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At least 469 records · Page 26Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

MSW management for waste minimization in Taiwan: the last two decades.

Taiwan is the second most densely populated country in the world; its 22.604 million residents (2002) live in an area of 35,967 km2 (628 people/km2). Taiwan's economy has grown rapidly during the last 20 years, resulting in a corresponding increase in the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW). This study describes and evaluates the municipal solid waste management system in Taiwan. The study's results indicate that the amount of MSW began to decline after 1997, when the government enforced aggressive MSW management policies. By 2002, total MSW production had dropped by 27%, and the average daily per capita weight of MSW had fallen from 1.14 kg in 1997 to 0.81 kg in 2002. Summarizing the successful experience of MSW reduction in Taiwan, the most important factor was the government's combining of the MSW collection system with reduction/recycling programs. The second most important factor was the policy of extended producer responsibility, which laid a foundation of recycling by producers and retailers and promoted public recycling.

Cities↗
PubMed1975

The management of radioactive wastes resulting from emergency situations on land and sea.

The term 'emergency' applies to unplanned events that have generated, or had the potential to generate, radioactive wastes that could not be handled locally. Reports of past emergencies form the basis for discussion of future trends in emergency situations, the factors that influence waste management, the technology of waste management and personnel requirements. The number of past emergencies has been small and these have not increased the volume of radioactive wastes significantly. The majority of future emergencies are likely to be associated with reactors as they have been in the past. Little change in the nature of the waste is expected, although the greater use of separated plutonium may create some new problems. The factors that influence emergency waste management fall into two categories, those that are concerned with the location of the emergency event, and those concerned with the characteristics of the wastes. As in the past, it can be expected that in most emergencies proven waste management techniques will be adapted to suit the local circumstances but there is a need for simpler and more economic methods. Trained personnel and comprehensive planning are cited as key factors in successful waste management operations.

Accidents↗
PubMed2000

Characterisation and management of incinerator wastes.

Management of municipal and hospital wastes by means of incineration processes generates solid residues, such as bottom and fly ashes and air pollution control residues with high content of heavy metals, inorganic salts and other organic compounds. Characterisation of 24 ash samples, collected from four municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) and six hospital medical waste incinerators (HMWI) located in the Basque Country Region (Northern Spain), were carried out at the request of Spanish Regulations and European Economic Community guidelines. The ecotoxicity values, EC(50), of the TCLP leachates show a high variability ranging from 12,967 to 1,000,000mgl(-1) in MSWI samples and from 2917 to 333,150mgl(-1) in HMWI samples. Results from chemical characterisation of DIN 38414-S4 leachates show a high concentration of lead, sulphate and chloride in MSWI samples and chromium in HMWI samples.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Defining and managing biohazardous waste in U.S. research-oriented universities: a survey of environmental health and safety professionals.

A survey was conducted of environmental health and safety professionals responsible for biohazardous waste management at 122 institutions. The overall response rate was 82.6 percent (100 out of 122). Results indicate that university policies for biohazardous waste are heavily influenced by state environmental regulations, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, and the biosafety guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. With respect to definition of waste, 84 percent of the universities treat non-infectious human-cell-culture waste as biohazardous. Sharp items, including hypodermic needles, syringes with needles, and scalpel blades, are commonly treated (by 85 percent of universities) as biohazardous sharps regardless of contamination status. Importantly, while 90 percent of universities use autoclave sterilization for waste treatment, only 52 percent use a biological indicator to validate the process. On-site incineration is currently used by 42 percent of universities. Twenty-two of 42 incinerators are hospital/medical/infectious-waste incinerators, and 10 of these will continue to operate under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's revised incinerator regulations. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents indicated that some portion of their university's biohazardous waste is treated and disposed of through a licensed medical waste hauler (MWH). To ensure compliance with institutional policy, most universities segregate and package waste, train waste generators, and conduct inspections.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.↗
PubMed2004

Developing methods to evaluate odour control products.

An economical and practical alternative to the standard end-of-pipe odour control methods is the application of liquid odour control products. Currently, there are no established product-testing methods. The data that are available are often of questionable quality and may have limited relevance to waste management. Waste facilities receive differing streams of waste at varying loading volumes. Whilst in operation this exposes control products to a wide variety of environmental conditions, further increasing the difficulty of selecting an effective means of control. The current study initially identifies commercially available odour control products applicable for solid and liquid waste management operations. Bench-scale batch absorption tests have been carried out to investigate odorous gas abatement for a range of selected commercial products and water at a range of pH values. Hydrogen sulphide was the test odorous gas, as it is commonly associated with waste processes. Gas-phase volumetric mass-transfer coefficients (KGa) have been calculated to determine mass-transfer performance. The development of a pilot-scale spray tower is then presented as the testing apparatus for future work. This is an attempt to construct a repeatable testing method for evaluating abatement performance of odour control products, and control the problems encountered when applying odour control products to open sites. KGa values and data collected from tests in this study will be considered in future work as design parameters for the rig.

Absorption↗
PubMed2004

Management of packaging waste in Poland--development agenda and accession to the EU.

In recent years the issue of the municipal waste in Poland has become increasingly topical, with a considerable rise in the waste generation, much of which can be attributed to a boom in product packaging (mainly plastic). The annual production of plastics packaging has been constantly increasing over the last 20 to 30 years, and now exceeds 3.7 million tons. Due to a lack of processing technologies and poorly developed selective segregation system, packaging waste is still treated as a part of the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream, most of which is landfilled. As a result of Poland's access to the European Union, previous legal regulations governing municipal waste management have been harmonized with those binding on the member countries. One of the main changes, the most revolutionary one, is to make entrepreneurs liable for environmental risks resulting from the introduction of packaging to the market, and for its recycling. In practice, all entrepreneurs are to ensure recovery, and recycling, of used packaging from products introduced to the market at the required level. In recent year, the required recycling levels were fulfilled for all types of materials but mainly by large institutions using grouped and transport packaging waste for that matter. Household packaging gathered in the selective segregation system at the municipalities was practically left alone. This paper is an attempt to describe the system and assess the first year of functioning of the new, revamped system of packaging waste management in Poland. Recommendations are made relating to those features that need to be included in packaging waste management systems in order to maximize their sustainability and harmonization with the EU legal system.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1991

Collection and management of fecal wastes for space missions.

An improved type of human waste collection subsystem has been developed for Space Station Freedom which is designed to meet the challenges of zero gravity collection and system performance. Fecal collection is followed by passive storage for relatively short duration missions. The benefits of utilizing components in solid wastes as part of a partial or completely closed Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) become more apparent as the duration of the mission increases. The purpose of this review is to summarize the development issues associated with the current waste management subsystem for Space Station Freedom. Also reviewed are current ideas associated with the evolutionary development of this waste management subsystem for longer duration missions.

Biodegradation, Environmental↗
PubMed2000

[Proper disposal(management) of medical wastes--the appropriate management of medical waste in laboratory].

In accordance with "The Manual for Management of Infectious Waste" which is based on the "Waste Management Law", a counterplan for the appropriate management of medical waste must be carried out in every hospital. This requires establishing "a committee for the appropriate management of medical waste" and to assign a "responsible person for management of medical waste" (an administrator for managing industrial waste under special control) inside the hospital. Since the law requires hospitals to take responsibility for discharging medical waste, hospitals must adopt a prudent policy for waste management. It becomes a most critical issue for hospitals, because medical waste is the subject of spot inspection under the supervision of MHW, and also the subject of border transgression prohibition between countries(both import and export) by the Bazel Treaty (1989) that Japan ratified in 1993. In this study, we discuss medical waste management in the central laboratory based upon the counterplan for appropriate management of medical waste at our hospital.

Containment of Biohazards↗
PubMed2003

[Radiation management for infectious waste from nuclear medicine studies].

An industrial waste management service has refused to collect medical waste from our hospital owing to radioactive contamination found in the waste in July 2000. An investigation revealed that the "three-way stopcock" and handling diapers used for radioisotope examination were the radioactive contaminants. We therefore reconsidered the system of medical waste maintenance especially for radioactive materials. Since February 2001, we have resumed radiation maintenance by following the manual for the handling diapers of patients administered radiopharmaceuticals issued by five organizations associated with JRS, JSRT, JSNM, JSNMT, and JARPM. A major change was to check the radioactive waste at the individual departments and at a centralized check system. This eliminated the problem of dumping radioactive material into medical waste as well as resolving the concerns of the industrial waste management service.

Containment of Biohazards↗