Current Waste Management Research Articles

A generic scenario analysis of end-of-life plastic management: Chemical additives

Plastic growing demand and the increment in global plastics production have raised the number of spent plastics, out of which over 90% are either landfilled or incinerated. Both methods for handling spent plastics are susceptible to releasing toxic substances, damaging air, water, soil, organisms, and public health. Improvements to the existing infrastructure for plastics management are needed to limit chemical additive release and exposure resulting from the end-of-life (EoL) stage. This article analyzes the current plastic waste management infrastructure and identifies chemical additive releases through a material flow analysis. Additionally, we performed a facility-level generic scenario analysis of the current U.S. EoL stage of plastic additives to track and estimate their potential migration, releases, and occupational exposure. Potential scenarios were analyzed through sensitivity analysis to examine the merit of increasing recycling rates, using chemical recycling, and implementing additive extraction post-recycling. Our analyses identified that the current state of plastic EoL management possesses high mass flow intensity toward incineration and landfilling. Although maximizing the plastic recycling rate is a reasonably straightforward goal for enhancing material circularity, the conventional mechanical recycling method requires improvement because major chemical additive release and contamination routes act as obstacles to achieving high-quality plastics for future reuse and should be mitigated through chemical recycling and additive extraction. The potential hazards and risks identified in this research create an opportunity to design a safer closed-loop plastic recycling infrastructure to handle additives strategically and support sustainable materials management efforts to transform the US plastic economy from linear to circular.

Carbon stability and soil N2O emissions. Pyrolyzed or unpyrolyzed manure?

Pyrolysis is a useful alternative to current waste management practices. Manure biochars can be used as C-rich soil amendments, reducing the risk of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions derived from unpyrolyzed manure decomposition. In this study, two manure biochars and their feedstock were used as soil treatments to evaluate the impact of pyrolysis on CO2 and N2O emissions, C stability, and global warming potential (GWP) for one year under field conditions. The experiment included five treatments: unamended soil (control), pig manure (PM), pig manure biochar (PMB), dairy manure (DM), and dairy manure biochar (DMB). The amendments were applied at a 1% w/w, adding approximately 0.5 kg C m−2. All amendments increased soil CO2 emissions; however, C mineralization was lower in pyrolyzed manures than in their corresponding feedstocks. CO2–C emissions were 8.35%, and 63% of the C from biochar and manure treatments, respectively. Biochars reduced soil N2O emissions, producing a negative N2O emission factor (N2O Ef), whereas manure treatments induced N2O fluxes for 105 days, with an N2O Ef of 0.27% after one year. Soil C stock variations were 16.4 and 6.58 t CO2-eq avoided ha−1 in treatments of biochars and manures, respectively. The mitigation potential of unpyrolyzed manure was affected by the high CO2 and N2O fluxes, whereas the biochar treatments reduced the GWP due to the changes in soil C stock with a low impact on soil emissions. Manure was more stable after pyrolysis, indicating that manure biochars are more favorable as soil amendments for environmental purposes. This could reduce the C footprint of pig and dairy farms, promoting the enhancement of soil C stocks.

Barriers and Challenges to Waste Management Hindering the Circular Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa

More and more, waste generated in most parts of the Western world has been recycled and transformed into new circularity products. However, managing waste within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), such as in Ghana, has become a challenge due to the continued practice of the old traditional linear waste economy, that is, the taking, making and disposing methods of management, representing a threat to global environmental sustainability. Despite the need to revise current linear waste management (WM) in order to turn to the circular economy (CE) model, which consists of the concept of renew, remake and share, to advance sustainable development, a number of factors restrict the CE realization in practice, specifically in developing countries. An integrative methodology was used in this article to identify some of the challenges that hinder the achievement of CE in SSA countries. The results revealed the absence of educational programs and public awareness of waste management activities. The findings also highlight the lack of political will, funding and national policies on WM as some of the most significant issues. The study contributes to further encouraging policymakers and policy implementers, entrepreneurs and relevant interested groups to commit resources to sustainable WM services aiming to advancing CE in SSA countries.

Unraveling the environmental impact of current and future food waste and its management in Chinese provinces

Major environmental and climate changes are driven by changes in socioeconomic development. The problem of food waste, its unsustainable management, and associated environmental consequences are becoming great concerns due to the rapid socioeconomic development in many Chinese provinces. This study assessed the current and future status of food waste and its management, and the associated environmental impact in all Chinese provinces from life cycle perspective. Based on result, food waste in China was estimated as 61.37 Mt in 2020 and could be as high as 100.95–139.82 Mt by 2040, under various socioeconomic pathways. Average per capita food waste has increased by 29.67% from 2016 and Tianjin was found to have the highest per capita food waste. Correspondingly, GHG emission of food waste in China was estimated as 149.25 Mt CO 2 eq in 2020, and is largely influence by the varieties of food wasted in each province. The environmental burden of food waste is projected to increase by 70%–148% under different socioeconomic development pathways. Anaerobic digestion demands freshwater and may pose challenges for Chinese provinces facing water scarcity. Diverting food waste to anaerobic digestion can reduce GHG emissions of food waste by ∼ 74% by 2040. China’s transition to sustainable waste management may be impeded and unsustainable economic-wise if many Chinese provinces continue to build on their current food waste management trend. These findings could be pivotal in setting food waste reduction goals at provincial level and devising strategies to ensure active involvement of community in food waste reduction programs. • Food waste in Chinese provinces is estimated to be 61.37 Mt in 2020. • Food waste will keep increasing in China and could reach 100–139.82 Mt by 2040. • Distinctive consumption pattern of a province affects FW and its environmental burden. • Reducing food waste is more economical and environmentally friendly than treatment. • Food rescue programs could lessen the environmental impact of FW and its treatment.

Roles and interrelation between variables : a study case of plastic waste management in Jakarta Bay.

The accumulation of plastic waste in the marine environment has increased the global risk of marine pollution due to its negative impact on land, ecosystems, and especially the food chain and marine organisms. Ineffective plastic waste management has reduced the quality of the coastal environment including community sanitation and health, landscapes, and coastal views, and influenced economic sectors such as tourism, fisheries, and shipping. The economic and public activities within coastal areas have consistently as the source of plastic waste leakage either directly or indirectly. Various variables involved and connected each other, some influential and other existing variables were not working effectively and do not support each other optimally in the system. The policy without limitation on the plastic production and certain type of plastic such as packaging or single-use, bags, and a lack of management capacity have led to the establishment of a burden on current plastic waste management within the coastal and marine of Jakarta Bay. Therefore, the study aims to analyze the roles and interrelation of variables that influence plastic waste management in Jakarta Bay. Public participation through group discussion, interview, and Micmac analysis method was used to identify, map, and analyze their interrelationships, roles, and hierarchy in the plastic waste management system. The results showed that the dynamics of variables’ interaction affect their level of performance and contribution. The variables with strong influence have the potential to strengthen others, while some had a high dependence which was vulnerable to have ineffective performance in the waste management system as their stability relied on other variables’ performance. A group of variables were greatly affected by others and indicates that they had lower influence and higher dependence, while the rest of the variables were relatively disconnected from the system. The key to better waste management is to improve the performance and the quality of relationships of variables that were found in the influential and intermediate quadrants. Furthermore, the indirect influence variables also need to be considered as they have the potential to contribute to the future system strategy or scenario planning.

Hospital Waste Management in Dhaka City during COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Medical waste has received less attention in underdeveloped nations like Bangladesh and poses a severe threat to public health. The management of medical waste therefore, has been of major concern due to potentially high risks to human health and the environment. Notwithstanding this, Bangladesh has no standards governing the management of medical waste. As a result, the focus of this research was to gather information about the waste management in several hospitals in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among five different types of hospitals in Dhaka to find out the waste management methods of the hospital. Purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the study place. A checklist was used to observe the current medical waste management in all the hospitals. In addition, every hospital’s record regarding waste management was reviewed to extract information in this regard. A simple descriptive statistic was applied for data analysis. Results: The Mean ± SD age for the participants were 26.63± 4.18 years where female (52%) was more than male (48%). Among the participants, the highest (40%) were medical officer and maximum (77.3%) had working experiences ≤ 3 years. According to the checklist, it was found that United and Lab aid hospital had almost all the indicators related to placement of container. In regards to the segregation of wastes according to color code, all the selected 5 hospitals had seen to observe the protocol except liquid wastes. Unfortunately, Al-Basar, Al-Manar and city hospitals’ waste handler did not use safety gear during waste transportation despite they were provided safety stuff. Conclusion: This study concludes that in order to create an effective waste management program, the government should conduct periodic oversight by establishing strong provisions in this regard.

Assessment of COVID-19 vaccination-related medical waste management practices in Bangladesh.

The COVID-19 pandemic forces people to be vaccinated as early as possible. The COVID-19 vaccination program certainly raised the medical waste volume all over the world, including in Bangladesh. Numerous recent reports showed a fragile medical waste management system in Bangladesh; during the pandemic, the situation became worse. In addition, the nation-wide ongoing COVID-19 vaccination processes have been posing an extra burden to the existing biomedical waste management in the country. Failing to proper management of this waste might be a threat to human and environmental health. Therefore, the study investigated the current COVID-19 vaccine waste management practices in Bangladesh and made a comparison to the proposed standard operating procedures of international organizations and vaccine waste management practices of two other countries (USA and India). The study was carried out through a mixed methodological approach such as qualitative and quantitative, including a questionnaire survey in 15 Upazila of 4 Districts (Dhaka, Narayanganj, Manikganj, and Gazipur) of Bangladesh. The article focused on a nation-wide legitimate COVID-19 vaccination waste estimation, strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis and drivers, pressure, state, impact, and response (DPSIR) framework analysis to identify the present state of medical waste management in the study area. The study found an excellent segregation system (100%) but very poor waste handling (35.5%) along with very poor syringes and sharps disposal method (open burning without buried 46.6%) and poor vials disposal method (without disinfection/open dump 52%) of vaccine waste. It is estimated that about 58 and 257.85 tonnes of syringes (with needles and packaging) and vaccine vials (Sinopharm 2 doses) waste have been generated since the mass-vaccination program started. Upon SWOT analysis, good separation techniques, poor waste management (ex-situ), enough space for management, and environmental and human health concerns were mostly identified as a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat, respectively. Finally, a DPSIR framework was prepared for vaccine waste generation and its consequences in the studied area. This study will be useful to prepare a suitable vaccination waste management system in Bangladesh.

British dairy farmers’ management attitudes towards agricultural plastic waste: reduce, reuse, recycle

AbstractAgricultural plastic waste from nonpackaging polymers, such as those used in silage production, constitutes the majority of the UK's agricultural plastic waste due to inadequate management. This study included online and telephone interviews with 12 British dairy farmers (nine from England, three from Wales) to understand the use of non‐packaging plastic in silage production on British dairy farms. It examined their current silage production techniques and agricultural plastic waste management behaviours and highlighted the challenges of reducing plastic waste on dairy farms through the lens of circular economy. The findings show that UK dairy farmers have adhered to the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle. They use silage clamps for high volumes of silage production, try to reuse some used silage sheets and express a strong interest in having their waste plastic collected and recycled. However, the lack of effective agricultural plastic waste collection services, inequitable enforcement of plastic waste management regulations and rising costs of waste plastic collection in the UK make it difficult for them to recycle effectively. © 2022 The Author. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Industrial Chemistry.

Adult incontinence products are a larger and faster growing waste issue than disposable infant nappies (diapers) in Australia

The environmental issues relating to disposable of infant nappies have received considerable attention. However, adult absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) receive less attention, despite having comparable or greater environmental impact. Here we quantify and compare current and future flows of continence related AHPs entering waste streams from both infant and adult populations. Importantly our study accounts for current waste management and landfilling practices across Australia and the environmental implications of AHP disposal. Absorbent hygiene product use from infants and adults was modelled from 2020 to 2030 for Australia, and it’s predicted that AHP waste generated by adults will account for between 4 and 10 times that of infants by 2030 due to an aging population. Our results indicate that 50% of used AHPs end up in landfill with both leachate and biogas collection, the remainder going to landfills without biogas collection or without both leachate and biogas collection, based on the most recent national data set, which is over a decade old. The average composition of used absorbent hygiene product (including 60% urine and faeces by mass) is estimated to contain 20% non-biodegradable material, which may complicate the biodegradability of absorbent hygiene products in landfill. Without additional regulatory incentive, the current waste management practices in Australia are likely to continue, with absorbent hygiene products typically entering landfill as municipal solid waste, rather than industrial composting or recycling facilities. More accurate estimation of environmental implications from these disposal pathways requires further work including biodegradation experiments currently unavailable in the literature.

Opportunities and challenges for the waste management in emerging and frontier countries through industrial symbiosis

The development of industrial and commercial activities in developing countries has increased the amount of waste generated by economic activities, which has generated environmental problems due to the complexity of waste management . Due to the economic, environmental, social, and sustainability implications, proper waste management has become a worldwide concern. In response to this problem, strategies have been implemented to develop clean energy, improve the efficiency of industrial resources, and recycle and reuse materials. As a result, the concept of industrial symbiosis ( IS ) has emerged as a strategy for waste utilization in a productive chain, based on physical exchanges of waste and materials, which finds ways to use the waste from one industry as inputs or raw materials for the other, all supported by business collaboration. This work aims to identify the opportunities and challenges that emerging and frontier countries have for waste utilization through the IS approach through a literature review. The needs that triggered the IS and how researchers materialized this approach to integrate the harnessing resources and materials in economic activities were identified. This paper identifies how emerging and frontier countries realize solid waste management through IS, and highlights opportunities for governments, researchers, and stakeholders to make effective decisions to achieve sustainable development, reduce environmental concerns and address current waste management issues. The literature review identified IS as an excellent way to dispose of and use the solid waste but also showed that emerging and frontier countries face many challenges in solid waste management due to the lack of policies focused on sustainability, lack of communication and trust among stakeholders, low use of technology in the industrial sector and technical barriers.

Accelerating sustainability transition in St. Petersburg (Russia) through digitalization-based circular economy in waste recycling industry: A strategy to promote carbon neutrality in era of Industry 4.0

Due to industrialization and economic development, urban expansion in St. Petersburg (Russia) has swelled its solid waste generation. The current waste management system does not meet the city's needs. Fundamental changes are required to accelerate its sustainability transition to achieve the 2030 UN's Sustainable Development Goals . This article critically evaluates and analyzes the existing situation of waste management in St. Petersburg and its role in promoting digitalization-based circular economy . Challenges in waste recycling that prevent it from reforming its waste management are identified. Lessons drawn from Taiwan's prowess in resources recovery are presented to inspire a transformation of its waste sector towards a digitalization. The implications of digitalization on the city's waste recycling industry are elaborated. Before applying digitalization, St. Petersburg encountered challenges such as a lack of proper infrastructure in waste management, low public participation and environmental awareness , technological gaps, and insufficient coordination among its institutions. As one of the world's leaders in waste recycling (65%), Taiwan was selected as a role model for St. Petersburg in improving its waste management. The Island's daily per capita rate decreased by 96% to 0.4 kg in 2015. Taiwan also minimized the amount of waste disposal into landfills to less than 2%, while 80% of its industrial waste was recycled. About 33% of annual waste generation in Taiwan was reduced through “Pay-as-you-throw” policy. The average volume of municipal solid waste generation per capita decreased by 20% to 0.91 kg/day. This suggests that moving towards digitalization has minimized the extraction of raw materials through resource recovery. As implications of digitalization in waste management, the consumption of virgin materials could be lowered by 25% in 2030, while a half of greenhouse gas emissions could be avoided. The World Economic Forum estimated that the circular economy could potentially add USD 700 billion in material savings to global economy. • Taiwan attained the second highest recycling target of 65% after Germany (67%). • Taiwan's ‘Keep Trash off the Ground Policy’ is transferable to St. Petersburg. • Pandemic hastens the transformation of recycling industry through digitalization. • Achieving carbon neutrality requires both economic and technological development. • Consumption of virgin materials could be lowered by 25% in 2030 by adopting CE.

Waste management practices in developing countries: a socio-economic perspective.

Growing populations, expanding economies, industrialisation, and urbanisation pose a problem for waste management in developing countries. Their waste management methods, on the other hand, are not as efficient as they could be. Most developing countries' current waste management practices do not fully conform to developed countries' best practices for meeting socioeconomic goals. As a result, the importance of waste management in developing countries has grown in recent years. In order to highlight the socioeconomic perspectives of waste management practices, the present study examines the existing literature, policies, information, and records on waste management in developing nations. The findings indicate that essential socioeconomic factors such as finances, population density, per capita income, education level, policies, and technology have a significant impact on waste management, which encompasses waste generation, collection, composition, and disposal/treatment. Nonetheless, waste management has a number of economic benefits, including financial stability, job creation, and community cohesion. This study will inspire further research on the need for developing nations to consider the socioeconomic benefits of proper waste management and to develop a policy plan to achieve these benefits.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ON INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS ASCRIBED TO IMPROPER WASTE MANAGEMENT IN KABUL

This study focuses on ensuring a sustainable and livable environment in the 8th district informal settlement of Kabul. It seeks to look at the environmental impacts of improper waste management on informal settlement in Kabul city. The study analyses current waste management situation and challenges and environmental effects on informal settlers in the city. A qualitative methodology approach with direct observation and interview were used for data collection. A total of three experts was interviewed from relevant authorities, and purposive sampling used for selecting respondents. Thematic and template analysis techniques were used for data analysis. The findings of this study revealed that waste management situation was not frequent; lack of infrastructure and facilities, poverty, rapid urbanization, lack of municipality technical capacity, funds, and experts were the main factors to improper waste management. Waste was not collected correctly due to weak accessibility and imperfect nature of roads. Waste burning for house heating in winter and residents of informal settlements were not aware of considering environmental and health issues. Improper waste management creates severe environmental impacts such as land and water pollution, air pollution, infectious diseases, unpleasant smells, drains blockage, and loss of biodiversity. The study concluded with suggestions that infrastructure must be improved, residents should be educated about environment protection, municipality contribution, and community contribution should be ensured as well as a sustainable redevelopment model is suggested to eradicate informal settlement and ensure a sustainable environment. Findings will serve as the basis for information that policymakers should concentrate on when planning a course of action or inaction to improve the waste management systems in informal settlements.

Assessing the Connections between COVID-19 and Waste Management in Brazil

In addition to the health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, several countries—particularly in developing regions—faced serious additional challenges in the economic, social and environmental areas. In Brazil, one of these challenges refers to the changes in consumption caused by the lockdowns, and the environmental impacts caused by new patterns of waste generation. Against this background, this paper investigates the changes in consumption and waste generation in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a technical contribution to the topic by comparing the perception of survey respondents on the amount of household waste produced before and during the pandemic, and cross-checking these with information on current aspects of policymaking, the findings suggest that the amount of some specific types of household waste has noticeably increased, challenging even more the local waste management systems. The data instrument was validated by a pre-test, prior to deployment. According to the respondents, packaging (both plastic and paper/cardboard) was the type of waste that reported the highest increase in generation during the lockdowns, which is in line with the results of increased consumption of food delivery within this period. The results also suggest that current waste management policies make Brazil ill-equipped to deal with one of the non-intended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely impacted Latin America’s largest country.

Life-cycle assessment for municipal waste management systems

One of the important tasks of the environmental policy of the Russian Federation is to implement an integrated regional waste management system through the active involvement of production and consumption waste in the economic turnover, the use of environmentally sound recycling methods, the solution of environmental problems related to waste management and resource conservation. Environmental assessment of the existing municipal waste management system is carried out by analyzing the environmental impact and alternative waste management scenarios in order to develop an integrated waste management system for Irkutsk region. Modelling of production and consumption waste flows and their potential impact on the environment was performed. The method of material flow analysis using STAN software was used to estimate the fractional composition of waste. The method of life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to determine the environmental indicators, using the EASETECH software package, which allows for creating various scenarios of environmental impacts, comparing them and choosing the most optimal and environmentally safe one. The modelling of alternative future waste management scenarios for Irkutsk Region showed that all alternatives can improve the current waste management system, which primarily involves landfilling in an uncontrolled landfill without environmental measures. Construction of a new landfill with gas disposal and leachate treatment is a significant improvement, and recycling of secondary raw materials can reduce the environmental pressure. From an environmental point of view, the current waste disposal system is not efficient. Uncontrolled landfill is the main impact on global warming. Although a new landfill could significantly reduce this impact, it is worth reconsidering the waste management systems paying more attention to recycling rather than to landfilling.

Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Solid Waste Management in Chililabombwe District, Zambia

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a serious challenge facing major environmental challenges associated with waste generation and inadequate waste collection, transport, treatment, and disposal. The paper wishes to highlight on the current waste management practices by the district, also highlighting on challenges and opportunities in order to remedy the current problems and how best to address future opportunities for a better sustainable solid waste management in the district. The district has no capacity to overcome the amplification of the increased generated waste with the increased population, and this has impacted on the environment and public health. The current district aims to move away from the reliance of the open dumpsite that does not offer any environmental protection to a solid waste system that is of more useful that will retain useful resources within the economic zone through recycling. Waste sorting and segregation at the source that provides separation of the recyclable materials is actually key to waste management. Most of the extracted materials from the disposal residuals require proper landfill management with waste sorting facilities. Obviously, challenges and barriers are significant so are the opportunities in the district. Shortage of qualified manpower, lack of technologies, and proper solid waste equipment to deliver improved waste management systems remain the authority concern. Landfill plays a significant role in energy generation if well managed, thus poses a greater opportunity for local empowerment and job creation for the youths that need further study.

Current practices and challenges of pineapple smallholder growers in managing the pineapple waste in Samarahan, Sarawak Malaysia

Malaysia’s commitment to expanding its pineapple production has increased the amount of pineapple waste production in the country, especially in the state of Sarawak. This has raised the alarm regarding the proper management of pineapple waste among the local farmers. Therefore, the current study was carried out to investigate the current practices of pineapple waste management and to identify the challenges in managing the pineapple waste among pineapple smallholders in Samarahan, Sarawak. The data was collected from 123 pineapple farmers by employing a close-ended survey questionnaire. The pineapple smallholders were selected using the random sampling method and the data were analysed using descriptive analysis. The findings revealed that the pineapple smallholders in Samarahan employ several practices for managing the pineapple waste which include using the pineapple crown as new planting material, animal feed and compost material. Moreover, the study has also identified several challenges in managing the pineapple waste such as lack of time, high cost, difficulty in finding the buyer of the waste product, shortage of labour, the waste product attracts pests and diseases, and it produces foul smell which discourages them in managing the pineapple waste. Therefore, the relevant agencies should provide guidance to the local pineapple growers in managing pineapple waste through sustainable waste management practices.

Improved full-scale anaerobic digestion of food waste: A core technology in the biorefinery approach

The concept of biorefinery applied to food waste can lead to the production of both value-added products and biofuels, solving the environmental and economic issues linked to the current food waste management. Anaerobic digestion of food waste to produce biogas and biomethane represents a milestone of the biorefinery approach. Although anaerobic digestion of food waste has been well-studied on a small scale, it is necessary to improve the process at an industrial level to make it economically profitable, environmentally sustainable and more widely applicable. In this study, the recent technological and process solutions implemented by a food waste industrial anaerobic digestion plant were described. Particle size, dry matter and temperature values together with pre-treatment, pumping and plug-flow systems adopted made it possible to produce 181 Sm3/ton and 107 Sm3/ton of biogas and biomethane, respectively. The microbial community responsible for the high plant productivity was characterized by microbiome analysis.

Carbon Footprint and Total Cost Evaluation of Different Bio-Plastics Waste Treatment Strategies

To address the problem of fossil-based pollution, bio-plastics have risen in use in a wide range of applications. The current waste management system still has some weakness for bio-plastics waste (BPW) treatment, and quantitative data is lacking. This study combines environmental and economic assessments in order to indicate the most sustainable and suitable BPW management treatment between organic, plastic and mixed wastes. For the scope, the carbon footprint of each scenario was calculated by life cycle assessment (LCA), while the total cost of the waste management system was used as an economic parameter. The economic evaluation revealed that the organic, plastic and mixed waste treatment routes reached a total cost of 120.35, 112.21 and 109.43 EUR, respectively. The LCA results showed that the incomplete degradation of BPW during anaerobic digestion and composting led to the disposal of the compost produced, creating an environmental burden of 324.64 kgCO2-Eq. for the organic waste treatment route, while the mixed and plastic treatment routes obtained a benefit of −87.16 and −89.17 kgCO2-Eq. respectively. This study showed that, although the current amount of BPW does not affect the treatment process of organic, plastic and mixed wastes, it can strongly affect the quality of the output, compromising its further reuse. Therefore, specific improvement of waste treatment should be pursued, particularly with regard to the anaerobic digestion of organic waste, which remains a promising technology for BPW treatment.

Challenges and solutions in COVID-19 related pandemic solid waste management (PSWM) - A detailed analysis with special focus on plastic waste

A pandemic like novel coronavirus 2’ (SARS-CoV-2) not only poses serious public health repercussions but also affects the socio-economic and environmental conditions of the affected countries. The increased consumption of material resources in conjunction with ‘containment and preventive measures’ is generating an unprecedented amount of potentially infectious solid waste, especially that of plastic origin, which if mismanaged, is bound to affect the ecosystem and public health, as the virus can survive on fomites for longer duration. COVID-19 related pandemic waste, such as Personal protective equipment (PPEs), sanitizer and water bottles, disinfection wipes, and Single use Plastics (SUPs) products has already found its way to the aquatic and terrestrial environment. Even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the management of plastic waste, an environmental stressor with trans-boundary migration capabilities, was a major environmental issue for every stake-holder.In this paper, we propose a separate domain in the waste management framework for the effective management of pandemic related solid waste. Factors and sources contributing to increased plastic waste generation are discussed in detail. A concise picture of global plastic demand through sectors and polymer types is presented and speculations are made on how COVID-19 is going to affect the plastic demand. Current solid waste handling and management practices in developed and developing countries are critically examined from the perspective of this pandemic. We identified various challenges that waste management sectors are facing currently and offered possible solutions.Concerns of transmission through fomites is bringing a change in public behavior and consumption pattern which affects 3R practices, while fear of secondary transmission from occupational infections is interfering with 3R practices at end-of-life plastic waste management. The legislative and restrictive frameworks on plastic use being currently put-on hold at the governmental level to ensure public safety are being used by the plastic industry to lobby for increased plastic consumption. The inability of the governments to win public confidence is further escalating unsustainable practices and slowing the shift towards sustainable economy. It is imperative to enforce sustainable practices without putting public safety at risk and to ensure that an unsustainable societal attitude wouldn’t be reinstated in the post-pandemic world. Lastly, eight research and policy points suggested here may guide future studies and governmental frameworks in the domain of COVID-19 pandemic related solid waste handling and management.