Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management最新文献

Precise appraisal of leachate generation is crucial for effective landfill design and environmental protection. This study employs the Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model to simulate leachate production under varying rainfall conditions (high, average, and low) in three Indian cities—Shillong (high rainfall, 4360 mm), Kolkata (average rainfall, 1330 mm), and Jaisalmer (low rainfall, 390 mm). Eight different landfill configurations, including open, covered, and engineered systems with various liner and cover combinations, were analyzed over five years. Results indicate that open landfills allow significant rainfall infiltration (39%), leading to high leachate production (percolation rate, 2250 mm/year), especially under heavy rainfall. Among the cover systems, the geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) cover showed the best performance (percolation rate, < 0.04 mm/year) in the initial years, while its performance degraded in the later years. The double liner system was most effective (leakage rate,10^− 5 mm/year) in minimizing leachate percolation across all rainfall scenarios. Comparative layout analysis confirms that rainfall is the primary driver of leachate generation in Shillong, while inherent waste moisture plays a larger role in Kolkata and Jaisalmer. The GCL cover system (annual percolation, 4.23–0.18 mm/year), composite liner (0.47–0.30 mm/year), and double liner (0.00007–6.37 × 10⁻⁵ mm/year) demonstrated effective performance across all three cities. Additionally, the study found that actual leachate percolation over five years totaled 11,287 mm, whereas the HELP model, using default waste parameters, estimated 15,463 mm—reflecting a 37% overestimation. This research provides valuable insights for optimizing landfill sealing structures and minimizing leachate-related environmental risks.

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Electronic waste (e-waste) has long been associated with household e-waste. However, industrial electronic waste (IEW) generated from bulk procurement and disposal of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) by firms remains a nascent and under-researched domain in Pakistan. This study aims to assess IEW generation and disposal practices of 901 engineering firms in Pakistan with a particular focus on firms e-waste generation and disposal relationship with firm demographics (firm size, type, sector, and location). Using multinomial logit (MNL) and multivariate (MV) regression models, the study finds that most firms are unaware of what happens to their e-waste after disposal and primarily rely on informal scrap dealers. Current IEW generation is estimated at 1.54 kilotonnes (kt), projected to rise to 2.15 kt. Firm size emerges as a significant factor, with larger firms generating more e-waste than medium or small. The informal disposal practices underscores the urgent need to raise awareness among firms and disposal entities regarding environmental repercussions of e-waste disposal. Policy interventions should promote firm size sensitive procurement and disposal regulations. Furthermore, EEE manufacturers should consider transitioning to leasing-based models with sustainable product design, supported by the immediate implementation of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework.

To address the environmental challenges posed by steel slag (SS), integrating SS into asphalt pavements has emerged as a promising solution to manage waste and promote sustainable development. Therefore, this review aims to provide the current state of knowledge regarding the application of SS in asphalt pavements, including the physicochemical interactions between SS and asphalt binders, the influence of SS on road performance, strategies for mitigating volume expansion, and emerging multifunctional applications. First, SS has excellent physical properties and adhesion with asphalt, which enables it to comprehensively improve the performance of asphalt mixtures. This makes them a promising alternative to natural aggregates. However, despite its superior initial adhesion, free calcium and magnesium oxides (f-CaO and f-MgO) trigger delayed hydration reactions, leading to volume expansion and durability issues, which are the primary barriers to wide-scale application. Given that, this review critically evaluates various pretreatment methods, with their underlying mechanisms. Beyond enhancing road performance, SS also shows remarkable potential in smart pavement technologies, such as microwave-induced self-healing, de-icing, and temperature-regulating pavements. More importantly, the combined use of SS with recycled asphalt pavement represents a highly practical and sustainable strategy, as it balances pavement performance, reduces the demand for fresh asphalt binder, and maximizes the reuse of waste materials. Ultimately, through a comprehensive review of studies in recent years, this review aims to provide actionable reutilization strategies of steel slag and engineering insights for sustainable road infrastructure.

Concrete waste accounts for the largest share of global construction and demolition waste, intensifying resource depletion, landfill pressure, and embodied carbon emissions from cement production. The circular economy offers a regenerative pathway through reduction/prevention, reuse, maintenance/repair/refurbishment, and recycling, yet implementation remains limited by socio-organisational challenges. While existing literature has advanced technical aspects of these strategies, stakeholder roles and collaboration in concrete-specific contexts remain fragmented and are often examined within broader construction and demolition waste frameworks. To address this gap, this study conducts a systematic review of 51 studies to examine stakeholder engagement, barriers and strategies in circular concrete waste management (CCWM). Eleven stakeholder groups were identified, and a Responsible-Accountable-Consulted-Informed (RACI) governance framework was applied to map stakeholder roles from design through end-of-life. The findings show that CCWM implementation depends on coordinated life-cycle engagement between primary value chain actors and supporting actors, with persistent gaps in accountability, early contractor involvement, traceability and sustainability performance assessment. The findings further revealed that unclear roles, undervalued expertise, misaligned priorities, regulatory inconsistencies, poor communication and limited knowledge sharing are cross-cutting barriers to collaboration. These barriers are relational than uniform, affecting stakeholders differently and requiring targeted interventions from actors with appropriate leverage. Effective collaboration, therefore, requires integrated mechanisms for capacity building, governance, economic incentives, digital support, and performance monitoring. The study integrates these insights into a socio-technical conceptual framework that links stakeholders, engagement barriers, and pragmatic strategies. This framework supports the diagnosis of coordination failures and prioritization of interventions to strengthen stakeholder collaboration and accelerate circular transitions in the construction sector.

Together with ongoing urbanization and demographic expansion in moderate-sized Indian cities, solid waste management has become more challenging, making effective landfill site identification critical for sustainable solid waste management. This study presents a combined framework for landfill planning decision-support that integrates GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis, regulatory restrictions, statistical validation, and sensitivity analysis. Following CPHEEO guidelines, Boolean constraint for five criteria was applied to eliminate environmentally restricted regions. Another set of six criteria was evaluated by AHP to create Landfill Suitability Index, resulting in a consistent weighting scheme (CR = 0.017). To reduce subjectivity, entropy-derived weights were determined to generate suitability map. Statistical comparison using Pearson correlation (r = 0.963) and t-test verified strong agreement between two weighting methods. Two final sites fulfilling all requirements were identified from combined suitable area (CSA). Model stability was evaluated through an OFAT sensitivity analysis with variations of six criteria weights (± 5–±20%), leading to 49 perturbations. The sensitivity results showed limited changes in CSA, and spatial stability of final sites, confirmed model robustness. The approach supports landfill planning under regulatory compliance, ensuring adequate capacity, and robustness against the uncertainty in weights; also provides a reproducible decision framework for sustainable solid waste management in emerging urban environments.

Development of on-site decentralised system for processing of solid organic waste (SOW) can significantly reduce burden on recycling facilities and landfills. This study evaluated the performance of a novel thermal digestion based pilot scale rapid organic waste stabilizer (ROWS) for onsite processing of organic wastes generated within urban agglomeration. The study reported the performance of 3 trial runs of ROWS for food waste (FW), vegetable market waste (VMW) and yard waste (YW) respectively. The average batch time required for optimum volume reduction deferred significantly and was found to be 275 ± 08, 330 ± 09, and 100 ± 03 min respectively. The optimum volume reduction was also varied significantly i.e., 79.3 ± 1.3%, 85.8 ± 1.5%, and 63.17 ± 1.1% respectively. The multi linear regression (MLR) model was found highly effective in predicting the performance of the ROWS system. The end product obtained from the trial runs have shown higher potential to be recycled as organic fertilizer or refuse derived fuel. The cost benefit analysis revealed that pilot scale operation of ROWS is economically profitable (benefit cost ratio − 1.15). The proposed system offers a promising solution for onsite management of waste in densely populated metropolitan cities.

Recent advances in in-situ characterization, such as hyperspectral imaging, have enabled rapid estimation of the chemical properties of municipal solid waste (MSW) for differentiated downstream utilization. However, post-identification sorting still relies mainly on robotic systems, which are costly and difficult to scale for continuous mixed-waste streams. In this study, a sorting algorithm driven mechanical device with S-shaped baffle array was developed for post-identification sorting of municipal solid waste. Orthogonal experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of waste shape (tetrahedron, hexahedron, and cylinder), mass (30–110 g), and conveyor speed (0.1–0.3 m·s⁻¹) on sorting accuracy. The results showed that moderate mass (70–90 g) and conveyor speed (0.15–0.25 m·s⁻¹) improved sorting performance, and tetrahedral samples achieved the highest accuracy of 93.33% because of more effective interactions with the baffles. The overall sorting accuracy ranged from 40.00% to 93.33%. This study demonstrates the feasibility of transforming discrete pick-and-place operations into a continuous ordered sorting process using a simple mechanical structure. However, the system has only been validated using simulated municipal solid waste particles, and its applicability to real heterogeneous MSW streams still requires further verification.

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The ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh is a major economic driver, contributing over 80% of the country’s total exports and employing over 4 million people. However, the environmental impact of sludge disposal from RMG industries is a significant challenge. This study evaluates the environmental impacts of various sludge disposal options using life cycle assessment (LCA). Data were collected from RMG industries and analyzed using SimaPro software with the ReCiPe 2016 midpoint and endpoint methods. Results show that sanitary landfilling has the highest global warming impact (1010.4 kg CO₂ eq) and freshwater eutrophication (8.27 kg P eq), while thermal drying incineration has the highest acidification (1,770.90 kg SO₂ eq) and fossil-resources scarcity (124.26 kg oil eq) impacts. In contrast, co-incineration, anaerobic digestion, and cement production demonstrate environmental benefits. Sensitivity analysis reveals that electricity consumption (± 15%) significantly affects global warming and acidification in thermal incineration, while transport distance variations (± 50%) substantially alter environmental performance, particularly for anaerobic digestion and composting, where reduced distance shifts net burdens to benefits. Contribution analysis shows that sludge is the primary contributor to environmental impacts. The study recommends controlled landfilling, incineration, and recycling (bricks/cement production) as preferred disposal options to inform sustainable policy decisions.

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Cabbage varieties hold an important place among winter vegetables. In vegetable cultivation, starting production with seedlings rather than seeds is essential for yield and quality. This study was conducted in 2025 in an unheated greenhouse belonging to the Research and Application Centre of the College of Agricultural Sciences in Erbil, Iraq. This study examined the impacts of morphological characteristics, biomass accumulation, and seedling quality on the cultivation of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower seedlings. Six different growing media were used in the study (1-Control (peat+perlite), 2-Cocopeat (Coconut fibre), 3-Sandy loam soil, 4-Cocopeat+perlite, 5-Clay loam soil, and 6-Peat). The experiment was conducted in a randomised block design with three replications. Cabbage (Ruby King), broccoli (Wisdom F₁), and cauliflower (Organza F₁) varieties were used in the study. In the cabbage group of vegetable species, morphological parameters varied as follows: seedling height 16.06–11.69 cm, hypocotyl length 3.07–2.02 cm, stem diameter 2.25–1.51 mm, and root length 9.56–6.03 cm. The root fresh weight ranged from 6.96 to 5.45 g and the root dry weight ranged from 0.88 to 0.30 g; root dry matter ranged from 13.32 to 5.50% and shoot dry matter ranged from 13.92 to 9.90%. Shoot fresh weight ranged from 20.95 to 9.15 g, and shoot dry weight ranged from 2.92 to 1.03 g. When seedling quality criteria were examined in the study, it was determined that the plant compactness index ranged from 0.18 to 0.08 g cm^− 1, the strength coefficient ranged from 97.87 to 70.39, and the dickson quality index ranged from 0.041 to 0.016. The findings clearly suggested that the growing medium plays a decisive role in the growth, development, and quality of seedlings. Organic media containing cocopeat and peat showed superior performance compared to other media in terms of morphology, biomass, and seedling quality. As a result of this study, it was concluded that organic-based growing media are a more sustainable, and suitable option for the production of high-quality brassica (cabbage-broccoli-cauliflower) seedlings compared to inorganic media.

Menstrual hygiene is of greater concern globally as it entirely depends on individual’s personal choice, socioeconomic status, proximity to resources, education, and cultural beliefs. The global feminine hygiene products market size was valued at USD 43.25 billion in 2024 and the market is anticipated to grow at CAGR of 6.98% from USD 45.56 billion in 2025 to USD 73.07 billion by 2032. Conventional hygiene products contain harsh chemicals, single-use plastics, and unsustainable materials, causing major health and environmental concerns. The proper sanitary waste management have significant constructive impact on both public health and environmental sustainability. There is a need to develop, sustainable, affordable, eco-friendly and biocompatible menstrual hygiene products to create better health for menstruators across the globe and reduce the environmental footprint. This review mainly focusses on the need for eco-friendly circumstantial women hygiene products, its global and Indian scenario market potential status. Categorically reviewing the trends developed in superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), how it excels in water retention properties and antibacterial function, without compromising the physiological compatibility. This report distinctly highlights the merits of synergistic features of Far-Infra Red/anion complex/magnetic particles in feminine hygiene products. Other objectives of the work are to cover importance of integrated sanitary materials-waste management to meet the sustainable development goals by mitigating the waste generation. Overall, the quest of this report is to introduce the need of multi-faceted approach in designing eco-friendly superabsorbent material integrated with functional additives following advanced materials, engineering strategies, facilitating circularity and societal waste management.