leaching process has been shifted for its application ...

The objective of the work was to provide a method to predict CO2 and NH3 yields during composting of the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid wastes (MSW). The compostable portion of MSW was simulated using three principal biodegradable components, namely mixed paper wastes, yard wastes and food wastes. Twelve laboratory runs were carried out at thermophilic temperatures based on the princ...