Objectives.

 To promote a culture toward sustainability in e-waste management at university

 To recommend appropriate waste handling and disposal measures in accordance with the
current legislative and administrative requirements
 Wherever possible, classify waste (inert material / waste fractions) for disposal concerns,
such as public filling locations / landfills.
 To safeguard people's health, well-being, and the environment by taking reasonable steps
to avoid and reduce waste generation
 To provide adequate methods for processing and safely disposing of trash to preserve
health, well-being, and the environment
 To promote and ensuring the effective delivery of waste services
 To ensure that people are aware of the impact of waste on their health, wellbeing and the
environment;

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 E – Waste Management
E-Waste can be simply defined as; ‘any electrical appliance that has reached the end of its useful
life’. With the country's economic progress, the generation of e-waste from broad consumption
of primary products such as computers and mobile phones has increased. According to estimates
Sri Lanka generates 4.2 kilogram of E-waste per person each year (Ranasinghe, W.W. and
Athapattu, B.C., 2020). Some of the common e-wastes can be found in universities are given in
the table 1 below.

Small household Refrigerators, ovens,, dishwashing machines, microwaves, electric

appliances heating appliances, electric fans, and air conditioners, toasters, irons,
appliances used for hair cutting, hair drying, shaving and body care,
clocks, and watches, Radio sets, television sets, lamps, bulbs and so on.
IT and Personal computers, mouse, screen and keyboard, laptop computers,
Telecommunication notebook computers, notepad computers, printers, copying equipment,
equipment electric and electronic typewriters, pocket and desk calculators, fax
machines, cordless phones, cellular phones, and answering machines ,
Wi-Fi routers and so on.
Table 1. Common e-wastes can be found in universities

Due to the composition the e-wastes have, they bring detrimental effects on human health, soil
quality, water quality and other environmental impacts. Table 2 summarize those effects.

Health issues by chemicals Impact on soil Impact on water

"Lead" "Brain damage. Vomiting, Improper disposal of e- E-waste, such as
diarrhea, convulsions, coma or even waste - both heavy mercury, lithium, lead
death, appetite loss and abdominal metals and flame and barium, then leak
pain" retardants can seep through the earth even
"Barium & Mercury" "Brain swelling directly from the e-waste further to reach
damage to the heart, liver and spleen" into the soil, causing groundwater. When these
"Cadmium" "Lung cancer and contamination of heavy metals reach
kidney damage" underlying groundwater groundwater, they
"Americium" "Radioactive element, or contamination of crops eventually make their
mutagenic" that may be planted way into ponds, streams,
"Antimony" "Carcinogenic potential" nearby or in the area in rivers and lakes.
the future. Acidification and
toxification.
Table 2 negative effects of e-waste composition

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Management strategies

By Government

 E-waste should collected by designated organizations, companies, and/or the government

as required by national E-waste regulations provided by Central Environmental Authority
(CEA). Retailers, municipal collection stations, and/or pick-up services are used to do
this. In Sri Lanka there are 14 Licensed E-Waste collectors & Exporters are available
(CEA).
 Applicable regulations and policies
 Make consumers aware and understanding of attitudes towards these programs, policies
and opportunities.
 Analysis of the future trend of E-waste systems based on electronic and electrical
equipment sales trends and the expected life of electrical and electronic products.
 In corporation of novel Energy Recovery strategies from Electronic-Waste - Eg; Clean
fuel production as below.

By
consumers

 Using only necessary electrical appliances.

 Effective use of electrical/electronic devices to extend shelf life
 Purchasing items with very minor or zero E-wastes
 Avoiding addiction and dependency on electrical/electronic gadgets
 Being aware of the long-term harmful environmental impact of e-waste
 Pro-actively taking measures to achieve and maintain zero E-waste accumulation

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Consumer demand for electrical devices and information technology has increased dramatically,
resulting in a considerable increase in electronic and electrical items. The toxicity of the
constituent compounds in e-waste is a major source of concern if it is not correctly handled.
When it comes to E-waste management, there is a need for a specific policy and regulatory
framework that can provide clear standards for collection, transportation, storage, disassembly,
material recovery, preprocessing, and end-processing for final metal recovery.

If need summarize and add the diagram below

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 Management of wastage from medical facilities
The term "health-care waste" refers to all wastes generated by medical procedures in health-care
facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

A classification of hazardous health-care waste is summarized in Table 3

Sharps waste Used or unused sharps (e.g. hypodermic, intravenous or other

needles; auto-disable syringes; syringes with attached needles;
infusion sets; scalpels; pipettes; knives; blades; broken glass)

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 Infectious waste
Pharmaceutical waste,
Non-hazardous or general
health-care waste
(NHGHCW)
Waste suspected to contain pathogens and that poses a risk of
disease transmission (e.g. waste contaminated with blood and
other body fluids; laboratory cultures and microbiological
stocks; waste including excreta and other materials that have
been in contact with patients infected with infectious diseases in
wards)
Pharmaceuticals that are expired or no longer needed; items
contaminated by or containing pharmaceuticals
Waste that does not pose any particular biological, chemical,
radioactive or physical hazard (Eg; paper, cardboard and
plastics, discarded food, metal, glass, textiles, plastics and
wood)

Except for NHGHCW, these wastes should always be anticipated to include a variety of
pathogenic microorganisms. Pathogens in infectious waste that is not well managed may enter
the human body through several routes such as; through a puncture, abrasion or cut in the skin,
through mucous membranes, by inhalation, by ingestion and so on.

Examples of infections that might be caused by exposure to health-care waste are listed below.

Type of infection Transmission vehicles

Gastro-enteric infections Feces and/or vomit
Respiratory infections Inhaled secretions, saliva
Ocular infection Eye secretions
Skin infections Pus
Selection of management strategies

The waste characteristics, technology capabilities and requirements, environmental and safety
issues, and costs many of which are dependent on local conditions all must be considered when
selecting a management strategies.

Disposal of sharps

Sharps are often collected in cardboard safety boxes and burned in small incinerators (a furnace
for burning waste). Several nonburn methods have been developed in response to concerns about
air pollution and the short lifespan of brick incinerators (WHO, 2005a; PATH, 2007). The
methods generally entail the following steps:
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1. using onsite mechanical needle cutters or electric needle destroyers
2. shredding the treated plastic parts
3. burying the metal pieces in sharps pits
4. remelting the plastics for recycling.

Alternatively, the sharps waste can be autoclaved.

Infectious waste disposal

 Interment (burial) in cemeteries or special burial sites

 Burning in crematoria or specially designed incinerators
 alkaline digestion, especially for contaminated tissues
 Promession (is an idea of how to dispose human remains by way of freeze drying)

Pharmaceutical waste disposal

 Pharmaceutical waste can be minimized by good inventory strategy; by purchasing drugs

in the dosages routinely administered; by monitoring expiration dates so that existing
stock is used before newly arrived supplies. While disposing special consideration is
needed for controlled substances (e.g. narcotics), anti-infective drugs, antineoplastic and
cytotoxic drugs, and disinfectants.
 Several options exist for management of pharmaceutical waste:
 Return of expired pharmaceuticals to the donor or manufacturer;
 Encapsulation and burial in a sanitary landfill;
 Chemical decomposition in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations if
chemical expertise and materials are available;
 Dilution in large amounts of water and discharge into a sewer for moderate quantities of
relatively mild liquid or semi-liquid pharmaceuticals, such as solutions containing
vitamins, cough syrups, intravenous solutions and eye drops.
 Antibiotics or cytotoxic drugs should not be discharged into municipal sewers or
watercourses.
 Incineration in kilns equipped with pollution-control devices designed for industrial
waste and that operate at high temperatures;

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  Dilution and sewer discharge for relatively harmless liquids such as intravenous fluids
(salts, amino acids, glucose).

Non-hazardous or general health-care waste (NHGHCW)

 Recycling or composting.

Paper wastage management

According to a recent studies conducted the average paper consumption per person in Sri Lanka
is approximately 7 kilos, with only an insufficient 2 kilograms recovered for recycling. Almost
everyone in the country burns or disposes of paper by dumping it as garbage. Waste paper is
collected and sometimes recycled, but most of the time the paper is burned, generating an
exponential growth cycle that harms the environment. We cut down trees to generate paper,
which reduces carbon dioxide emissions, and then burn the paper, which produces still more
carbon dioxide. We harm the environment at every stage and contribute to the generation of
greenhouse gases. Hence we should reduce the paper use as much as possible.

Some of the common practices are listed below in-order to reduce paper use.

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 1. Think before you print - printing less is an obvious choice.
2. Stop free printing
3. Take paperless notes
4. Use online or cloud storage for personal files
5. If possible practicing hot desking (the practice of using any available desk in an
office rather than having own desk) It’s much harder to amass a collection of papers
if one might be sitting in a different seat each day.
6. Cultural support or organizational norms – Eg; Culture that reinforces the paperless
message to everyone
7. Keep recycling bins handy - there will always be paper products in need of proper
disposal, and there should be a waste paper recycling bins accessible for this. To
minimize recyclables being thrown into the garbage, it can be avoided keeping
personal bins.
8. Paper Made Decoration Item
9. Paper made Bowl
10. Recycled Paper Wall
Hangings

Some of the innovative ways for paper waste management

 Production of recycled paper

 The incineration for energy recovery
 Bio production of fumaric acid
 Removal of Cu(2+) from water using adsorbent materials prepared from paper industry
waste materials (eg; de-inking paper sludge) (Méndez, A., et al., 2009)
 Paper waste composting

9
  Incorporation of paper industry sludge waste, in its liquid state, into cement and lime-
based mortars to enhance capillary absorption and mechanical strength (de Azevedo et
al., 2020).
 Use of raw paper waste in agriculture - Avoiding the time- and energy-demanding
processing of composting and waste management (Chrysargyris, A., et al.,2020)

These strategies are needs to be encouraged more and awareness should be created in order to
reduce the paper consumption and reuse in university.

Food Wastage
Any food that can be consumed by humans. Food waste (FW) is food that has not been
consumed because it has been permitted to spoil or has been dumped by retailers or consumers.
Food waste is a psychological issue. It's a result of our behavior as well as customs and
traditions.

Food waste is a significant problem because of its economic, social, and environmental
consequences. Global food waste production is currently expected to be at 1.3 billion tonnes per
10
year, with a 44 percent rise expected between 2005 and 2025. Food waste is predicted to cost the
environment and society USD 700 billion and USD 900 billion, respectively. Furthermore, it was
calculated that increased water scarcity due by food waste will cost the world USD 164 billion
each year. For both environmental and economic reasons, it is essential to concentrate on the
quantification and management of food waste generation (FAO 2014).

Some of the reasons for food wastage in university canteens

 In hostels cooking too much food

 Not storing food correctly
 Find it difficult to estimate how much to cook per person
 Preferable to serve too much rather than not enough
 Food goes off before the ‘use buy’ or ‘best before’ date
 Do not have appropriate storage containers
 Lack of time or organization to plan ahead e.g. no meal plan
 Size of food portions and packages is too large for someone
 Cultural factors such as displaying wealth by leaving food uneaten, or only eating
specific parts of food also have an impact on food waste generation
 Aesthetic Standards - Food may be rejected only due to a physical or aesthetic flaw, such
as being the incorrect form or size, being broken, or having a cleft or blemish. The
fixation with esthetic quality standards has nothing to do with the safety of food.

Methods of Food Waste Reduction

 Public Awareness Raising/Education - Training programmes include teaching of food

waste prevention skills, workshops on waste-free cooking.
 Food Redistribution - voluntarily giving away food that would otherwise be thrown out
or wasted to receivers, such as philanthropic organizations, who then redistribute it to
others in need.
 Legislation—Governmental Interventions - These include financial instruments, legal
sanctions, regulation of claims, labels, guidance, monitoring and so on.
 Higher costs will lead to reduction of the amount disposed.

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  ‘Polluter Pays’ Principle - which would reduce food waste through enforcing those who
are responsible for the waste (e.g. retailer/supplier relationships, where surplus is returned
to the supplier) to pay its price.
 Taxes and Charges - on products, on landfill and incineration (e.g. user fees, pay as you
throw)
 Energy Recovery by Anaerobic Digestion - Creates products: biogas and a liquid or solid
residue, the digestate
 Incineration - Recommended, when food waste contains animal byproducts and Waste to
energy plants used for producing electricity, steam and heating
 Composting
 Enzymatic hydrolysis – skimmed milk
 Volumetric concentration and diafiltration - Regular and whey butter milk

Food is available to many people on the earth, but it is not guaranteed to more than 820 million
people who are hungry. As a result, we must raise awareness of the importance of food, as well
as the farmers who produce it and the natural resources used to generate it. For a better
tomorrow, we must make a decision and take action as soon as possible to reduce food loss and
waste.

Agricultural waste management

Agricultural wastes are leftover from the cultivation and initial processing of raw agricultural
products such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy products, and crops. This word refers to
both natural and non-natural wastes generated by a variety of farming operations, including dairy

12
farming, horticulture, seed production, animal breeding, market gardens, nursery plots, and so
on. Agricultural wastes can take the form of solids, liquids, or slurries, based on the type of
agriculture activity.

The table below summarizes AW depending on the agricultural activity

Agricultural activity Types of wastes Method of disposal

Crop production and harvest Straw, stover Land application, burning,
plowing
Fruit and vegetable Biological sludges, Landfilling, animal feed, land
processing trimmings, peels, leaves, application, burning,
stems, soil, seeds and pits composting
Sugar processing Biological sludges, pulp, lime Landfilling, burning,
mud composting, animal feed
Animal production Blood, bones, feather, litter, Land application, fertiliser
manures, liquid effluents
Dairy product processing Biological sludges By-product recovery
Rice production Bran, straw, hull Feeds, mulch/soil
conditioner, packaging
material for glass and
ceramics
Coconut production Stover, cobs, husk, leaves, Feeds, vinegar, activated
coco meal carbon, coir products

In recent years, a considerable amount of agricultural wastes have been created annually all over
the world. Agricultural wastes increased at a rate of 5% to 10% each year on average. Air
pollution, soil degradation, and other issues would emerge from the haphazard abandonment and
inappropriate use. Burning manure and straw produces a lot of toxic gas, smoke, and dust,
damaging our air environment severely. Many diseases, parasite eggs, heavy metals, and other
contaminants can be found in animal feces. To handle these issues innovative strategies are
needed.

Some of the novel strategies to manage agricultural wastes

Application of zeolite

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Possible uses being investigated include applications as a carrier of slow-release fertilizers,
insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides, and as a trap for heavy metals in soils. Can be applied to
reduce salinity levels of compost made by animal litter.

Pyrolysis

Pyrolyzed or activated carbons can be prepared from a variety of raw materials especially
agricultural solid wastes. Activated carbons, can be derived from apricot and cherry stones,
almond shells and grape seeds through steam pyrolysis. This can be used to absorb synthetic azo
dye, carmoisine A, from aqueous solutions.

Through pyrolysis can produce biochars from rice straw, tea wastes and animal litters. Biochars
can be used to improve soil condition by pollutant removal.

Fluidized-bed bioreactors

In India, a group of researchers used agriculture leftovers such as wheat and corn waste to
generate bioethanol in a magnetically assisted fluidized-bed bioreactor.

Production of membranes from agricultural wastes

Porous mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were prepared by particles of banana peel, tea waste
and shaddock peel as fillers in polyethersulfone (PES) (Lin et al., 2014)

Compost techniques

 Vermicomposting
 Windrow system
 Aerated Static Pile Composting
 In-Vessel Composting

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting is a technique that uses earthworms and microorganisms to degrade and

detoxify organic waste while also converting it into a product that may be utilized for agronomic
reasons. Enzymatic processes in the earthworm gut result in toxic metal immobilization,

14
suggesting that vermitechnology is an effective method for removing heavy metals from
industrial organic wastes and sludges. It may be stated that vermiremediation has the ability to
convert sugar industrial sludges into nutrient-rich organic manure with low toxicity for
agricultural uses.

Windrow system

The waste material is stacked up and organized parallelly in long rows for microbial breakdown
in a windrow system. To help with air and moisture conditioning, porosity, and heat
redistribution, these rows are flipped around. Depending on the machinery used to mix the piles,
triangular or trapezoidal shaped windrows can be used. The windrows are not turned with
mechanical equipment.

Aerated Static Pile Composting

The waste is heaped in this system, and the air circulation is maintained by a distribution system
that uses perforated pipe/tubes at the mound's bottom. Windrows, covered, open, or closed
vessels can all be used for these systems. The aeration aspect, which is similar to aerobic
composting, is crucial to this composting approach. As a result of the aeration intensity, a
temperature gradient is formed vertically over the top and bottom of the pile. This approach has
the advantage of requiring less area for composting because the waste does not need to be
transferred to another location for aeration.

In-Vessel Composting

One of the most efficient and quick composting technologies is in-vessel composting, which
treats biodegradable waste in closed containers with temperature, moisture, and oxygen
regulation. Containers, tunnels, spinning drums, agitated bags, and enclosed halls are some of the
bioreactors/vessels used in in-vessel composting.

Gasification

15
The influence of process variables like temperature, pressure, residence time and catalyst on
supercritical water gasification of model compounds has been investigated and found that
through this process corn starch is convertible into feedstock.

Electrochemical oxidation

Recommended for dairy effluent. Membrane filters pretreatment of digested effluent should be
obtained from a full-scale anaerobic digester, followed by anodic oxidation and indirect
oxidation using dimensionally stable anode (DSA) and lead dioxide coated titanium (Ti/PbO2) as
anode and stainless steel as cathode.

Coagulation

Recommended for dairy waste water. Coagulation with inorganic (alum and ferric chloride),
coagulants, followed by powdered activated charcoal (PAC) treatment.

The extensive land degradation has led to intensive experimentation, aiming at identifying the
most promising techniques for attaining the lowest possible pollution level. Accordingly novel
approaches should be employed to control those harmful effects as discussed in this section.

References

Chrysargyris, A., Xylia, P., Akinci, G., Moustakas, K. and Tzortzakis, N., 2020. Printed Paper
Waste as an Alternative Growing Medium Component to Produce Brassica Seedlings under
Nursery Conditions. Sustainability, 12(15), p.5992.

de Azevedo, A.R.G., Alexandre, J., Marvila, M.T., de Castro Xavier, G., Monteiro, S.N. and
Pedroti, L.G., 2020. Technological and environmental comparative of the processing of primary
sludge waste from paper industry for mortar. Journal of Cleaner Production, 249, p.119336.

FAO, 2014. Food Wastage Footprint: Full-cost accounting

Hospido, A., Moreira, M.T. and Feijoo, G., 2003. Simplified life cycle assessment of Galician
milk production. International Dairy Journal, 13(10), pp.783-796.

Ihara, I., Umetsu, K., Kanamura, K. and Watanabe, T., 2006. Electrochemical oxidation of the
effluent from anaerobic digestion of dairy manure. Bioresource technology, 97(12), pp.1360-
1364.

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Lin, C.H., Gung, C.H., Sun, J.J. and Suen, S.Y., 2014. Preparation of polyethersulfone/plant-
waste-particles mixed matrix membranes for adsorptive removal of cationic dyes from
water. Journal of membrane science, 471, pp.285-298.

Méndez, A., Barriga, S., Fidalgo, J.M. and Gascó, G., 2009. Adsorbent materials from paper
industry waste materials and their use in Cu (II) removal from water. Journal of Hazardous
Materials, 165(1-3), pp.736-743.

Ostojić, S., Pavlović, M., Živić, M., Filipović, Z., Gorjanović, S., Hranisavljević, S. and
Dojčinović, M., 2005. Processing of whey from dairy industry waste. Environmental Chemistry
Letters, 3(1), pp.29-32.

Pereira, C.D., Diaz, O. and Cobos, A., 2002. Valorization of by-products from ovine cheese
manufacture: clarification by thermocalcic precipitation/microfiltration before
ultrafiltration. International Dairy Journal, 12(9), pp.773-783.

Ranasinghe, W.W. and Athapattu, B.C., 2020. Challenges in E-waste management in Sri Lanka.
In Handbook of Electronic Waste Management (pp. 283-322). Butterworth-Heinemann.

Tani, M., Sakamoto, N., Kishimoto, T. and Umetsu, K., 2006, July. Utilization of anaerobically
digested dairy slurry combined with other wastes following application to agricultural land.
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Uludag-Demirer, S., Demirer, G.N. and Chen, S.J.P.B., 2005. Ammonia removal from
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Uresti, R.M., Téllez-Luis, S.J., Ramı́rez, J.A. and Vázquez, M., 2004. Use of dairy proteins and
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