A "zero waste" society and the "circular economy" trend are urgently needed. Even if achieving 100% trash recycling and a fully circular economy may not always be attainable, aiming toward this goal might result in a sustainable future. Municipal solid wastes pose a hazard to the environment because of open burning, landfills, reckless disposal, and many other factors. Waste is being thrown away in more significant quantities and is made up of several different materials. Municipal solid waste (MSW) characteristics must be carefully considered when developing, implementing, or modifying solid waste management systems. Local waste variables that vary with cultural, climatic, socioeconomic, and institutional capacities are crucial for developing efficient waste management techniques.

This contributed volume takes a holistic view of the international waste trade and in doing so argues that the transfer of plastic waste from mainly Global North to primarily Global South countries constitutes a form of 21st Century colonialism. The book first describes the history of the plastic waste trade, from toxic disasters in the 1970s and 1980s through the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal in 1989 through China’s 2018 implementation of a “National Sword” policy that effectively banned importation of plastic waste. From there, the authors explore both the legal trade in plastic waste and the underground illegal trade in waste, arguing that both lead to devastating impacts on ecosystems, workers, and communities in receiving countries and highlighting how countries that receive waste are often less equipped to process it than the countries that export waste. The last section of the book presents cases from countries on the receiving end of the plastic waste trade, highlighting inherent problems from sociological and environmental justice perspectives.

This edited book focuses primarily on biofuel production potential in agricultural waste, such as biogas generation, biohydrogen production, and research trends on managing or converting agricultural waste to biofuel. This book also draws attention to technological equipment, generated biofuels from agricultural waste through various biological and chemical processes, and the multiple factors responsible for biofuels from agricultural waste generation.

The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of our understanding of planetary resources and circularity, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. The book offers a compilation of peer-reviewed papers that uniquely connects knowledge broadly across practice and academia; from the newest technologies and methods such as the role of digital modelling, analysis, and fabrication in circular design, i.e. material passports, cyber-physical augmentation, and LCA to the potentials of growing and harvesting biomass materials, engaging waste streams in material production and more, all in context of economic, social, and ecological potentials and consequences.

This book focuses on the economic, political, and cultural factors that make up India’s “informal processors,” which are the highly networked, multi-generational systems that reuse, repurpose, and otherwise dispose of 80% of India’s electronic waste. The research includes insight from more than ninety interviews with forty-nine key stakeholders working within India’s e-waste processing industry.

Natural dyes offer a time-tested and generally more sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes in the textile industry. The issues surrounding synthetic dyes are well-known, and in the literature it is generally accepted that natural dyes have a smaller environmental impact. However, even natural dyes have issues that must be dealt with in order to ensure sustainability in the industry. For example, the mordants needed to improve the dyeing process may release hazardous heavy metal pollutants when used. This book is dedicated to exploring cases such as this that illustrate the benefits and drawbacks to natural dyes and steps that must be taken for their sustainable use in the textile industry.

This book analyzes the latest development trend of international medical waste disposal technology, combines the current situation of medical waste management and disposal in China and the requirements of the international community for medical waste, and comprehensively and systematically summarizes the relevant contents of medical waste treatment and disposal technology and management practices. It is suitable for source classification, technology screening, engineering construction, facility operation, supervision and management, and environmental monitoring/inspection in the field of medical waste treatment and disposal, technical training and vocational skills upgrading of operators, and can also be used as a reference for teaching and scientific research by relevant personnel in universities and colleges, government departments, research institutions working in the field of medical waste disposal for environmental protection.The present version has been revised technically and linguistically by the authors in collaboration with a professional translator.

This book and its sister book (Volume 1 ) of the Handbook of Environmental Engineering (HEE) series have been designed to serve as a mini-series covering waste treatment in biotechnology, agricultural and food industries . It is expected to be of value to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, to designers of sustainable biological resources systems, and to scientists and researchers. The aim of these books is to provide information on bio-environmental engineering, and to serve as a basis for advanced study or specialized investigation of the theory and analysis of various agricultural and natural resources systems.

This comprehensive book presents an alternative fresh look at date palm byproducts as a springboard for the future circular bio economy. The book shows and exemplifies how these sustainable biomaterials can be the base for a wide spectrum of products and uses. Examples of these numerous products and uses are demonstrated and categorized into five principal uses: i) pharmaceutical, cosmetics and natural wax ,ii) textiles and composites, cellulose and cellulose derivatives, iii)timber and wood substitutes, architecture insulation and building materials, iv) organic fertilizer, compost and soil amendment and water treatment purposes, v) natural fodder and silage , green fuels and bioenergy.

The book provides new perspectives from leading researchers accentuating and examining the central role of the built environment in conceiving and implementing multifaceted solutions for the complex challenges of our understanding of planetary resources and circularity, revealing critical potentials for architecture and design to contribute in more informed and long-term ways to the urgent transition of our society. The book offers a compilation of peer-reviewed papers that uniquely connects knowledge broadly across practice and academia; from the newest technologies and methods such as the role of digital modelling, analysis, and fabrication in circular design, i.e. material passports, cyber-physical augmentation, and LCA to the potentials of growing and harvesting biomass materials, engaging waste streams in material production and more, all in context of economic, social, and ecological potentials and consequences.

This Ph.D. book develops nanowire-assisted electroporation disinfection technology based on the flow-through porous electrode. The author presents pioneering results on theoretical modeling, experimental realization, and selected applications, showing the novel disinfection mechanism of electroporation guarantees an exceedingly low level of energy consumption. In this regard, three classes of novel dynamic behavior are investigated: (i) The developed nanowire-assisted flow-through electroporation disinfection technology enables great microbial disinfection performance with extremely low voltage (1V), which significantly reduce the formation potential of harmful disinfection by-products during the treatment process. (ii) The nanowire-assisted flow-through electroporation disinfection technology ensures no reactivation/regrowth of inactivated bacteria and meanwhile promotes the gradual death of damaged bacteria during the storage process. (iii) The application of high-frequency AC power supply (106 Hz) ensures the high microbial disinfection efficiency while suppressing the occurrence of electrochemical reactions and extending the electrode lifetime effectively.

This book provides integrated treatment technology of rural domestic sewage, and highlights ten typical cases in China. The integrated sewage treatment system (ISTE) combine sewage pretreatment, biological treatment, sedimentation, and disinfection, which particularly suitable for decentralized domestic wastewater treatment in rural areas without pipe networks. The main advantages of ISTE include the compact structure, small footprint, short construction period, high treatment efficiency, and economical rationality. First applied in Japan, ISTE has recently achieved rapid growth in China in the last decade. The relevant technological R&D, practice, and promotion experience accumulated by Chinese enterprises can offer significant reference to other developing countries and regions.
The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces characteristics, environmental risks and management styles of rural domestic sewage. The second chapter illustrates the collection and treatment approaches for rural domestic sewage.The third chapter presents the integrated sewage treatment process of high efficiency. The fourth chapter involves the design concept, manufacturing requirements, automatic control, and the cloud management system for ISTE. Chapter five covers ten typical application cases of ISTE in multiple regions of China. This book is suitable for graduate students, engineers, university teachers and government administrators engaged in decentralized sewage treatment.

This book comprises select proceedings of the International Conference on Trends and Recent Advances in Civil Engineering (TRACE 2022). The book focuses on the latest research works carried out in the area of water resources and transportation engineering. Various topics covered in this book include technological intervention and solution for smart and sustainability in water resources and transportation infrastructure, crop protection, resilience to disaster like flood, hurricane, and drought, traffic congestion, transport planning, green and intelligent transportation infrastructure, etc. The book is useful to researchers and practitioners working in the areas of civil engineering, water resources, and transportation engineering.

​This book accommodates the existing correlations, data, and methods for thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of saline water, including multiple components at a wide range of salinity (reaching around 200 g/kg), temperature, and pressure. The correlations of each property are plotted against existing experimental data to judge the comparative accuracy of each within a given specific range of salinity, temperature, and pressure. An assessment to recommend some correlations is also conducted. New correlations for some properties are also proposed. This book helps to provide the saline water properties as needed for engineers, designers, and research for different areas, including desalination and water treatment.

This contributed volume offers several cases in life cycle assessment (LCA) and implementation of circular economy principles across different industries. LCA is a tool which is utilized to measure the environmental footprints of various products from inception through disposal. Circular economy, a related concept, presents a meaningful alternative to a traditional linear economy as it seeks possible ways to reduce waste, recover resources at the end of a product’s life, and channel them back into production, thus significantly reducing environmental impacts. LCA and CE complement each other, as the former can be used to meaningfully assess possibilities for the latter. The combination of the principles of CE and LCA enable product developers to quantify the environmental performance of various products, processes and supply chain configurations in order to make progress toward sustainability.