Plastic (Polyethylene Terephthalate, PET) is now used as packaging material for a whole range of consumer products in addition to carbonated beverages. Although plastics are very useful product, but the disposal of these wastes has become a problem and is of great concern, particularly in our country. One of the solutions to the disposal of plastic wastes is recycling it into useful products such as it may be used in bituminous (asphaltic) pavements construction, resulting in reduced permanent deformation in the form of rutting of the pavement surface. The present study discusses in detail about the effect of PET on various engineering properties of bitumen. The PET waste was added in the bitumen from 2 to 14% and various tests such as penetration, ductility, softening point, viscosity, flash and fire point and stripping tests were performed for the characterization of plain bitumen and PET modified bitumen. The most effective percentage of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) waste was obtained between 10 to 12% by weight of the bitumen. The results of the study indicated that the modified mixture possessed better performance as compared to the non-modified bitumen. The experimental results were also authenticated by conducting Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) on the most effective percentages mixtures. It is observed that the addition of PET waste in the bitumen improves its engineering properties such as ductility, penetration, softening point and viscosity values by 32.43%, 14.56%, 26%, and 34% respectively. It has also been observed that addition of 12% PET waste results in zero percent stripping even after 48 hours.

This study relates to the characterization of stabilized waste. Various parameters such as granulometric distribution, percentage of mineral and organic matter were estimated to appreciate environmental hazard potential and possibility of metal leaching of the samples of waste from Grange site in France. From the results, it was shown that the granulometric distribution was variable. Therefore, a strong proportion of fines (44.6 %) and medium (45.9 %) was observed due to the age of waste that supports the degradation of a great quantity of organic matter. That was confirmed by the strong mineral matter rate (63.8 %) obtained to determine the organic percentage of matter (36.2 %). The amount of heavy metals such as iron, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium and lead was also studied. The results obtained were in a good agreement with the ones of the literature. Indeed, it appeared that iron, lead, copper, nickel and zinc are in relative strong proportion while cadmium was not very present. Iron represents 78 % of the metals. From the leaching tests, it was shown that the heavy metals concentration were very weak. Moreover, the deposit of studied waste could be a potential source of organic pollution (COD = 150 Mg C/L on average) in the case of precipitation and flood.

Background: Dental wastes are one of the environmental issues due to toxic and pathogenic agents such as pathological wastes, pharmaceutical and chemical etc have particular sensitivity. The aim of this study was to determine the dental waste management and related factors in the city of Ilam. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the studied community was all the sixteen dental clinics in Ilam. Five samples of each clinic per week (Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday) were selected. Thereafter waste sample was manually separated into 36 components and were weighed using a laboratory scale with an accuracy of 0. 01 g. Each component was weighed five times and the mean value obtained for each component was considered. Production per capita was calculated for each person. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, SPSS and Excel software. Results: The per capita percent for infectious waste section was 51%. The average of infectious waste is 201. 13 g. The per capita percent for chemical, pharmaceutical waste section was 36% with an average of 142. 48 g. The per capita percent for toxicity section was 13% in the dental clinics with the weighted average of 48. 78 g. According to the results of the checklist, further dental clinics have been poorly managed. Conclusion: According to the presence of various materials and different components with different characteristics in the dental wastes, the optimal management of this type of wastes should be carried out based on the specific characteristics, which include programs to reduce waste production, segregation, recycle and reuse.

Background & Aims: The aim of this study was to examine industrial waste minimization through identifying physicochemical properties and recyclable components and classifying hazardous wastes. On the other hand, the importance of this study is that it envisages opportunities as the eco-industrial park through using industrial waste management at international and national levels to reduce waste and pollution. Materials and Methods: All the industrial units of industrial towns of Qom province (Shokohieh, Salafchegan, and Mahmoud Abad) and Taghroud industrial area, which have been active in the production of chemical, pharmaceutical, metal, and non-metal materials, were considered as the studied society in this cross-sectional study. The quantity and quality of industrial hazardous waste were evaluated by a questionnaire approved by the Iranian Environmental Protection Organization and field inspections. Results: The results of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the industrial hazardous wastes of industrial towns, including Shokohiyeh, Salafchegan, Mahmoud Abad, and Taghrud (1239 industrial units) demonstrated that 118.449 tons/day of industrial wastes and 15.743 tons/day of hazardous wastes, including 65% solid waste, 31% liquid waste, 3% semi-solid waste and less than 1% and equivalent to 0.02%), were produced in industrial towns. It was found that the industrial units of non-metallic minerals (35.25 tons/day) and then food industries (31.9 tons/day) had the highest amount of industrial waste and dioctyl phthalate units (DOP, 5.8 tons/day), and chemical industry (4.84 tons/day) and lead recycling units (4.14 tons/day) produced the highest amounts of special waste, respectively. Based on the relevant diagrams, the highest values of hazardous wastes were related to Basel Convention code (Y9) for unit process waste DOP (511.5 tons per day) and Basel Convention code (Y31) for lead recycling unit wastes (3.587 tons/day). Conclusion: Planning and necessary training for managers and technical officials of industrial units in the field of hazardous waste management and the development of a comprehensive plan in this regard is inevitable.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Population growth and economic activity in rural areas are factors driving the waste generation rate. Rural waste management generally still applies conventional patterns and has the potential to damage the environment and threaten human health. Challenges and remedial measures for solid waste management in rural areas differ from urban ones. The first step in planning a waste management system is to identify the generation and characteristics of waste. Unfortunately, data on waste generation and characteristics in rural areas in developing countries are still minimal. The problems are mainly caused by the development of the tourism industry, and it certainly requires waste management as the solution. However, due to the unavailability of waste generation data, this study aims to measure and analyze waste characteristics in the southern zone of Gunungkidul Regency. METHODS: Primary data collection was taken from 16 randomly selected villages in six sub-districts in Gunungkidul Regency. A door-to-door survey was carried to 110 residential and 160 nonresidential samples for eight consecutive days using the Indonesian National Standard 19-39641994 method. The processed data were analyzed using a quantitative descriptive method. FINDINGS: The results showed that the average waste generation was 0. 29 kilograms per person per day. It shows that the waste generation in the study area is categorized in small-town classification. 75 percent of solid waste generated is food waste and leaves. Meanwhile, paper, plastic, glass, wood, other materials, and fabrics were calculated at 11. 8 percent, 10. 1 percent, 1. 7 percent, 0. 5 percent, 0. 5 percent, and 0. 4 percent respectively. Housing produced less recycled waste as indicated by a high density of 110. 6 kilograms per cubic meter. Waste generation and composition are influenced by socioeconomic factors such as economic activity and lifestyle, geographic conditions, and downtown attractiveness. CONCLUSION: The characteristics of the waste produced by the southern zone of Gunungkidul Regency are not much different from most rural areas in developing countries. Rural waste management needs to see organic waste as the main management material. Organic waste processing through composting can be a future solution, but the active role of residents determines its success. In addition, this method can help extend the life of the landfill capacity because the volume of organic waste will be reduced by half.

Corncob is one of the industrial waste has cellulose content of 39. 1 wt%, which makes it has high potential to be a raw material in the production of cellulose nanocrystal. Corncob was delignificated with 3. 5 wt% HNO3 and NaNO2 10 mg, precipitated process with 17. 5 wt% NaOH, and bleached with 10 wt% H2O2. Cellulose nanocrystal was obtained by hydrolysis using 45 wt% H2SO4. Corncob and cellulose nanocrystal was characterized by Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) and showed that the absorption peak indicated the presence of cellulose clusters was obtained from corncob and cellulose nanocrystal has many similarities and there was no new bond formation. Cellulose nanocrystal particle size was observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and the result showed the size of cellulose nanocrystal was 9-29 nm. Crystallinity index of cellulose nanocrystal from corncob determined by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) was 70%. This showed the atomic structure of cellulose nanocrystal quite regular so obtained a high crystallinity index

In the current study, the solid waste characterisation that belongs to Artvin city centre, which is located in East Black Sea Region of Turkey, were searched. The study has the feature of being the first study for the country of Artvin in terms of study. The field of study is composed of 7 neighborhoods and those can be separated into 3 groups as low, middle and high level of income. In this study, 11 kind of waste were examined, which are organic, paper, plastic, glass, metal, ash, electronic, textile, garden waste, hazardous and others. The effect of seasons on the amount of waste was examined; also, the relationship between the amount of waste and the level of income was also examined by using the two-way ANOVA analysis. Furthermore, all ratios of wastes that are located in Artvin city centre were searched. According to that, the waste ratios, occurs in one year, of all neighborhoods in the Artvin city centre are found as 61.06% organic, 10.28% paper, 9% plastic, 3.20% glass, 2.29% metal, 3.87% ash, 0.037% electronic, 1.58% textile, 1.35% garden waste, 0.51 % hazardous and 7.23% others. Those obtained values were compared with other similar studies in the literature. Moreover, for collecting recyclable wastes for the city centre 3 different methods are proposed named as methods collection from households, collection from buildings and collection from neighborhoods. These methods have been studied economically and the collection from buildings method is the most appropriate among these three methods.