Municipal solid waste management under Covid-19: Challenges and recommendations

Covid-19 is proving to be an unprecedented disaster for human health, social contacts and the economy worldwide. It is evident that SARS-CoV-2 may spread through municipal solid waste (MSW), if collected, bagged, handled, transported or disposed of inappropriately. Under the stress placed by the current pandemic on the sanitary performance across all MSW management (MSWM) chains, this industry needs to re-examine its infrastructure resilience with respect to all processes, from waste identification, classification, collection, separation, storage, transportation, recycling, treatment and disposal. The current paper provides an overview of the severe challenges placed by Covid-19 onto MSW systems, highlighting the essential role of waste management in public health protection during the ongoing pandemic. It also discusses the measures issued by various international organisations and countries for the protection of MSWM employees (MSWEs), identifying gaps, especially for developing countries, where personal protection equipment and clear guidelines to MSWEs may not have been provided, and the general public may not be well informed. In countries with high recycling rates of MSW, the need to protect MSWEs' health has affected the supply stream of the recycling industry. The article concludes with recommendations for the MSW industry operating under public health crisis conditions

Design of water retaining embankment using geosynthetics for hydraulic conditions

by Shubham Soni and Amit Prashan

State of the Art Lecture on Environmental Geotechnics. Protecting the environment from contamination with barrier systems: advances and challenges

The state-of-the-art for barriers systems control of pollution migration and hydraulic structures including liner systems for landfills, mine waste, and dams/lagoons are discussed along with some comments on current significant environmental issues. Recent research on geomembranes, geosynthetic clay liners, and composite liners and the practical implications are discussed. The need to design taking account of the interactions between the liner system components is highlighted. Regional differences relating to environmental geotechnics of municipal solid waste and mining waste and the implications of differences in regulations and climate are discussed. Vertical barrier systems may be regarded as mature technologies and research funding is much more limited. A bibliography of key papers on cut-off walls has been compiled. It is recognized that major changes to cement-bentonite formulations will be necessitated by the drive to reduce carbon footprints together with the dwindling availability of pulverised fuel ash and blastfurnace slag. The implications for environmental geotechnics associated with recycled materials, waste minimization, and some overarching issues are discussed. The paper finishes with some thoughts about the future of environmental geotechnics and some concluding comments