Pathways for sustainable urban waste management and reduced environmental health risks in India: winners, losers and alternatives to Waste to Energy in Delhi

This paper examines the shift toward centralized waste-to-energy (WTE) as a singular solution to Delhi's solid waste crisis and describes a transdisciplinary research process that sought to understand how and why this dominant waste management pathway emerged. It also sought to engage with and facilitate debate on the potential for alternative waste management pathways, which may better address combined environmental and social justice concerns. We explain the emergence of a transforming narrative that reframed waste from a risk to a resource, reflecting and reinforcing the dominant trajectory of socio-technical-ecological change in urban development, and reconfiguring waste related infrastructure to involve public private participation and WTE technology. Drawing on empirical studies, involving local residents, wastepickers associations, NGOs, and government officials, we discuss implications of WTE projects in Delhi. We argue that the current WTE focused approach, without modification, may simply displace health hazards across time, space and social groups and exacerbate social justice concerns. The dominant narrative on waste management priorities appear to make certain health risks protected and recognized whilst others are made invisible. We make the case for possible alternative waste management scenarios, institutional and regulatory arrangements that may better address environmental health and social justice concerns. These are summarized under eight principles for reframing urban waste management policy challenges in the context of sustainable urban development. These principles include a reframing of waste management through a sustainability lens that links currently divergent initiatives on environmental health and social justice. It involves an appreciation of complex socio-material flows of waste, the need to move beyond perspectives of waste management as an environmental policy issue alone, appreciation in policy development that the informal sector will remain a key player despite attempts to formalize waste management and the need to provide incentives for diverse waste management strategies that move beyond the private

“Formulation of Modified Bituminous Macadam with Different Grades of Plastic Waste: A Review”

Road construction is associated with high investments. An exact design configuration can save a lot of speculation to get reliable road performance without taking advantage of it. Two elements are important in the structure of the adaptable road, the road structure and the contour. The accessibility of plastic waste is huge today. The use of recycled waste, Plastics, such as packaging for transporters, containers, etc., are growing. About half of 60% of the plastic aggregate is used for pressing. Once used, plastics are discarded and left as waste. Plastic contaminants are solid and not biodegradable. In this study we are review the past researches and techniques developed by the researchers in utilization of waste product especially plastic waste in bitumen

Assessing vegetation indices and productivity across nitrogen gradients: a comparative study under transplanted and direct-seeded rice

Nitrogen responses vary under diverse agronomic management practices, influencing vegetation indices (VIs) and productivity across different ecological conditions. However, the proper quantification of these responses under various crop establishment methods with varied nitrogen levels is rarely studied. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of varying nitrogen levels on VIs, growth parameters, yield attributes, yield, and economic aspects of transplanted rice (TR) and direct-seeded rice (DSR). The experiment was conducted in the randomized block design consisted seven N levels, which included 0% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) or no nitrogen (N0), 33.33% RDN (N1), 66.66% RDN (N2), 100% RDN (N3), 133.33% RDN (N4), 166.66% RDN (N5) and 200% RDN (N6), and replicated thrice. The plots with higher N levels demonstrated increased values of VIs and treatment N3 (120 kg N ha−1), N4 (160 kg N ha−1), N5 (200 kg N ha−1), and N6 (240 kg N ha−1) showed no statistically significant differences in NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), RVI (ratio vegetation index), NDRE (normalized difference red edge), and GNDVI (green normalized difference vegetation index) values across the various growth stages of rice. The application of treatment N4 resulted in the highest number of panicles m−2 (348.2 in TR, 376.8 in DSR), filled grains panicle−1 (74.55 in TR, 62.43 in DSR), and a 1,000-grain weight of 26.92 g in TR and 26.76 g in DSR. The maximum yield (4.89 t ha−1) was obtained in transplanted rice at treatment N4 and, 8.15% yield reduction was noted in DSR for the same treatment, which was statistically equivalent to N3, but significantly superior to other N levels. Conversely, in DSR with RDN (120 kg N ha−1), the cost–benefit ratio surpassed that of TR by 16.96%, signifying DSR’s adaptability for more profitable rice cultivation in the region. This research provides valuable insights into optimizing nitrogen management practices for TR and DSR, thereby enhancing rice crop performance and economic returns

Abstracts of National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020

This book presents the abstracts of the papers presented to the Online National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020 (RDMPMC-2020) held on 26th and 27th August 2020 organized by the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Science in Association with the Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India. Conference Title: National Conference on Research and Developments in Material Processing, Modelling and Characterization 2020Conference Acronym: RDMPMC-2020Conference Date: 26–27 August 2020Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizer: Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology JamshedpurCo-organizer: Department of Production and Industrial Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, IndiaConference Sponsor: TEQIP-