Use of a Combination of MRSS-ANP for Making an Innovative Landfill Siting Decision Model

Landfill siting is a complex, multicriteria decision-making problem that needs an extensive evaluation of environmental, social, land use, and operational criteria. Integration of a median ranked sample set (MRSS) and an analytic network process (ANP) has been implemented to rank the associated criteria and select a suitable landfill site. It minimizes the uncertainty and the subjectivity of human judgments. Four groups of experts with different backgrounds participated in this study, and each group contained four experts. The respondent preferences were ranked in a 4-by-4 matrix to obtain the judgment sets for the MRSS. These sets were subsequently analyzed using ANP to obtain the priorities in the landfill siting criteria. The results show that land topology and distance from surface water are the most influential factors, with priorities of 0.18 and 0.17, respectively. The proposed integrated model may become a promising tool for the environmental planners and decision makers

Determination of nutrient salts by automatic methods both in seawater and brackish water: the phosphate blank

9 páginas, 2 tablas, 2 figurasThe main inconvenience in determining nutrients in seawater by automatic methods is simply solved: the preparation of a suitable blank which corrects the effect of the refractive index change on the recorded signal. Two procedures are proposed, one physical (a simple equation to estimate the effect) and the other chemical (removal of the dissolved phosphorus with ferric hydroxide).Support for this work came from CICYT (MAR88-0245 project) and Conselleria de Pesca de la Xunta de GaliciaPeer reviewe

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on food purchasing and waste generation during the lockdown period in The Sultanate of Oman

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is a threat to public health and caused several social, environmental, and economic problems. During the lockdown in different countries, waste generation has been significantly increased due to the high consumption of packaged food and increase the order of food via online and takeaway. This paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID 19 lockdown on food consumption and the subsequent change in waste generation in Oman. A quantitative research methodology was applied for this study using an online survey during the COVID 19 lockdown. The survey collected information on demographic data, awareness and attitudes toward food purchase behaviour, household food expenditure, and waste generation. Results show that 57.6% of the respondents believed that their food purchasing during the lockdown was increased as compared to before the lockdown. The main reason for increasing the food purchasing was the change in consumers behaviour and cooking more in households during the lockdown. This increase led to the increase in waste generation. One of the main reasons for the increased waste generation during the lockdown was the fact that people have spent more time at home. It was found that food waste and plastic packages were the highest increase (72% and 55%, respectively). These two types of waste are followed by cans and glass bottles with an increase of 68%. Other types of waste such as medical waste, electrical and electronic waste, and paper waste have shown no significant change in waste generation during the lockdown. Overall, this study provides useful information to further promote household food waste prevention behaviour, outlasting the COVID-19 crisis. The results from this study can be used by waste management and municipal utilities on consumption behaviour during emergency situations

Recent Advances of Nanoremediation Technologies for Soil and Groundwater Remediation: A Review

Nanotechnology has been widely used in many fields including in soil and groundwater remediation. Nanoremediation has emerged as an effective, rapid, and efficient technology for soil and groundwater contaminated with petroleum pollutants and heavy metals. This review provides an overview of the application of nanomaterials for environmental cleanup, such as soil and groundwater remediation. Four types of nanomaterials, namely nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and metallic and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), are presented and discussed. In addition, the potential environmental risks of the nanomaterial application in soil remediation are highlighted. Moreover, this review provides insight into the combination of nanoremediation with other remediation technologies. The study demonstrates that nZVI had been widely studied for high-efficiency environmental remediation due to its high reactivity and excellent contaminant immobilization capability. CNTs have received more attention for remediation of organic and inorganic contaminants because of their unique adsorption characteristics. Environmental remediations using metal and MNPs are also favorable due to their facile magnetic separation and unique metal-ion adsorption. The modified nZVI showed less toxicity towards soil bacteria than bare nZVI; thus, modifying or coating nZVI could reduce its ecotoxicity. The combination of nanoremediation with other remediation technology is shown to be a valuable soil remediation technique as the synergetic effects may increase the sustainability of the applied process towards green technology for soil remediation

An overview of chemical oxidation-based remediation technologies for non-aqueous phase liquids removal from soil

This review provides a general overview of the application of chemical oxidation to hydrophobic contaminants in the form of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). Six types of chemical oxidation processes, three conventional process: activated persulfate, permanganate, and ozonation, along with three advanced oxidation processes (AOPs):Fenton process, photocatalysis, and plasma oxidation are presented discussed. In addition, this paper provides a brief insight into the combination of chemical oxidation with other remediation technologies for the efficient removal of NAPLs. The common and wide use of activated persulfate for soil remediation is hindered by the fact that it needs heat activation, whereas the main drawback of using permanganate is the precipitation of manganese oxide at the NAPLs face. In addition, the high cost of equipment at the site restricts the ozone application for in-suit soil remediation. The application of AOPs processes such as Fenton and plasma oxidation has received great attention due to its high removal efficiency. However, photocatalysis technology in the field is difficult because it needs photo energy to run the oxidation process. Although plasma oxidation can degrade contaminants in minutes, some active species have short-lived time that could disappear before entering the soil layer. Ozonation is efficient in treat soils with low moisture and large pore spaces. Nevertheless, the optimal pH for ozonation oxidation is 3, which is hard to achieve in real-world applications. Combining chemical oxidation with other remediation technology, especially biological remediation, is a valuable technique of soil remediation as the synergetic effects may increase the sustainability of the applied process towards green technology for soil remediation

Review and evaluation of municipal solid waste management practices in Malaysia

The review is focused on municipal solid waste (MSW) management practices in Malaysia, waste generation rate, waste composition, and the attitude of the people toward sustainability of waste management practice. Malaysian's MSW management has mainly been landfill where about 80-95% of collected MSW are disposed. Currently, recycling practice is rated at 5% while composting is rarely practiced. Over 30% of collected MSW in Malaysia are recyclable materials but the current status records 5% recovery. Composting has been given poor attention even when over 45% of the MSW generated are organic and biodegradable materials while incineration is still at the early/testing stage. Malaysian MSW is highly commingled because there is no proper sorting thus the waste has high moisture content. Proper sorting at the waste generation point for recovery of reusable materials, recyclable materials and compostable materials will help improve the municipal waste management practice in Malaysia. This will reduce the waste volume sent to landfills and will extend the designed life of the landfills. Awareness on waste reduction is growing but is publicly low implemented which can be attributed to lack of social consciousness